Team Mopar NHRA Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson Visits With NASCAR star Kurt Busch

Press Release from Team Mopar/Allen Johnson:

I tested Monday through Wednesday last weekend at Bradenton prior to the Gatornationals. We tested a lot of stuff; some was good and some bad. Vinnie Deceglie came down with his car from last year on Wednesday and we sorted that car out and got it set for Gainesville. On Thursday Pam and I took an R&R day and sort of slept in then drove up to Gainesville later that afternoon. We stopped at Cracker Barrel for a late breakfast.

The kicker at the Gatornationals was buddying up with Dodge NASCAR star Kurt Busch, who was racing his Mopar® HEMI®-powered Dodge Challenger in the Super Gas class. He’s real interested in drag racing. He spent quite a bit of time over at the trailer, sitting in the car, checking out our data graphs on the computer, and we talked a lot during the Team Mopar autograph session. After each of our runs, he would come back to the rig and check out our graphs. We even talked about getting him to a test session and doing some driving in a Pro Stock car, or maybe even on one of his NASCAR off weekends doing a rental deal for him and getting him in one of these Pro Stock cars.

I told him we might have to trade out, though. I might have to do a Camping World Truck or a Nationwide ride! I’d love it. Every time I get in a circle track car, I seem to perform fairly well. With a little more track time and a little more training, I think I could go over there and compete in one of those races. It’s something I love. We’ll see what happens.

Come race time at the Gators, it was an interesting event, with the delayed Arizona race run during Gatornationals qualifying. Just having the two races in one weekend kept the adrenaline pumping and kept us all on our toes. Running into Mike Edwards twice was definitely bad luck for us. But you know what, that just makes me and the whole J&J Racing team rise to the challenge even more and get things sorted out so we have a shot at beating him. It brings out the competitive fire in us. Getting beat by the same guy twice in two days, I don’t like that.

But it was a good weekend overall at Gainesville, going to two semis and moving to second in points. The new Mopar Dodge Avenger is definitely a better car than what we had last year. I think we still have more in it. When we get it to its optimum point, I think you’re really going to see the Mopar Dodge shine.