[coverattach=1]LAS VEGAS, April 5, 2009 – Kurt Johnson's first-round loss to Pro Stock rival Jeg Coughlin Jr. at Sunday's SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals certainly had its share of unpredictable drama, even though the eventual outcome was not what the ACDelco driver would have liked. Especially on a weekend when the black-and blue crew continued to make substantial gains on their Chevy Cobalt with each pass down the race track.
Coming into today's eliminator at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Johnson was qualified in the No. 9 position with a 6.715 e.t. at 205.10 mph, while Coughlin occupied the No. 8 spot. That made the two Chevrolets the first pair out when Pro Stock eliminations got underway; Coughlin in the left lane, Johnson in the right.
After both drivers carefully staged for their matchup, and both cars were ready to launch, Johnson's side of the Christmas Tree suddenly went dark.
"To be honest, I thought I had completely lost my mind," Johnson said. "I rolled in, lit the top bulb, and Jeggie was pre-staged, and he went in. I rolled through there, and before I knew it, my top bulb was out. There were no lights on whatsoever. It's like, did I miss the second bulb coming on and roll right through? I gave it a bump, enough for it to come on. I took a bite out of it, and probably rolled six or eight inches, and nothing came on, so I stopped, because you're being timed on the seven-second rule to be red-lighted. I said to myself, 'All right, we'll take another bite at,' and then the top bulb went out."
Coughlin's side was unaffected, and he bolted off with a normal launch, turning on the win light at the top end. Johnson, with nothing left to lose, decided to make the most of the situation.
"I figured I had lost and decided to at least get some data out of it," Johnson said. "I let the clutch out and made a nice run."
NHRA officials quickly descended upon the faulty starting box, and in no time, discovered the culprit. A small chunk of rubber had lodged inside the staging beam socket causing a malfunction with the right side of the tree. A quick ruling was made to rerun the round following a 30-minute hiatus that would allow both teams to regroup.
In the runoff, Johnson tripped the starting beams too soon with a -.001 red-light which automatically gave Coughlin the win.
"We had to run the world champion first round, and we knew we had to be on top of our game and that I had to be on time," Johnson explained after the race. "I knew I had to be .020 or better on the tree if we were to have a chance, and after last weekend's .065 light, I wasn't leaving anything on the table.
"The biggest issue about going back up there is that you're out of sequence and you're not running behind the same cars that you run behind on a normal basis. The track, actually, it looked good, but it kind of threw us a curve. The car spun the tires hard the first 60 feet and that's where we lost it all. We actually should have made some bigger changes, but not knowing what out e.t. was from the first run, or how fast we really went, it was kind of tough to judge. It gave us some good information, though, when we come back in October.
"We struggled from the very start of the weekend. That first run on Friday, in the right-hand lane, it spun hard. For some reason this car does not like the right lane here – it never has since we came here a year ago with a brand new car. Then we lost the second run (cancelled by NHRA) because of the wind. We came out yesterday morning conservative, and then actually made a pretty decent run in that last run in the right lane. We came out today, ran behind the fuel cars and the conditions had completely changed."
Johnson leaves Las Vegas in eighth place in the Full Throttle points standings, and returns to the friendly confines of Atlanta Dragway, the de facto home track for the ACDelco crew. It sits approximately 30 minutes east of the team's Sugar Hill, Ga., race shop.
”We're going home. We've tested at Atlanta, and run well there this year, and event with the weekend we had here, I honestly feel like it's coming together."
Coughlin went on to win the event by defeating Greg Stanfield in the final round.
The next stop on the schedule is the 29th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals on April 16 – 18 at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga. It is the sixth race on the 24-event NHRA Full Throttle tour. Johnson won the Southern Nationals in 1996 and has been runner-up there twice (1993, '97).
Visit the ACDelco Racing/Kurt Johnson Facebook Fan Page at: Login | Facebook
ACDelco is a global leader in high-quality automotive replacement parts and related services and offers quality aftermarket products for all makes and models, plus GM original equipment replacement parts.
Coming into today's eliminator at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Johnson was qualified in the No. 9 position with a 6.715 e.t. at 205.10 mph, while Coughlin occupied the No. 8 spot. That made the two Chevrolets the first pair out when Pro Stock eliminations got underway; Coughlin in the left lane, Johnson in the right.
After both drivers carefully staged for their matchup, and both cars were ready to launch, Johnson's side of the Christmas Tree suddenly went dark.
"To be honest, I thought I had completely lost my mind," Johnson said. "I rolled in, lit the top bulb, and Jeggie was pre-staged, and he went in. I rolled through there, and before I knew it, my top bulb was out. There were no lights on whatsoever. It's like, did I miss the second bulb coming on and roll right through? I gave it a bump, enough for it to come on. I took a bite out of it, and probably rolled six or eight inches, and nothing came on, so I stopped, because you're being timed on the seven-second rule to be red-lighted. I said to myself, 'All right, we'll take another bite at,' and then the top bulb went out."
Coughlin's side was unaffected, and he bolted off with a normal launch, turning on the win light at the top end. Johnson, with nothing left to lose, decided to make the most of the situation.
"I figured I had lost and decided to at least get some data out of it," Johnson said. "I let the clutch out and made a nice run."
NHRA officials quickly descended upon the faulty starting box, and in no time, discovered the culprit. A small chunk of rubber had lodged inside the staging beam socket causing a malfunction with the right side of the tree. A quick ruling was made to rerun the round following a 30-minute hiatus that would allow both teams to regroup.
In the runoff, Johnson tripped the starting beams too soon with a -.001 red-light which automatically gave Coughlin the win.
"We had to run the world champion first round, and we knew we had to be on top of our game and that I had to be on time," Johnson explained after the race. "I knew I had to be .020 or better on the tree if we were to have a chance, and after last weekend's .065 light, I wasn't leaving anything on the table.
"The biggest issue about going back up there is that you're out of sequence and you're not running behind the same cars that you run behind on a normal basis. The track, actually, it looked good, but it kind of threw us a curve. The car spun the tires hard the first 60 feet and that's where we lost it all. We actually should have made some bigger changes, but not knowing what out e.t. was from the first run, or how fast we really went, it was kind of tough to judge. It gave us some good information, though, when we come back in October.
"We struggled from the very start of the weekend. That first run on Friday, in the right-hand lane, it spun hard. For some reason this car does not like the right lane here – it never has since we came here a year ago with a brand new car. Then we lost the second run (cancelled by NHRA) because of the wind. We came out yesterday morning conservative, and then actually made a pretty decent run in that last run in the right lane. We came out today, ran behind the fuel cars and the conditions had completely changed."
Johnson leaves Las Vegas in eighth place in the Full Throttle points standings, and returns to the friendly confines of Atlanta Dragway, the de facto home track for the ACDelco crew. It sits approximately 30 minutes east of the team's Sugar Hill, Ga., race shop.
”We're going home. We've tested at Atlanta, and run well there this year, and event with the weekend we had here, I honestly feel like it's coming together."
Coughlin went on to win the event by defeating Greg Stanfield in the final round.
The next stop on the schedule is the 29th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals on April 16 – 18 at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga. It is the sixth race on the 24-event NHRA Full Throttle tour. Johnson won the Southern Nationals in 1996 and has been runner-up there twice (1993, '97).
Visit the ACDelco Racing/Kurt Johnson Facebook Fan Page at: Login | Facebook
ACDelco is a global leader in high-quality automotive replacement parts and related services and offers quality aftermarket products for all makes and models, plus GM original equipment replacement parts.
