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NHRA: A.J. Celebrating Topeka Win With A Test
Written by: Amanda Brahler
Go2Geiger.com   http://www.go2geiger.com
06/04/2009
Porter, TX
 
Allen Johnson won his first race in nearly two years Sunday in Topeka, ending a 42-race drought in style by taking out top contender Mike Edwards on a holeshot.

"I was wondering if this was ever going to happen again," Johnson said. "I really feel like we should have won 10 or 12 races over the last two years. It was really gratifying because I won the last run on a holeshot. I’ve been driving like crap so that was a victory for me."
Allen Johnson won his first race in nearly two years Sunday in Topeka and is working hard between rounds to make sure he won't have to wait long for a follow up victory. (Go2Geiger.com) ยป More Photos

Sporting the silver and blue Mopar colors, Johnson raced to his second final round appearance of the season after nailing down the No. 2 qualifying slot at Topeka. His Mopar Hemi Dodge R/T had the speed throughout the weekend, and Johnson’s performance behind the wheel was nearly flawless. In the final, the Tennessee native brought his A-game to the heartland, beating Edwards off of the line in .035 seconds, compared to Edward's .045-second start, which translated to the holeshot win at the other end.

"I’m driving better this year than I did last year," Johnson said. "Last year, I had a tough time. It took four to five races to get it back. The lights are a little different but for the real drivers, the tree will help that. The ones that forecasted the lights in the past won’t be able to.

"In Gainesville, I got beat by a holeshot in the final so I gave that one away. That's been on my mind. We should have won two this year, maybe even three."

With nine of the 24 races down, only four drivers have pulled off event wins in the class. Reigning champion and current points leader Jeg Coughlin Jr. has three wins, Jason Line and Edwards have two each, while Ron Krisher and Johnson are the division’s only one-race winners so far.

As wins
become harder to come by, proven by his nearly two-year hiatus from the Winner’s Circle, one would think the 49-year-old would still be savoring his race win just a few days after the fact, but not so. Instead of reliving the weekend with stories and smiles while admiring his Wally, Johnson and his co-crew chiefs, his father Roy and Mark Ingersoll, are testing in St. Louis, readying for this weekend’s run in Chicago.

"We never quit working," he said. "We continue to work on our cool-air track setup. We’re not quite there yet. The setup for hot, grimy tracks, hot air, we have that pretty down pat.

"Mike came close to beating us. In the finals, we didn’t run for about 40 minutes and the track changed, got a lot better than it had been the first three runs. It came to him and went away from us. I thought we were junk.

"So yeah, we have work to do. I guarantee Greg (Anderson) and Jason (Line) are out testing right now. So are Kurt and Warren (Johnson)," he said, noting three of the five guys that are eyeing him in the standings.

Johnson trails leader Coughlin by a spacious a 237-point deficit, but more importantly, he is comfortably within the top 10 as he sits fifth, sandwiched between Greg Anderson and Greg Stanfield.

"We’re right in the middle of it," Johnson said. "We got a little room in between the one behind me (Stanfield). We just have to go a couple of more rounds than those four in front of us and we’ll be right there when the chase comes."
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