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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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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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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