Kurt Johnson will have to wait only five day before his next opportunity to race the ACDelco
Chevrolet in competition, and after today's round-one loss to Rodger Brogdon, the beginning of the
Mid-South Nationals on Friday in Memphis can't come fast enough.
Johnson came into today's eliminator at the Texas Motorplex qualified in the No. 6 position and
with high hopes that he could advance late into the afternoon at the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals.
In his round-one race, Johnson's ACDelco Chevrolet was the quicker car to the finish stripe and
posted a 6.688 e.t., but Brogdon's advantage at the starting line, and 6.691-second run, was enough
to give him the victory at the finish by .015 of a second.
"You let the clutch out, and you think you have a good light," Johnson said, "but it comes up .072
and you think, 'what is going on?' The ACDelco Chevrolet made a nice smooth run. It was a little
soft, and there may have been a couple of hundredths left in it, but you hate to get too aggressive
up there first round. I figure if I go .040 or .050 we should win, but it didn't come together. Now
we have to go back and hit it hard again next week - we know what we have to work on."
The next stop on the NHRA Full Throttle Series tour is the 22nd annual O'Reilly NHRA Mid-South
Nationals on Oct. 2 - 4 at Memphis Motorsports Park in Memphis, Tenn. Johnson won the Mid-South
Nationals in 2006, was runner-up in 1998 and 2005, and No. 1 qualifier in 1997 and 2005.
"We have a decent race car, in the No. 2 to No. 6 range, anyway. It just burns me up to go
seventies on the tree when we came out of Maple Grove cutting great lights. We have to fix it,
that's all there is to it."
Today's Pro Stock eliminator was won by Greg Anderson who defeated Johnny Gray in the final round.
The NHRA Fall Nationals Funny Car champ was Robert Hight and Top Fuel was won by Tony Schumacher.
