Long Knocks Curveballs Into Podium Gulf Coast Finishes
Jo Overcomes Issues on Both Ends of Pensacola/Mobile Doubleheader Weekend

them into a pair of podium finishes to maintain her position as a Sunoco Gulf Coast Championship title contender.

Her first on-track at-bat came on Friday night in the Carpenter's Campers 100 Blizzard Series event at her home track of Five Flags Speedway in Pensacola, FL.  Long started eighth and had to overcome an early-race tire issue to score her first third-place finish of the weekend.

"It was a little rough at first," said Long of her Five Flags experience.  "We felt like we had a really good restart at first and then the caution came out at lap one and had to come in.  We had a flat tire and we put an old tire on and made it back up to the front."

Long's fellow Five Flags and Gulf Coast Championship (which combines results at Five Flags and Mobile) also had problems Friday night, but they all recovered just like she did for strong finishes, keeping Long from making up further ground in the title hunts.

"We thought it was going to be a good points night for us but the three of us [Augie Grill, Bubba Pollard, and Long] finished one, two, and three again.”

Saturday night at Mobile, Long again was thrown some nasty curveballs, but she swung a strong effort at them and came home with another third-place result.

"We had a really good car, but Bubba had probably the best one out here and Augie (Grill) had a good car too.  Then on the last restart, they got into each other I guess, and they started us on the pole.  But I knew something went wrong on the restart because I knew I didn’t miss a gear and when we came in we found that the axle broke. We came in and fixed that and went back out and I guess something else happened, but we managed to finish third."

Long and her Panhandle Motorsports team will prepare the #10 ride for the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway CRA Super Series event on August 23rd.
Johanna Long did her best impression of a MLB baseball player on August 7th and 8th at Five Flags and Mobile International Speedways.  No matter how many curveballs and change-ups were thrown her way, Long was left to take the best swing at them all with hopes of hitting a couple home runs in the two Super Late Model events.

Long and her Panhandle Motorsports team proved to be pretty good sluggers at the plate by being thrown some tough challenges and turning
Johanna sported a new orange flare to her #10 Super Late Model at Five Flags. (51 Sports Photo)