Jarit Johnson runs out of fuel running 10th at Iowa Speedway

By Tim Packman: NEWTON, IA (May 17, 2009) – Starting 24th in the NASCAR Camping World East/West Challenge at Iowa Speedway, Jarit Johnson and team played it smart for the first 170 laps of the 200-lap race. Biding their time, pitting at the right time for the right adjustments and tires, great driving by Johnson and some timely cautions played right in to the team’s hands. Working his way through traffic, Johnson would move into the top-20 by lap 40, top-15 by the 85th circuit and top-10 by 128. From there, he would maintain a top-10 running position for the next 45 laps. While chasing down the ninth and eighth place positions, he radioed to the crew the car was blowing up coming out of turn 4. However, while coasting around the track he radioed back in the car was out of gas. The crew leapt into action as Johnson coasted down pit road under green. Already down two laps when he got to his pit stall, the crew put in enough fuel to finish the race and had to push start him off pit road. Just as the car re-fired on lap 177, the caution came out as Johnson left pit road. Two more stops under caution to make sure everything was okay under the hood and car, he restarted 27th on lap 184. The race would go the distance from there with Johnson only able to pick up one on position as three cars were on the same lap to finish 26th. While it was the first time the team finished a NCWE race this year, they wish better results reflected how well they ran. Jarit Johnson, driver: “Man, I can’t believe we ran out of fuel and then the caution comes out just as we get going again. This car was hooked up, I mean hooked up, and running awesome during some parts of the race. I hate that we ran out of fuel when we did, but the good part is we finished this race. “This track (Iowa Speedway) is an awesome place. The racing is good, you can go two and three-wide and I enjoyed learning the track throughout the race. It was a long haul from Mooresville, NC; but it was worth it to run the way we did today. “I can’t thank the crew and Julian (Heitz, crew chief) for the work they did to make all this happen. Carl Moyer and his people from Karl Chevrolet were just great to come on board and help us out like they did; along with the folks from the Settle Inn. “I just wish we had a better result for them, but I like the fact we were running 10th and chasing them down there when we ran out of fuel. Heck, we were even running top-10 times after we ran out of fuel, so I’m ready for the next race at South Boston (Va.) in a few weeks.”