Revell Nationals: Pro Stock Notes & Quotes Sunday, October 25, 1998

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Pro Stock Notes & Quotes
Sunday, October 25, 1998
This page will be updated throughout the evening

Warren Johnson (GM Goodwrench Service Plus Pontiac), won event:
One week after wrapping up his fourth NHRA Winston Pro Stock championship, Warren Johnson turned in another dominant performance at the Revell Nationals. Johnson did it all in Dallas: He qualified No. 1, set the national elapsed time and top speed records, and scored his ninth victory of the season.

Johnson put his GM Goodwrench Service Plus Pontiac in the winner's circle for the third straight race and the 72nd time in his career. He rewrote the record book with the quickest and fastest Pro Stock run in NHRA history, qualifying No. 1 in Pro Stock with a 6.867-second elapsed time at 201.34 mph. Johnson put his Firebird on the Pro Stock "pole" for the 12th time this season and topped 200 mph five times at the Motorplex. W.J. has now run 22 of the 25 runs over 200 mph; no other driver has more than one.

Johnson defeated Bruce Allen, Tom Martino, and Jeg Coughlin, Jr. to advance to his 114th final round. The last race featured a battle between the drivers who have won the last four championships when Warren faced his long-time rival Jim Yates. Johnson raced to his eighth straight 6-second run of the event, beating Yates with a 6.950-second e.t. Yates suffered his third final-round loss of the season to Warren as he slowed to a 7.961 at 128 mph.

"I knew Yates would be hungry for a win," Warren reported. "We just went into the final with the same approach that had taken us there."

Johnson was a reluctant record setter at the Revell Nationals. Since he has already clinched his fourth Pro Stock championship, the bonus points he earned for setting the national e.t. mark and winning the race were meaningless. He left Dallas with a 510-point margin over Coughlin.

"I'm running a points surplus this season," W.J. joked. "Maybe they'll let me carry some over to next year!"

Mike Stryker was named the "Craftsman Crew Chief of the Race" for third race in a row and the seventh time this season for his role in taking Johnson's Firebird to the winner's circle.

With his ninth win of the season, Johnson equaled his personal record he set in 1993. He will race for this tenth victory of the year next weekend at Houston Raceway Park.

Kurt Johnson (AC Delco Camaro), lost in second round to Jeg Coughlin Jr.:
Johnson came up three-thousandths short of a perfect reaction time with a red-light in his crucial second-round race with Coughlin. Kurt came to Texas trailing Coughlin by five points in the standings.

"If you live by the sword, you die by the sword," said Kurt, who recently won three rounds in Memphis on holeshots. "We changed the set up to try to get a quick reaction time, and missed by three-thousandths of a second. Yesterday we worked on the car so it would go down the race track, but the changes we made killed the reaction time. I was getting .480 and .460 reaction times, and I told my guys that wasn't good enough to win this race. We went back to our old setup to shoot for a good reaction time. It could have easily been a .402 if I had been a half-inch shallower in the staging beams.

"That was a big one; we needed the win," Kurt confided. "At least we have eight more rounds of racing left to make some progress."

Mark Pawuk (Summit Racing Pontiac Firebird), lost in round one:
"Unbelievable! I knew Allen (Johnson) was going to have a good light and I just gave it away. My crew did a great job this weekend to give me a fast race car. The Summit Racing Firebird ran it's quickest and fastest lap yesterday so maybe we're on to something. I'm telling you, Houston couldn't get here any quicker. I wish we could race it tomorrow."

George Marnell (Tenneco Pontiac Firebird), lost in round one:
"It was a good race. We left right together, Kurt (Johnson) was out on me by about three-hundredths at the first 60-foot, and not to make any excuses, but that right lane was pretty bald and hard to get hold of. Once we did, The Tenneco Firebird went right down the lane. Bob Cave did an absolutely magnificent job of tuning this car, adjusting the chassis, and I think we ran about as well as we could given the conditions. I'm disappointed that we lost, but I think our team made a pretty good representation of ourselves this weekend. I don't really think there was anything else we could have done to make a better run. There was no real advantage at the starting line, and as far as getting the car down the race track, I'm not sure that we could have done much better in the right lane. We felt pretty good knowing that we did everything we could to win. Everybody on this team did a great job. That Firebird was so good I could have taken my hands off the wheel and it still would have gone straight. I heard that other guys were having problems, but Bob Cave did an absolutely tremendous job preparing this race car."

Allen Johnson *Amoco/Mopar Dodge Avenger) lost to Robert Patrick in the second round:
"A good weekend for the Amoco/Mopar Pro Stock Avenger. We have worked hard all year trying to get an opportunity to race on Sunday. The last few weeks have been a real grind. With all the testing that we have been doing in-between races, our performance this weekend was reflective of all our hard work. On my last run, we just got the car out of the groove and that was the end of it. The car headed to the centerline and I had to shut it off. We ran some good numbers all weekend and considering how fast the field was, this was a nice step for our program."

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