OSWEGO — Dan Kapuscinski describes himself as a 20-year veteran of Oswego Speedway with only six years of racing experience.
The 37-year-old Fulton resident debuted as a teenager in 2001 and raced three seasons in the small-block division before moving into a supermodified, then eventually took 12 years off from driving while remaining a fixture in the sport.
Kapuscinski is now making the most of his return in his second season behind the wheel of the Flack Racing No. 23, entering Saturday as the points leader and defending champion of the Pathfinder SBS Division.
“After a few years of doing it, I moved on and I was fortunate to be able to come back and take it back up again almost a generation later,” Kapuscinski said. “Now, I’m racing against 16-year-olds and I’m the almost 40-year-old guy. There are a ton of young kids in the class now, which is great to see, it bodes a good future for the division.”
Kapuscinski has won five features and placed second twice in his seven appearances at Oswego this season. He holds a 79-point edge on second-place Noah Ratcliff with just two point races remaining.
Kapuscinski returned for some races in 2018 and 2019 but took over the No. 23 car full-time at Oswego last season and connected with longtime area crew chief, Mike O’Connor. Kapuscinski claimed his first career feature win at Oswego to kick off their partnership in the 2021 season opener.
In his first full-time campaign at the track in more than a decade last year, Kapuscinski won the SBS points crown by just seven points over Josh Sokolic.
The No. 23 team established the goal of placing top five in each race this year and have thus far achieved that high-end consistency, including a pair of outings at other tracks.
“It’s rewarding knowing the work the guys are putting in and the work I do behind the wheel are making a difference,” Kapuscinski said. “I’ve never had a year like this, even last year having won the championship, it felt like it was a wreckers or checkers type of deal, we were either up front or we were on the tow truck headed into the pits.”
Kapuscinski was initially introduced to Oswego Speedway when his parents built supermodifieds for much of the 1980’s, estimating he was around two years old when he first attended.
The Liverpool native moved out of the area with his family for a portion of his childhood, but they returned and Kapuscinski graduated from Oswego High School in 2003.
He started racing at age 16 and ran three full SBS campaigns from 2001-03 before shifting to the Novelis Supermodified class for parts of three seasons.
“It was a fun time, especially being 16 years old, there weren’t a ton of teenager racers,” Kapuscinski said. “I was 16 racing against 35- and 40-year-olds and having to learn pretty quickly.”
O’Connor first encountered Kapuscinski during his initial run.
He recalled the young rookie inquiring about a few hot laps in a limited supermodified owned by O’Connor after his own car experienced a failure. The future driver and crew chief ended up in their first race together.
“He came up and asked if he could park my car and maybe take a few laps in it, and I looked at him and said: ‘You can take my car out and run it, but you’re not going to park it, you’re going to race it,’” O’Connor said.
“I don’t remember where he ended up, but I remember he passed a bunch of cars and came forward and had a good race.”
Kapuscinski qualified for three International Classic features, placing as high as fifth in his final attempt in 2006 before taking a hiatus from driving to focus on pursuing a career.
During his time away from competing, Kapuscinski remained in racing working in public relations and marketing for the World Racing Group’s World of Outlaws Series soon after graduating from St. John Fisher College in spring 2007.
He moved to Concord, NC the next year to contribute to the early days of Dirt Vision, traveling the country covering the World of Outlaws Series.
Toward the end of 2011, Kapuscinski opted to return home to work in marketing for Oswego Speedway, a position he held for six years until stepping down to take the job away from the track and make his return as a driver.
“I thought, you know what, I’ve been sitting around waiting to do this, and at that point I had never won a small-block race at Oswego, so I started hinting around and ended up getting back in the seat and had some success and realized how much I missed it,” Kapuscinski said.
Kapuscinski has already matched his career best of five feature wins established last year and has points races slated for Saturday and Aug. 20 with chances to top it.
He and his wife, Liz, are parents to a five-year-old son, Michael, and one-year-old daughter, Maren, who each have proven good luck charms. Kapuscinski won the feature in their respective first trips to the track.
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