STAFFORD – With victories on the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour since 2022, Jake Johnson has cemented his place as one of the top Modified drivers in the Northeast in recent years.
As a student of the game though, Johnson knew there was a place he needed to celebrate to truly cement his stature in Modified racing circles.
Wednesday he filled that resume slot in getting his first victory at Stafford Speedway.
Johnson checked out from the field over the closing stages to win the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series GAF Roofing Modified Masters Wednesday at Stafford Speedway.
“It’s definitely good,” Johnson said. “It’s kind of like a burden off the resume in a sense. Every great Modified driver there ever was pretty much has won here and had great success here. To finally get the first one, kind of like a relief off my shoulders.”
It was the fifth career Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series victory for Johnson, of Rehoboth, Mass. He was making his 21st career series start Wednesday. He joined Ron Silk as the only two-time series winner in 2025. Johnson also won the Monaco Modified event at White Mountain Motorsports Park on June 8.
“The crew did a great job,” Johnson said. “After that pit stop the balance in the car was tremendous and we were able to get a little bit of a breakaway. And you just start building on that lead. It seemed like the longer we went the better our car stayed.”
Ronnie Williams of Lebanon was second and Chase Dowling of Bethlehem third. NASCAR Cup Series regular and former Stafford Speedway champion Ryan Preece was fourth.
Despite Johnson cruising over the late stages, the victory wasn’t without some fiery drama early.
On lap seven race leader Preece came off of turn four with Johnson on his bumper. Contact between the two got Preece scraping into the frontstretch wall, allowing Johnson to get by him for the lead down the frontstretch. In turns one and two Preece got into the back of Johnson, sending him sliding through the grass off of turn two. At the same time caution flew for a frontstretch wreck at the back of the field.
Under caution Johnson passed Goodale and McKennedy down the backstretch and then hit Preece’s car as they came through through turn four. The caution left Preece and Johnson on the front row for the ensuing restart.
“I’m not going to lie, I misjudged right about at the start/finish line,, Johnson said. “Just clipped him. Then he dumped me. Lucky for myself I was able to get him back and prove a point today. Happy to get the win here.”
Said Preece: “I ended it pretty quickly. I thought I was pretty over it. I was, at that point, riding. And then all of the sudden I was in the fence. So I was pretty ticked off in the moment.”
By lap 20 Preece had opened about a third of a second gap over Johnson in second with Goodale just under a second off the lead in third.
Preece’s advantage over Johnson was up to just under a second on lap 29 with Goodale a second and a half off the lead in third.
Caution flew on lap 40 for a turn four wreck involving 15th place Joey Cipriano and 16th place Teddy Hodgdon in turn four.
Under caution the entire field found their way to pit road. Ronnie Williams, who came into the pits in fifth, won the race off of pit road. Goodale was second out of the pits, Johnson was third and McKennedy fourth. Preece fell to fifth. Silk, who came into the pits in 11th, went off pit road in sixth.
Dana DiMatteo, who did not pit, assumed the lead for the lap 40 restart with Williams restarting on the outside of the front row.
Williams used the outside lane to get by DiMatteo for the lead off of turn two. Johnson and Goodale split DiMatteo into turn three to take over second and third.
On lap 41 Johnson made a diving move under Williams into turn three to take over the top spot. On lap 43 Goodale found the lane by Williams for second place. Behind the leaders, Silk was in fourth, Chase Dowling in fifth and Preece in sixth.
Williams got under Goodale through turn four on lap 47 to go back to second. By then Johnson had opened a half second lead on the field.
By lap 55. Williams had erased Johnson’s lead, but caution was back out for a turn one wreck on the next lap involving David Arute and Noah Korner.
Johnson controlled out front on the restart with Silk moving to third, but it was all negated for another caution. Caution flew when Andy Jankowiak spun off of turn four, collecting Tyler Chapman, Mike Flynn, Marcello Rufrano, Austin Beers and Dylan Izzo. Under caution 10th place running McKennedy, who came into the event as the series points leader, went to pit road for adjustments.
Johnson got the jump on the restart with Goodale slotting into second. On lap 57 Preece got by Silk to move into fifth.
By lap 60 Johnson had opened up a half second lead over second place Goodale. On lap 63 Williams used a diving move into turn three to go by Goodale for second. Out front Johnson was leaving the field in his wake with a 1.1 second lead over Williams on lap 65.
Chase Dowling got by Goodale for third on lap 65 and Preece followed by to fourth on lap 66.
“It was just really really tough [to pass],” Preece said. “You’d try to set them up high, you just couldn’t make the roll speed through the center to cross back under them. And if you tried to force the issue you could potentially wreck each other, so it wasn’t worth doing that.”
Johnson went into checkout mode over the final 13 laps, winning by 1.2 seconds.
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