Abreu and Brown Triumph During Weiler's Tribute To The Lasoski Family At Knoxville

Saturday was a special night at the Knoxville Raceway and not just because it would be the final tune up for both the 360 and 410 Nationals. Spearheaded by one of Knoxville's favorites Brian Brown, this night would be a tribute to his uncle Danny Lasoski and his grandfather George Lasoski who at ninety years of age proclaimed this as being one of his proudest moments at the legendary facility where his family has played such a significant role in building that legend.

With the help from several great sponsors including the headliner Weiler that now employs over 900 people in this community of 7,500 along with the presenting sponsor the Iowa Lottery that has embraced short track racing here in 2026, some big money was on the line and that would bring a whopping field of 45 410's and 57 360's on what turned out to be a beautiful evening here in central Iowa.

Just making the show would be an accomplishment on this night, especially in the 360's as several of the 410 stars also unloaded their lesser powered wagons to get dialed in for the 360 Nationals that takes place this Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Young Cam Martin would lineup on the pole for the twenty lap headliner with Brian Brown, replacing his usual #21 with the Lasoski family #33, on both of his rides tonight starting to his outside.

Chuck Stowe Photo

Contact mid-pack in turns one and two would cause Joe Beaver to slow before one lap was scored so it would be the second try at a start that would see Martin sprint to the early advantage over Brown. That lead duo would put some space on the rest of the field until lap eight when the right rear tire on Corey Day's #14 would blow out and that would bunch the field back together. Three laps following the restart Brown would get a run on Martin down the back stretch and drive under him for the lead on lap eleven only to have Cam put a slider on the veteran in turn two to reclaim the point on the next lap. 

Once Brown regained his momentum he would again use that high to low line in turns one and two to drive past Martin with four laps to go just before the caution waved again for a flat tire, this time for point leader Kade Higday who was racing in fourth at the time. And just to show why we love this sport so much, the crew from one of his closest contenders in the point race, Tasker Phillips, was right there in the work area ready to help get the tire changed and allow Higday to get back to the track before the green flag waved for the final time in this one.

Two more young stars would now take up the chase on Brown, but neither Chase Randall or Ryan Timms could mount a challenge on Brian Brown who posted his first win at Knoxville since July of 2025. Randall finished second in what should be a confidence booster during a challenging season for him in the High Limit series while Timms came from fourteenth to finish third. Cam Martin would hold on to the fourth spot while James McFadden cruised from fifteenth to fifth. 

Uncle Danny Lasoski and Grandpa George Lasoski join Brian Brown in victory lane - Chuck Stowe photo

Brown was asked in victory lane if he would keep the #33 on the car for the Nationals and he said that if he would do that if he could get a win in the 410's as well where he would start from the pole for twenty-five laps. This one would go non-stop and in the early laps Brian would have to ward off the challenges of Chris Martin to maintain the lead and by lap fifteen "Black Jack" looked like he would be cashing in his #21 this week for the 33 until Rico Abreu picked up his pace.

The defending 360 Nationals champion, Abreu had started seventh and he was now visibly faster than everybody else regardless of what line he was running through the turns. By the time he got to second Rico was still more than a half straightaway behind Brown with just six laps to go, but he quickly erased that and drove between a lapper and Brown exiting turn four to take the lead on lap twenty.

There would be no catching him after that as Abreu put the exclamation mark on a great evening at the track to score the win with Brown taking the runner-up spot. The battle for position behind them stayed hot right to the checkers with Austin McCarl taking third over Kerry Madsen while Aaron Reutzel passed Martin on the final lap to finish fifth after starting eleventh. 

Chuck Stowe photo

Knoxville Knotes.......Reutzel was entered in both divisions, but after posting a stout qualifying lap in the 360's he was announced as being too light at the scales disallowing his time and placing him at the back of a heat race. He would instead park that car for the night and after a heat race win in his 410 he stated that he did not know that the 360's would run three qualifying laps and that left him two pounds light at the scale.....There were some "lineup" items of note on this evening with the first coming during the third heat of the 360's when announcer Blake Walker pointed out that all nine drivers were from the state of Iowa. Now that might not seem very noteworthy for a track located in the central part of Iowa, but when you consider that only 24 of the 57 entries were Iowans, that would have some Iowa Lottery odds associated with it to get nine of them in the same heat race......With drivers qualifying within thousandths of seconds of each other, then having to finish in a transfer position through the heat races with the feature lineup then determined by an invert draw, what were the odds that Brian Brown would land on the front row of both features on this night? Then add in the fact that the Martin brothers, Cameron in the 360's and Chris in the 410's would join him would be another longshot. And, finally, consider this. The crew chief on Chris Martin's #44? Non other than Danny "The Dude" Lasoski...... Put Rico Abreu on The Dude's shoulders and they still weren't as tall as the eight foot trophy that was waiting for the winner of the 410's. 

I'm pumped up now and ready to roll for two weeks of Sprint Car racing at Knoxville with the 360 Nationals getting underway this Thursday night. Check in for coverage right here on the Back Stretch!

Thanks to Chuck Stowe for giving us permission to use his fine photography with this entry!