As Allen Johnson prepares to kick off his 15th NHRA Pro Stock season, the perennial top 10 finisher believes this could finally be his year to make a serious run at the championship.

Johnson has worked on his driving and fitness over the winter. Engine builder and father Roy Johnson has put in the hours at the shop. The factory-backed Dodge team will take to the track with what Johnson believes is one of the best cars they’ve ever had in their new Mopar Dodge Avenger.

All the tools are in place to make a run at the title.

And New Dodge Avenger Could Be The Key …


As Allen Johnson prepares to kick off his 15th NHRA Pro Stock season, the perennial top 10 finisher believes this could finally be his year to make a serious run at the championship.

Johnson has worked on his driving and fitness over the winter. Engine builder and father Roy Johnson has put in the hours at the shop. The factory-backed Dodge team will take to the track with what Johnson believes is one of the best cars they’ve ever had in their new Mopar Dodge Avenger.

All the tools are in place to make a run at the title.

“We are probably more determined than ever,” Johnson said. “We’ve done this a long time. Dad is right at the top of his game with the engines. We feel like we’ve finally got a car that is equal. If I can go out there and be a kick-ass driver … we’ve got a shot.”

Despite winning a career best two national events at Topeka and Denver and a No. 1 qualifier at Seattle, Johnson finished seventh in the points in 2009. He was in contention most of the year, but problems in the Countdown really hurt.

“We thought we could do it last year and were very disappointed it didn’t (happen),” Johnson said of winning a championship. “I think if Mike (Edwards) hadn’t become so dominant mid season, we might have had a shot at it. But the way our luck ran after the Countdown started … we DNQ’d twice during the Countdown. It was just terrible, bad luck. It wasn’t really anything we did. Reading got rained out. We had one qualifying pass or maybe two and never got off the starting line. Richmond it came down to the last run, the air got real cold, and we broke a lifter. All of that said, we are just way determined.”

That being said, Johnson felt it was clear even before the Countdown started just how Pro Stock was going to shake out.

“From mid year on, we were all racing for second unless Mike screwed up,” said Johnson, who finished a career best fourth in the points in 2007. “That’s the truth. We were all chasing him. He was making perfect runs. He made the most power. He had the complete package like Greg (Anderson) did back in 2003 and 2004. He had everybody covered.”

Johnson hopes his new Dodge Avenger has everyone covered this year. He has the same motors that consistently qualified in the top half of the field last year, and the 50-year-old Greeneville, Tenn.-native believes the new Avenger could put the team over the top.

“The new car is really awesome,” he said. “We have been at a disadvantage the last six years with the Stratus because it is aerodynamically disadvantaged. This car is about 20 counts better in the wind tunnel, which ads up to six or eight horsepower and three quarters of a mile per hour. That is huge. We feel that just keeping our power where it was last year, we’ll gain a couple of positions in qualifying and probably half to three quarters of a mile per hour. If you look back to last year, you put that on what we had, and we are right there with Mike.”

Johnson has had three test sessions with the new Avenger, once in Palm Beach (Fla.) and twice in Bradenton (Ga.) where he recently ran a low E.T. of 6.54 and top speed of 210.70 mph.

“We still have a little way to go, but we have one more test session this week at Vegas,” Johnson said. “We are going to be there for four days. We’ll test heavily with our race setup for Pomona. The two or three little quirky things that we are not happy with I think will work out. Overall, we are feeling really good about the car.”