Johnson Reaches Pro Stock Final in Las Vegas, Moves into Top Five in Standings
Allen Johnson steered his Mopar® Dodge Avenger NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Pro Stock car to a runner-up finish on Sunday, Oct. 30 in the 11th Annual Big O Tires NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, advancing to his second-straight final, fourth of the season and 25th of his career. The second-place result moved Johnson to fifth in the Pro Stock standings, just six markers out of the fourth spot.
Johnson, the No. 3 qualifier, faced off with Greg Stanfield in the opening stanza. Johnson’s Mopar Dodge proved too much for Stanfield, with the HEMI®-fueled driver posting a 6.648-second elapsed time at 207.56 mph to Stanfield’s 6.699/206.76 mark.
In the quarterfinals Johnson knocked off Larry Morgan with a 6.680/207.56 pass to his opponent’s 6.716/206.83 mark to capture the 250th round win of his career. Johnson lacked lane choice in his semifinals matchup with Jason Line, but took the win over the newly-crowned 2011 NHRA Pro Stock champ with a 6.674/207.53 run after Line pushed the "Tree" too far and red-lighted. The Greeneville, Tenn. native’s run ended in the final, where again lacking lane choice Johnson fell, recording a 6.668/208.01 run to his foe Mike Edwards’ winning 6.641/208.30 effort.
"I feel really good about my team, my car, my driving, just the whole package right now," said Johnson, who advanced to his first career final at Vegas. "Mike (Edwards) has a little performance advantage right now, and we’ve got to even that up, but overall it was a great weekend. We moved up a spot in the standings, and hopefully we can move up even more at Pomona, go to our third straight final and get the win."
Fellow Mopar-powered Pro Stock drivers Vincent Nobile and V. Gaines both fell in the opening round at Las Vegas.
Nobile is currently fourth in the point standings, with Johnson fifth as just one race remains in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoffs. Next up for the Mopar-powered NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series competitors is the 47th annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals, Nov. 10–13 at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif. For more information on the NHRA, visit http://www.nhra.com.