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Cajun Rages for Lucas Oil ASCS Score at I-30 Speedway!

Lonnie Wheatley, LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (June 4, 2011) – Reigning Lucas Oil ASCS presented by K&N Filters National champion Jason Johnson became the series first repeat winner of the year by topping the ninth round of 2011 competition in Saturday night’s 35-lap feature event atop the high-banked, ¼-mile I-30 Speedway clay oval.

And, to do so, he denied local fan favorite Tim Crawley his first series score of the year in the process of collecting the $6,000 winner’s cut in his fourth series triumph atop Little Rock clay.

“The Ragin’ Cajun” took the lead away from Crawley in heavy lapped traffic on the 24th circuit and went on to snare his 50th career ASCS National feature win aboard the Don Ott-powered Haynes/Mesilla Valley Transport No. 41 Maxim.

Johnson was chased to the stripe by Crawley, with Wayne Johnson, current Lucas Oil Sprint Car points leader Shane Stewart and 18th-starter Gary Wright rounding out the top five.

“It’s never easy,” Johnson commented in victory lane. “I tell ya what, to come to Little Rock and beat Tim Crawley, that’s for all the fans.”

While Johnson gridded the feature field outside the second row, front row outside starter Crawley outgunned polesitter A.G. Rains at the drop of the green flag with Johnson and third-starter Wayne Johnson racing into second and third, respectively, in turns three and four of the opening round.

Johnson began pressuring Crawley in short order, racing into the lead on the top side of turns one and two on the seventh round only to have the move negated for Philip Faulkner’s disabled machine on the backstretch.

After another red flag interruption just three laps later when Jeff Swindell got upside down off the turn two embankment, Crawley continued testing both high and low lines on the well-manicured oval with Johnson hot on his heels. “I just started shopping around,” Johnson explained. “Wherever he wasn’t, I’d go the opposite way, just trying to race a smart race.”

Into traffic by the 16th round, the high-speed chess match continued with Johnson’s approach finally paying dividends when he rallied into the lead in turns one and two on the 24th circuit. After one final caution after 26 laps for Seth Bergman’s turn four spin, Johnson slipped away and raced to the checkered flag virtually unchallenged despite some last lap traffic that came into play.

“It shows how strong a race team we’ve got, and the people that are committed behind this race team and are a part of it day in and day out,” Johnson explained of becoming the series first repeat winner of 2011. “I couldn’t be any happier right now, I’m having the time of my life.”

A third-place finisher in the previous series event at I-30 Speedway in April, Crawley bettered his season-best finish by settling for runner-up honors in Mike Ward’s Lucas Oil/Boater Sports No. 88 GF1. “Jason was just a little better than us tonight,” Crawley explained. “I kept searching around trying to find just the right balance, we were just a little off.”

Wayne Johnson held the show position throughout aboard Bryan Sumby’s BDS Motorsports Parker-powered No. 38 Maxim, with Shane Stewart maintaining his series points lead with a fourth-place run aboard Paul Silva’s Wesmar-powered Rockstar Energy Drink/Makita No. 57 A.R.T.

Inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame earlier in the day after winning Friday night’s Master’s Classic at Knoxville Raceway, Gary Wright turned in the night’s top passing effort by charging from 18th to round out the top five.

“The Texan” was 12th by the 15th round, into the top ten by the 20th circuit and then took fifth away from Dustin Morgan on the 29th circuit.

After holding down fifth much of the way, Morgan still posted his top Lucas Oil Sprint Car finish of the year by crossing the stripe in sixth. Rains was seventh at the line, with I-30 Speedway regular Zach Pringle in eighth. Leading Brodix Rookie of the Year contender Aaron Reutzel was ninth, with 16th-starter Johnny Herrera completing the top ten.

Wayne Johnson, Morgan, Reutzel and Pringle topped heat race action for Saturday night’s 34-car field, with Danny Wood holding off Wright to win the non-stop 15-lap “B” Main.

Prior to the “A” Main, the only incident all night occurred when Mark Shirshekan took a tumble off the turn four embankment as the checkered flag flew on the first heat race. Working through the “B” Main field only to miss the feature cut by two positions, Shirshekan used a provisional for the “A” Main aboard the Cooper #01 entry as did Zach Chappell, who missed the cut by one spot.

Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Cars presented by K&N Filters
I-30 Speedway Results
I-30 Speedway – Little Rock, AR

Heat Races (Top 16 in Passing Points to "A" Main; Balance to "B" Main):

Heat One (10 Laps): 1. 38-Wayne Johnson, 2. 1g-Cody Gardner, 3. 99-Brady Bacon, 4. 45x-Johnny Herrera, 5. 1x-Gary Taylor, 6. 40-Junior Jenkins, 7. 91-Marshall Skinner, 8. 0-Zach Chappell, 9. 01-Mark Shirshekan.

Heat Two (10 Laps): 1. 2-Dustin Morgan, 2. 88-Tim Crawley, 3. 3-A.G. Rains, 4. 28-Jeff Swindell, 5. 23-Seth Bergman, 6. 9-Gary Wright, 7. 2x-Bryce Vowan, 8. 33-Mark Huddleston, 9. 38x-Rick Pringle.

Heat Three (10 Laps): 1. 87-Aaron Reutzel, 2. 41-Jason Johnson, 3. 0x-Andy McElhannon, 4. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 5. 39-Brad Bowden, 6. 32k-Robert Richardson, 7. 47d-Michael Dubert. DNS: 14T-Tyler Brown.

Heat Four (10 Laps): 1. 8z-Zach Pringle, 2. 2L-Logan Forler, 3. 57-Shane Stewart, 4. 81-Danny Wood, 5. 5k-Jerry Kamer, 6. 7-Philip Faulkner, 7. 12T-Joe Young, 8. 4-Tommy Snellgrove.

"B" Main (Top 6 Advance to "A" Main):

"B" Feature (15 Laps): 1. 81-Danny Wood, 2. 9-Gary Wright, 3. 1x-Gary Taylor, 4. 39-Brad Bowden, 5. 91-Marshall Skinner, 6. 7-Philip Faulkner, 7. 0-Zach Chappell, 8. 01-Mark Shirshekan, 9. 2x-Bryce Vowan, 10. 40-Junior Jenkins, 11. 12T-Joe Young, 12. 5k-Jerry Kamer, 13. 32k-Robert Richardson, 14. 47d-Michael Dubert, 15. 38x-Rick Pringle, 16. 4-Tommy Snellgrove, 17. 33-Mark Huddleston. DNS: 14T-Tyler Brown.

I-30 Speedway “A” Main:

“A” Feature (35 Laps): 1. 41-Jason Johnson, 2. 88-Tim Crawley, 3. 38-Wayne Johnson, 4. 57-Shane Stewart, 5. 9-Gary Wright, 6. 2-Dustin Morgan, 7. 3-A.G. Rains, 8. 8z-Zach Pringle, 9. 87-Aaron Reutzel, 10. 45x-Johnny Herrera, 11. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 12. 99-Brady Bacon, 13. 81-Danny Wood, 14. 0-Zach Chappell, 15. 0x-Andy McElhannon, 16. 01-Mark Shirshekan, 17. 91-Marshall Skinner, 18. 39-Brad Bowden, 19. 23-Seth Bergman, 20. 1g-Cody Gardner, 21. 28-Jeff Swindell, 22. 2L-Logan Forler, 23. 7-Philip Faulkner, 24. 1x-Gary Taylor.

Lap Leaders: Tim Crawley 1-23, Jason Johnson 24-35.

Note: Zach Chappell and Mark Shirshekan both utilized provisionals based on owner points to start the main event. It was the second of the year for Chappell and the first of the year for the Cooper #01 driven tonight by Shirshekan.

Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Cars presented by K&N Filters Driver Points (Top 15): 1. Shane Stewart 1,202, 2. Johnny Herrera 1,072, 3. Jeff Swindell 1,045, 4. Tim Crawley 1,032, 5. Gary Wright 1,006, 6. Brady Bacon 960, 7. Seth Bergman 936, 8. Aaron Reutzel 906, 9. Tony Bruce, Jr. 898, 10. Zach Chappell 831, 11. Dustin Morgan 812, 12. Logan Forler 795, 13. Jason Johnson 668, 14. Danny Wood 558, 15. Sam Hafertepe, Jr. 544.

Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Cars presented by K&N Filters Owner Points (Top 15): 1. Jason Johnson Racing #41 – 1,220, 2. Paul Silva #57 – 1,202, 3. Herrera/Main #45x – 1,072, 4. Swindell Group #28 – 1,045, 5. Mike Ward #88 – 1,032, 6. Bacon/Tel-Star #99 - 960, 7. Petersen Motorsports #23 936, 8. Kenny Reutzel #87 – 906, 9. Bruce Racing #18 – 898, 10. Cooper/Sperry #01/51 - 872, 11. Randy Washburn #0 – 831, 12. M&M Motorsports #2 – 812, 13. Steve Forler #2L – 795, 14. Danny Wood #81 – 558, 15. Sam Hafertepe #15 – 544.

Photo - Jason Johnson and the JJR No. 41 crew in Lucas Oil ASCS victory lane after topping Saturday night's 35-lap main event at Little Rock's I-30 Speedway. (Lonnie Wheatley photo)

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