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.

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.
 
"These conditions you don't see very much at 300 foot above sea level. Englishtown on the Friday night passes got really good like that. And at Richmond last year. But it's hard to beat those conditions."
 
Friday night he found himself once again paired with reigning champion Mike Edwards, who has qualified No. 1 at 10 of the first 15 races. "Anytime you can go out there and outrun Mike E.T.-wise, you've done something, " Johnson said.
 
He and Jason Line both topped Edwards in the preliminary order Friday at the previous race, at Seattle, a rare feat. But Edwards stormed back Saturday and regained his dominance.
 
But Johnson said he was confident his 6.545 will hold up as low E.T.
 
"Normally on Friday night here we stretch it out here and run pretty late about every year. A bunch of stuff happens. But as late as it was, as cool as it was, tomorrow I believe it'll be tough to take that away," he said.
 
"The [Saturday] morning session normally is the best session here, but will it get better than this? I don't know -- it'd have to get pretty good."
 
Only twice has Johnson qualified lower than fourth (sixth at Charlotte and 13th at Englishtown).
 
With three runner-up finishes this season (at Houston, Norwalk, and Topeka), Johnson joked, "We can't seal the deal, can we?
 
"We've had a great year, just one little step away here and there. Hopefully we're saving all our luck for the Countdown," he said.
 
Earlier in the decade, Greg Anderson seemed to run away with nearly every qualifying session, elimination round, and race. For a season and a half, Edwards has been the man to beat. When does Johnson think he'll have his time in the spotlight?
 
"I think we're there now," he said. "We've got to make perfect runs every run and have a little luck here and there. And we could win five in a row. We haven't done that. So maybe we're getting ready to start."
 
Who could argue? Since the April 11  Houston race -- 10 events ago -- he has remained second in the standings, an improvement of only one place, at that, in one of the NHRA's most competitive classes.
 
He'll have to tough out two Saturday qualifying sessions.