Sun, May 3, 06:45 PM News From The Pennzoil Pits

Courtesy of Bob Brown

ENNIS, Texas - Bruce Allen, the driver of the Outlaw Additives Pontiac, beat No. 1 qualifier Warren Johnson in the first round of Pro Stock eliminations at the Castrol Lone Star Nationals at the Texas Motorplex. Allen ran a 7.017 elapsed time to Johnson's 7.011 ET but took advantage of a better reaction time (0.413 to 0.447) at the starting line to steal the victory.

"That was an awesome run," Allen said. "W.J. is such a great competitor and it took our best run ever at this track to beat him. It all came down to reaction time and his 0.447 is certainly nothing to sneeze at. I was just a little bit faster. We had made some minor changes with the suspension and transmission and apparently they worked."

Prior to the run, Allen, who had qualified in the 16th spot, was forced to change to the right-hand lane. In the quarter-finals, Allen will have the advantage of lane choice over Richie Stevens, who ran a 7.038-second pass in Round 1 to beat Barry Grant.

Allen has not faced Johnson or Stevens this season. His best finish of 1998 was as a runner-up at the Fram Nationals in Atlanta.