Inside Line Promotions – KNOXVILLE, Iowa (June 22, 2020) – Kaleb Johnson continues to show improvement at Knoxville Raceway as he scored his first top-10 result in a 360ci sprint car at the track on Saturday night.
“Our night went pretty well,” said Johnson, who began the evening by qualifying seventh quickest out of 33 drivers. “It definitely helped that we stepped up our qualifying a bit. It also helped that we went out a littler earlier.”
Johnson’s qualifying effort placed him in the fifth starting spot in his heat race.
“The heat race was the one time on the track during the night that was a little disappointing,” he said. “We dropped back a spot and finished sixth. But we still got a decent starting spot in the feature due to our qualifying time.”
Johnson lined up in the 11th starting spot in the 24-car A Main field.
“I was a little too aggressive the first couple of laps and missed the bottom a couple of times,” he said. “But after that I was able to get into a rhythm and run the bottom pretty well. I was able to pick off a couple of cars and was happy to finish 10th.
“We had actually gotten up to ninth at the white flag when there was a red. After the restart I lost a spot when the car in front of me got crossed up a bit. I had to get on the brakes and hit the infield berm. The good thing was that I only lost one spot.”
The prior evening at Jackson Motorplex in Jackson, Minn., didn’t go as well for Johnson as a mechanical problem at the beginning of the night put him in a hole that was difficult to overcome.
“The car was cutting out a lot in hot laps,” he said. “We changed a few things, but when we pushed off for qualifying it wouldn’t fire. We figured out it was the fuel pump and got it changed, but we were in the first heat race and we weren’t able to have it ready in time. That put us starting last in the (13-car) B Main. We had to guess at the setup since we didn’t run the heat race. We were able to pass a few cars, but the race went non-stop and we finished a couple of spots from the final transfer in sixth.”
Johnson will take this weekend off before returning to Knoxville Raceway for a doubleheader on July 3-4.
“We’re certainly looking forward to returning to Knoxville since we’ve been improving there,” he said. “Our goal now is to put together a complete night there with good runs in qualifying, the heat race and the feature.”
QUICK RESULTS –
June 19 – Jackson Motorplex in Jackson, Minn. – Qualifying: No Time; Heat race: DNS (9); B Main: 13 (6).
June 20 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – Qualifying: 7; Heat race: 6 (5); Feature: 10 (11).
SEASON STATS –
4 races, 0 wins, 1 top five, 2 top 10s, 3 top 15s, 3 top 20s
UP NEXT –
July 3-4 at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa
MEDIA LINKS –
Website: http://www.kalebjohnsonracing.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Kaleb___
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Snyder Tree Service
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“It’s great to have Alec supporting us again this year,” Johnson said. “It’s been exciting to watch his business grow. We appreciate his help.”
Johnson would also like to thank Merle Johnson Farm Toys, GRP Motorsports, Oddson Underground, JF Capital, State Bank of Fairmont, Sea Foam, Schaeffer’s Oil, Hepfner Racing Products, DeBerg Concrete, Big Al’s Diecasts, The Ron Weber Team, DeBerg Flooring, Dave’s Lawncare, Guaranteed Rate – Mike Brudigan Home Loans, Triple M Trucking, Last Deck and Marthaler Dodge for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
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