Weddell and Van Patten enjoy sweeps on Jeep Night, while calamity strikes for Johnson and Theriault

So far, it has been hard to deny that Chase Johnson is the main character in Dominion

Raceway’s Division I America Racer Late Model Division. He entered Jeep Night at the Races

in second place in the Division I points nationally and atop the track points standings at DR with nine wins this season.

The first race weekend in July added a new chapter in his story: one of adversity.

While the limelight strayed from Johnson on the night, it was Conner Weddell who seized the

opportunity and reestablished himself as part of the conversation.

Weddell returned to the High-Banked Ring of Fire after missing the last race weekend for a

family wedding and had his best Saturday yet. In the first of the Twin 50s, Weddell obtained the

lead in just two laps and ran away in a race that stayed green. Johnson was able to drive up to

second but he was still two seconds behind the speedy Weddell.

Weddell’s triumph would extend into race two, while Johnson’s promising evening would end

before the race began. At the start of the second race, Chris Donnelly’s car stacked up the field

behind him. Mike Ganoe’s car would barrel into Donnelly, and Johnson would hit Ganoe. Caught in the accordion effect, Johnson suffered severe front end damage and would go several laps down while his team repaired the car in an attempt to salvage the night.

Chase’s father, Eddie was also in an ARLM for the evening and he would follow Chase to the

pits to lead the effort to repair the car.

“It’s not much fun to be back there and see him get torn up and know he is in the middle of it.

You get restarts and sometimes those things happen; that is part of racing,” said Eddie Johnson.

“We pulled everything off and put a different radiator in it to see if we could go out there and get a few track points, so we wouldn't fall so far. We didn't want to give up.”

Conner Weddell passed Reid Murphy for 5th, JD Eversole for 4th, and Chris Donnelly for 3rd.

While Weddell was carving through the field with relative ease, his journey to the front got easier when Darren Krantz Jr. spun Aaron Donnelly battling for the lead. Both cars were sent to the rear for their involvement in the accident.

C-Weed would lead the restart and survive another caution for his second win of the night and

his third of the season.

“We definitely needed it,” said Weddell. “It's a good points night nationally. We weren't here last week because my brother got married. It was awesome, but it was a little different not being at the race track.”

“The thing was on the money, we were on rails,” said Weddell. “I don’t think anybody had

anything for us tonight. I hope it's like that every night here on out.”

Weddell’s sweep wasn’t the only domination on the night, as Eli Van Patten was able to sweep

the Twin 15s for the INEX Bandoleros. Van Patten was able to endure pressure from Tuggie

Case, Landon Burbage, and James Manolo in both efforts.

“It was exciting. There was a lot of pressure from everyone else,” said Van Patten. “I have never

been able to sweep before.”

Charlie Beals entered the night with four wins and he would win his fifth in what was the most

controversial finish of the night. Petr Theriault led the early stages of the race after passing

Miles Murray. Theriault, Murray, and Beals would then break away and have a three car battle

for the lead.

Beals passed Murray for second and then capitalized when Theriault struggled navigating past

a lap car. Beals and Theriault would battle for the last five laps, but it came to a head on the last

lap.

After the white flag, Theriault gave a shove to Beals heading onto Turn 1 to regain the lead.

Beals recovered and had the last laugh as he returned the contact in Turn 4 to steal back the

lead and claim the win.

“You get treated how you wanna be treated,” said a fiery Beals in Bugsy Auto Repair Victory

Lane. “He wanted to ship me in Turn 1, so I sent him in Turn 4 there.”

In the Dominion Stock race Gary Burke enjoyed an emotional return to Victory Lane.

“We haven’t had a win since 2020 when we won the championship,” said Burke. “I lost my wife

and mom to cancer. My mom wouldn’t let me stop doing this; she loved it more than I did. I took

some time off, but I am back.”

Keith Reilly won the Mini Stocks race beating his son, Joe, and Dan Bentley.

The Virginia Vintage Racers returned to DR and Eddie Johnson led a few laps before losing the

lead to Tyler Staton who would win the race in the modified class, while Shawn Otey would win

in the sportsman class.

Oval racing at DR returns on July 26, when America Racers, VA Modifieds, UCars, 4-Cyl Any

Cars, and Mini Cups will be on track. Fans can challenge their friends to a single lap around dominion in their own car for the highly anticipated return of "spectator drags". https://www.dominionraceway.com/event-details/saturday-night-nascar-racing-9