Allen Johnson Drives Marathon Petroleum Corporation Dart to No. 13 at Winternationals

POMONA, Calif. (February 11, 2017) – Allen Johnson drove his Marathon Petroleum Corporation/J&J Racing Dodge Dart to the No. 13 spot after qualifying action at the 57th annual Circle K NHRA Winternationals.

In Friday’s first session, Johnson began the season with a solid 6.636-second pass at 207.94 mph. As rain clouds lingered overhead, the Greeneville, Tennessee-native returned for the Friday afternoon session and outran Mother Nature when he crossed the finish line with a 6.663, 207.66.

On Saturday, the Adam Hornberger-led team took advantage of the sunshine to improve their standings on the ladder. In the first session of the day, Johnson clocked in with a 6.621, 208.33 at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. He closed out qualifying with a consistent 6.622, 208.52.

“We spent the winter on the dyno and elected not to go testing before Phoenix earlier this week,” Johnson admitted. “If we did a little of testing, we would’ve been able to see what was working and what wasn’t but I’m confident we can get it all worked out in the near future.”

Johnson finished qualifying in the No. 13 spot and will have a first round matchup against No. 4 Shane Gray.

“Outdriving these guys tomorrow is going to be real important,” Johnson added. “I need to be dead on the tree and hope the person in the other lane isn’t. I usually focus on racing my own lane on raceday but we may have to do something tomorrow that’s unexpected to throw a monkey wrench into their game but I still gotta run my own race; I gotta be perfect.”