BRANDON, S.D. — Kaleb Johnson, Brady Donnohue and Mike Chaney were triumphant on Sunday evening at Huset’s Speedway, which hosted Night 1 of the Memorial Day Challenge.
A season-high 106 entrants – the most at the track since May 26, 2024 – encompassed the three divisions. The Memorial Day Challenge wraps up on Monday with another complete show.
Sunday marked the third straight weekend Johnson scored a Cressman Sanitation 410 Outlaw Sprint Cars triumph. He’s the first driver since Jody Rosenboom in 2008 to garner three straight wins to start a season in any division at Huset’s Speedway, according to results on the track website.
“I thought two was hard enough there’s no way I’m going to get a third one,” Johnson said. “It’s a dream to drive. This thing is so friggin’ fast I just get to sit back in the seat and enjoy every second of it. At the end I didn’t want those cautions, but it kind of saved me. It gave me clean air. I’m just having a blast and hopefully we can keep it up.”
Kerry Madsen led for the first 11 laps before Johnson pulled even on the bottom lane in turns one and two. The duo drag raced down the backstretch with Johnson executing a slide job into turns three and four to capture the top spot.
Three cautions occurred in the final nine laps, including one on the last lap to set up a green-white-checkered restart. That didn’t faze Johnson, who powered away on the restart to win by 1.573 seconds.
Madsen’s runner-up result was his season-best outing at the dirt oval.
“I wasn’t concerned when we got passed,” he said. “I made a mistake with the lapper. I was looking forward to battling back. Then the race got put into short runs after that.”
Landon Crawley advanced from eighth to third place.
“We were pretty good,” he said. “You had to make the most out of all your restarts. I would have liked to start the race further up to see how we could have done, but it is what it is. We’ll come back tomorrow and see what we can do.”
Mark Dobmeier placed fourth and Jy Corbett rounded out the top five.
Donnohue made a late-race pass in traffic to win the 20-lap Heser Auto & Detailing RaceSaver Sprint Car Series main event, which showcased four different leaders.
Andrew Sullivan led the first two laps with Dylan Waxdahl taking over the top spot on Lap 3. Lee Goos Jr. used the top groove to move forward, powering into the lead on Lap 8. Donnohue advanced into second place and closed on Goos Jr. once he hit traffic near the midpoint of the race.
Donnohue pulled even for the lead twice before he completed the winning move on Lap 18 en route to winning by 0.609 seconds.
“That was really my kind of track,” he said. “We raced every other pretty clear there for the most part. This one is awesome.”
Goos Jr. finished second with Sullivan, Waxdahl and Tye Wilke rounding out the top five, respectively.
Chaney led all but one lap of the Nordstrom’s Automotive Late Model Street Stocks main event.
Chaney was consistent on the bottom groove, but a late caution set up a green-white-checkered restart. Chaney pushed up the track in turn three coming to the white flag. That allowed Garet DeBoer, who had charged from ninth to second place, to take the lead. A caution came out as DeBoer was driving down the backstretch, setting up another green-white-checkered restart.
This time it was DeBoer who pushed up the track, moving off the preferred bottom lane in turn two. Chaney pounced and then held off a last-ditch attempt on the final lap to win by 0.526 seconds.
Chris Ellingson passed DeBoer for the runner-up position on the final lap. Brett Martin was fourth and Aaron Foote hustled from 17th to fifth.
