Johnson Jr. Collects First Top-10 of the Season at Kern County

Venue: Kevin Harvick’s Kern County Raceway Park

FINISH: 10th

Start: 16th

Laps Led: 0

Eric Johnson Jr. finished his night at Kevin Harvick’s Kern County Raceway Park (KCRP) with a 10th-place finish. With that result, Johnson Jr. scored his first top-10 finish this season with the ARCA Menards Series West.

Excessive brake heat resulted in a flat tire for Johnson Jr. during qualifying, which placed him 16th on the grid out of the 22 entries on Saturday night.

On lap two, Johnson Jr. moved up to 14th position after narrowly escaping an incident on the exit of Turn 4. He was still running in the 14th position until he went a lap down midway through the first 75 laps of the race. The caution flag for the halfway point flew on lap 75 with Johnson Jr. running in 13th position.

Johnson Jr. earned the Lucky Dog free pass to regain his lap and was able to restart in 11th place for the second half. The rookie driver ran consistent laps over the final 50 laps and inherited the 10th position with less than 10 laps remaining. After 150 laps for the MMI Oil Workers 150 presented by the West Coast Stock Car Hall of Fame, he earned his third-career top-10 finish with Bill McAnally Racing and his first this season.

Eric Johnson Jr. Quote:

“Our race pace felt solid in practice but unfortunately, we missed the mark a bit once the track rubbered up and temps dropped. Just part of learning these tracks for the first time. We’ll work to come back stronger for the next one. I’m happy to earn my first top-10 finish this season and hope there is plenty more to come.”