---

Dramatic pass sends Matt Johnson to USRA Modified win in Lucas Oil Speedway headliner

By Lyndal Scranton (Wheatland, MO) -- Matt Johnson only led about 150 yards of Saturday night's headliner of the Big Adventure RV Racing Series at Lucas Oil Speedway. That was all he needed.

Johnson, of Archie, Missouri, used a dramatic turn-four pass of Justin Johnson on the final lap to capture the Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Model feature win. He earned $1,000 after prevailing by half a car length.

PHOTO: Matt Johnson (1x) duels with Justin Johnson for the lead in Saturday night's Pitts Homes USRA Modified feature.--CREDIT: Kenny Shaw photo

Other feature winners on Save the Hunt Night Presented by the National Wild Turkey Federation and OnMedia/DISH/DirecTV were Toby Ott (O'Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks), Johnny Fennewald (Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Models) and Kris Jackson (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods).

Matt Johnson and Justin Johnson dueled side by side through most of the final five laps of the 25-lap main event before Matt Johnson finally prevailed. The margin between the top two was a scant 0.150 seconds.

The winner started inside of row three and worked his way into second by lap seven after Justin Johnson had grabbed the lead a couple of laps earlier. Those two staged an epic battle the rest of the way with Justin Johnson staying in front - until the final turn.

"I was trying to race him clean," Matt Johnson said of the final lap. "I don't like anybody beating and banging on me, so I was giving him plenty of room. I was that white flag come out and it was time to go."

Chase Domer finished third with Lucas Gibbs fourth and Robbie Reed in fifth.

Matt Johnson also won on Friday at Humboldt Speedway and that - like Saturday's feature - was a Summit Shootout qualifier. That meant Justin Johnson, of Olathe, Kansas, earned the automatic qualification into the 6th annual Summit USRA Nationals at Hamilton County Speedway in Webster City, Iowa on Sept. 25-28.

"Hats off to Justin; he did a good job of driving that thing," Matt Johnson said.

With only one top-five feature finish in three prior appearances at Lucas Oil Speedway this season, Matt Johnson clearly was dialed in this time. He last one at the speedway in 2017.

"This car has been great," Johnson said. "I needed to pass another car in the heat race so I could have started a little closer (in the feature). Thank you guys (the fans) for bearing the heat and for coming out and letting us do this."

Midseason points champion Paden Phillips started outside front row and led the first four laps, but faded to finish eighth.

Pole-starting Chase Jones spun on lap two while running third and had to restart at the rear of the field. He wound up finishing 14th.

Ott rallies for Street Stocks win: Toby Ott emerged from a three-car battle, edging into the lead with five laps remaining, and pulled away for his third O'Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks feature win of the season.

Ott, the season points leader, started fourth. He used an inside pass of Daniel Deason in turn three on lap 15 as Derek Brown also was in the mix with the trio going three wide for a time.

"Daniel was doing a good job and he was holding his line; Derek showed me the bottom was good down there and I had to be patient," Ott said of his decisive move. "I guess it was one of those deals where it was good not to be up front at the start. I got to see where everything was."

Deason wound up second with Johnny Coats third and Brown fourth.

Fennwald makes winning move: Johnny Fennewald patiently waited for his opportunity, then pounced with three laps to go to earn his third Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Model win of the season.

Larry Ferris, who started up front and led the first 17, finished 1.38 seconds behind Fennewald with Cole Henson third, points leader Kaeden Cornell fourth and Aaron Marrant in fifth.

Fennewald, of Appleton City, Missouri, started outside of row two and moved into second by lap four. He kept the pressure on the leader - even passing him midway through the race but a caution flag wiped that out - until using a slide job in turns three and fourth to take over the lead with three laps remaining.

"I had a good run on him when that caution came out," Fennewald said. "I knew he saw I was up there, so I figured he would start blocking me. Any good racer would. That's how I got beat last week. I just didn't think quick enough, when Todd Shute won, to move down to the bottom.

"I've got a pretty good hot rod, finally, after we've got everything lined out. Ferris ran a good race tonight."

Jackson makes it four: Kris Jackson earned win No. 4 on the season, leading the final 18 laps of the Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod feature.

"We race against a really great group of guys," said Jackson, the USRA B-Mod national points leader. "I'm glad to be here. I want to say thanks to my guys for helping me out in the pits."

Jackson passed front-row starting Mark Long to grab the lead on lap three with Morton already advancing from sixth and into second. Long spun the next time around to bring out a caution.

From there, it was a matter of protecting his lead on numerous restarts as the race had eight caution flags. The final one waved on lap 15 after Jackson had built a 2.15-second lead over Morton.

Jackson drove away again and finished 2.34 seconds in front of Morton with Taylor Moore in third. Eric Turner, after starting 19th, rallied to finish fourth.

Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series results (June 29, 2019)

Pitts Homes USRA Modifieds

A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 1X-Matt Johnson, 20:20.483[5]; 2. 7J-Justin Johnson, 20:20.633[4]; 3. 227-Chase Domer, 20:23.621[9]; 4. 51G-Lucas Gibbs, 20:26.275[3]; 5. 5-Robbie Reed, 20:27.598[14]; 6. 3B-Nic Bidinger, 20:28.527[12]; 7. 98-John Allen, 20:29.174[8]; 8. 98D-Paden Phillips, 20:30.270[2]; 9. 8S-Jon Sheets, 20:31.650[7]; 10. 21-Ryan Middaugh, 20:33.126[16]; 11. 21W-Tracy Wolf, 20:33.231[10]; 12. 22H-Dustin Hodges, 20:33.539[11]; 13. 38C-Jason Pursley, 20:34.034[6]; 14. 03-Chase Jones, 20:35.841[1]; 15. 24D-Donnie Fellers, 20:37.621[13]; 16. 83-Jim Sikes Jr, 20:24.008[15]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 98D-Paden Phillips, 06:02.197[2]; 2. 03-Chase Jones, 06:03.215[6]; 3. 51G-Lucas Gibbs, 06:03.636[8]; 4. 8S-Jon Sheets, 06:04.412[1]; 5. 21W-Tracy Wolf, 06:05.517[3]; 6. 22H-Dustin Hodges, 06:06.219[7]; 7. 24D-Donnie Fellers, 06:07.389[5]; 8. 83-Jim Sikes Jr, 06:11.394[4]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 7J-Justin Johnson, 03:02.785[1]; 2. 1X-Matt Johnson, 03:03.640[4]; 3. 38C-Jason Pursley, 03:09.603[2]; 4. 98-John Allen, 03:09.847[3]; 5. 227-Chase Domer, 03:10.402[6]; 6. 3B-Nic Bidinger, 03:10.774[5]; 7. 5-Robbie Reed, 03:11.528[7]; 8. 21-Ryan Middaugh, 03:12.510[8]

O'Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 27OTT-Toby Ott, 17:19.898[4]; 2. 1D-Daniel Deason, 17:21.729[2]; 3. 35-Johnny Coats, 17:21.957[15]; 4. 11D-Derek Brown, 17:22.164[6]; 5. 42-James Flood, 17:22.763[7]; 6. 27-Bob Barnett, 17:25.199[1]; 7. 04-Cody Frazon, 17:25.349[9]; 8. 69-Brian Brown, 17:30.074[17]; 9. 11-Brad Gideon, 17:31.953[10]; 10. 7X-John Scott, 17:37.880[8]; 11. 73-Francisco Escamila, 17:38.087[14]; 12. 44S-Steve Scott, 17:24.321[12]; 13. (DNF) 111-Tim Brown, 15:46.653[3]; 14. (DNF) 21W-Ted Welschmeyer, 00:03.758[5]; 15. (DNF) 45-Aaron Poe, 00:08.642[11]; 16. (DNF) 93D-Josh Dugan, 00:10.298[13];
17. (DNF) 19-Kenny Shelton, 00:12.682[16]

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 27-Bob Barnett, 03:15.447[2]; 2. 111-Tim Brown, 03:17.048[4]; 3. 21W-Ted Welschmeyer, 03:17.337[6]; 4. 42-James Flood, 03:17.487[5]; 5. 04-Cody Frazon, 03:18.405[7]; 6. 44S-Steve Scott, 03:21.007[1]; 7. 73-Francisco Escamila, 03:21.611[9]; 8. 35-Johnny Coats, 03:21.845[8]; 9. 69-Brian Brown, 03:22.572[3]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 1D-Daniel Deason, 07:36.660[2]; 2. 27OTT-Toby Ott, 07:37.559[3]; 3. 11D-Derek Brown, 07:39.887[6]; 4. 7X-John Scott, 07:41.919[4]; 5. 11-Brad Gideon, 07:42.319[1]; 6. 45-Aaron Poe, 07:44.352[7]; 7. 93D-Josh Dugan, 07:47.621[5]; 8. 19-Kenny Shelton, 07:48.354[8]

Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Models

A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 21-Johnny Fennewald, [4]; 2. 51-Larry Ferris, [2]; 3. 31C-Cole Henson, [1]; 4. 50-Kaeden Cornell, [5]; 5. 1X-Aaron Marrant, [6]; 6. 7J-Ryan Johnson, [3]; 7. 42H-Chad Richwine, [14]; 8. 42L-Lane Ehlert, [9]; 9. 1T-Tucker Cox, [16]; 10. 13-Tim Petty, [7]; 11. 7M-Jake Morris, [15]; 12. 99-Larry Jones, [12]; 13. 8D-Darek Wiss, [17]; 14. 16-Ashlee Lancaster, [11]; 15. 6-Bob Cummings, [18]; 16. (DNF) 7X-Todd McCoin, [13]; 17. (DNF) 749-Kyle Schlotz, [19]; 18. (DNF) 15-Shane Essary, [8]; 19. (DNF) 96-Dalton Imhoff, [10]

Cedar Creek Beef Jerky Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 51-Larry Ferris, 10:38.727[2]; 2. 7J-Ryan Johnson, 10:44.294[5]; 3. 13-Tim Petty, 10:44.354[1]; 4. 96-Dalton Imhoff, 10:45.571[4]; 5. 42L-Lane Ehlert, 10:47.379[8]; 6. 16-Ashlee Lancaster, 10:47.867[10]; 7. 42H-Chad Richwine, 10:49.180[7]; 8. 7M-Jake Morris, 10:49.671[9]; 9. 8D-Darek Wiss, 10:54.741[6]; 10. 6-Bob Cummings, 10:39.391[3]

Cedar Creek Beef Jerky Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 31C-Cole Henson, 01:13.580[6]; 2. 21-Johnny Fennewald, 08:50.408[4]; 3. 50-Kaeden Cornell, 08:51.372[5]; 4. 1X-Aaron Marrant, 08:52.052[8]; 5. 15-Shane Essary, 08:52.280[9]; 6. 99-Larry Jones, 08:54.304[7]; 7. 7X-Todd McCoin, 08:54.580[1]; 8. 1T-Tucker Cox, 08:55.135[2]; 9. (DNF) 749-Kyle Schlotz, 01:13.580[3]

Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods

Big O Tires A-Feature (20 Laps): 1. 65-Kris Jackson, 25:44.013[3]; 2. 18M-JC Morton, 25:46.360[6]; 3. 00T-Taylor Moore, 25:46.549[7]; 4. 99T-Eric Turner, 25:48.614[19]; 5. 32-Robbe Ewing, 25:48.897[4]; 6. 1F-Mitchell Franklin, 25:49.518[8]; 7. 18-Austin Joplin, 25:50.202[9]; 8. 134-Robert Heydenreich, 25:50.667[14]; 9. 30-Mark Long, 25:52.011[2]; 10. 21F-Hannah Frazee, 25:52.033[11]; 11. 98K-Kenton Allen, 25:53.751[5]; 12. 99-Jim Cihy, 25:55.305[13]; 13. 14T-Quentin Taylor, 25:55.594[16]; 14. 10P-Dayton Pursley, 25:54.811[1]; 15. 414-Ryan Thomas, 21:58.781[10]; 16. 11-Jeremy Polston, 22:00.478[12]; 17. 28-Wesley Briggs, 18:00.139[17]; 18. (DNF) 79-James Barker, 09:58.404[15]; (DNS) 8-Dillon McCowan, 09:58.404

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 10P-Dayton Pursley, [2]; 2. 32-Robbe Ewing, [4]; 3. 18M-JC Morton, [5]; 4. 18-Austin Joplin, [1]; 5. 1F-Mitchell Franklin, [8]; 6. 11-Jeremy Polston, [3]; 7. 99-Jim Cihy, [6]; 8. 79-James Barker, [9]; 9. (DNF) 8-Dillon McCowan, [7]; 10. (DNF) 99T-Eric Turner, [10]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 65-Kris Jackson, [1]; 2. 98K-Kenton Allen, 00:01.784[3]; 3. 30-Mark Long, 00:02.277[8]; 4. 00T-Taylor Moore, 00:03.307[6]; 5. 21F-Hannah Frazee, 00:05.404[2]; 6. 414-Ryan Thomas, 00:05.967[9]; 7. 134-Robert Heydenreich, 00:06.382[7]; 8. 14T-Quentin Taylor, 00:07.298[4]; 9. 28-Wesley Briggs, 00:07.787[5]

Thursday Night Thunder next: Casey's General Stores and KY3 present a special "Thursday Night Thunder" July 4th edition of the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series next week. The Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Models will headline the event with a 25-lap, $1,000-to-win main event courtesy of Rains Ice.

Visit participating area Casey's locations for $2 discount coupons to the night's activities. A big fireworks show courtesy of AM Pyrotechnics will light up the sky at the conclusion of the racing program. Gates will open at 4 p.m. with hot laps at 6:30 and racing at 7:05.

Also Kids' Bike Night: It also will be the annual Kids' Night Bicycle Giveaway on Thursday. The Frog's Signs Junior Fan Club giveaway is for youngsters, ages 5-12, who can sign up to win a bike that evening. The speedway is still seeking donations of new boys' and girls' bikes. For questions or more details, contact Lisa Lorton at the Lucas Oil Speedway office (417) 282-5984 or via email at Lisa@lucasoilspeedway.com.

For questions about tickets or camping for any event at Lucas Oil Speedway, contact Admissions Director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-5984 or via email at Nichole@LucasOilSpeedway.com.

---

Back to News