(Photo by Rob Kocak Photos)
Inside Line Promotions – ELDON, Mo. (June 1, 2021) – A pair of nights with a fast car and promising feature runs ended in disappointment for Kaleb Johnson last weekend.
“We’ve been fast almost every night lately, but our results haven’t shown that,” he said. “It’s just been some little things that have kept us from putting a full night together. I’m sure it’ll all come together soon for us.”
Johnson had a solid start to the night at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa, on Saturday when he timed in fourth quickest out of 24 cars. He finished fourth after starting fifth in his heat race, which placed him third on the starting grid for the feature.
“We ran third for the first few laps until there was a caution,” he said. “Then Jamie Ball got by me. I was in fourth until we had another yellow. During the caution I noticed something was really messed up with the car. It was leaning way over to the right. At first, I thought that it might be a low tire so I kept spinning the tires, trying to build some heat and get some air pressure in it. But when the race restarted I went into turn one and the car didn’t turn at all. I pulled in and we learned that the left front torsion stop had fallen off.
“I’m not sure why it happened. We’ve been torquing those bolts the same for two years and this is the first time that’s happened. Maybe it was just a fluke deal.”
Johnson and his team traveled further south on Sunday for their first visit to Lake Ozark Speedway for the inaugural Sprint and Midget Nationals presented by The Drivers Project finale. The evening began well once again during the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour event.
“We were really happy with our qualifying at Lake Ozark,” he said. “We had never been there before and we got one hot lap before they began timing us. We still timed fourth fastest (out of 39 cars).”
Johnson was scheduled to start third in his heat race and caught a break when the polesitter was penalized a row for jumping the start, moving Johnson to the pole.
“I was able to get a good start and take the lead and held it the rest of the way,” he said. “The track was rough and I was mainly just trying to miss the holes.”
Johnson placed fourth in a dash to garner the seventh starting position in the 26-car main event on a challenging track surface that claimed a large amount of race cars.
“It was definitely an experience,” he said. “I eventually restarted fourth before we got one lap completed just because the guys in front of me had flipped. I think it took about 40 minutes to get the first lap in.
“I think I was running around fifth about 10 laps in when I hit the hole in turns one and two and got all four wheels off the ground. I thought I was going over. By the time the car stopped bouncing and I got back up to speed I think I was second to last. I wanted to keep going, but I just didn’t feel it was worth the risk and pulled in a few laps later.”
Johnson was credited with a 16th-place result.
Next up will be a return to Knoxville Raceway this Saturday. He ranks eighth in the 360ci winged sprint car championship standings.
QUICK RESULTS –
May 29 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – Qualifying: 4; Heat race: 4 (5); Feature: 22 (3).
May 30 – Lake Ozark Speedway in Eldon, Mo. – Qualifying: 4; Heat race: 1 (3); Dash: 4 (2); Feature: 16 (7).
SEASON STATS –
9 races, 0 wins, 2 top fives, 3 top 10s, 4 top 15s, 7 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Saturday at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.kalebjohnsonracing.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kaleb___Johnson
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KalebJohnsonRacing22
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“Ron Weber started sponsoring me when I began racing sprint cars when I was 16-years-old,” Johnson said. “I’ve gotten to know him pretty well over that time and I greatly appreciate his support over the years.”
Johnson would also like to thank Merle Johnson Farm Toys, Oddson Underground, GRP Motorsports, Innovative Design/Sletten Properties, Sea Foam, Snyder Tree Service, Guaranteed Rate-Mike Brudigan Home Loans, State Bank of Fairmont, Big Al’s Diecast, Dave’s Lawn Care & Landscaping, JF Capital, Last Deck, Hepfner Racing Products, Schaeffer’s Oil and TL Racing for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.
To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.
- Shawn Miller on Jun 01, 2021
- Article Date: 6/1/2021 by Inside Line Promotions