Wednesdays with Wayne – Finding Speed!
(Bill W) April 30, 2014 – Wayne Johnson has been gaining speed lately, and showed it in a pair of events last weekend. Unfortunately, a blown tire took him out of contention with the World of Outlaws on the High Banks of Salina, Oklahoma on Friday. Saturday, he finished sixth after starting in row five in a tough field at the Knoxville Raceway. This weekend, he’ll be traveling to Ohio’s Eldora Speedway to hook up with the WoO Friday and Saturday.
Despite not making the heat invert and starting fifth at Salina, Wayne put himself in contention to the win at a track where he has had success. “We ended up 14th quick,” he says. “We ended up getting (snookered) in the heat race. We started fifth, and got up to second. The caution came out with two to go. It was a single-file restart. I started behind (Donny) Schatz, and he was starting way on top of the racetrack, and I didn’t know why. The grip was all on the bottom. I lined up with the front bumper right on his left rear tire. That happens all the time.”
The crowd would see Wayne take the lead on the restart, only to have it called back. “As soon as he fired, I took off too, but I went down the hill and caught the bottom,” he says of the restart. “I was still behind him at the cone. Going into one, he went to the top and I went to the bottom. I slid him for the lead. We got all the way to turn three and the caution came out. I didn’t know it, but over the P.A., they announced I hit the cone. Well, I didn’t. Over the Raceceiver, they told me I jumped the start, which would be tough since I was behind Schatz at the cone. Five seconds later, they said I was docked two spots for being out of line. When I got to the pits, they said I hit the cone again, which I didn’t. If I hit it, I would have been sent to the tail. They couldn’t make their mind up. Slippy (Conner Nelson) said no one hit the cone, but I don’t know. I’m not an Outlaw guy. They just (snookered) me there, and it cost us the Dash.”
The abrasive track began to take rubber. It was reworked, but not in the right groove. Wayne started the feature 14th. “They worked the top, but didn’t work the middle (of the track),” he says. “It took rubber right away. I probably should have put a new tire on the feature, but I didn’t. We were up to ninth, and when we blew the tire out, I think we were 11th with a few laps to go.”
The #77x team worked their way up to Knoxville Raceway, where Wayne timed in ninth amongst the stout 31-car field. “We came out a little late, so that wasn’t bad,” he says of the qualifying effort. “We weren’t very good in the heat (finishing fourth) to be honest, and I didn’t think the racetrack was near as good as it normally is.”
Starting inside row five in the feature, Wayne picked his way forward as light rain fell. “We were running around there about the same speed as everyone else,” he says. “Other than (Craig) Dollansky and (Terry) McCarl up front, I was right there with everyone’s lap times. The little bit of rain we got, didn’t hurt the track at all. Actually, it helped me get some grip for couple of laps in three and four.”
The car got stronger as the feature went on. “We were up to sixth, and able to run down (Justin) Henderson and Ian Madsen at the end,” says Wayne. “I slid Ian a couple of different times; it was just so treacherous. If I wanted to crash him, I could have passed him, but we’re not going to do that.”
The sixth place finish was a good sign that things are moving forward and another win is around the corner. “I’m pretty happy with the way our whole situation was this weekend,” says Wayne. “We’ve been able to pass cars and we’re moving ahead. We’re not losing speed at the end of the race like we had been earlier in the year. We just need to qualify a little better than we have been. One more qualifying spot at Knoxville would have put us on the pole, and two spots at Salina would have had us up front in the heat.”
Category: Driver Updates, Wayne Johnson
