Wed, 18 Jun 2008, 10:18 PM Team Chevy's Kurt Johnson Takes NHRA Pro Stock Points Lead to Englishtown

Courtesy of Pontiac/Chevy Trackside Communications Photo copyright 2008 Auto Imagery, Inc.

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. --

Kurt Johnson

Regardless of where or when on the 24-event NHRA POWERade schedule it is achieved, whether it's the first, last, or 10th race of the season, the term "first place" always carries with it a special ring. Coming off his second national-event victory of the year in Chicago on June 8, that's where Team Chevy's Kurt Johnson finds himself, and where he hopes to be when the season comes to a close in Pomona, Calif., on Nov. 16. Given the ultra-competitive nature of the Pro Stock category these days, the 45-year-old resident of Buford, Ga., knows that staying in the top spot will be a difficult task.

During the first 10 events of the 2008 campaign, the factory hot rod division has seen eight different winners. Johnson captured his first win of the year at St. Louis on May 4, and at Chicago, he became just the second driver in Pro Stock to win more than once, joining Greg Anderson on the short list of multiple winners this season.

"To come back and win two of the last four races - the car's just been good," said Johnson. "When you go to the first nine races and have eight different winners it shows how competitive it's been. Nobody's had the perfect combination. There have been eight drivers, eight cars with the perfect combination on one day, but only two of us in the last 10 races have been able to duplicate it. It's brutal out there.

"Being in first place shows we've been working - it keeps the team morale high and makes us work even harder. Everyone is a little more upbeat. We can't ease off, though. We have to pour the coal to it and see where we can take this."

Johnson vs. Connolly

Johnson's combination on the ACDelco Chevy Cobalt may not be perfect, but it's been good enough and consistent enough this season to vault him to the top of the standings. In addition to his two national-event victories, Johnson was runner-up at Houston in March (where he was also No. 1 qualifier and ran low e.t. of the meet), and he has qualified in the top four of the Pro Stock field in seven of the first 10 events. Johnson's 19 round wins tie him with Jeg Coughlin for the most in the category this year, and he has successfully continued an incredible streak of 14 straight seasons (second only to John Force) in which he's earned at least one national-event victory.

"The car was new at the beginning of the year," Johnson explained. "Right now we have 87 runs on it - we've been keeping track. We went the first 40 runs without messing with it too much, and it kind of acted up there in Gainesville and Houston, and ticked me off, so I knew we had to make some changes going into Las Vegas. So far we've run about four or five different combinations through it. At the beginning of the year it was cool, and now it's a little bit warmer, so we've had to adapt, and lately it has been fast in the heat."

At Heartland Park Topeka (Kan.) on June 1, Johnson advanced to the semifinal round before losing to eventual race-winner Ron Krisher. The two round wins in the Sunflower State were enough to move Johnson into first place for the first time in exactly five years (Johnson snared the points lead following a win in Chicago on June 1, 2003). He now holds a narrow 36 point advantage over second place Jeg Coughlin heading into the upcoming Lucas Oil SuperNationals in Englishtown, N.J., on June 20 - 22.

"The cars are fast, and when they are it makes it easy to drive," Johnson said. "We still have to tune them. We have to look at the changes that are going on with the air and what the track's doing. We really don't have a cushion per se, because we can make mistakes as easy as we did before, so we have to pay attention to what we're doing."

Since making his Pro Stock debut in 1993, Johnson has accumulated 12 top-five and an impressive 15 consecutive top-10 finishes in the final points standings. His 483 career round wins are second only to his father, six-time NHRA Pro Stock champ Warren Johnson (848), among full-time, active Pro Stock drivers.

Johnson vs. Coughlin

After qualifying sixth at Chicago, and with his Chevy Cobalt running with the consistency of a bracket car, Johnson captured his 38th career national-event victory and advanced to his 70th career final round. He ranks fifth all-time for wins in the NHRA Pro Stock category, and he is tied for 13th with Tony Pedregon for career victories among professional competitors. The win at Chicago was also Johnson's 28th career victory in a Chevrolet, extending his lead for the most ever by a Chevy racer in the Pro Stock category.

"We didn't run well in qualifying, but we made some changes in gearing and carburetors and the ACDelco Chevrolet really responded," Johnson commented during his post-race interview following the Windy City win. "It went out and ran 6.71 that first round. I didn't know what kind of chance we had of winning, but it really stepped up and responded and was on a string all day. We just made minor changes. When it's that fast you just need to detail it."

Following a weekend off for Father's Day, it will be game-on at storied Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J., and the Lucas Oil SuperNationals, where in 1994, Johnson became the first NHRA Pro Stock driver to break the seven-second e.t. barrier with a run of 6.988 seconds. The SuperNationals will be followed by the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio on June 27 - 29, and then two weeks of final preparation for an arduous July racing schedule that includes the three-event Western Swing in Denver, Seattle and Sonoma (Calif.).

"We hope to be ready for the upcoming summer stretch," Johnson said. "I think we have a pretty good racecar in the heat, plus the fact that when it is cool we can go back to the notes that we had at the beginning of the year. You want a racecar that has a big window and where you have to make the least amount of changes to get down the racetrack. That's what you keep fishing for but sometimes you have to make some big changes.

"We'll be fired up come Englishtown. We have back-to-back races again so we'll definitely have to have our act together and have our parts ready. We'll have a weekend off after Norwalk and then we'll go on another three-week binge with the Western Swing. We're focused on the next five races for sure."