Johnson Jr. Begins Rookie Season with 20th-Place Finish at Phoenix

Venue: Phoenix Raceway

FINISH: 20th

Start: 15th

Laps Led: 0

Eric Johnson Jr. finished in 20th position Friday night at Phoenix Raceway in the General Tire 150, which was cut short due to weather after 115 of 150 scheduled laps. The season opener for the ARCA Menards Series West (AMSW) was Johnson Jr.’s first start at Phoenix and his fifth for Bill McAnally Racing in the No. 19 Pacific Office Automation Chevrolet SS.

The AMSW season opener served as a combination race with the ARCA Menards Series with 43 entries for the night. Johnson Jr. qualified 15th of the 40 starters among a stout entry list.

Johnson Jr. found himself mixed in a cluster of cars inside the top-15 during long green flag runs in the event’s first half. On lap 59, Johnson Jr. was collected in incident while racing for the Lucky Dog position which resulted in minor damage to his Chevrolet.

He would start the second half of the race in 20th position on lap 81 and battled for position to regain his lap. Johnson Jr. would finish his night in 20th position with the race being cut short with after 115 laps due to rain and lightning.

Eric Johnson Jr. Quote:

“It’s not the result we had planned out tonight. We had a great Pacific Office Automation Chevrolet just got stuck in a lot of traffic making it tough to push through. Unfortunately, we got involved in that incident into Turn 3 a little before halfway, but our team was able to make some repairs and still raced to try to get back on the lead lap. I am proud of this team and what we learned today and we’ll get ready for Irwindale.”