Allen Johnson Takes on Raceday at Dodge NHRA Nationals in 500th Pro Stock Race of Career

READING, Pa. (September 23, 2017) – Allen Johnson qualified No. 4 in the Marathon Petroleum/J&J Racing Dodge Dart at the 33rd annual Dodge NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway. In his 500th race of his Pro Stock career, Johnson will have lane choice over Kenny Delco in the first round.

On Friday, Allen Johnson and the Marathon Petroleum team were greeted with uncommon Reading, Pennsylvania sunshine. Capitalizing on similar track conditions to the Carolina Nationals last weekend at zMAX Dragway, the Adam Hornberger-led team went back into their data logs and put a tune-up in it for Maple Grove Raceway. Johnson rocketed to the No. 3 spot with a 6.589-seconds pass at 209.79 mph and collected one bonus point for being third quickest of the session.

In Friday’s evening session, Johnson bettered his elapsed time by over one-hundredth of a second when he crossed the finish line in his red, white, and blue Dodge Dart with a 6.572, 209.95. Johnson collected another bonus point in the second session for being third quickest of the session once again.

Saturday, Johnson started out the second day of qualifying at the Dodge NHRA Nationals with a 6.595, 209.04. He showed his consistency in the final qualifying session when he clocked in with a 6.599, 208.88.

“You know, I’ve known we had a good car for a while but I think it’s finally translating to the track,” Johnson said. “We hit it a little bit better yesterday than we did today but we’ve got a top six car right now and we can definitely win with that. I just have to do my job in my Marathon Petroleum/J&J Racing Dodge Dart and if we can make the same runs we did in qualifying, we could come home with it this weekend.”

Eliminations for the 33rd annual Dodge NHRA Nationals begins on Sunday, September 24th at 12:00 p.m. (ET) starting with Top Fuel.