Opipari secures title; Ash’s run stalls

While Mario Opipari was celebrating his first championship Saturday night in the pits of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring, Dustin Ash was delaying the one for his team.

Opipari finished third in the Chargers division of the NASCAR All-American Series, but it was enough to lock up the title with only one race remaining.

Ash, however, not only has two races remaining but a broken engine early in the 40-lap Super Late Models feature slowed his run toward a championship in the premier division of the series.

With Ash faltering to a 13th-place finish after completing only 27 laps, Justin Johnson’s runner-up to winner Taylor Barton enabled Johnson to cut Ash’s points lead unofficially from 50 to 32 points.

Johnson received 30 for being second in the field of 16 cars while Ash picked up eight in the race, which Barton won by 1.3 seconds.

“It helped,” Johnson said of the big points swing. “(Ash) was always behind me. I just tried to win the race. That’s what we always do.”

Johnson, 22, lost last year’s championship to Scott Gafforini in the last lap of the final race after leading the standings to start that finale.

He acknowledges he’s the chaser this year but believes his team is getting closer to returning to the form that led him to victory in five of this year’s first seven races.

Ash’s mechanical failure ended his four-race win streak.

Opipari, a former professional baseball player, followed teammates Phil Goodwin and Darren Rollins across the finish line.

Goodwin won his second consecutive race, which gives the team 10 victories in 15 races.

“It’s all about my teammates and friends who help us work on these cars that get them to the track each week,” said Opipari, who has won four times.”

Other race winners were Wayne Morris Jr., IMCA Modifieds; Jeremiah Wagner, Legends Cars; Charlie Wahl, Thunder Roadsters; and Jonathan Eakin and Brianna Holley, Bandoleros.

Bullring racer Alex Haase of North Las Vegas finished eighth Saturday night in the NASCAR Grand National West series race at Altamont Motorsports Park in Tracy, Calif.

* LVMS DRAGSTRIP — Winners from Saturday night’s Jerry’s Nugget Championship Drag Racing Series bracket racing event at the LVMS dragstrip were: Charlie Boyd (Super Pro); David Troffer (Pro); Ron Thorson (Sportsman); Jay Matthews (Motorcycle); and Justin King (High School).

* NASCAR TRUCKS — A free autograph session is set for 7-8 p.m. Friday at the Stratosphere for top drivers entered in the Saturday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at the LVMS superspeedway.

Among those scheduled to attend are Ken Schrader, Todd Bodine, Ted Musgrave, Kenny Wallace, Jacques Villeneuve, Mike Bliss, Stacy Compton, Scott Lynch, and Dennis Setzer.