Allen Johnson bit into the apple -- ate the whole thing, actually.
 
Then he puckered up his face and shook his head. "Whew -- that was sour!" he declared.
 
What a shame that a sour moment followed such a sweet one Saturday for the Greeneville, Tenn., NHRA racer who held onto his No. 1 qualifying position for Sundays' elimination in the FRAM-Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
 
And how distasteful for Johnson that in the opening round he'll have to put his Team Mopar / J & J Racing Dodge Avenger against No. 16 qualifier Vinnie Deceglie, his engine customer.
 
He'll slough off both annoyances, surely, armed with security from his track-record elapsed time (6.545 seconds) and speed (210.77 mph) and a decent idea of what the track can hold.
 
"I think the conditions this afternoon are going to be what they start off with tomorrow," Johnson said. "I think it's going to get even a little warmer tomorrow."

It was a night of first’s Saturday at the Grand Bend Motorplex as Bruce Litton picked up his first career Top Fuel victory at the “The Bend” and a first time winner was crowned in Pro Fuel as well during the MOPAR Nitro Jam Nationals presented by E3 Spark Plugs Saturday in Grand Bend, Ontario.

Litton snapped Bobby Lagana’s three-race win streak during Saturday’s “Night of Fire,” edging the New York native by mere inches at the line to pick up his fifth win of the season. Rich McPhillips also picked up his first career Nitro Jam win over Jeff Hamelink in Pro Fuel and Steve Nichols claimed his second win of the season over Peter Gallen in Prostalgia Nitro Funny Car.

And all three drivers had to endure a day of unique conditions of interesting weather to walk away winners.

Funny Car driver Jack Beckman set both ends of the Infineon Raceway track record en route to his first No. 1 qualifier of 2010 at the 23rd annual FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals Saturday.

The other No. 1 qualifiers at the 15th of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Series season were Larry Dixon (Top Fuel), Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) and Hector Arana (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

Beckman paced the Funny Car field with a 4.063-second pass at 311.56 mph on Friday night in his Valvoline/MTS Dodge Charger and the time held up on a warmer afternoon on Saturday. The No. 1 was the third of Beckman’s career.

Warren Johnson spoke out last Sunday at Seattle about the NHRA's track-prep performance in an effort to defend not only the honor of the Pro Stock class but to force the sanctioning body to make drag racing safer.
 
In the process, he offended Funny Car drivers Jim Head and Bob Tasca, who returned fire and challenged Johnson to drive a flopper -- blindfolded, even. While Johnson conceded that he “probably got a little overzealous last weekend,” he held fast to his convictions that prompted the war of words.
 
As for whether he'll take up Head and Tasca on their dare, Johnson said, “You never know. I've driven just about everything, but at this point I've got other fish to fry.
 
“This is just big-time auto wrestling,” Johnson said Friday while preparing to qualify his K&N Pontiac GXP at the National Hot Rod Association's FRAM-Autolite Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
 
He referred to Tasca and Head as “laptop cowboys” who “didn't really listen to what I said -- they didn't hear what I said. I said it didn't take much talent to drive those cars down the racetrack, because everything is pretty much taken care of. I didn't say they didn't have any talent.”
 
He said of Tasca's reaction, “That's the case of a spoiled brat.”

When NHRA officials were forced to cancel the second round of Top Fuel qualifying Friday night at the Fram-Autolite Nationals, it didn’t sit well with some competitors.

The NHRA called off the second round of qualifying because the sanctioning body didn’t believe it could complete the session by the 10 pm. curfew at Infineon Raceway.

“I think they (NHRA) had to cancel a Top Fuel qualifying session back in 2007 or 2008 at Sonoma,” said Jim Oberhofer, crew chief for Doug Kalitta. “You think they would have learned from that. They have a strict 10 pm. curfew and our (Kalitta Motorsports) Funny Car didn’t make its first lap until 5:31 pm., (which) is what is says on our time slip.

“I do not know how the heck they got so behind. I think it is a bull**** deal. I think whoever the hell makes the schedule here for this race, needs to either be fired or learn how to make a schedule. We constantly have this problem here every time we run here. The problem with this place is that the air changes so much that you end up having problems running your car. The chances of blowing stuff up are much greater here because of these huge air swings.”

Funny Car driver Tim Wilkerson predicted that with the program dragging on Friday night with clean-up delays -- meaning cooler and better conditions -- that Infineon Raceway fans just might see the fastest run of the year so far in qualifying for the FRAM-Autolite Nationals.
 
His guess was amazingly close when it came to elapsed time, although he was a bit off on the speed. And he probably was less disappointed in missing the forecast as he was that the track E.T. and speed records belong not to him but to Jack Beckman.
 
Beckman made a bid for his first No. 1 qualifying position since last fall's Richmond race, posting a 4.063-second pass at 311.56 mph in his Don Schumacher-owned Valvoline/Mail Terminals Dodge Charger.
 
Racing a curfew that cost the Top Fuel class a second qualifying session as much as his competitors, he erased teammate Matt Hagan's records (4.068/307.51) from last July.
 
Although he carries the nickname "Fast Jack," Beckman would own just the third top-qualifying spot of his career.

Allen Johnson took advantage of mineshaft conditions Friday night and under the Infineon Raceway lights, he did more than make a bid for Pro Stock's No. 1 qualifying position for the FRAM-Autolite Nationals.
 
He rewrote both the track elapsed-time and speed records with a 6.545-second blast at 210.77 mph in his Team Mopar / J&J Dodge Avenger. They wiped out Jason Line's year-old marks.
 
The Greeneville, Tenn., native, on target in his native Southeast, was No. 1 qualifier at Atlanta and Bristol. So this would be the third top spot of the year and 10th of his career.
 
"Conditions at 300 feet -- best conditions we've had in awhile. Humidity rolls in and it slows us down on miles per hour.  But track's awesome. Air's awesome," Johnson said. "We had a decent run."
 
He corrected himself.
 
"It's pretty much an above-average run," he said.

Keep up with this weekend's NMCA/NMRA Super Bowl from Joliet, Ill., through our same day coverage. Reporter Mark Kieser will provide the latest happenings thanks to our friends at Aeromotive.

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Excitement was in the air Friday evening as the MOPAR Nitro Jam Nationals presented by E3 Spark Plugs officially got underway at the Grand Bend Motorplex in Grand Bend, Ontario.

Friday wasn’t as much about the show as it was giving all the race teams a hit at the track, but still several fans came out to enjoy an evening of exciting doorslammer and dragster action. All sportsman drivers and even members of the Pro Modified Racing Association got in one pass on Friday in preparation for two days of thrilling Nitro Jam action Saturday and Sunday at “The Bend.”

And those in attendance Friday evening got a bit of a surprise and a taste of things to come as Mike Stawicki (Medina, N.Y.), the new record holder for the PMRA Pro Mod group and the most recent race winner, continued his reign of dominance with a blistering 5.881 second pass at 252.05 miles-per-hour to rocket to the top of the charts.

All season, Larry Dixon has been a favorite to win qualifying pole positions.

Friday at the Fram-Autolite NHRA Nationals it was no different and Dixon lived up to his billing.

Dixon took the provisional pole with a 3.839-second time at 317.79 mph. Dixon’s run was the last run of the first round of qualifying and it held up when the second round of Top Fuel qualifying was cancelled by NHRA officials because they didn’t believe the second round of qualifying could be completed in time to meet the 10 pm curfew at Infineon Raceway.

“We made a nice run in that first session,” said Dixon, who is aiming to capture his fifth No. 1 qualifying spot this season. “As more cars ran, it gave Jason (McCulloch) and Alan (Johnson) an opportunity to gauge what they thought the track would hold. They went up there and made a very good run. It was just a great job by everybody on the Al-Anabi team.”