Weekly Notebook presented by FK Rod Ends

Notes: Longtime Illini Crate racer enjoys best season

August 13, 2026, 8:13 am

By Todd Turner

DirtonDirt managing editor

Braden Johnson (Rocky Ragusa)

Enjoying his best Crate Late Model season, Braden Johnson of Taylorville, Ill., is gratified to watch so many things fall into place in his 15th year in the division.

"I think this has been our turning point season,” said the 27-year-old Johnson, DIRTcar’s Crate Late Model points leader with 10 victories in 15 starts overall.

Johnson’s talent and experience, combined with a winning car and a vastly improved powerplant, has blended with his longstanding crew to send him to victory lane more often than not.

"The biggest thing is just really everything came together at once. I think my experience is finally showing. I've been in it for a while. And, you know, it just becomes second nature if you do it for 15 years, right?” Johnson said. “I have a great crew and I have some good sponsors that come together and I have a lot of laps at these tracks we've been going to, so everything is just kind of working out for us.”

Racing has been a life-long pursuit for Johnson, who as a boy topped future NASCAR and IndyCar drivers to capture an International Kart Foundational Regional 7 championship in California.

"Basically my parents poured everything they had every week living paycheck to paycheck just so I could go racing,” he said.

After that it was dirt racing with a brief stint in the Kid Modz division and, by 12, into Crate Late Models when he was barely “as tall as the roof of the race car” while grabbing his first victories at 14 in Flora, Ill., and Brownstown, Ill.

A number of winless seasons ensued as he raced with lesser equipment while splitting his time between high school football and other life happenings, and when the Covid-19 pandemic came along in 2020, he decided to sell his car and start crewing for fellow Illinois standout Jose Parga.

Inspired by Parga’s success to race again — and buoyed by $13,700 in real earnings from virtual iRacing during the hiatus — Johnson returned to action six years ago and quickly returned to winning, buying a Rocket Chassis and making the most of the suspension package Parga used in DIRTcar championship seasons.

From 2021-25, Johnson averaged nearly four feature victories per season, finishing third in DIRTcar points during a seven-victory campaign in 2022 and capturing the 2023 Midwest Big 10 Crate Late Model title. He added multiple track titles at Lincoln (Ill.) Speedway and Macon (Ill.) Speedway, his favorite track while growing up in nearby Moweaqua.

"I've grew up watching (at Macon), getting hit in the head with dirt clods there,” Johnson said. “So I've always wanted to be one of the guys that was able to go out there and bang off the wall, right? So whenever you get your chance, you gotta make it the best of it.”

Johnson's success with a team he built from the ground up with his stepfather and career-long crew chief Michael Thompson — “the rock of the whole racing program,” Johnson said — has culminated with his winningest season in 2026, including a stretch of five victories in a row at Farmer City (Ill.) Raceway, a track where he’d never previously won.

"I've raced Farmer City for a long time and I finally got over the hump,” Johnson said. "It's always been like my Kryptonite. I don't know how many times I've run second there, but it's a lot.”

Johnson, who operates Precision Lawn Care & Maintenance, said things have never gone more smoothly than in 2026.

“It was just me and Michael for a while and we'd be just thrashing to try to get the car out there and maybe we might miss a tire pressure, we might miss a bolt here or something like that,” Johnson said. “And we've just cleaned all that up, and not to toot our own horn, but nothing's fell off the race car in three years. We have not had a bolt come off the race car, no mechanical failure in three years. I've had the same front bumper on the race car for four years. We literally changed it the other day because it was so rusty, it was like getting paper thin.”

He’s got four seasons on a trusty Longhorn Chassis that was once a backup for Jonathan Davenport’s Double L Motorsports team, and an offseason overhaul of his Crate engine by Travis Kern with a new set of heads, rings and pistons provided 100 more horsepower and speed he’d been missing.

"I always try to stay simple, and I think that's helped us this year,” Johnson said. “We've really not worked on the car a ton as far as like speedwise. We got it pretty balanced and then just kinda go from there. Make sure it's drivable. We've found success doing that.

"I've done my fair share of struggling for sure,” said Johnson, who has two degrees from Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield. “That’s why I'm just humbled to be finally winning. We felt like we've always should have, but you know how racing is, everyone feels like they should win. That's why they show up, right?”

Now he’s in prime position to capture the DIRTcar title that would reward him with another powerplant and potentially $15,000 in cash earnings between overall and regional titles.

“If we can try to win enough races or maybe win that championship,” Johnson said. “Then it'll pay to build another race car next year. And that's a huge deal in our department.”

And after that? Ideally an eventual upgrade to Super Late Model racing so Johnson can follow the tire tracks of his boyhood hero, Hall of Fame driver Shannon Babb, Macon’s favorite son.

Finances are a barrier for Johnson, who says his team is so low-budget that "I don’t have a backup shock,” but he’d dearly like to reach the Super Late Model ranks.

“My future goal for sure is I'd love to drive a Super Late Model for someone,” said Johnson, whose mowing business covers 150 properties and is on the verge of expanding to multiple crews and more commercial business. “I truly think I've could be able to. I've had a ton of experience and, I know my way around it. I don't just hop in the race car and drive. I do all the shockwork and all the behind the scenes stuff. So I feel like I'm cut out for it.

“If I mowed 250 yards a week, I may already have a Super, but it's just what my budget allows and we're happy with it. And like I said, we're tickled pink to even be winning, man. We've struggled for a lot of years … so we're just thankful to be able to win and show what we've always thought we were capable of.”

Weekly highlights

• Polesitter Rylee Knoll of Lake, Mich., won by more than a half-track margin Aug. 8 at Merritt Speedway in Lake City, Mich., for a $2,500 Super Late Model payday.

• Leading all 40 laps, Corey Posey earned a $3,000 victory in the 602 Crate Late Model division Aug. 8 at Thunderhill Raceway in Summertown, Tenn.

• Ricky Weiss of Headingley, Manitoba, swept Aug. 7-8 Late Model features at Dead Horse Creek Speedway in Morden, Manitoba. The track hosts a Northern Late Model Racing Association event on Aug. 29.

• Scoring his first Oakshade Raceway victory of the season on Aug. 8, Casey Noonan of Sylvania, Ohio, extended his Super Late Model division points lead over runner-up Steve Kester at the Wauseon, Ohio, oval.

First things first

Recent first-time occurrences at the dirt track:

• Winning Aug. 7 at Highway 39 Speedway in Denison, Iowa, Logan Cloudt of Blair, Neb., notched his first Late Model victory.

• Winning his first feature at 65 years old, Bill Hedgpath of Chester, S.C., captured Aug. 8’s Limited Late Model main event at Lancaster (S.C.) Motor Speedway with his son Thomas Hedgpath and longtime teammate Mike Huey finishing second and third.

Weekly news briefs

• Tri-City Raceway Park in Franklin, Pa., has added a $3,000-to-win Super Late Model special on Aug. 21.

• Amid a stormy week through the Midwest, 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa, had a fence knocked down outside turn four and Midway Speedway in Crooksville, Ohio, sustained high water amid area flooding.

• The Hall of Fame Class of 2026 at Hendry County Motorsports Park in Clewiston, Fla., has been announced: Larry Thacker Jr., David McCormack, Tim Powers, Jesse Brown and Tommy Hill. The 2027 induction ceremony date will be announced later.

• Pine Ridge Speedway owner Charles Moudy announced plans for a complete resurfacing of the track during the offseason in preparation for 2027 at the Guntown, Miss., oval. “I’ve been looking for this kind of clay since the day I opened Pine Ridge. Finding the right stuff has been like looking for a needle in a haystack,” Moudy wrote on the track’s Facebook page, “but we FINALLY found it!.” The track hosts two divisions of Crate Late Models drawing 31 drivers in 604 Crate events and 50 drivers in 602 Crate events this season.

• Western Kentucky Speedway in Nebo, Ky., added Crate Late Models to the Aug. 15 race program.

• Longtime engine builder Vince Strobl of Catawba, Wis., died July 26 at the age of 89. He operated Vince’s Speed Shop and built powerplants for racers in in northern Wisconsin and Michigan.

• Spoon River Speedway in Banner, Ill., will run a $3,000-to-win Super Late Model program as part of Sept. 6’s Plow Boy Nationals.

Weekly points

DIRTcar (Supers): Jason Feger of Bloomington, Ill., has 2,213 points to lead Tanner English (2,180) and Mike Spatola (1,900).

IMCA (Limiteds): Zach Zeitner of Bellevue, Neb., has 785 points to lead Tommy Elston (776) and Drew Baker (758).

WISSOTA (Limiteds): Tyler Peterson of Hickson, N.D., has 1,509 points to lead Shane Sabraski (1,470) and Kevin Burdick (1,299).

American All-Stars (Crates): Brandon Fouts of Kite, Ky., has 590 points to lead Logan Walls (546) and Dalton Brown (452).

Crate Racin’ USA (602 Crates): Chace Pennington of Steens, Miss., has 605 points to lead Landon Mathews (585) and Spencer Moore (577).

Crate Racin’ USA (604 Crates): Brady Walton of Greenwell Springs, La., has 589 points to lead Waylon Vining (585) and Shannon Lee (582).

DIRTcar (Crates): Braden Johnson of Taylorville, Ill., has 874 points to lead Chase Wilson (792) and Hudson Dick (708).

Gen X (Crates): Blake Swenson of Watertown, S.D., has 1,152 points to lead Trevor Walsh (1,144) and Parker Gilbertson (1,101).

RUSH (Crates): Jeremy Wonderling of Wellsville, N.Y., has 1,329 points to lead Devin Brannon (1,320) and Davin Kaiser (1,300).

Ultimate (Crates): T.J. Salango of Glen Daniel, W.Va., has 289 points to lead T.J. Hicks (249) and Brandon Adkins (233).

USRA (Crates): Lucas Peterson of Stockholm, Wis., has 5,156 points to lead Jason McFadden (5,120) and Josh Wahlstrom (3,854).

Upcoming weekly specials

Among non-touring and independent special events coming up for Late Models at dirt tracks around the country:

Fairbury (Ill.) Speedway (Aug. 13): An added FALS Cup event amid rainouts pays $2,500-to-win for the Super Late Model division (the track announced Thursday morning that the event rained out).

Elkins Speedway, Kerens, W.Va. (Aug. 14): The Jim Stout Memorial pays $3,737-to-win for Super Late Models with bonuses for fast time, dash victory and hard charger.

Gallatin Speedway, Belgrade, Mont. (Aug. 14): The Kelly Hample Memorial includes a 36-lap feature for WISSOTA-sanctioned Late Models; no purse information was announced.

Pine Ridge Speedway, Guntown, Miss. (Aug 14-15): The doubleheader weekend includes $1,000- and $2,000-to-win events for the 604 Crate Late Model division.

Bradford Speedway, Rew, Pa. (Aug. 15): The track shifts to Saturday for the week with a $10,000-to-win Jack “Boo” Baker Memorial for Super Late Models and $4,000-to-win Crate Late Model special.

Crystal (Mich.) Motor Speedway (Aug. 15): The Ron Flinn 52 pays $3,552-to-win for the Super Late Model division with a pro stock special also on the card.

Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway (Aug. 15): The Carey Ruwe Memorial pays $5,000-to-win for the Crate Late Model division.

Hagerstown (Md.) Speedway (Aug. 15): Limited Late Models chase a $3,500-to-win purse with two other divisions on the card.

Tyler County Speedway, Middlebourne, W.Va. (Aug. 15): The Bud Weigle Memorial pays $2,000-to-win for the Super Late Model division with double points on the line.

Lafayette County Speedway, Darlington, Wis. (Aug. 19): Limited Late Models are among divisions for the Grant County Fair race.

Editor's note: Updates with Fairbury rainout.