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Professor Gives Lesson to Pro Stockers with No. 1 Qualifier at Bristol
Father-Son Duo Takes Top Two Spots as Son Kurt Qualifies Second
BRISTOL, Tenn., May 17, 2008 - Kurt Johnson held yesterday's provisional Pro Stock pole for the 8th annual O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, but his father Warren did him one better today and claimed his second No. 1 qualifier of the season and a NHRA-record 138th of his legendary career. "The Professor" set both ends of Bristol Dragway's Pro Stock track records when he drove his GM Performance Parts Pontiac GXP to an elapsed time of 6.674 seconds at 207.43 mph to better his son and teammate Kurt in the ACDelco Chevy Cobalt. Kurt drove his Chevy to a 6.685 e.t. at 206.29 mph to drop to the second qualifying position, the 36th time father and son have qualified 1 and 2. In fact, this is the second time this season as Warren qualified No. 1 and Kurt No. 2 at this year's Gatornationals at Gainesville.
"Whether it's Kurt or myself, I really don't care," Warren said. "It's just really fulfilling to see all of the work that both Kurt and I, and the crew members that we have, and the guys back at the shop that are constantly machining parts for us have done. It's really a team effort from top to bottom, front to back. Anytime we can qualify No. 1, and like last week Kurt win a race, it's a great feeling.
"It absolutely helped that we tested, especially when you can test at a track where you're going to run a national event. And it's a testament to the Bristol (track) crew over here because the track that we tested on was just the same as we raced on which is very, very rare. It was just a mistake on our part as far as the setup at St. Louis and that's part of the reason we came up here to test. We wanted to validate what we felt we had done wrong, and we came here and worked on that particular area and it proved to be beneficial. At least we're bright enough to figure out what area to work on."
After a win two weeks ago at St. Louis Kurt came into Bristol third in points, and despite the season's first DNQ for Warren, the six-time NHRA POWERade Pro Stock champion is still eighth in the standings and looks to stay in the top 10 to qualify for the Countdown.
"Actually both Kurt and I have been working on our cars way overtime; the crews too," Warren said. "I did my part as far as figuring out how to get more horsepower to be competitive, and then we pretty much turned it over to the crews to figure out how to get it down the racetrack. It's coming together pretty nicely. We've got a few areas we have to work on yet, but hopefully we can shore those things up in the next race or two and be competitive the rest of the season."
"Even though we made a pretty decent run with our ACDelco Cobalt this morning and put up another 6.68," Kurt said, "we were just a shade off, opening the door for Dad who was just able to get around us. Still, it's not as bad when it's your teammate ahead of you, and we're pretty pleased with qualifying second.
"Knowing we wouldn't get bumped out, we tried a few things for the afternoon session, and even though it was a couple hundredths off what it should have been, it still gave us valuable tuning information for tomorrow. We're pretty sure we know what we need to do with the tune-up to get down either lane, and I know what I need to do behind the wheel, so we're going to come out swinging, doing what we can to duplicate what we did in St. Louis a couple weeks ago."
Greg Anderson qualified his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP No. 3 behind the Johnson duo with an elapsed time of 6.699 at 205.66 mph, and the three-time Pro Stock champ has qualified outside of the top half of the field just once this season.
"It's typical, like any other weekend," Anderson said, "because everybody's glued together. You'd swear the scoreboard was stuck when you watched every qualifying session. We're fairly happy with my car. It's been very consistent all weekend and it's made four pretty decent runs. Jason's (teammate Line) been a little off each run so we have a little work to do there. I think we'll have two fast cars for tomorrow. Can we run with the Johnsons? That's maybe a little stretch right now; they seem to have a little (performance) advantage, but we'll bring our best. Somebody's going to have to take it from them, but crazy things can happen on race day. That's why they race them on the racetrack and not on paper."
Anderson's 53rd career win at Houston earlier this season broke a tie he held with former Top Fuel great Joe Amato for fifth all time for career wins, but his very first winner's circle celebration came here at Bristol Dragway in a final-round showdown with Jim Yates in this event in 2001.
"I can remember that day like it was yesterday," Anderson said. "It was just the neatest thing that I had ever experienced and I almost couldn't believe it. I didn't really feel worthy almost. But then we went on to win a few races and I guess it sunk in. But we earned that first one. We didn't steal it and didn't back into it - we ran good that day. But until you go out and do it again, you never know. At that time I didn't know if I could ever win again. It was a neat, neat feeling, and that's where it all started - right here."
Tom Hammonds in his Tom Hammonds Enterprise Chevy Cobalt also turned in a strong qualifying effort and will race on Sunday for the first time since Phoenix. Hammonds will start tomorrow's eliminations qualified 11th with an elapsed time of 6.730 seconds at 203.77 mph and will face Dave Connolly in Round 1.
"It's extremely satisfying to see the hard work pay off," Hammonds said. "We've learned the hard way. We've taken our lumps, but at the same time, even if you don't qualify, as long as you learn why you're not qualified and learn from those mistakes, then it's worthwhile. But we still have a lot of work to do, not only here but back at the shop. We're not there yet, but we'll continue to keep working hard. This is a step in the right direction."
