Allen Johnson
We went to the NHRA Houston event last weekend, and any time we’re in Houston, we’ve got to eat crawfish. We’ve got a friend there, Kenny Anthony, who always takes the team to a great crawfish restaurant. Other than that, really all I did was go to the racetrack and race!
On Saturday morning at Houston we had a clutch malfunction and blew the clutch out, and I had to lift and didn’t get down the track. It was the best conditions ever for Pro Stock runs, and I didn’t get to make a full pass! That hurt me during qualifying, so I didn’t have lane choice during eliminations and lost in the first round. We don’t want to stumble at all, but if you’re going to stumble, now would be the time, early in the season. Now is the time to test things and get your A game in place down the stretch. But the mission for our Mopar®/J&J Racing team is always to win races, so if I go out and don’t win the race I’m disappointed.
We stayed over Monday and Tuesday, Johnny Gray’s team and mine, and tested at Houston. We didn’t really try to break the national record or anything like that. We were just going through about eight or ten parts we wanted to test. It was more an informational test than trying to fix something.
I’m in Vegas now. We’ve gotten to know the management at the MGM Grand. It’s the only place we’ve stayed for about the last 6 to 8 years. We always get a nice celebrity spa suite. And I love to play craps. That’s my game. I played last night for a few hours, and I’m up!
I’m getting ready to head to the NHRA bowling event at the Cashman Center right now. The event is being hosted by the U.S. Bowling Congress, and I’m on a team with other Pro Stock competitors. We’re taking on Funny Car and Top Fuel teams. I was a Tennessee state junior bowling champion, but I haven’t bowled much at all in the last few years. I just hope I don’t embarrass myself!
We’re looking for a rebound this weekend at Vegas. I reached the semis at the fall race last year here, and I’ve got a pretty good track record overall. I love the track, I love the facility, and I’m going to be disappointed if we don’t win.