Steve Johnson has found himself in awkward and unfair circumstances before.

This 28-year NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle veteran didn’t win a national event until his eighth season, and then when he did, nobody had a winners circle celebration. That was the day in June 2004 the sport lost popular Top Fuel driver Darrell Russell at St. Louis.

Steve Johnson has found himself in awkward and unfair circumstances before.

This 28-year NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle veteran didn’t win a national event until his eighth season, and then when he did, nobody had a winners circle celebration. That was the day in June 2004 the sport lost popular Top Fuel driver Darrell Russell at St. Louis.

The next time Johnson won, the NHRA mistakenly declared Matt Smith the winner of the U.S. Nationals and Smith enjoyed the post-race glory before officials reversed the decision. Johnson, minus all the hoopla in which the hilariously entertaining racer surely would have reveled, accepted his trophy in private, again with no fanfare.

Then last season at Englishtown, he was No. 1 qualifier, but the buzz wasn’t about him but rather two other bike teams for a scuffle in the pits. Johnson was starting to look like the Rodney Dangerfield of the Pro Stock Motorcycle class.

But he won at Charlotte and again at Indianapolis in 2008 and just this March won for a second time at Gainesville. And life was going well for the perennial underdog and his underfunded operation.

His program was headed in the right direction, and he had a scream traveling the country with his Wally statue that gave him a chance to brag about NHRA drag racing.

Then along came the Dallas race, and his story was one of the best in the weekend. He was runner-up to Eddie Krawiec this past Saturday as the Pep Boys Carolinas Nationals finished during Dallas qualifying. Then he reached the final of Sunday’s AAA Texas FallNationals – the only one besides double winner Tony Schumacher in Top Fuel to advance to both final rounds last weekend.

That’s when Johnson’s hard-luck pattern re-emerged.

His engine, one of two he described as his “A engines,” exploded in the semifinals Sunday. Even with help from several teams, for which he expressed joy and gratitude, he was unable to prepare his Suzuki in time to get to the starting line for his final-round appearance. The show went on without him.

Johnson didn’t blame anyone – not the NHRA, not final-round opponent Andrew Hines. He was disappointed just the same and expressed that afterward.

He prefaced his remarks with a genuine sentiment (laced, naturally, with his endearing sense of humor): “As much as I love NHRA, there’s a lot of things I don’t agree with. But I’m not going to trash them, because they’re family to me – whether they like me as kin or not.

“I always want to provide a solution. I don’t want to be the cause of the problem,” Johnson said. “So I think there needs to be a solution for these kinds of situations.”

He didn’t specify what he had in mind.

The NHRA has a solution for these kinds of situations: everybody waits for a reasonable, even generous, amount of time, and if a competitor isn’t able to answer the bell, the opponent gets to make a solo pass for the round-win.

After 358 races, Johnson, of course, knew what to expect. Short of making time stand still or being able to wave a magic wand over his pit and have his bike restored to running order on time, he knew the options were few.

Hines, who won and regained the Pro Stock Motorcycle points lead, did wait almost 10 minutes, sweltering in his leather riding uniform on the 138-degree track. For that, Johnson praised the Vance & Hines Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson organization and called it “a class act.” And he didn’t talk disparagingly about the sanctioning body.

Hines also said starter Mark Lyle “was holding me but once he waves you up, you’ve got to go. Steve’s probably not the happiest guy in the world, but what am I going to do?”

Johnson simply said, “The fans are here to support the racers. The fans buy tickets. And fans are here to see racing.”

He was doing his best to fulfill his end of the deal. Folks from LE Tonglet’s team pitched in – and Tonglet was one of Johnson’s conquests Sunday on his way to the finals. Jerry Savoie’s team sent over help. Larry Dixon stood by, holding bolts. “Three-time Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon was in there, getting oily. It was really, really cool. It was a cool effort,” Johnson said.

So Johnson is rich in friendships but a little lean in racing sponsorship -- and Sunday, too short of time.

The NHRA stopped by his pit during the thrash and asked how much more time he would need before he was ready.

“I said 25 minutes. I should have just told them 15. When I told them 25, they said they couldn’t wait and they started their final-round eliminations,” Johnson said.

He said he had hoped they would allow him a little more time.

“There are tons and tons of Suzuki fans,” Johnson said, breaking into his trademark comedic shtick. “I’m talking up to a dozen. That’s ‘tons’ in America, right?”

He made his case: “We’re the only Suzuki in the top 10. America loves David and Goliath. It was clearly David and Goliath. It unfortunately didn’t unfold.”

Maybe it would salve some of Johnson’s disappointment to remember that he leaped from 10th place at the start of the Countdown to third as the tour heads to St. Louis for Race No. 3 of the six-event playoffs . . . and that he, as an underfunded independent, has an above-.500 round-win record (14-10) . . . and that the Biblical David eventually became a king.

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