What does winning the Slinger Nationals mean to Casey Johnson? In a word, everything.
“I’m not gonna lie. There was a lot of emotion for me when I crossed that line,” Johnson said Tuesday night after winning the 47th edition of the super late model special at Slinger Speedway.”
I’m not doing this for that much longer. Who knows how much longer? But I didn’t want to quit without having this one in my hand.”
Johnson was in the right place when the 200-lap Nationals turned into six laps of chaos on an oppressively hot night at the high-banked Wisconsin quarter-mile.
First Ty Majeski and Gabe Sommers tangled twice in a full-lap battle for the lead after the four-time and defending champion Majeski had seemed set to repeat. Sommers was done; Majeski was involved in one more tussle and was done three laps short of the finish.
Then Richard Childress Racing development driver Carson Brown — who won the ASA STARS National Tour race at Slinger in June — got into it with Wisconsin veteran Andrew Morrissey. Their first restart was waved off, and they made contact when they tried again, first at the flag stand and then on the back stretch, where Morrissey rode over the left rear of Brown’s car.
“I’m not surprised by anything here,” Johnson said. “I’ve done this so many times; when you get restarts with 10, 15 to go, you grip that wheel pretty tight, ’cause things are gonna fly.”
Brown was still in the race, the lead even, albeit with bodywork flapping. But when he chose the inside lane for the restart against Johnson after 196 laps, Johnson instantly saw a path to victory lane open up.
“I thought if the 81 took the highline, it was gonna be a struggle to get by them,” Johnson said. “We were a little tight on the bottom, and I think he has great horsepower, so I thought he’d be able to roll me up high, but when he gave me the high side, I was pretty much licking my chops. I knew we had a very good shot at winning that race.”
He got a good jump, got clear and finished six-tenths of a second ahead of Austin Nason with Brown third, last-chance race winner Jesse Bernhagen fourth and perennial Nationals top-five finisher Derek Thorn fifth again, last on the lead lap. Just seven cars finished.
“We had a decent car,” Johnson said. “We could run top-10 all day, and I knew if I just kept my nose in there, kept the car clean, that we could do something at the end.
“I’ve been in the race so many times, and I’ve seen it won by the guy that was not supposed to win the race. And I’m not gonna lie, I wasn’t that guy today. I should not have won this race.”
First-half leaders Derek Kraus (laps 1-59) and Luke Fenhaus (36 laps) and NASCAR Cup Series driver Carson Hocevar was among the early exits due to mechanical issues, and Derek Kraus and Luke Fenhaus, who combined to lead 95 laps also failed to finish. Johnson earned $20,000 in prize money and also took his share of bonus money posted for leading laps, about $3,000 of the $20,000-plus that was raised in various denominations.
While the money will come in handy to a hard-core weekend warrior, the win had deeper meaning too. Johnson lost more than a season of racing due to lingering concussion symptoms and even a year ago wasn’t at full strength. And now he has a new top line on his racing resume and beat a highly regarded 18-year-old NASCAR prospect to get it.
“I could feel it when I crossed the line, how special this one was,” Johnson said. “It hits you the second it’s over, It’s like, man, what did we just do? This is definitely the biggest one of my career.”
