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A MEMORABLE SEASON.

Can you believe the holiday season is already here? It’s been a while since I updated everyone on what I and the J&J Racing Mopar team have been up to. In fact, it’s been since the start of the NHRA Countdown to the Championship so before we say hello to 2015, here’s how 2014 ended and what we’ve been busy with.

It was a roller coaster of a playoff series that didn’t quite go as we had hoped and while I’m disappointed to end the year in sixth place, we had some pretty memorable moments this season. The Mopar team was very proud to debut the new Magneti Marelli Dodge Dart with a win early in the year. There was the all-Mopar final in Denver where we won the Mopar Mile-High Nationals title for a third straight year, and my sixth win at Bandimere Speedway in eight years.

This Pro Stock season was also my ninth consecutive year finishing in the top-10in the standings and the Mopar team worked hard to win four titles and see six final round appearances. But we didn’t get done what we needed to do and we need to do better next year. We have had a decent year with some good highlights, but we have to get rid of the mistakes. The Pro Stock competition was fierce and Erica Enders-Stevens was very deserving and worthy of being called a true champion.

There are going to be a few changes for our team as we prepare for next year. First of all, I’m going to miss having our teammate Jeg Coughlin Jr. around on a full-time basis next season. All of us at Team Mopar wish him and Samantha well with the new addition to the Coughlin clan on its way.

One of the biggest changes will be a new crew chief for the 2015 season. Prior to qualifying in the season finale at Pomona, we announced that we’d parted ways with Mark Ingersoll. He was with us for 13 years, and he’s been a great asset and a great friend, but he was ready to do something different. We support that, wish him the best, and have nothing but good things to say about him. He will be missed.

Two-time NHRA Pro Stock champ Jim Yates was gracious enough on short notice to step for the weekend to take on crew chief responsibilities and help us through this last race.

Looking ahead to next year, I am very happy to share that Adam Hornberger will join the Mopar team as my crew chief for the 2015 season. Adam comes from a long history of racing and spent 16 years with Penske Shocks. He worked with some of the top crew chiefs in the NHRA over the past 10 years after our team and Mopar/Dodge brought Penske shocks into drag racing. Adam worked as crew chief in 2013 for World Champion Mike Edwards prior to his retirement, and then in 2014 worked for Jeg as crew chief along with J&J crew chief Mark Ingersoll.

In 2015, Adam will be assisted by car chief Mike Gott, who has been with us for 14 years, and assistant crew chief Mike Earle who has worked for J&J for the past three years. Adam will also work closely with the engine department, which is headed by my dad Roy, to fine tune the capabilities of our Dodge Dart with the HEMI powerplant. I have the upmost confidence he can do the job and give us a leg up on the competition.

There’s a lot to be excited about and we have already gotten some testing done at the track in Bradenton, Florida, this past week. We’ll be working our butts off at our shop in Greeneville, Tennessee, and get some more testing in over the next few weeks. I can’t wait to battle it out again next year and the first race can’t come fast enough.

Looking back on my year away from the track, one of the things I accomplished was getting my private pilot’s license. I became official after passing my written test, taking my first solo flight, and then passing the check-ride and oral exam with the FAA examiner in October. At the beginning of November, my wife Pam and our dog Sadie were my very first passengers on a beautiful day over the incredible Tennessee landscape and they loved it. Everything about flying is intriguing to me and I think I’ll continue on and work to get my multi-engine and instrument rating licenses as well. Most recently, I did four hours of multi-engine training at Paige Field near Fort Myers, Florida, and it was awesome to cut off a perfectly good engine and still be able to fly!

Time certainly flew by these past few weeks, and while there isn’t much of an “off-season” for the Mopar team before things get busy again, it’s now time to slow things down and trade in our weekend Christmas tree for a more traditional one.

It’s also time to be grateful for all we have, enjoy time with loved ones, be thankful for new and old friends, remember those we have lost this year and look forward to another year of blessings.

Pam, Revonda, Roy and I, along with everyone at Johnson & Johnson Racing would like to wish all of our supporters, friends and family a safe and wonderful holiday season, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.


BRAINERD, INDY AND SIX DEGREES OF KEVIN BACON.

It’s playoffs time! Can’t believe it’s already here. We’ve got a little break before Charlotte kicks off the six-race “second season,” so it’s as good a time as any to file my last regular-season blog.

Following the Seattle race and prior to Brainerd, Pam and I were able to take in a concert by The Bacon Brothers, with actor Kevin Bacon and his brother performing together. They came to our hometown of Greeneville, and I was really blown away by how good Kevin Bacon is as a musician. He and his brother played a little bit of everything and were just amazing. He stayed right in downtown Greeneville and we got the chance to see him in the hotel while we were having dinner, so that was a pretty neat deal.

Come race weekend at Brainerd, this was the first year I can ever remember that I didn’t have a chance to visit the “Zoo,” where all the Brainerd fans camp and whoop it up. It was just a busy weekend for us so I didn’t have time to make it over, but I will next year for sure. Those Minnesota fans sure know how to enjoy a race, both on and off the track. I did hit one my fave restaurants, the Black Bear Lodge, and went to town on some tasty prime rib three nights in a row.

Come race time, qualifying was excellent. My “Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar” guys helped put us on the pole in the No. 1 spot for eliminations, but we experienced a malfunction and went home way earlier that we should have. We had a fast car, and sure should have gone further in eliminations, but just couldn’t make it.

With Brainerd in the books, up next was our big trip to Sweden, where we visited with Thomas Lindström, who competes in the FIA European Drag Racing Championship in one of our old Dodge Pro Stock cars, with Mopar HEMI engines supplied by our J&J Racing team. I had never made it over to Europe, so Pam and I were excited for the trip. We left the Wednesday morning after Brainerd — and arrived in Sweden on Thursday morning with flight time and the time difference. I missed an entire night of sleep! Pam was able to crash out, but I couldn’t, so I was up for about 32 hours straight.

I was a little groggy, but it was an eye-opening experience. We spent the first day in Stockholm, and I was blown away by how clean the city was and how professional everyone seemed to look as we traveled around. Stefan Ernryd, Thomas’ team owner, stayed with us and was sort of our tour guide around Stockholm all day. We had a late lunch with him and his wife and then headed to our hotel, a 300-year-old inn near Tierp Arena, where Thomas was competing.

Tierp Arena is a beautiful facility, just as good as any venue we race at over here. FIA Euro Drag events are set up just like NHRA events, with two days of qualifying and the race on Sunday. We stayed for all three days of the event, spending time with Thomas, Stefan and the entire team, and had a blast. I worked with the team during my visit and pointed out a few things, but it didn’t help any as the track got really cold. About everyone shook the tires, including Thomas, who fell in the first round. It was only about 54 degrees and the track temp was 60 degrees, so anybody would have had trouble in those conditions.

All in all it was immensely rewarding to see our cars and engines performing thousands of miles away. The Swedish folks are about as Mopar crazy as us, if not more, believe it or not. And you wouldn’t believe the spread the team put on. They had a chef at the track fixing food for us with Swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes, which is right up my alley. But Thomas did the weirdest thing, taking strawberry preserves and mixing them right up in the mashed potatoes. I teased him a bit and yelled, “What are you doing??” And the coffee, you can drink a little bitty cup of it, and you think the top of your head is going to blow off — it’s that strong. It’s a kick to see all the different foods and customs, and Pam and I are hoping to make it back over soon.

We left Sweden on Monday at 10 a.m. and arrived in Newark at about 12:30 p.m., so we gained back most of the time that we lost. Coming back wasn’t near as bad or hard on the system. We finally made it to our house in Greeneville at 8:30 p.m. that night, then I re-packed and left for St. Louis the next morning to test. Definitely logged a lot of air miles in the month of August.

St. Louis was about the hottest I’ve ever been in my life. It was near 100 degrees and 80 percent humidity. I made the equivalent of about 12 runs that day, and I think the time spent suffering in the heat should pay off when we return to St. Louis for the Countdown playoffs.

We flew to Kokomo, Indiana, the next day for a visit at the Chrysler Kokomo Transmission plant, where we signed autographs and met workers while our “Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar” Dodge Dart car was on display. My dad Roy and I went, and it was very impressive seeing what they do there. Dad was a transmission specialist when he worked at a Chrysler dealership back in the day, so he was in heaven. The Kokomo plant had a showroom with old transmissions on display, and Dad knew all about them. It was cool seeing him talk with some of the longtime plant employees, some of whom he was in contact with back in the ’70s when he was racing Super Stock for Dodge.

We hit Indy for the U.S Nationals on Thursday, and I hit the links for the Eric Medlen Memorial Golf Tournament at Eagle Creek Golf Club. The group I was part of shot a respectable 17 under, but scores weren’t the focus. It was about helping to keep the memory of Eric alive while also supporting a great cause, the Peyton Manning Children's Hospital at St. Vincent, and I was honored to take part.

Of course, I can’t be in Indy and not visit the St. Elmo Steak House. After the tournament on Thursday I stopped in for some shrimp and prime rib. Pam was jealous because she didn’t come until Friday, but we had a team dinner on Sunday with our crew and Jeg’s crew, so she was able to enjoy some St. Elmo’s after all!

Before qualifying at Indy on Friday, Jeg and I hit the staging lanes to check out the Mopar HEMI Challenge cars and watch the first round. They had a huge field, like 26 cars, all 1968 Mopar HEMI-powered Dodge Darts or Plymouth Barracudas. It’s always a highlight at Indy to watch those HEMI machines duke it out.

That was about our only highlight at the U.S. Nationals. We had something — I’ve been calling it a “virus” — on the car that carried over from Brainerd. I think we found what it was, but it gave us problems with the engines at Brainerd and at Indy, until the last qualifying run. We found the problem, and Jeg and I both stepped up in that final Indy qualifying run. We made progress big time, although we didn’t show it on Monday at Indy very well. But we found something that had been plaguing us for a couple of races. Jeg and I were not happy at all with our performance there. The only good thing to come out of Indy is that we found the problem, and we’re optimistic heading to Charlotte.

Everything starts new with the Countdown playoffs kicking off at Charlotte. I’m just 40 markers behind points leader Jason Line, and Jeg’s 50 back. In this second season, we have got to eliminate the little problems that have plagued us the last few races. The key to success in the Countdown is to avoid early-round losses. With the “virus” out of our system, hopefully we can do that, go rounds and bring home that second NHRA Pro Stock World Championship to Mopar and to our shop in Greeneville, Tennessee.

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TAKING A SWING.

Well, another one is in the books. We know the Western Swing is always going to be a knockdown, drag-out fight, and it doesn’t get any easier as the years go on. You have to come prepared, with all your motors and parts on the rig for the trip out west to Denver, Sonoma and Seattle.

Of course, the first stop on the swing was Denver, and we are always absolutely thrilled to go there. Plus, the little extra pressure is a challenge for our team, and it’s fun putting together the combination to overcome that challenge. My schedule is always on overload at the Mopar Mile-High Nationals. We did media rounds on Wednesday, and then at night I hit Bandimere Speedway for the Mopar Wholesale Customer event. I usually race one customer on the strip in a stock Dodge Challenger, but that got rained out, so Matt Hagan and I served as emcees, handing out a bunch of prizes to the Mopar customers, including big-screen TVs. The Mopar folks sure give out some sweet swag!

Thursday was the NHRA press conference (great food at Morton’s in downtown Denver), and later that night was Mopar’s big bash, the Mopar Block Party in downtown Golden. It was just an amazing turnout once again, with folks packing the streets until well after sundown, and lining up down the block for the Team Mopar autograph session. Once the race started, we got the chance to talk a bit with Tom Hoover, the father of 426 HEMI, which is celebrating 50 years in 2014. Dad and Hoover, who was the Grand Marshal of the event, swapped stories and compared notes about the big ‘ole “Elephant” engine.

When it comes to racing at Denver, there’s a lot of pressure, with our track record of success and also it being our sponsor Mopar’s big race. I try to deal with it by turning the pressure into a challenge. I think, “Hey, you got this pressure, these expectations; let’s see if you can meet ’em.” I challenge myself as a driver to try to dig deep in the gut and go every round like I need to do.

Fortunately, we were able to do it again. I was so pumped up that my teammate Jeg Coughlin Jr. also advanced to the final, making it an all-Mopar affair. We ran a great run in our Magneti Marelli/Mopar Dodge Dart after Jeg red-lighted off the starting line. It was my third straight win at Denver, sixth in eight years, and my eighth consecutive final-round appearance at Bandimere Speedway. All I can say is that I’m extremely happy Mopar extended its sponsorship of the event for another three years!

It would have been great to sweep the Swing, but we settled for a quarterfinals appearance at Sonoma and a semifinals showing at Seattle. The guys had planned on taking a vacation between Sonoma and Seattle, but we ended up hurting an engine in Sonoma, so that ended that. Two of our guys had to cancel plans and fly home with the motor and get it fixed before Seattle. But that’s part of the deal with what we do out here — we all know those things happen.

The Swing is grueling and intense, but it’s also challenging and enjoyable. We started off with a bang and didn’t finish it as good as we could have, but all in all I would say we had a pretty successful Western Swing. We gained great points on Erica Enders-Stevens, with her team sitting out Sonoma and Seattle. Erica, Jason Line and I are all within 40 points of each other. It’s anybody’s race to get that bonus for being No. 1 in the standings heading into the Countdown playoffs following the U.S. Nationals.

We were able to have a little bit of fun out west. Jeggy and Woody stayed out between Sonoma and Seattle, and Dave Connolly and his girlfriend did as well, so Pam had a friend to hang out with. Connolly, Jeg, Woody and I played golf a couple of times. We hit the links at the Green Valley Country Club, thanks to our friend Joe Murdaca, a member of the club and a big drag racing fan who comes out to the track at Sonoma every year. Joe’s been a friend to a lot of racers and always invites us to his restaurant, Pietro’s, which we hit up on Sunday night after the race and enjoyed a great meal.

Any loyal readers of my blog will know how much I love Scoma’s restaurant in San Francisco. Each year, we meet there for a huge team dinner, and enjoy some great seafood. Did it again this year, and the food and setting was as awesome as ever.

Back home in Greeneville, I had lunch with Pam’s dad, who is doing great in his recovery from a stroke. Pam and I are going to hit our lake house near Greeneville this weekend, as we get a little breather before Brainerd. And a little bit after we finish up at the “Zoo,” Pam and I are heading to Sweden to meet my friend Thomas Lindström, who competes in the FIA European Drag Racing series in one of our retired Dodge Stratus race cars. The HEMI engines for his Stratus are built by my dad Roy and our J&J Racing team in Tennessee and shipped over to Sweden. It’s going to be a quick trip — we’re leaving the Wednesday after Brainerd, and will be back Monday of the week of the U.S. Nationals. Should be a unique experience to visit with our European counterparts — I’m going to bring a little Tennessee flavor over to Sweden!

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ON WINNING SOME, LOSING ONE, AND AN UNEXTECTED PRIZE.

Phew. It’s been a busy few weeks leading up to this past weekend’s Thunder Valley Nationals at my home track of Bristol Dragway, but before I recap it all for you, let me start at the very end first.

Things on track did not go as we had hoped or planned at Bristol. We had high hopes that this was the year we would earn that elusive win at home, but we didn’t make it past the first round. I’m disappointed. The whole team is disappointed. We wanted to do well in front of all our friends and family and hometown fans who have supported us through thick and thin for so many years.

We could never thank them enough for all for their love and support, but losing that first round of eliminations afforded us the chance to thank one fan in particular.

For years, every time I drove my Dodge through the water box for a run at Bristol, the team would look up in the stands from the line because they could hear one particularly LOUD fan cheering for us above everyone and everything else. And I mean EVERYTHING else including our HEMI engine. This year was no different. The mystery fan was there in the stands again this year, yelling at the top of her lungs for us on every run.

After Sunday’s first round loss, after taking a few minutes to digest the disappointment, after doing some interviews with the media to explain what happened, and after thanking our friends and family for coming and supporting us, Pam and I headed to the stands to meet and thank one more important person.

We came to find out that the mystery woman’s name is Darlene Dalton. Her reaction when I showed up in the stands to see her was absolutely priceless and instantly made everything better. There she was jumping up and down in her wheelchair and screaming at the top of her lungs. It even brought Pam to tears. If the other people in the stands didn’t know I was there, they sure did now.

Many of them have been hearing Darlene cheering for me and the Mopar team for years, and to see her finally meet me and how happy she was, made everyone’s day, especially mine. The whole stand erupted in applause. It was overwhelming. It was an incredible experience and I feel truly blessed to have the support of such a lovely lady and such wonderful fans. We’ll keep working on trying to win that elusive Wally at home again next year, but for this year, Pam said it best, our prize was meeting Darlene Dalton. And when we do finally drive our Mopar into that winner’s circle at Bristol, Darlene will be there with us.

So what happened in the first round? When I left the starting line, the car was pretty decent in first gear and then it started chattering the left tire and pushing me over to the center line. I knew if I make a big correction I’d kill a lot of e.t. so I was trying to ease it back but never could get it to take hold. Then it made one big move and I was getting ready to relive Gainesville from a few years back if I had stayed in it. I thought, “You know what? There’s another race next week” and backed off. Disappointments like this will just make it that much sweeter when we do win our home race.

Leading up to the Bristol weekend, we had a lot going, on and off the race track.

On the race track, we’ve been making some really good progress with the new Dodge Dart over the last few weeks. Both Jeggie (Coughlin Jr.) and I have made some strides and it showed at Atlanta, Topeka and Englishtown where we combined for consecutive wins at all three events and the Magneti Marelli Dodge Dart was No.1 qualifier at Englishtown. Jeggie and I were tied for second going into Bristol and now we’re second and third in the standings. We’ve got to keep at it every week and we will. We’ve combined for five wins so far this year but we’ve got a few more to go in order to catch points leader, Erica (Enders-Stevens) to defend our championship titles the last two years.

Away from the track, it took a lot to get organized to host friends and family for Bristol but it was worth it. We wanted to make sure everyone knows how much we appreciate their support. Thanks to Doug Fezell and Professional Vending Services, we even had an ice cream maker parked in our pits this weekend as a treat for everyone. That thing was awesome. My dad Roy couldn’t get enough of watching how the one-horsepower engine worked to churn the ice cream. I’m pretty sure he was a fan of the ice cream too.

Earlier in the week, we had employees and friends take part in our Quick Stop Markets and Greenville Oil charity golf outing in support of the Greenville Community Ministries Food Bank, a charity that does a lot of good. We were able to raise almost 20 thousand dollars for them this year, the biggest year yet for our tournament. I also took part in Bristol’s Speedway Childrens Charity golf tournament that has the support of a lot of the local businesses. They raised three of four times that, so it was a great week helping the community and I even got to play some golf.

I’ve done quite a bit of flying this past month too. I’m in the final stages of getting my pilot’s license aboard a Cessna Skyhawk 172. I’ve been working on it since about the first of this year. I do own my own twin engine Navajo plane and have a pilot to get us to where we need to go. I’ve been the co-pilot in that thing for three years but I wanted to get legal. I’ll continue to have a pilot when flying my family to races but I just want to be able to be official. I had my first solo flight in May and now have about six hours of solo flying time. I’ll be ready to take my written test soon, but I still have a few 150 mile cross-country trips to do before I take my flying test with a FAA instructor.

A few weeks ago I posted a fun photo of the plane on the Dragway at Rockingham where we were testing. I can’t take credit for that landing as it was actually my instructor who did that because I’d get in big trouble if I tried it.

For now, the only solo flying I’ll be doing is down the race track in the Dodge Dart. We’re now headed to Epping, New Hampshire to defend my win there last year in the inaugural event, then Chicago and Norwalk to complete this stretch of four races. Watch out because we’re going to get after it.

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OF FROGS, FRIENDS AND FAMILY.

Aside from racing, I’ve had a chance recently to get in some golf. I participated in the B.R.A.K.E.S. golf tournament the Thursday morning before the 4-Wide event. My team shot 59, but we couldn’t pull out the win. I’ve been working on my game a bit; I had a chance to take a lesson from a friend right before Charlotte. I’m aiming to get my game back where it was, and get that handicap down. It’s still too high!

After Charlotte, Pam and I chilled in our Florida home in Sanibel, where we spent the better part of a week right before Easter. Of course we flew back home to Greeneville to celebrate Easter Sunday with our families, both my side and Pam’s. We had the whole family at my mom and dad’s, about 30 people, so mom had her hands full in the kitchen. Gosh, the best thing she makes is mashed potatoes and homemade yeast rolls. She makes them from scratch and they rise in the fridge all night — oh man, they’re good! Then we do the same thing with Pam’s family at her grandmother’s place, eat a lot of awesome food and visit with loved ones.

Between Charlotte and Houston we didn’t do any testing, just golfed and relaxed a bit. Thankfully the Tennessee weather has been how spring weather should be, nice and and beautiful, and we were able to recharge the batteries before heading out to Houston. It seemed to pay off.

I think we had a really great weekend, taking the No. 1 spot in our Magneti Marelli Offered by Mopar Dodge Dart and finishing runner-up in a tough final round against Erica. Our cars were the best on track all weekend, so it was fitting we met her in the final. I got the best of her at Gainesville, and she paid me back at Houston. Aside from my teammate Jeg, there’s no one I would rather race in a final round than Erica. We’re great friends, and it’s not hard to keep our racing rivalry separate from our personal relationship. We’re both adults, and away from the drag strip it never even comes up. Now, at the drag strip, I want to tear her eyes out — just like she does me. It’s actually not a hard thing at all to separate. I hope she’s the driver who earns the 100th win for a female — just as long as it doesn’t come at my expense.

We can’t exactly pinpoint the difference in our Dart from Charlotte, where we exited early, to Houston. I know we never got the right balance in the Dart at Charlotte. You have that starting area there that drops — we call it the “ski slope” — and we never quite got the balance for going over the slope. At Houston, we made great runs down low, which equated into great numbers. We’re still a little perplexed about Jeggy’s Dodge Dart. We had to make some radical changes to get him up to snuff on Sunday, and we don’t really understand why. We’re planning to test in Atlanta next week before the race, and we’ll probably run some of his stuff through my car to see if we can get him back on track.

It was busy off-track as well at Houston. I made an appearance at the Helfman Dodge Chrysler Jeep Ram open house on Thursday night — man, what a dealership. That place is like a Taj Mahal. Some of the big boys from the Mopar brand, like Pat Dougherty, were in attendance, which tells you how much they think of that dealership. The Helfman folks did a lot of advertising and we had a great crowd, with a lot of car enthusiasts out to meet Matt Hagan and me.

One of my best friends from high school who used to race motocross with me lives in Houston, so he and his girlfriend took Pam and I into Houston’s Chinatown district for dinner one night — and that sure was an experience. When we walked in the front door, there was a tank filled with big ole live frogs. My friend said, “We’re going to have one of them,” and I said, “Like heck we are,” but I may have used a different word besides heck. I ate a big piece of squid, and I did end up breaking down and tried some frog — it was pretty good. It wasn’t frog legs, like we eat back in Tennessee. This was the whole a frog! It tasted great, a bit like fish.

On Friday we surprised Pam with a little birthday party in Erica and Richie’s motorhome and pits, and I treated her to a little shopping spree as well. Saturday was April 26, or 4/26, which marks HEMI Day, in reference to the famed Mopar 426 HEMI engine that is still dominant in drag racing. I really think Mopar is doing a great job of getting the word out about the 50th anniversary and about having some fun with HEMI Day. We even did a video wishing fans a Happy HEMI Day (you can see it at http://youtu.be/NcSanOT5OHI ). The racetrack announced it a bunch, and a lot fans came up to me in the pits and the first thing they would say was “Happy HEMI Day,” so that was cool.

We’re heading to Atlanta next, and not to jinx myself, but the Mopar/J&J Racing team and I are on quite a streak. We haven’t had a DNQ since 2009 at Richmond, and even that one was a freak deal. From Friday to Saturday that year at Richmond the weather changed dramatically — we were running like 6.70s on Friday, and then on Saturday the weather cooled down 30 degrees and Pro Stock was running in the 6.50s. I was No. 1 on Friday, and then ended up getting booted out on Saturday at No. 17, because I broke a lifter in the burnout and didn’t even get to make a run.

For this current streak, I think the biggest thing it speaks to is the consistency of the J&J Racing team. My crew chief Mark Ingersoll, my dad and engine builder Roy Johnson, our Mopar HEMI engines, all have been a huge help in keeping me away from those dreaded DNQs, so hats off to them. We’ll try to make it more than 100 races without a DNQ in a few weekends at Atlanta.

On a regular race track, I think we’ve got the balance of our Magneti Marelli/Mopar Dodge Dart set up real good. We won in Gainesville with it, we had a freak deal happen at Vegas, sucking up that piece of trash while making a run, and then at Charlotte we never did get the balance right going over the “ski slope.” In Houston we were back on a regular track, and it performed well.

So I’m feeling real good about the Dodge Dart heading to Atlanta. The track should be hot and humid, just like Houston, so it will be right up our alley. Atlanta was our home track for a long time before Bristol came back into being, so it’s not far from our Greeneville race shop. We’ll have a lot of friends and family in attendance cheering us on, and hopefully we can make ‘em proud.

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BUSY, BUSY, BUSY!

Is it April already? What a busy start to the 2014 season it has been for the Johnson & Johnson Mopar team!

We already have four national events under our belt and each one of them was an adventure.

After seeing the Roy Johnson HEMI-powered cars finish 1-2 in the 2013 NHRA Pro Stock World Championships, I was anxious to build on my runner-up finish last year, but the season didn’t quite start off the way I had hoped. We had some problems in the season opener at the Winternationals in Pomona and the driver (me) didn’t do his job, losing the first round of eliminations with a terrible reaction time. I’m not going to make excuses because, while I didn’t feel well that weekend, I should have been able to suck it up and go the distance. To be honest, it was the worst I have ever felt in my life and it was hard even getting to the racetrack on race day, but that doesn’t matter. What counts is what happens on the track and I lost us the race in the first round.
It was definitely my worst personal performance in 18 years and it p*ssed me off so much I went to Phoenix guns blazing wanting to make it right and fight to redeem myself. On race day, I was responsible for one round-win, and my crew, the car and the HEMI engine were responsible for the other three. On the plus side I cut my reaction time in half with the runs in Phoenix! (It wasn’t hard to do!)

Winning at Phoenix was great for a number of reasons; there was a sense of relief to redeem the bad start at Pomona, and then of course it was great to retire the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Avenger on a winning note. The Avenger has been a great race car for the past several years but I knew that the new Dodge Dart was going to knock the socks off everyone!
We were flat out since February and it took weeks of tireless work by the team to get the new race car ready in time for the Gatornationals. It’s an amazing car and everyone did such a fantastic job to make it happen. Everything to do with the design of the new race car, the engineers took our input and really came up with a great vehicle. The Dodge dart was designed virtually by Chrysler engineers and then the data was validated in the wind tunnel before the car even hit the track. What a great job the Mopar engineers, everybody at Chrysler Group, Dodge and SRT did.

We tested our new Dodge Dart with the JEGS.com Dodge Avenger in Chrysler’s wind tunnel at headquarters in Michigan to get a comparison before taking out for its very first run. I took it for its very first pass at the test at Bradenton, Fla. just a week before the Gatornationals and I knew it was going to be bad to the bone right away but we couldn’t have hoped for a better result than what happened at that race weekend!

We kicked it all off with the unveiling of the new Magneti Marelli Dodge Dart at Two Tails Ranch near the race track, where we got the help of an elephant named Luke in honor of the 50th anniversary of the 426 HEMI. That was awesome. You see, the HEMI engine was nicknamed “the elephant” when it first came out in 1964 because of how big and powerful it was.

Jeg Coughlin Jr. and I took lots of photos of both new cars with Mopar CEO and President, Pietro Gorlier, and our pachyderm friend. We were really excited to get the media’s first impression of the Dodge Dart which was overwhelmingly positive. On Friday, we covered up the both new cars and brought them through the staging lanes to the start line and unveiled them to fans just before our first run. It was very cool to feel the excitement of fans and get that first run under our belts.

Taking our new Dodge Dart to the winner’s circle at the Gatornationals was just such a thrill. To be able to do that in its first race straight out of the box is a huge accomplishment. It says a tremendous amount about our crew, and the engineering efforts behind it.

Not only did we defend last year’s Gatornationals win but to retire the old Avenger and start the era of the new Dodge Dart with victories was just incredible.

We rode that high right into Las Vegas hoping to keep our winning streak going and try to repeat what we did last year; doubling up by winning the K&N Horsepower Challenge and the National title. But with 10 to 12 cars capable of winning every weekend, it was going to be tough and it sure was.

We gave it our all but it wasn’t meant to be this time. It was hard enough battling each other, but Sunday we had a fierce wind and dust to deal with so we waited it out for a few hours for safety’s sake. There was so much dirt on track in the first round that with little downforce, the cars just danced around on the track. The wind would then upset the car even more when you were unstable to begin with. Ultimately the wind affected us in a different way when, on the burnout, something went through the carburetor and closed up the gap on the spark plug. When I staged it, then dropped the clutch, it was only on seven cylinders all the way through first gear. In the middle of second gear, it came back to life and ran better the rest of the way down the track but by then it was too late.

So now we get set for the Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte this coming weekend which, with its unique format, is always fun for fans. Heading there with two wins under our belt after four events so far isn’t too bad and I’d love to have another strong weekend with the Dodge Dart.

The focus in the past two months has definitely been on getting the new Magneti Marelli Dodge Dart ready for battle but there have been a few bright moments away from the track too.

I didn’t get to be there because we were so busy with the new car, but I’m happy to hear that Doug Hebert’s B.R.A.K.E.S event that I sponsored at my home track at Bristol was a success and really hope it made a positive impact with our local teens.

I’m also happy to share that Pam’s dad is recovering really well after his stroke a few months ago and we are very thankful for that. Pam and I even got a few days here and there at our favorite place in the world, our little home away from home on Sanibel Island. We also got to spend quality time with the grandkids cheering for our Tennessee Volunteers basketball team. No matter how busy things have been and will continue to get this season, it’s important to remember your family and enjoy as much time as you can, so we do, any chance we can.

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COUNTDOWN TO WINTERNATIONALS

Two weeks till Pomona — I can’t believe the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello season is almost here and we’re gettin’ ready to go west! I’ve been running around like a chicken with its head cut off this pre-season, as usual, trying to get everything with my business squared away before we go racing, and also of course testing and preparing our Mopar Dodge for the year.

We had a great Christmas, spending it with our families — we enjoyed our traditional huge country breakfast (thanks mom) at my parents’ house. During the holidays we were able to visit with Pam’s father, Tony, who is doing a whole lot better and is out of rehab after suffering a massive stroke around Thanksgiving. He’s gained a lot of function back in his legs and in his arms, and with the help of Pam and her mom, who really take care of him, he’s been improving a bunch, so that’s a real blessing and our best Christmas gift.

A week before Christmas my teammate Jeg Coughlin Jr. and I were at work, squeezing in some important test sessions at Bradenton, putting 14 runs on each Mopar-powered Dodge. We tested some chassis package setups our crew chief Mark Ingersoll had been working on during the off-season, and gathered some critical info that I think will help us throughout 2014.

A bit after Christmas, Pam and I were able to get in our last bit of R&R before the season at our home in Sanibel Island, Fla. The Humphreys, Walter & Virginia and Justin and Gina and their kids, were able to come along the whole time, and we spent a few days fishing, going out for dinner, cooking out and kicking back with good friends. The weather was awesome, but we headed back home to Tennessee just in time to experience the polar vortex. When we left Sanibel it was 80 degrees, and when we got to our house in Greeneville it was 18 degrees! Needless to say, we put away the shorts and put on the winter coats.

After that break I was home from a few days, and then Jeg and I headed right back down to Bradenton for some more testing, over three days. We recorded some mid-6.40 second numbers and made a bunch of runs during good conditions, which helped us fine-tune our set ups for when the air and weather is good.

Coming up soon, I’m going to be involved with a B.R.A.K.E.S. safe driving event here in Greeneville, just as we did a year or so ago. There will be a classroom talk on January 31 and then on February 1-2 students can participate in four on-course driving sessions at Bristol Motor Speedway. I’m very proud to be able to help bring B.R.A.K.E.S back to Greeneville with donations from our J&J Racing team and my personal business, Greeneville Oil & Petroleum. We expect about 200 students over two days to take part in the sessions at Bristol Motor Speedway. The classroom session will be held at a local auditorium, with about 700 sophomores from six area high schools in attendance. Doug Herbert and his folks will put on a seminar about safe driving for teens, and I’ll say a few words. It’s a great cause that Doug’s involved with, and I’m glad I could play a part in teens from my area learning more about the importance of safe driving.

We’re going to be testing before we head into Pomona. We usually test in Vegas, but it’s always cold. Because it has a new surface and because it’s warmer, we’re going to attempt to test in Phoenix on the Monday and Tuesday before the race, and then head on over to Pomona. Of course, it was great to see Peyton Manning, a Tennessee alumnus, punch his ticket to the Super Bowl. I’ll be pulling for him, and I’m going to make sure we get to Phoenix in time to watch the big game. I’m predicting the Broncos are going to take it to ‘em: 40-28.

I’ve been preparing for Pomona all off-season, working daily on my practice tree and keeping focused on that. I workout daily to keep the body in shape for when it’s time to get behind the wheel, and I also take time to relax a bit and give my mind a break. You know, your performance is a package deal, and the mental aspect is a big part of it, so pre-season relaxation helps.

Of course, there are always changes from year to year, and our team has had a few. We’re going to field a two-car team in 2014, focused on my Mopar Dodge and the JEGS.com Dodge. Jim Yates has moved on, and we wish him well and all the best in the world. He did a great job for us over the last few years, and we’ve parted as friends and on great terms.

I’m itching to get behind the wheel. With Jeg and I, you’ve got back-to-back Pro Stock champs together on the same team, so of course for 2014 I’m very optimistic. The J&J Racing team has that drive and hunger to make it three in a row for the Mopar camp. It’s also a big year for Mopar with the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the 426 race HEMI in 2014, so any victories and championships we bring home this year will be icing on their cake.

It’s not going to by easy — I feel like this year will be ultra-competitive with the consolidation of the Cagnazzi and Gray squads, the KB team is always tough, and with Chris McGaha purchasing Mike Edwards’ team, he is going to be a threat. Each race is going to have the slimmest margin of error, but the J&J Racing team has some of the best power out there — Mopar HEMI power — and some of the best decision makers, so we’re looking forward to going head-to-head with them.

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