Photo credit: Gavin Baker Photography

In a race with major championship implications, VRD Racing’s Nikita Johnson pulled the gap between him and Lochie Hughes down to 25 points as he completed a weekend sweep at Mid-Ohio.

Pabst Racing’s Simon Sikes and Jace Denmark began the race alongside each other on the pole and pulled ahead at the race start.

The only incident on lap 1 saw VRD Racing’s Nico Christodoulou get all four tires off on the exit of turn 3, dropping from his seventh starting position to the rear of the field. Christodoulou got back to sixth by the end of the race.

His teammate Nikita Johnson was moving in the other direction, getting past Pabst’s Christian Brooks on lap 4 to get up into a podium spot from his fifth starting spot.

The next time around, TJ Speed Motorsports’ Liam Sceats and Jay Howard Driver Development’s Frankie Mossman collided following a spin by Mossman to bring out the first full-course caution of the race while battling for second in the keyhole.

On the restart, the keyhole was once again where the action was as Johnson powered his way down the straight past Jace Denmark before moving around the outside of Sikes for the race lead.

Sikes, falling back multiple spots, collided with Brooks and fifth-place Hughes heading through turn 4, taking Brooks and Sikes out of the race and Hughes to the rear of the field. Hughes would eventually rebound to finish seventh.

The race would restart on lap 9 and remain green for four laps until BN Racing’s Nicolas Baptiste slid after potentially making contact with Exclusive Autosport’s Braden Eves through the carousel, flattening Eves’s tire as Baptiste’s front wing flew off its car and all the way down past the start-finish line.

Denmark pulled to the inside of Johnson on the restart but could not make a move, allowing Johnson to pull away for the remainder of the race.

Behind the front two: Turn 3’s Danny Dyszelski, Comet Racing’s Logan Adams and BN Racing’s Ricardo Escotto rounded out the top five.

For full results, check out usfpro2000.com/results/live-timing