Wayne Johnson wins second night qualifier for 360 Nationals
Friday, August 1, 2008
Wayne Johnson wins second night qualifier for 360 Nationals
By Stacy Ervin
Oklahoma native Wayne Johnson won the second 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 Friday, August 1.
Johnson started fourth and ran down fellow second-row starter Jesse Giannetto, who led the first half of the 20-lap event. The first attempt at a start of the race saw Brad Bowden stop in turn two to bring out a yellow and a complete restart.
From there, Giannetto took off with the lead with Johnson chasing. Once the pair began to hit lapped traffic at lap seven, Gary Wright began to close. On the eighth lap, Johnson tried a slide job on Giannetto in turn three but it did not work. That move allowed Wright to close even more.
As the front runners came to the flag stand on the 12th circuit, Johnson passed Giannetto in heavy traffic. The traffic further held up Giannetto and Wright got by him for the second spot at that point also. That’s how they would stay until the final checkers, as Johnson went on to build a straightaway lead on Wright and Giannetto. Brooke Tatnell was fourth and Jesse Hockett fifth.
“I screwed up a couple times and let him get away,” Johnson said of Giannetto in victory lane. He added the lapped traffic played a big role in the outcome of the race and he knew Wright would come on strong, so he tried multiple grooves on the well-prepared dirt surface.
Wright set the night’s fastest time trial out of the 61 competitors, turning the hallowed half mile in 16.656. Heat races were won by Johnson, Tim Crawley, Jared Ridge, Matt Covington and Brian Brown. Chad Corken won the C-Main and transferred to the B along with Shawn Van Whye. Nick Smith won an incident-filled B-Main and transferred to the A along with Justin Henderson, Chad Meyer and Brad Bowden.
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