Following the postponement of yesterday's 22nd annual O'Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals due to
heavy rain showers, eliminations for the event were finally completed today at Memphis Motorsports
Park under cloudy skies and cool temperatures. Kurt Johnson, who entered the Pro Stock contest in
the No. 12 qualifying spot, saw his Monday afternoon of racing come to an early end when he lost in
the opening round to Ron Krisher.
"It was soft, and on this run it actually shook going into second gear," Johnson said. "In these
conditions you just don't know what number to put on the racetrack as many changes as we've been
through. Track temperature was only 72 degrees, and we've seen 72 degrees be real bad, and we've
seen 72 degrees be real good, and actually today was real good. We just kind of tip-toed out
there, got a little soft on the clutch and got the tire wadded up and it shook in second (gear)."
Johnson's ACDelco Chevrolet ran a 6.648 e.t. at 209.23 mph (the third fastest speed of the session)
to Krisher's 6.604 second run at 208.46 mph.
"It was a solid five hundredths slower to the eighth-mile and then ran decent the back-half; I
think it was the third-best back-half speed out there," Johnson said. "It just kind of upsets you
that you can run so good in the speed department but we're struggling to get to the eighth-mile
consistently fast. We can do it on occasion, but we just can't do it consistently. It appears that
there is something in the car that doesn't have a big enough window to work with. That's what we
need to address. You've just got to fix what's broken and that's the biggest issue right now.
"I am kind of excited that I had three 'twenty' lights (.020 reaction time) in a row, so we've
fixed that problem. We've got the tools to work on the race car whether it's the welders, or the
grinders, the cutters, whatever needs to be done there, then that's what we need to address."
Pro Stock was won by Jason Line (Pontiac) who defeated Ron Krisher (Chevy) in the final round. Line
ran 6.576 seconds at 210.05 mph while Ron Krisher red-lighted. The Funny Car winner was Jeff Arend
who defeated Tony Pedregon in the finals. Arend's Toyota ran 4.091 seconds at 310.41 mph while
Pedregon coasted across the finish line with a 16.659 e.t. at 37.81 mph. The Top Fuel category was
won by Morgan Lucas who beat Tony Schumacher in the championship heat.
The next stop on the tour is the Fourth annual NHRA Virginia Nationals on Oct. 9 - 11 at Virginia
Motorsports Park in Richmond, Va. A two-hour qualifying broadcast of the NHRA Virginia Nationals
can be seen on ESPN2 on Saturday, Oct. 10, beginning at 10:30 P.M. Final eliminations coverage gets
underway on Sunday, Oct. 11, with NHRA Race Day starting at 11 a.m., and a three-hour telecast of
final eliminations kicks off at 7 p.m. Eastern.
