Crockett Wins Second Night of

ASCS Northwest Speedweek at Cottage Grove

Craig Murphy, COTTAGE GROVE, Ore. (July 15, 2008) – The Rocket was in the house Tuesday night.

Roger “The Rocket” Crockett led from the pole and convincingly won Tuesday’s ASCS Northwest Region race at Cottage Grove Speedway.  The race was the second of six in the ShuJack's Bar & Grill Northwest Speed Week.

Crockett won the 30-lap feature at the tight ¼-mile bullring by a commanding margin over Jared Ridge, Danny Lasoski, Brock Lemley and Jason Solwold to pocket the $1,500 top prize.  It was Crockett’s third win in the history of this event, his eighth career Speed Week win and his fifth of the year at the Cottage Grove track. 

“Roger (Henderson, the car owner) had the car so good I could drive the wheels off of it,” Crockett said afterwards.

Once the green flag flew, Crockett took off. Even after restarts, it only took the leader about three laps to catch the back of the 20-car field.

Crockett only had two worries on the night, and both were alleviated in one fell swoop.  A close call on lap 20 changed the complexion of the race. Jayme Barnes spun right in front of Crockett, who had to take evasive action to avoid being collected.

Danny Lasoski, driving the Hoyle Harley-Davidson ride Crockett had driven to numerous race wins and Northern Sprint Tour titles in the past, wasn’t so lucky.  Lasoski tried to avoid contact but instead got swept into the wreck. 

“The 9 (Barnes) spun in front of the leader,” said Lasoski, who had been closing in lapped traffic. “I tried to turn away, but we all clobbered in. It was frustrating.”

Lasoski seemed to be the only driver capable of doing anything with Crockett on this night. 

“I was as quick if not quicker than Roger,” said Lasoski, who dropped out of Monday’s Speed Week opener in Medford with a broken power steering pump. “I was catching him, and I think I could have done something with him in lapped traffic.”

Crockett recognized how close he was to being swept into the wreck with Barnes. 

“I missed him by about an inch,” Crockett said. “He spun right in front of me. I just went through the dirt to miss him.”

While the incident sealed the win for Crockett, the show was just beginning behind him. Lasoski returned at the rear of the field after a quick visit to the pits, and promptly marched forward.

After some slicing and dicing, Lasoski ended up with an impressive third. 

“It was fun,” the 2001 World of Outlaw champion said with a big grin. “I just would have liked the opportunity to race Roger one-on-one. I could run from the top to the bottom. I wish we had more laps, but you can’t rerun the race.”

Crockett wasn’t surprised to hear Lasoski charged up through the pack. 

“You know he’s going to be good,” Crockett said. “I figured he would be close early on. I just wanted to keep lapped cars between us.”

As for whether or not the outcome would have been different if not for the spin by Barnes, Crockett simply shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s hard to say,” Crockett said. “I never really saw him.”

Finishing in between Crockett and Lasoski was Ridge, who had a spirited battle for second for many laps with Jay Cole before securing the position. 

“We crossed over a bunch of times,” Ridge said of the duel. “It was a lot of fun. Coming from eighth to second felt really good.” 

Ridge noted he was running comparable lap times to the winner at the end, but track position relegated him to second. 

“On the stopwatch we were every bit as fast at the end, but we had so many lapped cars to deal with,” Ridge said. 

The five heat races were won by Lasoski, Barnes, Chadd Noland, Ridge and Cole. The top 16 in points after the heat races transferred to the 20-car feature, with the top two finishers in both of the B-Main events filling out the field. Transferring from the B-Mains were Garen Linder, Casey Adams, Travis Rutz and Jared Peterson. There were 42 cars signed in on the night.

Jonathan Allard, the winner Monday in Medford , was in a first-lap spin in his heat race and was finished for the night. Brandon Boyce was in a savage crash in the second heat race. Boyce was treated and released from a local hospital after observation.

Speed Week resumes Wednesday night at Willamette Speedway in Lebanon , Ore. Hot laps will begin at approximately 6 p.m., with racing at 7.

The Oregon swing of Speed Week wraps up Thursday night at Sunset Speedway in Banks, Ore.

The week concludes with the two-night Evergreen State Sprint Challenge at Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma , Wash. on Friday and Saturday.