BUFFALO TWP — Danny Lasoski knew he won the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup XVIII Sprint car race Wednesday night at Lernerville Speedway.

He just didn't know when.

The veteran World of Outlaws driver from Dover, Mo., won the first of two 30-lap features in the Silver Cup's new format, taking the lead from pole-sitter Jason Sides on the 21st lap and keeping the advantage from there.

The victory marked Lasoski's first feature win at Lernerville. He owns four runner-up finishes at the Sarver track, and the way Sides was running, he seemed destined for No. 5.

Sides was the fastest qualifier in time trials, won the six-lap fast dash to draw the pole for the first feature and held off Lasoski, who started alongside him in the front row, for 20 laps.

"(Sides) was running strong. It was all I could do to keep up with him,"Lasoski said. "He never made a mistake.

"I finally got a good run on him off Turn 4. I had to go up top to do it. When the leader's running the bottom, you have to go somewhere else."

The third and final restart of the race proved costly to Sides.

"That last caution ... I didn't need that," Sides said. "My car was getting a little loose at the end."

Lasoski figured the first feature was for the Silver Cup.

"I thought the second race was just a bonus for the fans," he said.

Wrong.

The Silver Cup — a $1,500 shotgun this year — went to the driver with the best average finish in the two features. That turned out to be Lasoski anyway, who started the second race 19th and finished seventh.

The starting lineup for the second feature was inverted for all drivers who finished the first feature on the lead lap. There were 19 cars that did so.

Butler's Brian Ellenberger finished 20th in the first feature and was left out of the inversion. He started the second feature 20th and finished 24th.

The procedure for this year's Silver Cup was explained to the Outlaws drivers at last weekend's races at Eldora.

"I had no idea," Lasoski admitted. "I guess I wasn't paying attention."

Lasoski gladly accepted the shotgun — though it wasn't the strangest prize he's won in racing.

"I won a live cow at the Knoxville County Fair race once," he said, smiling. "They always gave away a cow to the winner of that thing."

Stevie Smith of Broken Arrow, Okla., who won his first career Sprint feature at Lernerville years ago, won the second feature Wednesday. Both feature winners pocketed $15,000.

Smith started seventh and didn't take the lead from Danny Smith until the 27th lap. Danny Smith started in the front row and led the first 26 laps.

"I felt I had the fastest car out there with about 10 laps to go," Stevie Smith said. "It was a matter of moving around and finding the right groove. The track was much faster in the second race."

Smith won his fifth career Outlaws Sprint feature at Lernerville.

"This place has been good to me," he said. "But all it takes is a little flinch in this series and somebody gets by you."

Jac Haudenschild finished second in the second feature and Danny Smith was third.

Ed Lynch Jr., bidding for his 100th career Lernerville Sprint feature win, finished eighth and 16th, respectively.

Lynch and Danny Holtgraver were the only two area drivers to qualify for the features through the heat races. The top five in each heat advanced. Lynch was second in his heat, Holtgraver fifth in his.

Wednesday marked the 19-year-old Holtgraver's first Outlaws feature appearance.

Notes: There were 44 cars in the pits, representing 12 states. ... Sides' qualifying time was 12.812 seconds, well off Joey Saldana's track record of 12.334 set in 2002. ... Sammy Swindell's night ended early in the second feature when his car became entangled with Steve Kinser's and hit the wall, bringing out the lone red light of the night. Swindell was unhurt. He has 17 career wins at Lernerville and 35 top-five finishes in 50 races there.