Stewart gets his hands dirty with Outlaws team

Nick Christensen

Thursday, March 10, 2005 | 8:36 a.m.

Tony Stewart won't be doing double-duty in the Busch and Nextel Cup series this weekend, but he's still got plenty of work to keep him busy in a big racing weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Stewart, the 2002 NASCAR Cup Series champion and part-owner of the World of Outlaws No. 20 Bass Pro Shops car, gets the first of a few chances this season to see his car in action as the Outlaws sprint series kicks off the weekend's festivities with tonight's preliminary race at the LVMS dirt track.

Not that he'll have too much work to do. The driver of that car, Danny Lasoski, won the 2001 Outlaws series and was the runner up in 2002, 2003 and 2004. Stewart points to the team's success in his hands-off approach as an owner.

"I'll be able to do what I need to do with the Home Depot Chevrolet and still have plenty of time to go over to the dirt track and watch Danny and the team," Stewart said. "I'll be busy as a car owner working with the team, but that's something I look forward to. It's why I'm involved with the World of Outlaws."

Lasoski that Stewart's interest is more than a name and a Home Depot sticker.

"He's total hands-on," Lasoski said."He wants to be part of the team, changing gears, grooving tires. That's Tony's personality. He wants to be a 100 percent supporter of this team and he does that."

While Stewart will pitch in at these nearby races, he said his biggest contribution comes after Homestead, when he has more time to be an off-the-dirt supporter of the team.

"My strength comes at the end of the year," he said. "Making sure that we have everything we need for next season, making sure that our sponsors are taken care of and making sure that everyone involved with our organization is happy."

Stewart himself has raced the LVMS dirt track, but it's Lasoski's track record in Las Vegas that impresses. He's a three-time winner at LVMS, with the Outlaws making twice-annual visits to the track since 1997.

"Las Vegas is a big, fast half-mile and I love racing there," he said. "We've had some successes and hopefully we can go back and take some of (speedway manager) Chris Powell's money. I know everybody is excited to get there, but really excited to leave after they lose all their money."

Tonight's preliminary has a $5,000 prize for the winner, with Friday's main event winner taking a home a $12,500 check, on top of points. Lasoski is currently in fourth, a slow start for him but coming off a good qualifying run last week at Phoenix's Manzanita Speedway before weather forced a postponement of the actual race.

"We had a perfect starting position on the outside of the front row," he said. "We thought we had a really good shot of winning. We'll just have to carry this momentum over to Vegas and see what that brings."

Stewart said that he's not concerned with his team's early stall, but also said the series itself is more competitive this season.

"You still have the same guys who are usually there, but now you have another group of guys who are coming on and making a name for themselves in this series," he said. "I think we definitely have room for improvement right now, but at the same time I feel like we have a lot of good things going on with our program.

"There's still a lot of racing left in the year, and we're not going to get too worked up over the points this early in the season."