EL PASO, LAS CRUCES NEXT FOR SOUTHWEST SPRINTS;

JOHNSON LOGS #8 AT ARIZONA SPEEDWAY;

The American Southwest explodes with exciting Sprint car action this weekend when the USAC Southwest Sprint cars tackle tracks in El Paso, Texas and Las Cruces, N.M.

Friday’s race is at El Paso Speedway Park and Saturday’s race is at Southern New Mexico Speedway. Rick Ziehl won the only previous USAC Sprint race in New Mexico, at Las Cruces in 2002. The El Paso race will be USAC’s first there. Mike Martin won the last USAC Sprint race in Texas at Lubbock in 2003.

R.J. Johnson of Phoenix, Ariz. logged his eighth USAC Arizona feature victory (seventh of the year) in Saturday night’s 30-lap USAC Southwest Sprint race at Arizona Speedway in Queen Creek. That leaves him just one short of Charles Davis Jr. in the all-time Arizona USAC lead. He led all 30 laps in his Michaels entry to beat Josh Pelkey, Davis, Mike Martin and Chris Bonneau. Johnson led all 30 laps.