Early Exit at NHRA Summernationals Leaves Allen Johnson with Lessons Learned

Englishtown, N.J. (June 12, 2016) – Allen Johnson drove his Marathon Petroleum/J&J Racing Dodge Dart to the second round of competition today at the 47th annual NHRA Summernationals by defeated Alex Laughlin in the first round.

Johnson qualified No. 5 after four rounds of qualifying at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park. Being on the top half of the ladder gave Johnson lane choice over Alex Laughlin. In the first round of eliminations, Johnson pulled the chutes at the finish line with a 6.688-second pass at 208.88 mph over Laughlin’s close 6.698, 209.33.

In the second round, Johnson left the starting line and went into quick tire shake. Trying to recover, Johnson shifted into the next gear and crossed the finish line with a 7.003, 161.00. Although his efforts were valiant, his elapsed time was not enough to turn on the win light against Nobile’s 6.639, 210.37.

“We tried a lot of new parts on the car this weekend to free it up and it seemed to like it during qualifying but the car just couldn’t get any grip today whatsoever,” Johnson admitted. “We definitely shot ourselves in the foot today but we can always take a positive out of a negative and learn from it.”

“We usually run well in the hot track conditions and we just didn’t do the right thing in those conditions otherwise we would’ve been okay today,” he added.

The next event will be the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals on June 17-19, 2016. Qualifying will begin on Friday June 17th at 5:00 and 7:30 p.m. (ET).