A pair of quarter-mile bullrings were just what the doctor ordered for Jason Johnson, as he completed a sweep of the weekend’s O’Reilly American Sprint Cars on Tour National action in Arkansas with a wire-to-wire victory in Saturday night’s 30-lap feature at I-30 Speedway.
Although Johnson led all the way aboard Lanny Row’s Wesmar-powered The Shop Motorsports/Custom Equipment Design No. 41 Eagle, it was far from easy as he survived some strong bids from Darren Stewart along the way to collect his 21st career ASCS National Tour win.
Johnson’s saving grace proved to be some timely cautions along with his abandonment of the cushion following a lap 16 caution for the low side of the track.
“They were telling me to go low, go low, and I thought man are you crazy! ” Johnson commented afterward. “It worked though. “
After an eventful heat race in which Johnson charged from sixth to first, fell back to fourth after a slider past Ronny Howard nearly led to disaster and then a recovery for a last lap win, Johnson drew the pole position for the Pole Dash in which he emerged victorious after trading a pair of early slidejobs with Tim Crawley.
With a seemingly full night of work already behind him, it had only just begun as Johnson then paced the feature field to the green flag with 30 more laps of labor yet to go. Unlike the Dash though, Johnson clearly gunned ahead of fellow front row starter Crawley to take command from the outset in the feature.
With Johnson leading the way, sixth-starter Stewart battled past Ward for third in the opening laps and set his sights on the lead duo. Lapped traffic came into play on the seventh round, with Crawley making a bid for the lead a lap later.
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