After going unchallenged for most of the Texas Outlaw Nationals' opening night, Jason Johnson would not be denied a complete sweep on Friday at Devil's Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, Texas.
 
The "Rajin' Cajun" clinched a flag-to-flag victory in night one's 25-lap feature by holding off a late push from Brad Sweet that brought him within a few car lengths of Johnson's sprinter. Earlier in the evening, Johnson set the fast time in qualification and won the Craftsman Club Dash from the pole to kick off the two-day affair.

"It's one of these nights you always imagine and you dream of," Johnson said from Victory Lane. "We set quicktime, won a heat, won a dash, won a feature. That's a first for me, so hats off to this crew."



For Johnson, this victory was a welcome relief. The Eunice, LA, native got off to a great start at the beginning of the season, winning opening night at Volusia County Speedway in Barberville, FL, and scoring top fives in three of the next four races. On the second night of the FVP Outlaw Showdown at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track, his momentum stalled.

Johnson failed to score another top five in his next eight attempts. Most of those races were part of the California swing. Once the series began migrating east again, Johnson's results improved. He was 12th at Cocopah Speedway in Somerton, AZ, and then seventh the next night at Arizona Speedway in Queens Creek, AZ.

It seems as though Johnson was saving his best for Texas, however. On Thursday night, he finished fourth in the Gator Bash, and that changed his momentum for the better.

Both Johnson's struggles and relief are illustrated in his position in FloRacing Dirt Track Power Rankings. In the combined rankings, which compare sprint car drivers to dirt late model racers, he jumped from 57th on this past week's chart to 37th currently. On the sprint car list, he improved to 14th from 22nd. 

Still, with a few more laps Brad Sweet might have denied the Johnson his second win of the season. Sweet found a spot on the cushion exiting turn four that allowed him to rocket down the frontstretch with three to go and close the gap. Moving to the bottom on the final corner, he got even more grip and closed on Johnson before settling for second.

Sweet had to come from fifth on the grid and showed patience working through traffic -- perhaps a little too often. 

"It was a fine line. I moved up to the top a little bit," Sweet said. "I think if I would have committed to the bottom and hit it a few more times we would have been a lot closer there at the end."

Logan Schuchart, Joey Saldana, and Kraig Kinser rounded out the top five. 



Meanwhile, further back in the pack NASCAR visitors did not fare well. 

Kasey Kahne fell back two spots from his grid position and narrowly missed the top 10. Still, his 11th-place finish was much better than the 20th he posted in the Gator Bash. 

Tony Stewart finished 22nd after starting 20th, while Christopher Bell took 18th. Bell's night started promisingly enough in third, but a spin (at the 1:15 mark of the highlight reel) dropped him to the back. 

Donny Schatz simply drove to the back. He jumped the cushion on the opening lap from his 10th position on the grid and never fully recovered. He finished 16th.

Night two of the Texas Outlaws Nationals takes place Saturday, April 15.

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