NHRA Pro Stock veteran Allen Johnson has seen a lot of wild things in his time.

But when it came to the unveiling of his new Mopar/Magneti Marelli Dodge Dart near Williston, Fla., in mid-March, the 2012 series champion envisioned an elephant – the symbol of the trusty Hemi powerplant that has helped shape his drag-racing success – crushing his new race car.

He knew 12,000-pound Luke The Elephant would be posing alongside his and Jeg Coughlin’s newly crafted Mopar/Chrysler product (as well as with Matt Hagan’s Charger Funny Car) at the unveiling at Two Tails Ranch with Mopar CEO Pietro Gorlier on hand. And he joked with Jeg’s team manager Scott “Woody” Woodruff, “I can just see the headline: ‘Rogue Elephant Rampage Destroys Three Cars’. “

The truth is that Johnson was more like the charging beast there in central Florida. He came away from the Gatornationals at Gainesville’s Auto-Plus Raceway with his second consecutive victory among the season’s three races, the points lead, and the top seed for the K&N Horsepower Challenge bonus race at Las Vegas.

Johnson christened the Dart the way he retired his Dodge Avenger – in triumph. But even with the spoils he took to the March 28-30 SummitRacing.com Nationals at Las Vegas, Johnson said he isn’t even in his groove yet with the Dart. And that could spell trouble for the rest of the class.

But reigning Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin, Johnson’s teammate and closest challenger in the standings, has a new Dart, too, and already he’s calling it “a game-changer.”

So the Pro Stock Dodge Dart comes with great expectations – and it will need to live up to those hopes, even as V Gaines will haul out his new Dart in the next few weeks. Waiting to pop their bubble of excitement are such rivals as Erica Enders-Stevens, who set the national speed record and was runner-up at the Gatornationals in her Elite Motorsports Camaro; Dave Connolly, who’s back in the Pro Stock mix with Gray Motorsports and has qualified No. 1 at Gainesville and tested Johnson in the past two semifinals; two-time champion and Winternationals winner Jason Line; and Mopar defector Vincent Nobile – all in Chevy Camaros.

Both Johnson and Coughlin said the Dart is capable of keeping up the performance pace.

“I love this car,” Coughlin said. “I immediately felt extremely comfortable in the driver’s seat. The sight lines are better than what we had in the Avenger, and the stability at speed is great.

 “We feel as though we already have the Dart at the point where the Avenger was when we won the championship last year,” he said. “The difference is the upside potential is much larger. This car is a game changer.”

Coughlin’s first-ever quarter-mile pass with the car in NHRA competition produced his career-best elapsed time, 6.484 seconds (at 214.01 mph). His second run improved his all-time best speed to 214.64 mph. “To go out and run over 214 miles an hour in its very first pass was really sporty,” Coughlin said.

But Coughlin also noticed that Johnson won the Gatornationals because his car was superior.

“The ability to make changes with this car is another thing that’s very encouraging,” Coughlin said. “Allen struggled in Round two in his win against Shane [Gray], and the guys were able to make some last-second adjustments to our car. It made a difference, and we almost got away with it but ended up losing by five-thousandths of a second. By the time Allen got to the next round, even though he didn’t have lane choice, he was able to win because the car was perfect. That was a huge win for the team.”

Johnson agreed: “We didn’t make an exceptionally perfect run the entire weekend. We probably made the best run in the final. That says something for the crew stepping up and doing what we had to do. I would say we’re 90-plus percent [comfortable with the Dart], but I think you’ll see us go to Vegas and get a little more out of it. Some of that’s because of our short time with the car. You have to work-work-work to get it right. We’re not there yet. And to win a race when we’re not quite there yet . . . look out.”

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Photos by Steve Fuhrman

Gorlier congratulated Johnson “for taking the new Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar Dodge Dart straight to the winner’s circle in its debut. What a fantastic way to demonstrate the quality of Mopar products and teamwork.” That, he said,  To defend his title, earn consecutive wins and take the early lead in the championship points makes us very excited about the future of the Dodge Dart and Allen’s bid for another NHRA Championship amid some strong competition.”

Johnson said the Dart “is a little different” from the Avenger. “The A-posts are a little closer in. You’re sitting back and down in the car a little bit more. The center of gravity of this car is different. It’s not a huge difference but a little bit of a noticeable difference.”

Coughlin became animated about the noticeable differences right away, at Bradenton, Fla., during testing of the Dart that had taken more than a year to get on track. He said this collaborative effort among the SRT group at Chrysler Technology Center, Jerry Haas Race Cars, and J&J Racing bore a car that “felt so good” in its maiden voyage. The plan was for Coughlin to go only through second or third gear before clicking the engine off, but he continued well past the targeted point.

“Straight as a string, and I banged all five gears and drove it nearly to the finish line. I thought, ‘Oh, shoot, I’ve got to let off this son of a gun,’ ” Coughlin said, excited “because everything is new — new brakes, new parachutes, everything. It felt fantastic.”

Coughlin was brimming with anticipation at Bradenton, he said. “There was a lot of hustling in this last month. We had to get the car finished at Jerry Haas [Race Cars], had to get possession of the car, get it painted, get things re-wired, re-plumbed, just fixing all the nuances of a new car.”

“As the years have gone by, technology has increased, but the passion at Mopar, Chrysler, and Dodge remains the same. That passion went into this new car. What’s really exciting is to see all the heart, soul, passion, and drive that’s been put onto this project over the last 15 months from all the engineers at SRT Engineering and everyone at Mopar,”Coughlin said at the unveiling. “To see it come to light, to actually be able to strap myself into it and go down the quarter-mile on my very first run and run over 200 mph, the debut is going to be phenomenal.”

The victory in Florida, of course, went to Johnson. And Johnson said his 22^nd victory “had everything to do with the design of the Dodge Dart. That’s a very, very huge accomplishment.”

However, Coughlin said he also felt like a winner, especially when he heard Adam Hornberger, co-crew chief with Mark Ingersoll, so delighted at the 6.48-second, 214-mph pass. “This is only our third race with Adam Hornberger,” he said, “but to hear animation in his voice, honestly, I felt like that was a victory right there.

Gorlier said at the ceremony at Two Tails Ranch, “Today we unveil vehicles but we unveil technology. The new Pro Stock bodies are based on the Dodge Dart. So we complete our range of products in drag racing. We confirm our commitment to drag racing.”

Asked why not the Challenger for a Pro Stock body, Gorlier said, “The reason for the Dart? It’s one of our most recent successful cars, and we are able to transfer the technology [from production to racing]. The car has been tested in the wind tunnel, a great aerodynamic factor.”

He reminded that the Dodge Challenger is at home in the sportsman ranks, in the Stock and Super Stock categories, and that the Dodge Charger plays a big role in Funny Car competition.   

Johnson said the Dodge Dart production model “is a cute car. Every time I pass one, it takes my eye. They’ve got an RT version, a little bigger and better, coming out. It’s a great choice.”

As they looked toward the first of two Las Vegas races on the schedule, Johnson and Coughlin put their faith in the Dart.

Johnson said, “If we do it right, we have two great passes Friday and we don’t really have to worry about qualifying on Saturday. We can worry about race day. If you get behind the eight-ball, that makes you like having one arm behind your back for the K&N [Horsepower Challenge]. Luckily, last year we went out there with a brand-new car and won both of ’em, doubled up. Hopefully we can do the same thing.”

Coughlin, who has won at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway five times, said this Dart could make it No. 6 for him. “Any time you return to a track where you’ve had success there is a real level of comfort,” he said. “But you can never overlook the fact that The Strip is a very strategic racetrack. In the desert, you can have pretty significant fluctuations in the ambient temperatures, and the track temps will change in the morning and afternoon when the shadows shift around. You need to stay on your toes. But with this new Dart, we have the ability to fine-tune everything to exactly what we need.” 

A small wave of fear swept over Coughlin when they rolled their cars out for the first time at the Gatornationals, before Friday qualifying.

He said, “When they pulled the black cover off of it during the announcement, I was thinking, ‘I hope this thing runs well.’ ” 

Coughlin no longer has doubts about the Dart, and this man who said in the aftermath of the Gatornationals that “our fairytale weekend came to a close too soon” will slam his glass slipper on the throttle again and try to fashion a more charming ending.