Wayne Johnson wins 18th Annual 360 Knoxville Nationals
Sunday, August 3, 2008
By Stacy Ervin
Wayne Johnson won 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 Saturday, August 2, and gave Johnson a $10,000 payday.
Front-row starters Jason Johnson and Gary Wright went three wide with fourth starter Wayne Johnson on the first lap through turns one and two. Wright came out with the initial lead but there was a caution for debris after one lap had been completed.
When the race went green again, Wright held the point while Billy Alley got around Wayne Johnson for third. By the fourth lap, Jason Johnson was side-by-side with Wright for the lead and by the time they came to the flag stand on the fifth lap, Jason Johnson had the lead. He would hold it for only one more lap before there was a yellow flag for Scott Winters, who hit the turn two fence.
While the caution was still out, Wright gave up his second place run when he pulled to his pit with a broken wing mount. When the race went back to green, Wayne Johnson stole the lead away from Jason Johnson by using the high groove in turn two.
Wayne Johnson held the lead from lap seven on, but it was not an easy victory. He hit an apparent rut in turn two a couple of times and nearly jumped the cushion, but managed to maintain the lead. Behind him, Jason Johnson was having his own struggles, falling back in position. Brian Brown was the man on the move, after having won the B-Main, as he moved up to sixth by lap 12.
By lap 14, Wayne Johnson had jumped the cushion another time and that allowed Alley to close in from his second spot. By the next time around, Brown was up to fourth and the leaders were in heavy lapped traffic. Wayne Johnson held on though and used the traffic to build his lead.
The excitement was then behind him as Brown moved to third on lap 23 and took second on the white-flag lap. Alley settled for third. Brooke Tatnell, who had minutes before won the night’s 410 feature, was fourth. Tyler Walker was fifth.
In victory lane, Wayne Johnson credited his win to his crew members on the Maxim/Fisher machine. He noted he kept watching the scoreboard to see if anyone was close behind, but he didn’t see anyone.
“I about knocked the fence down in turn two,” Johnson said.
Brown, in victory lane, apologized to all of his fans because he “gave up an opportunity to win this thing last night.” But, he said, a lot of those guys were getting worn out and he and Alley just kept their elbows up.
Natalie Sather won the eight-lap E-Main with a pass on early leader Cody Petersen on the white-flag lap. Trey Robb won the D-Main, leading all 10 laps. Sather also made a charge in the D-Main to get a transfer spot to the C. Her night ended in the C-Main, though, when she went for a tumble in turn one on the second attempt at a start after her passing of several cars on the original start was negated by a yellow for debris.
Lee Jacobs won the 12-lap C-Main after taking the lead on the third lap from Matt Tiffany, who finished second and transferred to the B. Brown won the 15-lap B-Main after taking the lead from Garry Lee Maier on the third circuit.
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