By Ashley Iwanski
(West Salem , WI – July 5, 2014) Holmen’s Todd Korish pulled out a feature win while the points standing were shaken up in the Kwik Trip NASCAR Late Model feature Saturday night at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway.
Korish jumped to an early lead as Steve Carlson, Mike Koeneke and Brad Powell were glued together in the middle of the pack.
Koeneke started the feature one point ahead of Carlson in the standings. Earlier in the night Carlson qualified second and finished third in the Six-for-Six Dash race. Koeneke, who qualified seventh, finished third in the first of two heat races.
When the green flag waved to start the feature all eyes were on the three drivers atop the division leader board. Carlson, Koeneke and Powell were like magnets, wherever one went the other two followed.
By the halfway point Koeneke and Carlson were side by side for the fourth position. Carlson powered his way into the spot when the race leaders hit lap traffic. He used the momentum to surge up to the second spot around Randy Humfeld and Adam Degenhardt.
It was too late to make a run on Korish, but by finishing second Carlson was able to take over the lead in the points standing (419). Koeneke finished fourth behind Humfeld and only trails Carlson by three points.
Adam Degenhardt finished fifth in the feature. Powell, who was fast time qualifier, finished sixth and sits third in the standings with 388 points.
Jamie Dummer narrowly won the Coca-Cola Sportsmen feature race, beating Bill Martin and Greg Scheck across the line.
Dummer started toward the back of the pack and was leading the field a few laps later with the help of a yellow flag.
Disaster loomed through the first three laps as the 14-car field remained packed tight, side by side and nose to tail.
On lap four everything fell apart. The field was entering Turn 1 when traffic jammed up and cars went flying all over the track. Steve Bachman and Tom Luethe both ended up in the wall while both Nick Clements and Mandi Eckelberg drove away with minor damage.
When the green flag signaled the restart Dummer grabbed the lead followed closely by Martin and Brad Warthan.
Martin was all over the back bumper of Dummer, looking both high and low for an opening to sneak past the leader. Meanwhile Scheck had moved through the field to grab the third spot and join the battle for the lead.
Once Scheck was in the mix Dummer found a chance to slip away from Martin and Scheck who crossed the finish line side by side.
Warthan held on for the fourth spot and Justin Mullikin rounded out the top five.
Scheck leads both Bachman (356) and Dummer (347) in the division points standings with 362 points.
Jason Bolster grabbed the checkered flag in the United Auto Supply Thunderstox feature. Bolster finished three spots ahead of points leader Jordan Myers (463). The feature winner is second in the standings, one point ahead of Andy Moore (456) who finished second in the feature.
Andy Moore won the Thunderstox novelty event, a race in total darkness, to end the night after Charles Vian Jr. won the Zimmerman Driving School Figure-8 feature.
Friday, July 11 Premier Powdercoating presents the action and fun of Street Drags. Come out and participate with your own street car, muscle car, truck, cycle and more in many different brackets of competition.
Festival Foods Buddy Night is Saturday, July 12. Shop at any area Festival Foods store and receive a 2-for-1 admission coupon at the service desk. Fans will get to see all the great NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action up close. The Coke Zero Outlawz will race and check out the old school cars in the Vintage Car class. For more information please call the Speedway office at (608) 786-1525 or visit www.lacrossespeedway.com.
LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway is a proud NASCAR Hometrack, part of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series – www.hometracks.nascar.com.