Bryan Hulbert
MESQUITE, Texas (March 19, 2016) It didn’t take long for Wayne Johnson to find Victory Lane in 2016 with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network, parking the City Vending No. 2c at the Devil’s Bowl Speedway in the 43rd running of the Devil’s Bowl Spring Nationals.
The Devil’s Bowl score is Johnson’s 46th career Lucas Oil ASCS presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network victory, moving the Oklahoma City native to third in the series all time win list. The win is Johnson’s ninth at the Devil’s Bowl in ASCS National competition.
The win also moves Wayne Johnson within three markers of Johnny Herrera for the series points lead.
“Todd and Kelly definitely gave me a great opportunity here. We ran the last five races last year experimenting for this year, and thank God they did because it really helped me this year knowing what kind of racecars we were going to use and what kind of parts to be able to tune this thing,” said Johnson on the Devil’s Bowl front stretch. “This racetrack is basically my home racetrack, and I have a lot of good notes on this track and it seems like here and Knoxville, no matter what year it is, or what time it is, we always go back to exactly what we always do, and it works.”
Taking off from the outside of the front row, Johnson wasted no time taking the top spot from pole sitter, Travis Rilat. Caution with a single lap in the books for Kade Morton, the race resumed with Johnson taking off to a sizable lead with John Carney II in tow before mechanical problems sidelined the No. 74b; giving Johnson over three seconds over Brad Loyet who was running third at the time.
Caution working Lap 13, the red followed on the restart for Channin Tankersley.
Rolling back to Lap 12 as the last fully completed lap, Johnson was off like a shot as Seth Bergman took over the runner-up spot with Sam Hafertepe, Jr. in tow. Keeping within a 1.5 second margin, slower traffic brought the No. 2c to Bergman’s front bumper as the red flew for Zane Lawrence who caught fire off the top of turn one. Zane was okay.
Looking like victory was free and clear, slower traffic stood to possibly tell a different tale. With the white flag out, Johnson ran to the back of a pair of slower cars. Going three wide into the first two turns, the slide across the Devil’s Bowl surface scrubbed off his momentum. Railing the top, Seth Bergman closed tremendously. With a full head of steam, Seth set for the slide, but traffic giveth, and traffic taketh away, as the top cleared and Wayne Johnson ran to victory.
Taking his 20th career podium finish, Seth Berman crossed 0.813 second behind Johnson.
“Wayne’s a smart racer, and he has a lot of laps around here and I was wanting to slide him on that restart, but he got me a little bit balled on my slider, and I knew that was going to be my only real chance without doing anything stupid and I wasn’t going to dirty him,” said Seth of the run. “I tried getting to him again in traffic and the way the lapped cars played out, it just kind of kept me a bay.”
Coming from eighth, Sam Hafertepe, Jr. took the final podium step.
Asked about the run, Sam replied, “Our bleeders were just killing us. We were way to low on pressure on the restarts but at the beginning of the race we were really good and when we got to traffic like that, it just locked me into one spot. I tried the bottom, and I made it stick, but the top was too good tonight and Wayne’s pretty damn good here. It seem like between me and him, we usually win here plus it’s fun racing with him out here.”
Matt Covington was fourth with Johnny Herrera coming from 11th to complete the top-five.
Blake Hahn was sixth followed by Kyle Bellm from 13th. Brad Loyet, after running to second, ended up eighth with Logan Forler from 22nd to ninth. Chance Morton followed from 21st to complete the top-ten.
The first night under the new Heat/Qualifier format with 47 drivers checking in, five Heats went to Matt Covington, Kade Morton, Travis Rilat, Blake Hahn, and Seth Berman. Taking the Top 32 in Passing Points to four Qualifiers, those were topped by Travis Rilat, Wayne Johnson, Sam Hafertepe, Jr, and John Carney II. B-Features were topped by Zane Lawrence and Tommy Bryant. A points based provisional was used by Aaron Reutzel.
The Lucas Oil ASCS presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network joins with the Griffith Truck and Equipment ASCS Gulf South Region presented by Southern Trailer Works on Friday, March 25 at the Cotton Bowl Speedway in Paige, Texas and the Bronco Raceway Park on Saturday, March 26.
For continued updates, and to see the full lineup of events for American Sprint Car Series, from the National Tour to the Regional Tours, log onto http://www.ascsracing.com.
Race Results:
Lucas Oil ASCS presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network
ASCS Red River Region
Devil’s Bowl Speedway – Mesquite, Texas
43rd annual Spring Nationals
Saturday, March 19, 2016
Car Count: 47
ButlerBuilt Safety Seating Heat Races (8 Laps, Top 32 in Passing Points to Qualifiers.)
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 2. 51-Caleb Martin[4]; 3. 74B-John Carney II[5]; 4. 14K-Kyle Bellm[6]; 5. 14-Channin Tankersley[7]; 6. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[10]; 7. 2X-Tucker Doughty[2]; 8. 10M-Morgan Turpen[3]; 9. 21T-Ray Allen Kulhanek[9]; 10. 05M-Charles McManus[8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8M-Kade Morton[1]; 2. 20G-Jake Greider[3]; 3. 17G-Dustin Gates[5]; 4. 7-Chance Morton[2]; 5. 91-Steven Russell[6]; 6. 2L-Logan Forler[7]; 7. 98-Ryan Padgett[10]; 8. (DNF) 85-Forrest Sutherland[4]; 9. (DNF) 17-Josh Baughman[8]; 10. (DNF) 17W-Harli White[9]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 29-Travis Rilat[4]; 2. 45X-Johnny Herrera[5]; 3. 12W-Dale Wester[7]; 4. 77X-Alex Hill[2]; 5. 2W-Mickey Walker[6]; 6. 12-James Mosher[9]; 7. 03-Joe Wood Jr[1]; 8. (DNF) 3-Raven Culp[8]; 9. (DNF) 45-Martin Edwards[3]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 52-Blake Hahn[1]; 2. 05-Brad Loyet[5]; 3. 26M-Fred Mattox[2]; 4. 76-Zane Lawrence[3]; 5. 2-Parker Price-Miller[4]; 6. 10-Terry Gray[8]; 7. 28-Tommy Bryant[7]; 8. 10K-Kyle Ezell[9]; 9. 55-Brad Queen[6]
Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman[1]; 2. 2C-Wayne Johnson[6]; 3. 22-Koby Barksdale[2]; 4. 2P-Logan Payne[3]; 5. 1J-Danny Jennings[7]; 6. 84-Brandon Hanks[9]; 7. 7M-Kevin Ramey[5]; 8. 87-Aaron Reutzel[8]; 9. 10P-Jim Pericone[4]
Hoosier Tire Qualifiers (8 Laps, top 16 to the A-Feature)
Q1 (8 Laps): 1. 29-Travis Rilat[4]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[2]; 3. 84-Brandon Hanks[6]; 4. 2W-Mickey Walker[7]; 5. 2-Parker Price-Miller[8]; 6. 12W-Dale Wester[3]; 7. (DNF) 17G-Dustin Gates[1]; DNS 22-Koby Barksdale
Q2 (8 Laps): 1. 2C-Wayne Johnson[4]; 2. 23-Seth Bergman[2]; 3. 14K-Kyle Bellm[1]; 4. 14-Channin Tankersley[5]; 5. 7-Chance Morton[6]; 6. 2L-Logan Forler[8]; 7. 77X-Alex Hill[7]; 8. (DNF) 51-Caleb Martin[3]
Q3 (8 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[1]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[3]; 3. 20G-Jake Greider[2]; 4. 1J-Danny Jennings[5]; 5. 45X-Johnny Herrera[4]; 6. 76-Zane Lawrence[6]; 7. 10-Terry Gray[7]; 8. 98-Ryan Padgett[8]
Q4 (8 Laps): 1. 74B-John Carney II[2]; 2. 05-Brad Loyet[4]; 3. 28-Tommy Bryant[8]; 4. 8M-Kade Morton[3]; 5. 26M-Fred Mattox[1]; 6. 91-Steven Russell[7]; 7. 12-James Mosher[5]; DNS 2P-Logan Payne
BMRS B-Features (Top 6 advance to the A-Feature)
Rudy Garcia photo
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 76-Zane Lawrence[5]; 2. 2W-Mickey Walker[1]; 3. 7-Chance Morton[2]; 4. 3-Raven Culp[10]; 5. 17W-Harli White[15]; 6. 26M-Fred Mattox[3]; 7. 2X-Tucker Doughty[11]; 8. 21T-Ray Allen Kulhanek[12]; 9. 77X-Alex Hill[7]; 10. 10K-Kyle Ezell[9]; 11. (DNF) 05M-Charles McManus[16]; 12. (DNF) 85-Forrest Sutherland[13]; 13. (DNF) 17G-Dustin Gates[4]; 14. (DNF) 22-Koby Barksdale[6]; 15. (DNF) 2P-Logan Payne[8]; 16. (DNF) 55-Brad Queen[14]
B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 28-Tommy Bryant[1]; 2. 51-Caleb Martin[3]; 3. 2L-Logan Forler[4]; 4. 2-Parker Price-Miller[2]; 5. 17-Josh Baughman[13]; 6. 91-Steven Russell[5]; 7. 12-James Mosher[6]; 8. 10P-Jim Pericone[14]; 9. 7M-Kevin Ramey[9]; 10. (DNF) 87-Aaron Reutzel[10]; 11. (DNF) 98-Ryan Padgett[8]; 12. (DNF) 10M-Morgan Turpen[12]; 13. (DNF) 10-Terry Gray[7]; 14. (DNF) 45-Martin Edwards[15]; 15. (DNF) 03-Joe Wood Jr[11]
Protect the Harvest A-Feature (30 Laps)
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 2C-Wayne Johnson[2]; 2. 23-Seth Bergman[6]; 3. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[8]; 4. 95-Matt Covington[5]; 5. 45X-Johnny Herrera[11]; 6. 52-Blake Hahn[7]; 7. 14K-Kyle Bellm[13]; 8. 05-Brad Loyet[3]; 9. 2L-Logan Forler[22]; 10. 7-Chance Morton[21]; 11. 28-Tommy Bryant[18]; 12. 1J-Danny Jennings[16]; 13. 51-Caleb Martin[20]; 14. 12W-Dale Wester[14]; 15. 22-Koby Barksdale[24]; 16. 20G-Jake Greider[9]; 17. 84-Brandon Hanks[10]; 18. 76-Zane Lawrence[17]; 19. 8M-Kade Morton[12]; 20. (DNF) 14-Channin Tankersley[15]; 21. (DNF) 74B-John Carney II[4]; 22. (DNF) 26M-Fred Mattox[25]; 23. (DNF) 29-Travis Rilat[1]; 24. (DNF) 87-Aaron Reutzel[23]; 25. (DNF) 2W-Mickey Walker[19]
Lap Leaders: Wayne Johnson 1-30
FSR Radiator High Point Driver: Travis Rilat
Hard Charger: Logan Forler +13
Provisionals: Aaron Reutzel (Points); Koby Barksdale (Promoter)
2016 ASCS National Driver Standings (Top 10): 1. Johnny Herrera 275; 2. Wayne Johnson 272; 3. Matt Covington 260; 4. Logan Forler 255; 5. Blake Hahn 247; 6. Tommy Bryant 243; 7. Sam Hafertepe, Jr. 235; 8. Seth Bergman 230; 9. Brad Loyet 226; 10. Kyle Bellm 208;
2016 ASCS National Winner(s): Johnny Herrera 1; Wayne Johnson 1;