Johnny Herrera Rolls To Victory In Hockett/McMillin Memorial Opener

WHEATLAND, Mo. (September 22, 2016) Besting a stout lineup of 65 drivers, New Mexico’s Johnny Herrera was the class of the field on Thursday night, earning the top spot in Thursday’s kick off to the sixth annual Hockett/McMillin Memorial at the Lucas Oil Speedway with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network.

Utilizing a late race restart, Johnny sailed his MVT No. 45x to the cushion to take the lead away from race long leader, Sammy Swindell, despite having worked the bottom early to the front of the field.

	(ASCS / John Lee Photo)

“Someone showed me the bottom early, and I was working that line when I showed him my nose there and then he dropped down and blocked that,” commented Herrera of early attempts for the lead. “After that, the bottom started going away or at least I wasn’t as good as I was early and after that red, I committed to just sail the top and it worked.”

Working through a pair of cautions in the opening laps, the field gave chase to Sammy Swindell as Herrera worked to hold off Jonathan Cornell. Able to keep the Kiowa Line Builders No. 28 at bay for the first half of the A-Feature, Cornell rolled the bottom to second and eventually the lead while working Lap 15 with Herrera in tow. Caution in the same breath, the lineup reverted back to the last fully completed lap; putting Swindell to the point and Cornell to second.

With brakes fading on the Acme Grapix No. 3s, Swindell made the car as wide as possible but again, it was Cornell to the front only to have the red negate the move as Josh Baughman tagged the wall off the fourth turn.

Able to keep his No. 3s to the bottom, Swindell held the lead with Herrera keeping pace. Working to slower traffic, Johnny switched lines to the top for the lead, but again, the caution flew in favor of Swindell on Lap 21. Twisting up his No. 45x, Johnny took the lead on the restart, and this time the caution flew in Johnny’s favor.

Green for the final time, Johnny set sail to a 1.434 second advantage at the checkered flag.

“I knew we had a good car, but Sammy is just tough to beat,” stated Johnny. “He’s a veteran, just like me, and anytime you can race hard with him and outrun him, that’s always a great thing.”

John Carney II battled to a third place finish with Brad Loyet coming from seventh to fourth. After contending for the lead early on, Jonathan Cornell slipped to complete the top-five.

From 10th, Wayne Johnson ran up to a sixth place finish with Brian Brown seventh. Sam Hafertepe, Jr. from 13th crossed eighth with Seth Bergman making the most of a Provisional Start to charge from 23rd to ninth. From 21st, Matt Covington came up to round out the top-ten.

Drawing a field of 65 drivers, eight Heat Races went to Derek Hagar, Chris Morgan, Tony Bruce, Jr., John Carney II, Wayne Johnson, Sam Hafertepe, Jr., and Corey Nelson. Qualifiers were won by Johnny Herrera, Brian Brown, and Harli White. A trio of B-Features went to Taylor Walton, Chris Martin, and Jack Dover. Provisionals were utilized by Aaron Reutzel, Seth Bergman, and Evan Martin.

Event points following Thursday’s opener finds Johnny Herrera atop with 397 markers. The margin is 11 over Sammy Swindell. John Carney II with 382 is third with Brian Brown at 366. Wayne Johnson makes up the top-five in a tie with Brian Brown.

The sixth annual Hockett/McMillin Memorial continues on Friday, September 23 with Hot Laps getting underway at 6:45 P.M. (CDT). Live online PPV can be found at http://www.lucasoilracingtv.com. For more information, log onto http://www.lucasoilspeedway.com.

For continued updates on the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network, log onto http://www.ascsracing.com.

ASCS National / ASCS Warrior Region
Lucas Oil Speedway – Wheatland, Mo.
6th annual Hockett/McMillin Memorial – Night 1
Thursday, September 22, 2016

Car Count: 65

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 9JR-Derek Hagar[2]; 2. 45X-Johnny Herrera[4]; 3. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[6]; 4. 2L-Logan Forler[5]; 5. 5J-Jamie Ball[3]; 6. 87-Aaron Reutzel[9]; 7. 71C-Stacey Alexander[1]; 8. 85-Forrest Sutherland[8]; 9. 5D-Zach Daum[7]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 81A-Chris Morgan[2]; 2. 3S-Sammy Swindell[5]; 3. 17-Josh Baughman[3]; 4. 23-Seth Bergman[1]; 5. 81W-Danny Wood[6]; 6. 95-Matt Covington[7]; 7. 84-Brandon Hanks[8]; 8. 101-Chuck McGillivray[4]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 92J-J.R. Topper[1]; 2. 82-Thomas Kennedy[7]; 3. 76-Jay Russell[3]; 4. 72-Ray Seeman[4]; 5. 50Z-Zach Chappell[8]; 6. 75-Tyler Blank[6]; 7. 75E-Broc Elliott[2]; 8. (DNF) 20K-Kevin Ulmer[5]

Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 86-Tony Bruce Jr[1]; 2. 28-Jonathan Cornell[8]; 3. 52-Blake Hahn[7]; 4. 21K-Kevin Hinkle[2]; 5. 4-Evan Martin[6]; 6. 20G-Jake Greider[3]; 7. 9M-Ryan Leavitt[5]; 8. (DNF) 14K-Kyle Bellm[4]

Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 11X-John Carney II[2]; 2. 42-Andy McElhannon[1]; 3. 8Z-Zach Pringle[3]; 4. 17W-Harli White[8]; 5. 53-Jack Dover[7]; 6. 33-Austin Alumbaugh[6]; 7. 8M-Kade Morton[5]; 8. 49B-Ben Brown[4]

Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 2C-Wayne Johnson[2]; 2. 21-Brian Brown[4]; 3. 23B-Brian Bell[1]; 4. 93-Taylor Walton[5]; 5. 48-Miles Paulus[3]; 6. 44X-Jared Sewell[7]; 7. (DNF) 11M-Jason McDougal[6]; 8. (DNF) 7M-Chance Morton[8]

Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[2]; 2. 38-Cody Baker[1]; 3. 05-Brad Loyet[8]; 4. 44-Chris Martin[6]; 5. 26M-Fred Mattox[4]; 6. 87F-Sean McClelland[7]; 7. 27-Danny Thoman[5]; 8. (DNF) 21B-Brandon Hinkle[3]

Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 34-Corey Nelson[2]; 2. 14-Randy Martin[3]; 3. 17G-Ray Allen Kulhanek[8]; 4. 77X-Alex Hill[6]; 5. 3-Nate VanHaaften[7]; 6. 7H-Brian Gramm[1]; 7. 24C-Lanny Carpenter[4]; 8. (DNF) 3Z-Zach Davis[5]

Qualifier 1 (8 Laps): 1. 45X-Johnny Herrera[2]; 2. 9JR-Derek Hagar[4]; 3. 2C-Wayne Johnson[3]; 4. 28-Jonathan Cornell[6]; 5. 17-Josh Baughman[9]; 6. 2L-Logan Forler[10]; 7. 44-Chris Martin[8]; 8. 17G-Ray Allen Kulhanek[5]; 9. 14-Randy Martin[7]; 10. 92J-J.R. Topper[1]

Qualifier 2 (8 Laps): 1. 21-Brian Brown[2]; 2. 3S-Sammy Swindell[5]; 3. 86-Tony Bruce Jr[1]; 4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 5. 82-Thomas Kennedy[6]; 6. 93-Taylor Walton[10]; 7. 76-Jay Russell[9]; 8. 42-Andy McElhannon[7]; 9. 77X-Alex Hill[8]; 10. (DNF) 81A-Chris Morgan[4]

Qualifier 3 (8 Laps): 1. 17W-Harli White[1]; 2. 11X-John Carney II[4]; 3. 34-Corey Nelson[3]; 4. 05-Brad Loyet[6]; 5. 52-Blake Hahn[5]; 6. 8Z-Zach Pringle[9]; 7. 50Z-Zach Chappell[8]; 8. (DNF) 10C-Jeremy Campbell[2]; 9. (DNF) 38-Cody Baker[7]; 10. (DNF) 23B-Brian Bell[10]

B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 93-Taylor Walton[1]; 2. 76-Jay Russell[2]; 3. 23-Seth Bergman[6]; 4. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[3]; 5. 5D-Zach Daum[15]; 6. 84-Brandon Hanks[9]; 7. 14K-Kyle Bellm[14]; 8. 7M-Chance Morton[12]; 9. 48-Miles Paulus[8]; 10. 3-Nate VanHaaften[4]; 11. 11M-Jason McDougal[10]; 12. 27-Danny Thoman[11]; 13. (DNF) 20K-Kevin Ulmer[13]; 14. (DNF) 92J-J.R. Topper[5]; 15. (DNF) 44X-Jared Sewell[7]; (DNS) 81A-Chris Morgan; (DNS) 81W-Danny Wood

B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 44-Chris Martin[2]; 2. 95-Matt Covington[6]; 3. 8Z-Zach Pringle[1]; 4. 42-Andy McElhannon[3]; 5. 75-Tyler Blank[8]; 6. 4-Evan Martin[5]; 7. 24C-Lanny Carpenter[10]; 8. 20G-Jake Greider[9]; 9. 49B-Ben Brown[13]; 10. 75E-Broc Elliott[11]; 11. (DNF) 87F-Sean McClelland[7]; 12. (DNF) 3Z-Zach Davis[12]; 13. (DNF) 87-Aaron Reutzel[4]; (DNS) 38-Cody Baker; (DNS) 23B-Brian Bell; (DNS) 9M-Ryan Leavitt

B Feature 3 (12 Laps): 1. 53-Jack Dover[5]; 2. 5J-Jamie Ball[9]; 3. 14-Randy Martin[3]; 4. 77X-Alex Hill[4]; 5. 8M-Kade Morton[12]; 6. 33-Austin Alumbaugh[10]; 7. 72-Ray Seeman[6]; 8. 71C-Stacey Alexander[14]; 9. 85-Forrest Sutherland[13]; 10. 50Z-Zach Chappell[2]; 11. 26M-Fred Mattox[8]; 12. 21B-Brandon Hinkle[16]; 13. 7H-Brian Gramm[11]; 14. 101-Chuck McGillivray[15]; 15. 21K-Kevin Hinkle[7]; 16. (DNF) 17G-Ray Allen Kulhanek[1]

A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 45X-Johnny Herrera[3]; 2. 3S-Sammy Swindell[1]; 3. 11X-John Carney II[5]; 4. 05-Brad Loyet[7]; 5. 28-Jonathan Cornell[2]; 6. 2C-Wayne Johnson[10]; 7. 21-Brian Brown[4]; 8. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[13]; 9. 23-Seth Bergman[23]; 10. 95-Matt Covington[21]; 11. 53-Jack Dover[19]; 12. 86-Tony Bruce Jr[12]; 13. 44-Chris Martin[18]; 14. 82-Thomas Kennedy[9]; 15. 17W-Harli White[8]; 16. 5J-Jamie Ball[22]; 17. 76-Jay Russell[20]; 18. 34-Corey Nelson[11]; 19. (DNF) 52-Blake Hahn[15]; 20. (DNF) 2L-Logan Forler[16]; 21. (DNF) 17-Josh Baughman[14]; 22. (DNF) 93-Taylor Walton[17]; 23. (DNF) 87-Aaron Reutzel[24]; 24. (DNF) 9JR-Derek Hagar[6]; 25. (DNF) 4-Evan Martin[25]

Lap Leader(s): Sammy Swindell 1-21; Johnny Herrera 22-25
FSR High Point Driver: Sammy Swindell
Hard Charger: Seth Bergman +14
Provisional(s): Seth Bergman / Aaron Reutzel / Evan Martin (Regional)

Event Points – Thursday, September, 22, 2016

2016 ASCS National Driver Standings (Top 10): 1. Sam Hafertepe, Jr. 3,957; 2. Johnny Herrera 3,738; 3. Wayne Johnson 3,501; 4. Blake Hahn 3,484; 5. Matt Covington 3,369; 6. Logan Forler 3,347; 7. Seth Bergman 3,307; 8. Aaron Reutzel 3,157; 9. Josh Baughman 2,497; 10. Kyle Bellm 2,386;