Weather Cancels All but One Qualifying at Reading, Allen Johnson Qualifies in Top Half

READING, Pa. (October 1, 2016) – Only one session of qualifying was completed at Maple Grove Raceway this weekend at the 32nd annual Dodge Nationals but that was all Marathon Petroleum/J&J Racing driver Allen Johnson and his team needed to make a solid run and get into the top half for lane choice during tomorrow’s first round of eliminations.

Both Friday qualifying sessions were cancelled due to the persistent mist. On Saturday morning, Johnson was able to warm up his Dodge Dart and actually put it to the track when he clocked in with a 6.597-second pass at 210.64 mph. A second session on Saturday was attempted but due to increasingly colder temperatures, NHRA made the decision to call it a day and set the ladder for Sunday’s more promising weather forecasted day.

“I don’t think we made a very good run on our only run but I think we’ve got enough information that we can correct it for tomorrow,” Johnson said.

Johnson qualified No. 7 and will pick his lane tomorrow morning in the first round against Alan Prusiensky.

“We’ve got a veteran team that’ll set up this Marathon Petroleum Dart.”

First round is scheduled to begin at 12:00 p.m. Sunday, October 2nd starting with Top Fuel.