Johnson swipes trophy in thrilling overtime finish to 167-lap LMSC feature
JW Martin
At lap 73, Justin Johnson and Tommy Lemons, Jr. were side by side for the lead in the Pine Ridge Nursery 150.
Nothing had changed when they took the checkers.
The most enthralling race of the 2010 season at Motor Mile Speedway ended in a photo-finish Saturday night, with Johnson out-muscling Lemons for the win 17 circuits past the scheduled distance.
“This is something,” proclaimed Johnson in victory lane. “We got together there at the end. I gassed up, and there wasn’t no coming out of it. It was for the win. That’s what these things are about.”
Lemons became only the third different driver to earn the Price’s Body Shop pole award this season, and bolted away from the 26-car field early, leading the first 70 laps unchallenged.
Johnson, who had tailed Lemons from the outset of the feature, began his bid for first three laps later. Pulling alongside Lemon’s No .27, Johnson’s fleeting attempt at a pass on lap 73 birthed a gripping battle for the top spot that would last the remainder of the contest.
30 laps following his maiden attempt, Johnson managed to secure the lead from Lemons on lap 103. The No. 27 refused to fade, however. Clinging to the high groove of the speedway and equal with Johnson, Lemons continued to lead sporadic laps in what became a see-saw exchange for the lead throughout the latter portion of the race.
“Tommy’s the man on the outside---I could get to him, I could get beside him, but I couldn’t get by him,” Johnson explained. “He hangs on the outside tough.”
Lemons was on the point when the seventh and final yellow flag of the evening was displayed. The caution marked the end of a frustrating night for points leader Wayne Ramsey, who had sustained substantial front-end damage in the two-car collision. Ramsey, who was two laps off the pace in seventeenth at the time of the incident, would finish a dismal sixteenth--- the team’s worst outing of the season.
“We go two laps down---and that’s your sign, right there, on what kind of a night it is. It’s just one of those nights. It’s disgusting,” Ramsey said. “Money’s an issue, and now we have a tore-up race car. We may be back, and we may not be back…I’m not sure yet.”
Johnson was primed for an assault when the green flag restarted the field on lap 158 with nine laps of racing remaining. Lemons didn’t falter as Johnson made repeated stabs underneath the No. 27, and as the white flag fell into the air the pair of frontrunners were inseparable, charging into turn one two-abreast.
Neither driver had the advantage as the duo rolled through turn three, and coming off turn four the front stretch transformed into a drag strip. Johnson slipped up and into Lemons exiting the corner, shoving the No. 27 into the outside wall. The two cars remained latched together as Lemons ricocheted off the fence, but Johnson now had the edge. Crashing towards the finish line, Johnson’s No. 44 lunged forward for the victory before careening up the banking in turn one in a spectacular photo-finish.
“I never thought [Johnson] would have drove me like that. We ran 60 laps side-by-side and never even touched,” Lemons explained afterward. “He thanks me for racing him clean, but yet he puts me in the wall.
“It’s racing. We had a really good car---we knew yesterday that we had a pretty good shot tonight. As good as this car is right now, I think we have a pretty good stretch coming up, I think we’ll be really good.”
Mike Looney tallied his fourth top-five of the year with a third place effort in the event. Derrick Lancaster and Nate Monteith rounded out the top five.
The longest race of the 2010 season at Motor Mile Speedway was a showcase of stellar side-by-side action. The victory marked Johnson’s third win in only six starts at the .416-mile oval. Despite falling short of his first triumph of the season, Lemons gained ground in the Bull & Bones Late Model standings; the Troy, NC native is 66 points out of the lead in third.
IN OTHER DIVISIONS
COLLISION PLUS LIMITED SPORTSMAN
A car upside down. A car in flames...Not things normally seen at Motor Mile Speedway.
Neither is race car driver Steve Dalton.
Absent from racing for six years, Dalton made a triumphant return to the Radford track Saturday night, piloting a car owned by John Griffin to back-to-back wins in the Twin 25-lap event.
Attrition reigned supreme for the 20-car field, as misfortune found numerous frontrunners. Points contenders Roger Parrish Jr. and Anthony Barnes each encountered engine issues during the first feature, setbacks that sidelined both from contention in the finale.
But it was another Barnes who made headache headlines.
On lap 4 of the first 25-lap feature, Kyle Barnes was at the epicenter of a calamitous crash in turn one. The nine-car fracas climaxed with Barnes’ No. 15 flipping onto its roof as the apex of turns one and two transformed into a junkyard.
In the nearly 20-minute red flag that ensued, three cars retired from the race; the remainder of those involved managing to forge on with cosmetic damage.
Dalton paced every lap of the opener, with points leader Matt Taylor and Scott Lancaster trailing at the finish, placing second and third, respectively.
Taylor’s machine burst into flames on the cool down lap after contact from Travis Hurt on the backstretch. Taylor escaped the inferno unscathed, and would start the second feature in Caleb Davis’ No. 43.
“I don’t know what happened,” Taylor said. “I was slowing down on the backstretch, and I got hit…probably the hardest I’ve ever been hit. I’ve got a totaled race car in an incident that happened after the race was over. It’s uncalled for.
“I felt the heat. When you get in these cars, you have all this stuff on for safety, but you can’t get out. I felt the heat, but I’m alright.”
Only fifteen cars made it to the green flag in the finale, and after starting the feature in fifth, it was again Dalton the pack was chasing after.
Kyle Dudley scored his best finish of the season with a runner-up showing, and Lancaster capped the night in third.
Oh, I had a lot of fun, being an old man,” said Dalton of his shockingly dominating performance. “I’m just glad to be back up here ...I actually surprised myself I think.”
NEW RIVER NISSAN MOD-4
Joe White became the first caution of the evening on lap 1 of the New River Nissan 30-lap MOD-4 feature. On the last lap, White became a first-time winner in 2010.
After rebounding from a spin on the first circuit of the contest, White notched his first victory of the season, besting runner-up Bryan Reedy and third place finisher Robert Cox.
“About time another car won a race up here,” said White, who is only the third different winner to take top honors in the division this year. “It was just a matter of time before we got everything together and got our bad luck out of the way. We’re gonna win some more races before the year’s over.”
White passed leader Wayne Corprew with just three circuits remaining to claim the checkers. Corprew, who was riding with 25 pounds of extra weight per the Two Wins in a Row policy, finished fifth.
By virtue of the victory, White moves to within 22 points of Corprew in the standings, tied with Reedy for second.
SOUTHERN PRINTING UCAR
Ricky Howell, Jr. scored his first win of the 2010 Southern Printing UCAR season Saturday night, fending off last week’s winner Doug Lawrence and brother Scott Howell at the finish.
“It means a lot. I’ve missed some races this year,” Howell said. “I haven’t been able to make it out here, but I’m glad to be here, man. It means a lot.”
