Wayne Johnson Dominates Fall Brawl III Opener at I-80 Speedway

GREENWOOD, Neb. (September 19, 2014) – For the first time since 2012, Wayne Johnson returned to Victory Lane with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV American Real, taking night one of the Casey’s General Store Midwest Fall Brawl III at the I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Neb.

Racing with vigor, Johnson led the distance for his 42nd career Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour win, and setting up for what could be the Oklahoma driver’s largest payday of the year. The win is also Wayne’s first at the I-80 Speedway in ASCS competition. .

“We’ve struggled for about a year now trying every kind of car and everything we can do,” commented Johnson in Victory Lane. “The guys that work on this thing, they bust their butts. We’ve been sucking pretty badly so it’s tough to get motivated but I’ve got to thank Eric Slade. He built these shocks this week, it was just something we’ve never tried, and Donny Schatz is going pretty damn good on these shocks so we figured we’d try a set — Completely different racecar.”

Asked about the idea of taking home the Durst Motorplex/Hotrod Paintless Dent Repair Double Down Back to Back $50,000 Challenge, Johnson chuckled a bit, “As bad as our year’s been, and as empty as my bank account is if we can win this thing tomorrow, we might get to have Christmas.”

Red on the start for Trevor Grossenbacher going upside down, the second start yielded a six car pile-up as Ian Madsen went sideways after contact from another driver, sent the No. 18m into traffic with Terry McCarl, Jeff Swindell, Cody Ledger, Don Droud, Jr., and Sam Hafertepe, Jr. all collected. All drivers were okay. Swindell was the only driver able to make repairs and rejoin the field.

On the third attempt, Wayne Johnson battled briefly with Seth Bergman to lead the opening lap. With the green lights staying on from there, the race was from second back as Johnson opened up his advantage to over two seconds.

Working past Bergman on Lap 6, ASCS National point’s leader, Brad Loyet, gave chase as the leaders all raced through traffic. Stalked by Jason Johnson, the pair traded slide jobs at both ends of the I-80 Speedway with Jason gaining the advantage on Lap 24 for the second podium step.

Asked about the battle with Loyet, Johnson commented that the race was good and gave thanks to the track crew, “Hats off to the I-80 crew, they really did a great job. We had a top and a bottom and for a driver, that’s a driver’s dream to have something to race on like that.”

After fighting with traffic, Loyet crossed third for the Missouri shoe’s eleventh podium of the season, “Unfortunately lapped cars just didn’t play into our hand. I thought I was running Wayne down for a little bit but lapped cars got in the way. Good thing, we’re locked into the show and it was really good points night for us and that’s the big picture here.”

Seth Bergman ended up slipping to finish fourth. A spirited battle with Dusty Zomer for the final transfer into Saturday’s feature event, Seth was down for not winning, but not out, “It’s really important to get locked in like that. Any other night we’d be thrilled about the lock in, but with the $50,000 bonus on the line, you had to win it to have a shot so I’m a little disappointed we let that get away but we are points racing to so to get a top four, and get locked in definitely benefits this No. 23 machine.”

Dusty Zomer completed the top five and pocked an extra $300 in the Electrical Systems, Inc. random podium draw along with the $250 already collected from DeBerg Concrete for setting the fastest overall time of the night during Heat Races.

Johnny Herrera advanced ten spots from sixteenth to sixth with Danny Lasoski starting eighteenth after coming from the night’s second B-Feature to finish seventh, and earn a $1,000 bonus from Searsboro Telephone as the Hard Charger. Brian Brown crossed eighth with Jack Dover ninth from thirteenth. Stevie Smith completed the top ten.

A total of 47 drivers drew in for six Heat Races won by Brandon Hanks, Randy Hibbs, Dusty Zomer, Seth Bergman, Cole Wood, and Stevie Smith. A pair of B-Features went to Don Droud, Jr. and Danny Lasoski. Provisional starts went to Jeff Swindell and Matt Covington. The start was Swindell’s final full point provisional of the season and Covington’s first of the year/

Loyet ends the night now 112 points ahead of Jason Johnson. Jumping from fourth to second, Johnson dropped Sam Hafertepe, Jr., who was involved in the pileup on the start, to third 18 points back from second. Jeff Swindell sits five points back from Hafertepe with Johnny Herrera nine points away from taking third.

The Speedway Motors Midwest Region saw high points going to Danny Lasoski. Brian Brown, Jack Dover, Billy Alley, and Lee Grosz were the top five point earners for the region.

The Casey’s General Store Midwest Fall Brawl III continues on Saturday, September 20 at the I-80 Speedway in Greenwood, Neb. with gates opening at 5:00 P.M. and races getting underway at 7:15 P.M. (CT). For more information, log onto http://www.i80speedway.com. Live online PPV can be found at http://www.racinboys.com.

 

To keep up with the Lucas Oil ASCS presented by MAVTV American Real, log onto http://www.ascsracing.com.

 

Casey’s General Store Midwest Fall Brawl III Bonuses:

 

$2,500 Lap Money Won: Wayne Johnson – $1,250; Brad Loyet – $680; Jason Johnson – $360; Seth Bergman – $210

 

$1,000 Searsboro Telephone Hard Charger: Danny Lasoski

 

$300 Electrical Systems Podium Draw: Dusty Zomer

 

$250 DeBerg Concrete Fastest Lap: Dusty Zomer 15.344 seconds

 

$200 Mike Avilla Racer Appreciation Award: Thomas Kennedy and Josh Baughman

 

$100 Zeitner & Sons Trucking “First Car out of the Race”: Trevor Grossenbacher

 

Race Results:

 

Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by MAVTV American Real
I-80 Speedway – Greenwood, Neb.
Casey’s General Store Midwest Fall Brawl III
Friday, September 19, 2014

 

Car Count: 47

 

SpeedMart Heat Races (8 laps): Winners plus the next 10 highest in Passing Points transfer to the A-Feature.

 

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 3H-Brandon Hanks[2]; 2. 21-Brian Brown[7]; 3. 05-Brad Loyet[8]; 4. 99-Davey Heskin[5]; 5. 17G-Gage Dorr[1]; 6. 23S-Stuart (Stu) Snyder[3]; 7. 44K-David Kubart[4]; 8. (DNF) 40-Clint Garner[6]

 

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2A-Randy Hibbs[2]; 2. 18M-Ian Madsen[6]; 3. 1M-Danny Lasoski[3]; 4. 1B-Sheldon Haudenschild[1]; 5. 3-Billy Alley[4]; 6. 4J-Lee Grosz[8]; 7. 13V-Seth Brahmer[5]; 8. 17-Blake Hahn[7]

 

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 82X-Dusty Zomer[6]; 2. 35L-Cody Ledger[1]; 3. 21K-Lou Kennedy Jr.[2]; 4. 18R-Ryan Roberts[3]; 5. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[8]; 6. 7TAZ-Tasker Phillips[4]; 7. 18-Tony Bruce Jr[7]; 8. 5X-Jason Martin[5]

 

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman[2]; 2. 45X-Johnny Herrera[1]; 3. 87-Aaron Reutzel[3]; 4. 24BH-Justin Henderson[4]; 5. 17X-Josh Baughman[7]; 6. 82-Jason Danley[5]; 7. 22-Tony Shilling[8]; 8. (DNF) 14S-Jarrod Schneiderman[6]

 

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 17WX-Cole Wood[1]; 2. 20K-Thomas Kennedy[4]; 3. 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[2]; 4. 12-Tyler Drueke[7]; 5. 2-Don Droud Jr[8]; 6. 6-Terry McCarl[6]; 7. 94-Jeff Swindell[5]; 8. 77-John Klabunde[3]

 

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Stevie Smith[1]; 2. 77X-Wayne Johnson[4]; 3. 41-Jason Johnson[6]; 4. 53-Jack Dover[7]; 5. 17W-Harli White[3]; 6. 95-Matt Covington[5]; 7. 9N-Wade Nygaard[2]

 

Smiley’s Racing Products B-Features (12 laps): Top 3 from each advance to the A-Feature.

 

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 2-Don Droud Jr[2]; 2. 3-Billy Alley[7]; 3. 4J-Lee Grosz[6]; 4. 20K-Thomas Kennedy[1]; 5. 99-Davey Heskin[4]; 6. 24BH-Justin Henderson[5]; 7. 22-Tony Shilling[10]; 8. 82-Jason Danley[9]; 9. 23S-Stuart (Stu) Snyder[11]; 10. 77-John Klabunde[16]; 11. 17-Blake Hahn[14]; 12. (DNF) 44K-David Kubart[13]; 13. (DNF) 17G-Gage Dorr[8]; 14. (DNF) 13V-Seth Brahmer[12]; 15. (DNF) 14S-Jarrod Schneiderman[15]; 16. (DNF) 87-Aaron Reutzel[3]

 

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 1M-Danny Lasoski[2]; 2. 6-Terry McCarl[8]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 4. 17X-Josh Baughman[4]; 5. 1B-Sheldon Haudenschild[6]; 6. 18-Tony Bruce Jr[11]; 7. 94-Jeff Swindell[12]; 8. 18R-Ryan Roberts[5]; 9. 17W-Harli White[7]; 10. 5X-Jason Martin[15]; 11. (DNF) 21K-Lou Kennedy Jr.[3]; 12. (DNF) 9N-Wade Nygaard[13]; 13. (DNF) 95-Matt Covington[9]; 14. (DNF) 7TAZ-Tasker Phillips[10]; DNS 40-Clint Garner

 

Protect the Harvest A-Feature (25 Laps): Top 4 lock into Saturday’s championship A-Feature.

 

A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 77X-Wayne Johnson[2]; 2. 41-Jason Johnson[9]; 3. 05-Brad Loyet[7]; 4. 23-Seth Bergman[1]; 5. 82X-Dusty Zomer[4]; 6. 45X-Johnny Herrera[16]; 7. 1M-Danny Lasoski[18]; 8. 21-Brian Brown[8]; 9. 53-Jack Dover[13]; 10. 4-Stevie Smith[11]; 11. 3H-Brandon Hanks[3]; 12. 3-Billy Alley[19]; 13. 4J-Lee Grosz[21]; 14. 12-Tyler Drueke[12]; 15. 17WX-Cole Wood[10]; 16. 2A-Randy Hibbs[6]; 17. (DNF) 94-Jeff Swindell[23]; 18. (DNF) 18M-Ian Madsen[5]; 19. (DNF) 35L-Cody Ledger[15]; 20. (DNF) 2-Don Droud Jr[17]; 21. (DNF) 6-Terry McCarl[20]; 22. (DNF) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[22]; 23. (DNF) 35-Trevor Grossenbacher[14]; 24. (DNF) 95-Matt Covington[24]

 

Lap Leader(s): Wayne Johnson 1-25
KSE Hard Charger: Danny Lasoski
FSR High Point: Dusty Zomer
Hawk Performance A-Feature Fastest Lap: Danny Lasoski – 16.282 seconds
CSI Rebound: Matt Covington
Provisional(s): Matt Covington (P1), Jeff Swindell (BP2)

Category: Kansas / Nebraska