From Bryan Hulbert
GREENWOOD, La. (June 18, 2022) Adding a second win to his season with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network, Oklahoma’s Wayne Johnson was masterful around the bottom of the Boothill Speedway Saturday night. A $4,000 to-win affair, Bruce Griffith, Jr. and Terry Monroe with Big Truck Paint Shop and Truck Parking kicked in $500 more to the winner’s share.
Wayne’s 56th career win with the National Tour, the No. 2c chased Blake Hahn through the opening seven laps. Ripping the top at the start as Blake held the bottom from the pole, Hahn rolled a little too close to an infield tire in the first and second turns.
Sending Blake around, the lead fell to Wayne Johnson.
“I was really just riding to feel out what he [Blake] was planning. I ran the top in one and two, and I knew that wasn’t the place to be. Riding around there before we went green, I could tell the bottom was going to be juiced up in one and two, and there was a lot of grip on entry through the bottom of three,” explained Wayne of the start.
“Honestly, I didn’t think I was going to have a chance at Blake unless he just missed the bottom or had to do something drastic with a lapped car. He doesn’t make those mistakes. He’s been doing this a long time, so it was a deal of fortunate for me, unfortunate for him, but I was shocked to see it happen.”
Taking off from the field on the restart, the race halted on Lap 10 a couple of times. Finally, having to open up the red flag after Jason Martin and Joey Schmidt went upside down, the race resumed with Wayne again pulling away from the field.
Working into traffic at two to go, the final caution came out as a pair of cars tangled in from the Wayne. Able to avoid, the dash to the finish saw Wayne regain 1.852-seconds of the 4.789-seconds he had before the yellow.
Asked if the crew made any significant changes under the red, Wayne said, “Not really. Our car was good, I just felt like we needed a couple of little things to make it better. With this tire shortage, we’re running a D12 on the left rear instead of an RD12, so it’s a little harder compound, so under the cautions, I was really having to buzz the tires to keep heat in it, and right before the red it felt like it wasn’t going as good as it had been, so we just adjusted to help get the left rear going again, and I’ll tell you, my car at the end was better than it was before.”
Leaving Brandon Anderson to battle for second, the No. 55b held off the pressure of Tim Crawley for the runner-up spot.
Brandon’s career-best finish with the National Tour, the show run for Crawley is his second on the weekend and 125th career podium appearance. A rebound night from a failed driveline on Friday, Eric Baldaccini in fourth is the third time he’s finished inside the top five. Changing engines after Friday night’s race, Tony Bruce, Jr. rolled the bottom to a fifth-place finish.
Top to bottom around the Boothill Speedway, Landon Crawley moved 12th to sixth. Working the top to fourth at one point, a slap to the wall set Dustin Gates back to a seventh-place finish. Into the work area under the red, Blake Hahn fought back to finish eighth, with Ryan Bickett earning hard charger with a run from 19th to ninth. Bradyn Baker completed the top ten.
Matt Covington established the track record over the field of 21 with a time of 12.743-seconds. Three SCE Gaskets Heat Races went to Eric Baldaccini, Brandon Anderson, and Tony Bruce, Jr. Saturday’s race was the fourth at Boothill Speedway, 27th in Louisiana, and the 1,048th event for the National Tour.
The next event for the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network is at I-70 Motorsports Park in Odessa, Mo. on Friday, June 24, and Saturday, June 25. Event details will be posted soon.
Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour presented by MAVtv
Boothill Speedway
Greenwood, Louisiana
Saturday, June 18, 2022
The Driver’s Project Group Qualifying
The Drivers Project Qualifying (3 Laps)
1. 95-Matt Covington, 12.743[4]
2. 6-Dustin Gates, 12.843[3]
3. 0-Eric Baldaccini, 12.945[1]
4. 71-Bradyn Baker, 13.075[6]
5. 45X-Kyler Johnson, 13.218[2]
6. 85-Josh McCord, 13.310[7]
7. 2H-Tommy Hall, 14.264[5]
The Drivers Project Qualifying 2 (3 Laps)
1. 1X-Tim Crawley, 12.967[3]
2. 24-Garet Williamson, 12.973[2]
3. 55B-Brandon Anderson, 13.004[4]
4. 36-Jason Martin, 13.148[7]
5. 2-Dylan Opdahl, 13.442[6]
6. 1S-Joey Schmidt, 13.513[5]
7. 27T-Timothy Watson III, 13.828[1]
The Drivers Project Qualifying 3 (3 Laps)
1. 52-Blake Hahn, 12.825[6]
2. 2C-Wayne Johnson, 12.929[4]
3. 187-Landon Crawley, 12.982[2]
4. 12H-Tony Bruce Jr, 13.101[7]
5. 10P-Dylan Postier, 13.463[3]
6. 10-Landon Britt, 13.470[1]
7. 17B-Ryan Bickett, 13.714[5]
SCE Gaskets Heat Race #Races (All drivers advance to the A-Feature)
SCE Gaskets Heat Race #1 (8 Laps)
1. 0-Eric Baldaccini[2]
2. 71-Bradyn Baker[1]
3. 6-Dustin Gates[3]
4. 85-Josh McCord[6]
5. 45X-Kyler Johnson[5]
6. 95-Matt Covington[4]
DNS: 2H-Tommy Hall
SCE Gaskets Heat Race #2 (8 Laps)
1. 55B-Brandon Anderson[2]
2. 36-Jason Martin[1]
3. 1X-Tim Crawley[4]
4. 24-Garet Williamson[3]
5. 1S-Joey Schmidt[6]
6. 2-Dylan Opdahl[5]
7. 27T-Timothy Watson III[7]
SCE Gaskets Heat Race #3 (8 Laps)
1. 12H-Tony Bruce Jr[1]
2. 2C-Wayne Johnson[3]
3. 52-Blake Hahn[4]
4. 187-Landon Crawley[2]
5. 10-Landon Britt[6]
6. 10P-Dylan Postier[5]
7. 17B-Ryan Bickett[7]
A-Feature
A-Main (25 Laps)
1. 2C-Wayne Johnson[2]
2. 55B-Brandon Anderson[3]
3. 1X-Tim Crawley[5]
4. 0-Eric Baldaccini[4]
5. 12H-Tony Bruce Jr[6]
6. 187-Landon Crawley[12]
7. 6-Dustin Gates[7]
8. 52-Blake Hahn[1]
9. 17B-Ryan Bickett[19]
10. 71-Bradyn Baker[8]
11. 85-Josh McCord[10]
12. 10P-Dylan Postier[18]
13. 24-Garet Williamson[11]
14. 10-Landon Britt[13]
15. 95-Matt Covington[15]
16. 36-Jason Martin[9]
17. 1S-Joey Schmidt[14]
18. 45X-Kyler Johnson[16]
19. 2H-Tommy Hall[21]
20. 2-Dylan Opdahl[17]
21. 27T-Timothy Watson III[20]
Lap Leader(s): Blake Hahn 1-7; Wayne Johnson 8-25
Hard Charger: Ryan Bickett +10
Quick Time: Matt Covington 12.743-seconds
High Point Driver: Eric Baldaccini
Provisional(s): N/A