Lonnie Wheatley, WHEATLAND, Mo. (September 17, 2022) – Oklahoma City’s Wayne Johnson scored his fifth Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour victory of the season by topping Saturday night’s 40-lap 12th Annual Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial finale atop the 3/8-mile Lucas Oil Speedway clay oval.
Johnson worked the low line to perfection as he raced from eighth to take command on the 25th lap en route to the $10,000 triumph aboard the Two-C Racing No. 2c Sprint Car for his second Hockett/McMillin Memorial triumph.
“I might cry,” Johnson commented after the emotional win.
Johnson took full advantage of a pair of cautions in the opening 19 rounds as well as a red flag stoppage with ten laps remaining to post the win.
Every one of those cautions came out at the right time,” Johnson explained after losing brakes in the early going. “I’m sure ol’ Jesse wanted me to win that race, he got them cautions for me.”
While Johnson gridded the field outside the fourth row, Dylan Westbrook gunned into the initial lead from the pole starting position before Sam Hafertepe, Jr., battled to the front on the fifth round.
Meanwhile, Johnson cracked the top five by the eighth circuit and was third behind Hafertepe, Jr., and Friday night winner Ayrton Gennetten by the time the race’s first caution flew after 15 laps when Landon Crawley looped it in turn four.
Johnson made his way to second by the time the caution flew again four laps later for Riley Goodno in turn two and then stalked Hafertepe, Jr., for the point before rallying by on the low side of turns three and four to take command on the 25th circuit.
Johnson weathered a red flag for Dylan Westbrook, who shredded a right rear tire and flipped in turn two with 30 laps in the books, and then raced on to the checkered flag with a 1.373-second advantage over reigning series champion Blake Hahn.
“It’s disappointing, I felt like we had a really good car that we could contend with,” Hahn said afterward. “About halfway though the race, we had some motor issues. To be able to finish on the podium with seven cylinders is something for our team to be proud of.”
Australian Scott Bogucki made a late move to snare the show position after taking the green flag from the tenth starting position.
“We finally got tuned up tonight, it’s been an up and down year for this team,” Bogucki explained afterward.”
Hafertepe, Jr., slipped to fourth in the closing stages with Matt Covington advancing a half-dozen positions to round out the top five.
Derek Hagar crossed the stripe sixth with Jake Bubak rallying from 21st to seventh. Landon Crawley rebounded from his early spin to claim eight from the 20th starting position while Ryan Bickett raced from 24th to ninth. After running as high as second in the early going, Gennetten finished out the night in tenth.
Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour
Lucas Oil Speedway – Wheatland, MO
September 17, 2022, Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial Results
Lucas Oil A-Main (40 Laps): 1. 2C-Wayne Johnson[8]; 2. 52-Blake Hahn[5]; 3. 84-Scott Bogucki[10]; 4. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[3]; 5. 95-Matt Covington[11]; 6. 9JR-Derek Hagar[7]; 7. 1XX-Jake Bubak[21]; 8. 187-Landon Crawley[20]; 9. 17B-Ryan Bickett[24]; 10. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[4]; 11. 24-Garet Williamson[14]; 12. 11-Roger Crockett[9]; 13. 9-Chase Randall[12]; 14. 22K-Kaleb Johnson[16]; 15. 22-Riley Goodno[13]; 16. 10-Landon Britt[17]; 17. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[1]; 18. 43M-Mark Smith[2]; 19. 45X-Kyler Johnson[23]; 20. 1X-Tim Crawley[6]; 21. 87-Sean McClelland[18]; 22. 21-Gunner Ramey[25]; 23. 36-Jason Martin[22]; 24. 3M-Howard Moore[19]; 25. G6-Cody Gardner[15]
BMRS B-Main 1 (15 Laps): 1. 10-Landon Britt[3]; 2. 187-Landon Crawley[2]; 3. 21-Gunner Ramey[5]; 4. 45X-Kyler Johnson[4]; 5. 97M-Scotty Milan[7]; 6. 44P-Jason Howell[8]; 7. 8M-Kade Morton[9]; 8. 17F-Chad Frewaldt[14]; 9. 15-Jack Potter[11]; 10. 99-Blake Jenkins[10]; 11. 1P-Curtis Evans[17]; 12. 2J-Zach Blurton[13]; 13. 7F-Noah Harris[15]; 14. 33-Alan Zoutte[16]; 15. 44-Ronny Howard[12]; 16. 14E-Kyle Bellm[6]; 17. 51B-Joe B Miller[1]; 18. 7B-Ben Brown[18]
BMRS B-Main 2 (15 Laps): 1. 87-Sean McClelland[1]; 2. 1XX-Jake Bubak[2]; 3. 91-Michael Day[4]; 4. 47-Dale Howard[5]; 5. 87J-Jace Park[9]; 6. 8B-Brad Bowden[6]; 7. 4M-Cameron Martin[17]; 8. 50Z-Zach Chappell[8]; 9. 9$-Kyle Clark[12]; 10. 0-Jake Griffin[14]; 11. 22M-Rees Moran[18]; 12. 13-Chase Howard[13]; 13. 7C-Chris Morgan[7]; 14. 97-Kevin Cummings[15]; 15. 12-Jeffrey Newell[3]; 16. 17B-Ryan Bickett[10]; 17. 12M-Greg Merritt[11]; 18. 00-Broc Elliott[16]
BMRS B-Main 3 (15 Laps): 1. 3M-Howard Moore[1]; 2. 36-Jason Martin[6]; 3. 2-Chase Porter[7]; 4. 22S-Slater Helt[4]; 5. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[14]; 6. 7M-Chance Morton[9]; 7. 93-Taylor Walton[8]; 8. 15D-Andrew Deal[12]; 9. 17-Alex Sewell[3]; 10. 55B-Brandon Anderson[2]; 11. 11E-Kyle Edwards[16]; 12. 2B-Brett Becker[10]; 13. 4X-Tyler Blank[5]; 14. 19-Wes Wofford[13]; 15. 88-Terry Easum[15]; 16. 5D-Zach Daum[11]; 17. 41-Mackenzie Borchers[17]; 18. 31-Casey Wills[18]
SCE Gaskets LCQ 1 (12 Laps): 1. 11-Roger Crockett[1]; 2. 22-Riley Goodno[4]; 3. 51B-Joe B Miller[2]; 4. 1XX-Jake Bubak[6]; 5. 17-Alex Sewell[9]; 6. 21-Gunner Ramey[7]; 7. 8B-Brad Bowden[3]; 8. 2-Chase Porter[10]; 9. 8M-Kade Morton[12]; 10. 17B-Ryan Bickett[11]; 11. 5D-Zach Daum[5]; 12. 2J-Zach Blurton[8]; 13. 0-Jake Griffin[14]; 14. 88-Terry Easum[15]; 15. 1P-Curtis Evans[16]; 16. 22M-Rees Moran[13]; 17. 10P-Dylan Postier[17]
SCE Gaskets LCQ 2 (12 Laps): 1. 84-Scott Bogucki[2]; 2. 24-Garet Williamson[1]; 3. 87-Sean McClelland[4]; 4. 55B-Brandon Anderson[6]; 5. 45X-Kyler Johnson[5]; 6. 47-Dale Howard[10]; 7. 36-Jason Martin[3]; 8. 44P-Jason Howell[11]; 9. 87J-Jace Park[12]; 10. 2B-Brett Becker[9]; 11. 44-Ronny Howard[14]; 12. 13-Chase Howard[7]; 13. 10C-Jeremy Campbell[13]; 14. 33-Alan Zoutte[16]; 15. 4M-Cameron Martin[15]; 16. 31-Casey Wills[8]
SCE Gaskets LCQ 3 (12 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 2. G6-Cody Gardner[3]; 3. 3M-Howard Moore[6]; 4. 10-Landon Britt[2]; 5. 91-Michael Day[4]; 6. 4X-Tyler Blank[8]; 7. 97M-Scotty Milan[5]; 8. 50Z-Zach Chappell[10]; 9. 7M-Chance Morton[9]; 10. 15-Jack Potter[14]; 11. 9$-Kyle Clark[7]; 12. 19-Wes Wofford[12]; 13. 7F-Noah Harris[11]; 14. 00-Broc Elliott[13]; 15. 41-Mackenzie Borchers[15]
SCE Gaskets LCQ 4 (12 Laps): 1. 9-Chase Randall[2]; 2. 22K-Kaleb Johnson[5]; 3. 187-Landon Crawley[1]; 4. 12-Jeffrey Newell[4]; 5. 22S-Slater Helt[6]; 6. 14E-Kyle Bellm[3]; 7. 7C-Chris Morgan[8]; 8. 93-Taylor Walton[10]; 9. 99-Blake Jenkins[7]; 10. 12M-Greg Merritt[11]; 11. 15D-Andrew Deal[12]; 12. 17F-Chad Frewaldt[13]; 13. 97-Kevin Cummings[14]; 14. 11E-Kyle Edwards[15]; 15. 7B-Ben Brown[9]; 16. 98P-Miles Paulus[16]