Allen Johnson
At the NHRA Vegas race we did a bowling gig before the event with the U.S. Bowling Congress. It was a blast. There were a lot of drivers that took part and we were all a little rusty, but we did pretty well, those of us that hadn’t bowled in years. The USBC was really good to us and treated us like professionals. They gave us a free ball, custom-fitted, with a bag and equipment. It was awesome. It’s going to make me carry my ball along on the road and do a lot more bowling.
The Vegas race itself wasn’t the greatest, as I lost to Rickie Jones in the first round. The weekend wasn’t all bad, though. Later on Sunday night my wife Pam and I got to go to the Country Music Awards show, and had real good seats up front. The show was at the MGM, where Pam and I always stay, and the people who run the hotel really took care of us. We even went to an after-party on Sunday and then stayed over on Monday night for a tribute to George Strait for being named entertainer of the decade. We were right up against the stage for that also. We got to meet almost everybody in country music. Garth, Faith—everybody you can name, all the stars, we got to be right up close with them. We really enjoyed all that, because Pam and I are big country music fans.
After that we went home and regrouped before we went to Charlotte and tested. We spent two days there and felt like we made quite a bit of progress, but we didn’t really show it when we went to Atlanta. Johnny Gray’s car was running really good, though, but he had some unfortunate luck there in the first round, hitting a wet spot on the track and getting loose. Overall, his car was running a lot better at Atlanta, which was encouraging.
Right before the Atlanta race Pam’s mother, Betty Bird, had both knees replaced. That took Pam away to take care of her mom so she didn’t get to come to Atlanta. Betty’s doing all right, though, and she’ll be able to come out of the hospital this weekend. We’re all happy about that and we wish here a speedy recovery.
After our quarterfinals appearance at Atlanta, we’re off to St. Louis next weekend. It’s my 300th race, so it’s going to be a little bit of a milestone weekend. I can’t believe I’ve been out racing NHRA Pro Stock that long. I feel like we can keep going, though, and make it to the 500-race mark.
I’m heading for a workout today, making sure I keep myself up physically for racing. It’s important to be strong behind the wheel, and also it helps mentally. I spend a lot of cardio minutes sweating, and the whole time I’m doing that I’m really just going through my head with runs, and leaving the starting line. I’m still not where I want to be, but I have to keep working at it and I’ll get there.