Johnson Collects 200th Round Win, Exits in Quarterfinals at NHRA Midwest Nationals
Team Mopar® NHRA Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson enjoyed an event-filled visit to Gateway International Raceway near St. Louis for the NHRA Midwest Nationals on Sunday, May 2. Johnson earned his 200th career round win and endured a re-run of his first round match with Ronnie Humphrey before losing to Warren Johnson in the quarterfinals.
Johnson qualified No. 4 in his Mopar Dodge Avenger and drew Humphrey in the opening round. After a staging duel, Humphrey entered first, the red light on Johnson’s side of the starting tree was immediately triggered, and Humphrey motored down the track for an apparent victory. Fortunately, it was determined the red light was triggered in error and a re-run was called. Johnson’s 6.659-second pass at 207.82 mph easily bested his opponent’s 6.711/207.05 mark, giving the Team Mopar veteran his 200th round win.
Johnson encountered problems shortly out of the starting gate in his quarterfinals match with Warren Johnson and watched "The Professor" drive away with the win. Despite his early exit, Johnson remains second in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Pro Stock standings.
"We’ve got a team that has a lot of hours of experience at the track in the bank," said Johnson of his J&J Racing team. "We came back out for the re-run and got the job done. In the second round, we were the first pair out, and we didn’t adjust well to the track conditions. We’ll put it in our data banks and hopefully learn from it before the Countdown. We’re still in great shape, second in points."
V. Gaines qualified 16th in his Dodge Avenger and came out on the losing end of a first-round race with current points leader Mike Edwards. Next up for Johnson and Gaines is the 30th annual NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga., May 14–16.