PRO STOCK
Kurt Johnson scored his second win of the 2008 season on Sunday, capturing the Pro Stock title at the Torco Race Fuels Route 66 Nationals in Joliet, IL. After qualifying sixth, Johnson methodically recorded the quickest elapsed time in every round defeating Mike Edwards, Greg Anderson and his father Warren Johnson before squaring off against No. 1 qualifier Jeg Coughlin in the final.
Knowing he would need a near perfect performance to earn the victory, Johnson responded with his best reaction time of the day at .019 to gain the advantage by one-hundredth of a second at the starting line, capping the day with a 6.733-second, 205.22 mph pass to easily defeat Coughlin, who suffered severe tire shake at the hit of the throttle. This was the 38th win of Johnson’s career and third at Route 66 Raceway, allowing him to extend his lead in the POWERade championship standings.
“What a great day,” said Johnson. ”Going into the final, I knew I would have to come up with a good light, because Jeggie is like a machine on the starting line, repeatedly putting up twenties and teens. I figured we had a couple hundredths on him in performance, so I felt I had to have a thirty or better to give us chance to win. To come up with that .019 was just huge.”
The Johnson-led crew had worked on their race car’s tune-up throughout the weekend, dialing it in to the hot and humid conditions at the Joliet quarter-mile, which were made even more challenging by the persistent showers throughout the weekend, which included a three-hour rain delay between the first and second rounds on Sunday. After moving up to the sixth position on their final qualifying attempt on Saturday afternoon, the team made major changes prior to final eliminations, producing a stunning 6.717-second, 205.32 mph blast in their first round win over veteran Mike Edwards. From that point on, they were never headed.
“We made some changes to it last night after qualifying, and it really responded, picking me up when I needed it to in the middle rounds,” Johnson said. “In fact, it was so fast right off the bat this morning with that 6.71 that I resisted making any major changes. From the second round on, all I basically had to do was detail it.”
Jeg Coughlin Jr. came within 6.7 seconds of successfully defending his Route 66 NHRA Nationals race title but settled for runner-up honors to Kurt Johnson. It was the third final of the year for the defending POWERade champion and kept him comfortably in second place in the points standings.
In eight rounds of racing this weekend, Coughlin's JEGS.com Chevrolet Cobalt was the second quickest car in the field six times. It also led the field once and was third quickest on another occasion. The consistency earned the JEGS side of the Victor Cagnazzi Racing organization the Full Throttle Award for having the most reliable ride.