ELKO, Minn. – Domination.
No other word can better describe the clinic put on by Jason Krohn Friday night.
The 38-year-old from Slayton dominated the competition to score his second victory in as many nights as the USMTS Casey’s General Stores National Tour invaded the Elko Speedway where the historic asphalt track has been transformed into a dirt gridiron for the 2nd Annual AMSOIL Dirt Nationals.
A few miles north of Elko on Thursday night, Krohn snapped a year-long winless drought at the North Central Speedway in Brainerd … and he hasn’t slowed down yet.
Krohn set the tone early on when he came from the fourth starting spot to win his heat race after chasing down Marshalltown, Iowa’s Ryan Gustin. His effort earned him the AFCO Pole Award for scroing the most passing points during qualifying action, then redrew the pole position for the 35-lap WIX Filters “A” Main.
The main event got off to a ragged start with the yellow flag waving on the first lap for debris on the racing surface. On the restart, another caution was quickly displayed as Craig Scott lost control of his Modified which resulted in a metal-mashing melee that ended the night for Ryan Ruter, Curt Myers, Tom Paulson and himself.
When the green flag was unfurled for the third time, Krohn jumped out to lead the first lap and that was as close as anybody got during the next 34 laps of caution-free action.
Krohn crossed the finish line 3.460 seconds ahead of Jon Tesch of Watertown, S.D., to pocket his second $2,000 paycheck in as many days.
Corey Dripps of Waterloo, Iowa, had a third-place showing while fourth went to Dereck Ramirez of Woodward, Okla., and fifth to Fertile, Iowa’s Kelly Shryock, who broke his own career-long victory dry spell in last year’s Friday night opener at Elko.
Gustin wound up sixth, Al Hejna of Clear Lake, Iowa, scored a seventh-place finish, Tim Donlinger of Rochester came from 13th to earn the eighth spot, Mike Gregg of Redwood Falls nabbed ninth and Blooming Prairie’s Tommy Myer completed the top-10.
The points battle in the Yeager Machine Upper Midwest Region got even tighter Friday night. Gustin continues to be the leader, but Shryock gained ground and now trails Gustin by just 21 points (810 to 789). Krohn, meanwhile, is just one marker behind Shryock while Myer dropped to fourth – four points behind Krohn. Donlinger is fifth with 736 points, followed by Tesch (717), Steve Wetzstein (647), Zack VanderBeek (638), Ramirez (618) and Doug Hillson (605).
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