Saturday was a good day to be Allen Johnson.

The veteran Mopar Pro Stock runner from Greeneville, Tenn., continued to ride a wave of momentum that began to swell last weekend with his second national event win of the season at the NHRA Mopar Mile High Nationals staged outside of Denver.

Nearly 1350 miles northwest into Seattle, Wash., Johnson is hanging ten as the No. 1 qualifier at the NHRA Northwest Nationals hosted by Pacific Raceways.

This weekend’s low qualifying effort marks the first time he’s secured the top spot in 2009, despite recording multiple provisional No. 1 efforts.

Saturday was a good day to be Allen Johnson.

The veteran Mopar Pro Stock runner from Greeneville, Tenn., continued to ride a wave of momentum that began to swell last weekend with his second national event win of the season at the NHRA Mopar Mile High Nationals staged outside of Denver.

Nearly 1350 miles northwest into Seattle, Wash., Johnson is hanging ten as the No. 1 qualifier at the NHRA Northwest Nationals hosted by Pacific Raceways.

This weekend’s low qualifying effort marks the first time he’s secured the top spot in 2009, despite recording multiple provisional No. 1 efforts.

“I think our team feels as good as they have ever felt in our entire career,” Johnson said. “In the last three or four weeks, everything has really jelled. The car is absolutely fabulous right now.”

Johnson credits his engine builder and dad, Roy Johnson, for the positive progress.

“He’s found some horsepower,” said Johnson, of his dad, a former sportsman drag racing champion. “We’re running the back half [of the track] top speed and we haven’t done that in a while. We have the best of both worlds right now.”

Both worlds for Johnson equates to running quick and fast as well as winning rounds.

He has been around Pro Stock racing long enough to known that nothing lasts forever. That’s why Johnson intends to make hay while the sun is up.

“You can be up on the field one week because you have found horsepower and by the next week, someone else can find it and pass you,” Johnson explained. “It’s just a never-ending merry-go-round with the power. One week you’re in and the next week, you are second or third again.”

Johnson has reached the finals of the Seattle event in the last three seasons, winning last in 2006. He races Danny Gruninger in the first round of Sunday’s eliminations.

“We’ve done awful well here, it just seems like it has played into our hands,” Johnson said.   

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