ACDelco's Kurt Johnson kicked off the NHRA Countdown to 1 race-off for the Full Throttle
championship with two solid rounds of qualifying today at the 2nd annual Carolinas Nationals at
zMax Dragway. Johnson's first shot out the blocks was good for a 6.668 e.t. at 207.69 mph, and he
followed that up tonight with a 6.662-second run at 207.66 mph. That places the veteran competitor
No. 7 on the qualifying ladder heading into Saturday's final two sessions.
"Looking at the sheet tonight we were No. 2 in speed to the eighth-mile," Johnson said, "and that
wasn't even a good run. Like I've said before, I don't think we have a No. 1 car but we can have a
No. 2 car pretty easily. The clutch was a little soft and threw us a curve there - the track got
really good, but I'm confident we can pick it up tomorrow.
"When you can take what we had in Indy and move up about eight spots on the page at the eighth
mile, that makes a big difference because we know we have the power under the hood - at least
enough to run decent."
The No. 1 qualifier is Mike Edwards in the Young Life Pontiac. Edwards posted a 6.614 e.t. at
208.36 mph.
Qualifying coverage of the NHRA Carolinas Nationals can be seen on ESPN2 on Saturday, Sept. 19,
beginning at 11:30 p.m. Eastern. Final eliminations coverage gets underway on Sunday, Sept. 20 with
NHRA Race Day starting at 11 a.m., and then a three-hour telecast of final eliminations kicks off
at 7 p.m. Eastern.
