Jason Johnson wins opening night qualifier for 360 Nationals
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Jason Johnson wins opening night qualifier for 360 Nationals
By Stacy Ervin
Eunice, Louisiana, native Jason Johnson won the opening night qualifying event for the 18th Annual Arnold Motor Supply 360 Knoxville Nationals presented by Vermeer. The win came in the ASCS sanctioned event at the Knoxville Raceway on Thursday, July 31.
Johnson came from the fourth starting spot, put a slide job across outside front-row starter Billy Alley’s nose in turn four on the first lap and led all 20 laps for the $2,000 payday.
That left all of the good battles for position behind the leader, as Travis Rilat, Jonathan Cornell and Jonathan Allard went three-wide for third spot on the second lap. Rilat went to second around Alley the next time by. For most of the race, Rilat followed Johnson at a distance, even when they hit lapped traffic on lap eight.
Just when Rilat looked to be catching Johnson, the race’s only yellow flag came out at lap 17 when Bronson Maeschen lost a right-rear wheel and stopped along the frontstretch fence. His crew was unable to make repairs.
Also on this caution, Joe Beaver stopped on the track and was pushed to the work area with apparent electrical issues. His crew tried to get him back out but the car would not refire.
When the race went green again, Johnson again held the point but the action was furious behind him when Tyler Walker put a huge slide job on Terry McCarl for fourth spot. As Johnson crossed under the checkered flags, Alley put a slider on Rilat in turn four to reclaim second place. Behind Johnson, Alley and Rilat, Walker held on to fourth, while Zach Chappell slipped by McCarl on the last lap to take fifth.
“The main thing I was worrying about was overheating that left rear,” Johnson said in victory lane. “My guys were kind of signaling me to think smart and do what you need to do on this restart.”
Maeschen came out late in the time-trial order and still managed to set the fastest time at 16.320. Heat races were won by Maeschen, Cornell, Lee Sowell, Rilat and Johnson. Cody Petersen won the C-Main and transferred to the B along with Kevin Ingle. Gary Taylor won the B-Main and transferred to the A along with Jason Solwold, Ricky Montgomery and Scott Winters. 50 cars and teams took part in the night's action.
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