9/8/2015
Craig Dollansky
Runner-Up Caps Strong Weekend at Jackson Nationals
One of the highest paying sprint car weekends on the 2015 schedule was up next for Craig Dollansky and TKS Motorsports team as they traveled to Jackson, MN for the 37th Annual Jackson Nationals with the National Sprint League paying $25,000-to-win.
With a strong field of 410 sprinters on hand, the race weekend got underway on Friday with qualifying as ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ circled the reconfigured ½-mile in 15.717 seconds, good enough for 3rd quick. Lining up outside row three for heat competition, Dollansky charged up to 2nd in the 8-lap event.
In the 20-lap A-Main the Aggressive Hydraulics #2KS took the green flag from inside row two and slipped a few positions before the first caution on lap 3. Battling with Bryan Clauson on the ensuing restart, Dollansky took 5th from the #17W and then closes on Danny Lasoski and Lynton Jeffrey before a yellow on lap 16. With just 4 circuits remaining, the Des Moines Industrial Products backed sprinter raced just outside the top-five finishing 6th and locking themselves into the top-six rows for the Saturday feature.
Set to go on another beautiful day, the TKS Motorsports headed back to Jackson Speedway on Saturday for the $25,000 finale with another strong field of 32 cars on hand. Even though the team was tied for second overall in points after the first night and guaranteed a top-twelve starting spot in the A-Main, the unique format meant all cars would compete on Saturday in an attempt to better their starting spot.
After turning the 11th fastest lap in qualifying for the Casey’s General Stores Maxim, Dollansky again used a strong heat race charging from fourth to 2nd and, similar to Friday, earned the third starting spot for the 25-lap A-Main.
Following a caution on lap 1, feature action resumed with ‘The Crowd Pleaser’ rocketing around the cushion racing Lasoski for second before taking the runner-up spot just prior to a yellow on lap 15. When the green replaced the yellow, Dollansky muscled the Stone Mountain Access backed sprinter to the rear bumper of leader Sammy Swindell. Halted again by a pair of cautions in the final laps, a green-white-checkered finish put the Vahlco Wheels #2KS right behind the #1 for the final restart as Dollansky again kept pace with Swindell but couldn’t quite make the pass for the $25,000 paycheck but still capped the weekend with a strong 2nd place finish.
“After two nights of racing we were able to get ourselves locked into the top two rows for Saturday which was a great accomplishment for our team,” commented Dollansky. “I enjoy working with Troy as my crew chief who works hard and is very detail-oriented. The more time we work together the stronger we will be.
“Chris Dunkin and his crew did a great job with the track prep. We had multiple grooves which make for a great race for the fans. I hated to see the last yellow come out since we were right on Sammy at that point. On restarts he could pull away from me and it would take a few laps to reel him in but it was a close finish. My team worked hard and did a great job! It was a great finish and we will continue to work hard and build as a team and the wins will follow.”
Crew chief and team owner Troy Renfro was also happy with the strong weekend results as the team continues to improve.
“We have been making some changes and trying some different things to get ready for the future” commented Renfro. “We wanted to make some changes with the motor and Don Ott agreed. We got the motor back late on Friday but the changes helped us a lot. Craig and I continue to gel and communicate well. We and a lot of others ran out of fuel on Saturday but talking with Chuck Zitterich afterwards he made some changes the very next night for the time allowed on the track for fuel which is nice that he listens to the teams concerns.”
Up next for the TKS Motorsports team is the Jerry Reichert Memorial with the NSL at Cedar Lake Speedway in Wisconsin this coming Saturday.
Article Credit: Reid VanEck
Submitted By: Craig Dollansky Racing
