Marathon Petroleum’s Allen Johnson Formulating Strategy to Defend Title at Auto Club NHRA Finals

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (November 7, 2016) – Marathon Petroleum/J&J Racing Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson returns to Auto Club Raceway at Pomona this weekend for the last race of the season. It’s hard to believe the Marathon Petroleum team was here nine months ago for the season opening race and Johnson is ready to defend his title as the Auto Club NHRA Finals Pro Stock winner after taking home the win at the end of the 2015 season.

23 races and one national event win this far in 2016, Johnson is returning to Pomona with a similar feeling to when he pulled into the gates in the fall of last year.

“We were the underdogs in Pomona last year,” Johnson commented. “We weren’t as fast as we should’ve been and we were just looking for some things to happen on raceday and that’s probably it’ll happen again this year. This Marathon Petroleum Dodge Dart team has no problem with being the underdogs.”

Although the Pro Stock championship is not in the cards for Johnson, he’s looking to have an impact on how the championship plays out.

“I think Pomona is going to be a knock-down, drag-out fight and we’ve got six to eight cars that could realistically win the race,” he affirmed. “We are gonna do what we need to do to mix up the points this weekend. We plan to get back in contention and whoop up on them.”

Qualifying at the 52nd annual Auto Club NHRA Finals begins on Friday, November 11th with two qualifying sessions at 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Two more qualifying sessions will be at 12:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on Saturday, November 12th. Eliminations will begin at 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, November 13th starting with Top Fuel.