Back in the mid-90s  Warren Johnson came into the U.S. Nationals as a serious championship contender.  Every single point was precious to him, and with good reason.  At the same his son, Kurt, was not only not a factor in the points chase, he was campaigning an Oldsmobile that lacked major sponsorship support.  During an early round of eliminations on that Labor Day Monday the two faced one another, and there probably wasn’t a fan in the house who didn’t wonder if the fix was in as the two cars staged.  When the light went green all doubt was erased from their minds as KJ cruised off the starting line, and WJ blasted down track.

A chorus of boos chased KJ down track, but a funny thing happened on the return road.  As his car was towed in front of the stands Kurt held up a large hand lettered sign reading, “I Still Had A Job.”  The boos suddenly became cheers, and the Johnson clan found themselves with hundreds of new fans.  His public acknowledgement of going in the tank for his father struck a responsive chord with the spectators, not because it happened, but because they acknowledged it.



Back in the mid-90s  Warren Johnson came into the U.S. Nationals as a serious championship contender.  Every single point was precious to him, and with good reason.  At the same his son, Kurt, was not only not a factor in the points chase, he was campaigning an Oldsmobile that lacked major sponsorship support.  During an early round of eliminations on that Labor Day Monday the two faced one another, and there probably wasn’t a fan in the house who didn’t wonder if the fix was in as the two cars staged.  When the light went green all doubt was erased from their minds as KJ cruised off the starting line, and WJ blasted down track.

A chorus of boos chased KJ down track, but a funny thing happened on the return road.  As his car was towed in front of the stands Kurt held up a large hand lettered sign reading, “I Still Had A Job.”  The boos suddenly became cheers, and the Johnson clan found themselves with hundreds of new fans.  His public acknowledgement of going in the tank for his father struck a responsive chord with the spectators, not because it happened, but because they acknowledged it.

As Warren said on recently, “It’s the same old thing, just a different day.  I’m trying to figure out what I’m going to do with this damn Countdown thing.  How NHRA is going to enforce this no diving thing is impossible.  If you break a crank, or ‘Golly, I accidentally put an extra 20 grams on the clutch and it shook the tires.’  I’d like to see how they’re going to enforce that.  I’m sure there are teams out here that will do whatever it takes to get into the championship position.  They do it now.

“Personally, if they can get their cars there, and it doesn’t hurt the show, so be it.”

Warren is actually unsure of his plans for next season, although he has another year on his contract with GM.  “If (NHRA) adds more races, I’m not sure what I’ll do.  My contract is for 23 races, and that’s what I’m going to do, period.”

At this point in his career WJ is turning more and more of the physical work on the car over to his crew.  As he says, “I was born handicapped.  I only have two hands, and the work load gets greater every day, so obviously, you have to share those challenges with your employees.  If I have to look over the shoulders of the people working for me to check on them, I shouldn’t have hired them in the first place.”