Wayne Johnson hits the jackpot at the Casey’s General Store Midwest Fall Brawl III

Wayne Johnson hits the jackpot at the Casey’s General Store Midwest Fall Brawl III

For the second year in a row, a sprint car driver left I-80 Speedway and the Midwest Fall Brawl with a big bonus. Last year it was Jack Dover who left with over $27,000. This year Texas native Wayne Johnson swept both features of the Casey’s General Store Midwest Fall Brawl III and left I-80 with $61,150, the biggest payout in ASCS history.

Johnson’s bonanza was largely in part do to the efforts of a number of gracious sponsors who contributed to make the Midwest Fall Brawl III such a great event. First, thanks must go out to Phil Durst of Durst Motorsports and Shawn Dice of HotRod Paintless Dent Repair who stepped and made the $50,000 Double Down Back-2-Back Challenge possible. Just for good measure Durst pitched in an extra $1,000 to Johnson’s winnings.

Others who stepped up to the plate included Don Long of Searsboro Telephone for the $1,000 a night Hard Charger Award, Tracy Ledger of Electrical Systems, Inc for the $300 per night Podium Draw, Kevin DeBerg of DeBerg Concrete for the $250 per night “Fastest Lap” and Leon Zeitner of Zeitner & Sons Trucking for the “First Car Out of the A Feature Hard Luck Award.”

In addition, Hardcore Sprint Car fans posted $5,500 in lap money and then added $900 more for the Mike Avilla Racer Appreciation Award for the first non-qualifiers out of the B feature. Finally, special thanks goes out to Casey’s General Stores for being the event sponsor.

As for Johnson, he had a lot of folks to thank. “I could go on and on about the people who help us on this thing,” Johnson said. “There are probably 15 people who own parts on this thing—but I have to thank more than anbody my wife, and my little girl, who’s going to be seven on Friday, that doesn’t get to see her daddy that much because we travel so much.”

A special thanks also goes out to all the track personnel and others who helped the staff of I-80 Speedway overcome a three hour downpour early Saturday morning. Due to their tireless work, the event may of started a bit late but was completed as scheduled preventing the need to use Sunday as a raindate.