Team Marathon Petroleum/J&J Racing AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals Qualifying Report
ST. LOUIS, Mo. (September 30, 2017) – Allen Johnson drove the Marathon Petroleum/J&J Racing Dodge Dart to the No. 10 seed at the Sixth annual AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway Motorsports Park.
On Friday, Johnson found a solid baseline when he powered his red, white, and blue Dodge Dart to a 6.575-seconds pass at 209.39 mph. In the evening session, Johnson drifted towards the centerline and hit a timing block at the finish line and his 6.578, 207.82 was disallowed.
“I think it was just dark at the end of the track and I drove it over to the right,” Johnson explained regarding his disqualified run. “I couldn’t see where I was going and got in the marbles and ended up getting real loose out there.”
Moving past the uncharacteristic pass the evening prior, the Adam Hornberger-led team showed consistency to early Friday with a 6.573, 209.72 in the opening session on Saturday. The Marathon Petroleum/J&J Racing team closed out qualifying with their fastest of the weekend in the final session – 6.560, 209.65.
“I think we’ve been chasing a clutch problem all weekend,” he said. “We traded out a lot of parts between Q3 [third qualifying session] and Q4 [fourth qualifying session]. Our setup that was a guess ended up being our fastest of the weekend so far so I know we’re headed in a positive direction just at the right time for raceday at the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals.”
Johnson qualified No. 10 and will have a first round matchup against Erica Enders in the morning. Eliminations are scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m. (CT) starting with Top Fuel.