For at least one day, Tommy Johnson Jr. can say he’s the fastest NHRA nitro Funny Car driver in the world.

Johnson, who drives the Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger for Don Schumacher Racing, clocked a 3.874-second elapsed time – the quickest 1,000-foot ET ever recorded – Feb. 6 during the Nitro Spring Training at Wild Horse Motorsports Park in Phoenix, Ariz.

“That was pretty cool,” Johnson said following his run where he crossed the finish line at 318.47 mph. “I was asking the guys what the quickest was when we were down there (at the top end) and I thought that was it. I’m really happy for the guys on the team. It was an awesome ride and I got that part of it, but they get to see that scoreboard so it makes me happy. All the hard work, four days of testing, all the work this winter in the offseason, I’m glad they get to see those results. It’s the best test session I’ve ever had.”

The nitro teams had private testing at Wildhorse Motorsports Park Feb. 3-5 before concluding the session Feb. 6, which was open to the public.

A year ago, Johnson finished third in the point standings, highlighted by his wins at Chicago and Seattle, and six runner-up finishes.

Despite those impressive results, Johnson Jr. didn’t leave preseason testing in 2015 in Palm Beach, Fla., with much confidence at all.

“I think we made 16 to 18 runs down there and only made it down the track two or three,” Johnson Jr. said. “It’s night and day from this year to last year, and it just shows how far this team has come and how well they are performing. We didn’t lose any guys all winter, and we didn’t really change a a lot, we just fine tuned everything. We ran an 89 at Pomona (in November 2015), and you fine tune it and you get an 87 in testing which is pretty good.”

Johnson took a moment to describe what his record run felt like.

“There’s no such thing as a perfect run,” Johnson Jr. said. “It was really good to the eighth-mile and then it wasn’t so good after that. We ran better at the speed to the eighth mile last night (Feb. 5). We were Ok on the back half, and it is hard to put a complete run together. I ran 280 mph to the eighth-mile (Feb. 5) and I ran 278 mph today (Feb. 6), and I’ve been 281 mph (before). If we can keep tickling it and putting a few more pieces together we will be good. I think John (Collins’, Johnson’s crew chief) was kicking himself because he actually backed it up a little bit once we got up there, and it may have been better because who knows if we had (not backed it down a little bit) if it would have made it. In the right conditions, there’s more.”

If Johnson Jr. would have set the ET record during an NHRA national event he would have received no additional points. NHRA changed the rule for 2016 that when Pro drivers set new national records they will no longer receive an additional 20 points.

“I’m not a fan of it,” Johnson Jr. said about the new policy. “I think our sport, we want to create excitement, and I think that takes away from excitement. I don’t know how many times we went to Pomona (for the final race of the season) and I thought if we could do this and this and set the record, we can win the championship and now you’re taking that excitement away. I think you ought to get rewarded for setting a national record.”

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