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Johnson Motors to ASCS Spring Nationals Victory

Bryan Hulbert- Mesquite, TX (March 24, 2012) - Jason Johnson seems to have hit a hot streak with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV; becoming the first multi feature winner of the 2012 season with a victory at the 39th annual ASCS Spring Nationals at the Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas.

In victory lane, Johnson reflected on his pass for the lead by saying, “Brady [Bacon] is famous for running the bottom and I knew he was going to protect the bottom 100% but you needed to be off the bottom there coming off of turn two to get the run and we had just enough to sneak around the top.”

Going into the night’s 30 lap feature event, the field would be paced by a pair of Mesquite, Texas racers as the 14 of Michael Lang and the 3 of Raven Culp drew the first two spots with the green quickly followed by the red as the 12 of Dale Wester made contact with the front straight wall before flipping into the path of Koby Barksdale’s 22 machine. Both drivers would emerge unscathed.

To the complete restart, the Palm Harbor Homes 14 of Michael Lang would use full advantage of the pole position, jumping into the lead with Raven Culp holding the runner up spot as Albuquerque, New Mexico’s Johnny Herrera began to challenge. Taking away the runner up spot three laps into the feature event, the 45x would begin working on running down Lang’s 14 but a caution on lap five would bring the field to his back bumper.

Back to green with 25 laps to run, the Herrera would challenge but would have to settle for the runner up spot as Lang held the lead. Moving into the show position after starting sixth, the Fatheadz Eye Wear 99 of Brady Bacon would now go to work on Herrera. Keeping an even distance between the top three cars Lang, Herrera, and Bacon distanced themselves from the running order.

Working on lap 12, the leaders would begin to approach slower traffic as the 3 of Raven Culp slid high off the exit of turn four; hitting the walling and sending the D&W Towing 3 flipping right into the path of Danny Wood. Kicking the car sideways, the Statewide Services 81 would slide hard into Culp sending parts off both cars flying in all directions. Thankfully both drivers would emerge without injury.

Single file to the green with 12 laps complete, Lang would have his hands full as the 45x of Herrera stole the top spot only to have an engine go sour on the way by. Reclaiming the race lead, the next car to challenge would be sixth stating Brady Bacon. Working side by side for the lead as the field race passed the halfway point, the Oilfield Equipment Manufacturing 99 would take away the top spot on lap 17, leaving the 14 of Lang to contend with the Shop Diesel Service 41 of Jason Johnson.

Falling back to seventh from fifth on the start, Johnson would work back into third with the field closing in on the final 10 laps of the Spring Nationals. Taking away second from Lang, the 41 of Johnson would work on running down Brady Bacon.

Taking the field past 24 laps in the books, the 99 of Bacon would begin running into slower traffic only to have the caution wave.

Restarting with the 41 on his back bumper, Bacon would dive low on the restart but Johnson would get a huge run into turns one and two, taking the race lead with the 77x of Wayne Johnson fighting from fifteenth into third before finally taking away the runner up spot. Into the final 3 laps, the City Vending 77x would begin running down the MVT 41 but it would not be enough as Jason Johnson took the win. Wayne Johnson would take second, continuing his streak of top five finishes in 2012 to five in a row, with Brady Bacon holding onto third. Matt Covington would finish where he started in fourth with Michal Lang fading to round out the top five.

Tony Bruce Jr. would charge from eighteenth to take sixth after having to race his way into the nights feature through a B-Main. Gary Wright took home seventh after taking his second provisional of the year with Sam Hafertepe Jr. eighth. Jack Dover would take ninth with Kyle Sauder rounding out the top ten.

The Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV takes a two week break before heading to Houston area. Friday April 13th will see action at the Golden Triangle Raceway in Beaumont, Texas before the series heads to Battleground Speedway in Highlands, Texas on Saturday April 15th.

Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV - 3/24/2012
Devil’s Bowl Speedway - Mesquite, Texas
39th Spring Nationals

Event Car Count: 39

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11s-Patrick Stasa[1]; 2. 53-Jack Dover[2]; 3. 22-Koby Barksdale[3]; 4. 7m-Kevin Ramey[4]; 5. 2-Dustin Morgan[5]; 6. 5h-Logan Forler[7]; 7. 23-Seth Bergman[8]; DNS 22a-Dan Adkins

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 3-Raven Culp[1]; 2. 41-Jason Johnson[7]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[5]; 4. 99-Jake Martens[1]; 5. 1j-Danny Jennings[4]; 6. 30-Brandon Corn[3]; 7. 69-Larry Howery[6]; 8. 17-Bruce Griffith Jr[8]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 99-Brady Bacon[1]; 2. 12W-Dale Wester[2]; 3. 45-Martin Edwards[3]; 4. 18-Tony Bruce Jr[5]; 5. 77x-Wayne Johnson[8]; 6. 03-Joe Wood Jr[4]; 7. 50-Travis Rilat[7]; 8. 87-Aaron Reutzel[6]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 11c-Matt Covington[1]; 2. 2x-Logan Payne[3]; 3. 45x-Johnny Herrera[6]; 4. 74x-Joshua Hodges[5]; 5. 10-George White[7]; 6. 35g-Barry Gifford[1]; 7. 22K-Kevin Barksdale[8]; DNS 21v-Taylor Velasquez

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 94-Kyle Sauder[1]; 2. 14-Michael Lang[4]; 3. 81-Danny Wood[5]; 4. 05-Brad Loyet[6]; 5. 54-Evan Pardo[3]; 6. 9-Gary Wright[7]; DNF 7s-Robert Sellers[2]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps - top 3 transfer): 1. 45-Martin Edwards[1]; 2. 7m-Kevin Ramey[2]; 3. 48-Jake Martens[3]; 4. 30-Brandon Corn[7]; 5. 69-Larry Howery[9]; 6. 5h-Logan Forler[5]; 7. 35g-Barry Gifford[6]; DNF 10-George White[4]; DNF 22K-Kevin Barksdale[8]; DNS 54-Evan Pardo; DNS 7s-Robert Sellers; DNS 22a-Dan Adkins

B Feature 2 (12 Laps - top 3 transfer): 1. 18-Tony Bruce Jr[1]; 2. 74x-Joshua Hodges[2]; 3. 81-Danny Wood[6]; 4. 9-Gary Wright[5]; 5. 1j-Danny Jennings[4]; 6. 50-Travis Rilat[7]; 7. 2-Dustin Morgan[3]; 8. 87-Aaron Reutzel[10]; 9. 23-Seth Bergman[8]; 10. 17-Bruce Griffith Jr[9]; DNS 21v-Taylor Velasquez

A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 41-Jason Johnson[5]; 2. 77x-Wayne Johnson[15]; 3. 99-Brady Bacon[6]; 4. 11c-Matt Covington[4]; 5. 14-Michael Lang[1]; 6. 18-Tony Bruce Jr[18]; 7. 9-Gary Wright[24]; 8. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[10]; 9. 53-Jack Dover[12]; 10. 94-Kyle Sauder[9]; 11. 03-Joe Wood Jr[22]; 12. 11s-Patrick Stasa[7]; 13. 05-Brad Loyet[14]; 14. 48-Jake Martens[21]; 15. 74x-Joshua Hodges[20]; DNF 2-Dustin Morgan[23]; DNF 45-Martin Edwards[17]; DNF 45x-Johnny Herrera[3]; DNF 3-Raven Culp[2]; DNF 81-Danny Wood[11]; DNF 7m-Kevin Ramey[19]; DNF 2x-Logan Payne[16]; DNF 12W-Dale Wester[13]; DNF 22-Koby Barksdale[16]

Lap Leaders: Michael Lang 1-17; Brady Bacon 18-24; Jason Johnson 25-30
PitStopUSA.com Hard Charger of the Night: Gary Wright +17
Provisional(s): Gary Wright, Dustin Morgan

2012 Feature Winners: Jason Johnson-2, Tony Bruce Jr.-1, Dustin Morgan-1, Danny Wood-1

Lucas Oil ASCS presented by MAVTV Points (top 20): 1. Jason Johnson 696; 2. Wayne Johnson 657; 3. Brady Bacon 644; 4. Tony Bruce Jr. 617; 5. Dustin Morgan 589; 6. Johnny Herrera 577; 7. Gary Wright 569; 8. Danny Wood 516; 9. Matt Covington 516; 10. Jack Dover 509; 11. Brad Loyet 501; 12. Joshua Hodges 488; 13. Seth Bergman 484; 14. Aaron Reutzel 483; 15. Roger Crockett 413

The Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV is scheduled to compete 67 times in 15 states throughout the United States with divers competing for their share of a $250,000 point’s fund.

The 2012 season marks the 21st year of sanctioning Sprint Car racing for the American Sprint Car Series, which brings the best of Sprint Car racing to dozens of different tracks throughout the nation and into Canada. Anchored by the Lucas Oil Sprint Car Series, ASCS also consists of ten different Regions throughout the nation.

Lucas Oil Products is the title sponsor of the American Sprint Car Series. More information can be found on Lucas Oil Products at www.lucasoil.com. MAVTV is the presenting sponsor of the American Sprint Car Series. For information regarding availability and listings in your area log onto www.mavtv.com.

Associate sponsors for the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV include: Hoosier Racing Tire, Brodix, Geico, E3 Spark Plugs, General Tire, PitstopUSA.com, Schoenfeld Headers, Driverwebsites.com, and Hilborn Injection Systems.

Additional information regarding the American Sprint Car Series is available at www.ascsracing.com.

Photo Credit: Tim Aylwin

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