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Team Chevy's Kurt Johnson Takes Pro Stock Lead to Dallas
Runner-up Finish at Charlotte Puts ACDelco Chevy Driver Out Front in Countdown
ENNIS, Texas, September 16, 2008 - On the strength of a runner-up finish at the just-completed inaugural NHRA Carolinas Nationals, the first of six races in the Countdown to 1, Chevy driver Kurt Johnson picked an opportune time to ascend to the top of the Pro Stock standings. Johnson, who briefly held the top spot in the standings earlier this year in June, looks to make this stay permanent as he and his fellow NHRA competitors travel to the Texas Motorplex on the outskirts of Dallas for this weekend's 23rd annual O'Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals.
Johnson's Chevy Cobalt looked like the car to beat at Charlotte as the 45-year-old Buford, Ga., resident qualified No. 1 and was the quickest Pro Stocker in eliminations in two of the first three rounds. Unfortunately, Johnson and his team were unable to get the ACDelco Chevy Cobalt started as they rolled up to the line in the finals and Justin Humphreys in his RaceRedi Motorsports Pontiac GXP had an uneventful pass to his first NHRA Pro Stock win.
"Despite how things ended up, I prefer to look at it on the positive side," Johnson said. "It could have happened earlier in the day, I could have gone red in the second round instead of that .003, or it could have been someone else in the other lane. There are a lot of things that could have gone wrong, but we made to the final, our ACDelco Cobalt ran flawlessly and we leave (Charlotte) with the points lead.
"Still, losing a race that way only serves to motivate me even more. I'm as hot as the headers after a run. We'll put today behind us and move on, determined to complete the picture next week in Dallas."
23rd annual O'Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals
GM RACING STATS AND FACTS
* Former NHRA Sport Compact Racing Series champion Justin Humphreys claimed his first NHRA Pro Stock victory at Charlotte in only his second career final-round appearance (Pomona 2 2007).
* Humphreys' win in his RaceRedi Motorsports Pontiac GXP was the 189th all time for Pontiac in the Pro Stock category. Of those 189 victories, Greg Anderson has the most behind the wheel of a Pontiac with 54 victories (56 total career wins), Warren Johnson is next on the list with 42 wins and Jim Yates is third with 25.
* Humphreys' first career victory also broke a string of four consecutive Pro Stock wins by Team Chevy drivers starting with Dave Connolly's Sonoma victory in July, August wins by Kurt Johnson at Brainerd and Jeg Coughlin at Reading, and then Connolly again at the U.S. Nationals at Indy.
* Anderson, driver of the Summit Racing Pontiac GXP, has a class-leading five wins on the season including back-to-back-to-back wins at Englishtown (N.J.), Norwalk (Ohio) and Denver.
* Connolly's victory at Indy in the Charter Communications Chevy Cobalt was the 156th all-time win for Chevrolet in the Pro Stock category. Kurt Johnson became Chevy's all-time winningest Pro Stock driver with his victory earlier this year at St. Louis in May and now has 29 of his 39 career wins behind the wheel of a Chevy.
* Teammates Jason Line and Greg Anderson in team Summit Racing Pontiac GXPs hold both ends of the Texas Motorplex track record in the Pro Stock class. Line has a track-record elapsed time of 6.643 seconds set in 2006 and Anderson's speed of 207.40 mph was set in 2005, currently the longest-standing Pro Stock track record for speed on the circuit.
* Warren Johnson in the GM Performance Parts Pontiac GXP has the most career Pro Stock wins at Texas Motorplex with five. "The Professor" swept both events here in 1999, won this event in 1998 and 1989, and won the discontinued Spring race in 1997. His son and teammate, Kurt Johnson, (2000, 1995, 1993) is next with three wins, Greg Anderson (2005, 2003), defending event champ Dave Connolly (2007, 2004) and Jim Yates in the WileyX Pontiac GXP (1997, 1996) each have two victories, followed by Pontiac drivers Mike Edwards (1998 Spring race) and Richie Stevens Jr. (2006) and Team Chevy's Jeg Coughlin (2002).
* After 19 of 24 races on the schedule completed, and the first of six events in the Countdown to 1, eight drivers in GM-branded cars occupy a spot in the top 10 of the Pro Stock standings. Kurt Johnson in the ACDelco Chevy Cobalt leads the standings with 2,158 points, Greg Anderson (Pontiac) is 15 points behind Johnson in second place with 2,143 points, Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Chevrolet) is third with 2,127 points, and Anderson's teammate, Jason Line (Pontiac), is fourth with 2,093 points. Dave Connolly (Chevrolet) is in seventh place with 2,052 points, Mike Edwards (Pontiac) is eighth with 2,042 points, Greg Stanfield (Pontiac) is ninth with 2,011 points, and Ron Krisher (Chevrolet) is 10th with 2,000 points.
* Tony Pedregon's fourth win of the season at Brainerd in his Q Horsepower Chevy Impala SS was Chevrolet's 98th all time in the nitro Funny Car category. Chevy Funny Car drivers have combined for a class-leading 10 victories so far this year to break the mark set in 1998 for most Chevy Funny Car wins in a season.
* Chevy drivers Tim Wilkerson and Tony Pedregon lead the way in Funny Car with a class-leading four victories each. Del Worsham also drove the CSK Chevrolet to a win in April at Houston, and Tony Bartone recorded his first career Funny Car victory at Seattle.
* Pedregon is the defending Dallas event winner in Funny Car and has two career wins here at the Texas Motorplex (2007, 1999 Spring race). Worsham also has two Dallas victories in his CSK Chevy (2004, 2002), and Gary Densham in the Racebricks Chevy won here in 2001.
* Wilkerson recorded his second of two No. 1 qualifiers in 2007 at Dallas last year (Bristol), and has a class-leading four No. 1 qualifiers in 2008.
* After 19 of 24 races, and the first of six races in the Countdown to 1, three Chevy Impala drivers occupy a spot in the top 10 of the NHRA POWERade Funny Car standings. Tony Pedregon in the Q Horsepower Chevrolet is in third place with 2,131 points, just three points behind his brother Cruz in first place. Regular season points leader Tim Wilkerson in the Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevy Impala SS is in fifth place with 2,121 points and Gary Densham in the Racebricks Chevy Impala SS is tied with Ron Capps for seventh with 2,042 points.
A two-hour telecast of qualifying coverage for the O'Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals can be seen on ESPN2 on Saturday, Sept. 20, beginning at 10:00 p.m. (ET). Coverage on ESPN2 continues on Sunday, Sept. 21, when NHRA Race Day will kick off eliminator coverage starting at 11:00 a.m. (ET), and concludes with three hours of final eliminations coverage beginning at 8:30 p.m. (ET).
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