Johnson Exits in First Round at Vegas; Morgan Claims Win in All-Mopar(R) Final
Mopar(R)/J&J Racing Dodge Stratus R/T NHRA Full Throttle Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson saw a sudden end to his outing at the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals on Sunday, Nov. 1, losing to Jeg Coughlin in the first round. The final saw an all-Mopar HEMI(R)-powered matchup between Larry Morgan and Rickie Jones, with Morgan claiming the win.
Johnson posted his Mopar-fueled Dodge No. 6 after two days of qualifying, drawing No. 11 seed Coughlin as his first-round foe. The Greeneville, Tenn., native recorded the quicker and faster run of the round with a 6.706-second/205.76 mph pass to Coughlin's 6.715/205.54 mark. Unfortunately, Coughlin's blazing reaction time off the starting line, .007 to Johnson's .053 time (.000 is perfect) resulted in a holeshot defeat for A.J.
"We did make a decent run that round," remarked Johnson. "I don't think we had enough to overcome the magical light he [Coughlin] had. We made a little headway there with the car. The motor ran well.
"We're just going to throw everything at it at Pomona, and I'm going to go home and work on that practice tree a little more to get quicker on my starts."
Mopar power ultimately emerged victorious at Vegas, as Morgan drove to his tenth career win and first since the 2002 Sonoma event. Morgan posted a winning pass of 6.720/205.69 to Jones' 6.794/203.16 run. The appearance in the final was a career first for the 22-year-old Jones.
Along with Allen Johnson's victories earlier this year at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals in Denver and the O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals in Topeka, Morgan's triumph marks the third for a Mopar-powered Pro Stocker this season.
Johnson is now seventh in the NHRA Countdown to 1 standings. Next up for the Mopar-powered Pro Stock contingent is the final race of the season, the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, Nov. 12–15, at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif. For more information on the NHRA, log on to http://www.nhra.com