La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway: Three drivers stand out as Late Model title picture takes shape (2024)

WEST SALEM — Since opening day, it was the battle everyone at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway was waiting for in the NASCAR Kwik Trip Late Models.

In the feature race on June 8, it finally came down to the two strongest cars in the field. Multi-time Elko champion Jacob Goede, now racing full-time in West Salem, against defending La Crosse champion Skylar Holzhausen.

Round one went to Goede, winning his second feature of the season while Holzhausen finished runner-up. Adam Bendzick finished third, now sitting as the only driver between the two atop the point standings.

Through four of the scheduled 18 NASCAR Kwik Trip Late Model features, a clear class of championship contenders has emerged with the first major shakeup potentially coming Saturday with the Pischke Motors Double Late Model Feature Night.

Some things have surprised Goede in his first full-time season at the Fairgrounds. The competitors he’s been fighting at the front doesn’t.

“The guys who I was worried about are the guys who are running good,” Goede said. “Definitely Skylar, last year’s champion. I raced him enough last year to know he was really fast. Bendzick didn’t end the year that good but he’s really started off strong so he’s going to be tough.

“You know (Steve) Bachman is always a top-five car. Was surprised not to see (Nick) Clements here tonight and then of course (Adam) Degenhardt.”

There is one aspect of full-time competition at La Crosse he hasn’t faced the full brunt of before. Rule 5.24 of Late Models rulebook. The Winners Equalizing Percentage that adds 20 pounds of weight with every feature win. Half of that weight can be removed after three races while the other half remains for the entire season.

The weight alone hasn’t hurt Goede too much so far, entering this weekend with 40 additional pounds in his car from two wins. Where his concern lies is with what’ll happen after his third feature win this season. Not only will 20 pounds be added to his car, but the right side weight percentage will increase by 0.5% for that win and every feature win after.

“That’s something that’s new,” Goede said. “Elko never did any weight penalties, so that’s new. Last year we won three of the four Oktoberfest races and we added 20 pounds after every single one of those and it didn’t really hurt the car. It is going to hurt the car when they start taking the right side percentage away.”

“We got to get there first. I’m not going to go out and purposefully run second. If I’m out there, I’m going to win the race.”

Holzhausen is never satisfied with second, but his runner-up finish on June 8 helped put him forget about the potential he missed out on the first few weeks. Plus leading a portion of the feature before conceding served as a nice bonus.

“We did a lot of work this week to get it back to where it was,” Holzhausen said on June 8. “We got it pretty close. We had some cautions and I felt if it had gone green we’d have the car to beat. Just went away after that one caution, just tightened up. I think we’re on the right track.”

“It’s definitely a positive and we know we can make a few little changes and be right there.”

Holzhausen knows from his five wins last season how much the weight rule challenges a driver with a fast car. The defending series champion believes weight could open things up for him and the rest of the field while giving Goede credit where he feels it’s due.

“He’s one of the best in the country, no doubt about it,” Holzhausen said. “Nobody has ever really given him that credit, but he is. It’s just how things play out throughout a whole race. If we didn’t deserve a win, we didn’t deserve it. We just have to get back to work and he’s going to have to keep adding weight after winning so things can change.”

Then there’s Bendzick, who sits second in the standings without a win in his second full-time season at La Crosse. After a few races in prior years, Bendzick came into 2023 with a new setup that initially missed the mark. Bendzick and his team corrected to finish fifth in the series standings.

“Last year we started racing here full time and we weren’t sure if our setup when we were on their good tires was going to hold on for an entire season when we don’t get four new tires every race,” Bendzick said. “We changed a few things in the car and it wasn’t the right way to go, so we put some things back to how it was in 2022…It’s been phenomenal so far this year, probably better than it was back then.”

Bendzick has 20 top-10s in his last 21 races at La Crosse but it’s his win total in that span compared to Goede and Holzhausen that makes him an underdog in the title fight. Holzhausen won five features last season and Goede has six over the last two years combined.

“I think we’re probably the underdog,” Bendzick said. “Nobody is going to expect us to probably beat them for a championship. What we hope is we give them a strong fight and represent our sponsors really well. If we can’t get a championship, it’s not for a lack of trying.”

On top of a pair of points-paying Late Model features, Saturday’s event in West Salem will feature Sportsmen, Hornets, Six Shooters, the High School Racing Association and the visiting Midwest Dash Series. Qualifying begins at 5:30 p.m. with opening ceremonies at 7 p.m.