Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals
Pomona, Calif.
(February 5-10)

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Driver Profile

Kurt Johnson Mark Christopher Auto Center Chevrolet Cobalt

Pomona, Sunday: After sitting through a cold, damp, six-hour rain delay, with air temperatures that barely reached 53 degrees, ACDelco's Kurt Johnson had a first-round loss to Johnny Gray at the 49^th annual NHRA Winternationals. Johnson entered the Sunday eliminator with his ACDelco Chevrolet qualified in the No. 7 position, but during today's matchup against Gray, Johnson's car never adequately hooked up on the starting line, bounced a little way and then traveled a short distance before coasting the remaining length of the quarter mile.

Almost immediately following Johnson's run, rain once again began falling on Auto Club Raceway forcing postponement of the remainder of the event until Monday.

"A 57-degree racetrack along with the humidity and vapor pressure, the water in the air, it was too cold to get these cars to hook up," Johnson said. "It just spun instantly and went right to the moon. David Beckley, who ran ahead of us, had the same issue, so we detuned it a little bit and it wasn't enough.

"We've gone down racetracks at this temperature before, but not at this altitude. It's 1100 feet out there and we should easily be going 6.55 – 6.56 (seconds), but the track could not handle that kind of horsepower with the setup we had."

Today's temporary setback only makes the 17-season Pro Stock veteran more determined than ever to rally at the series' next event in two weeks in Phoenix.

"This just fires me up," Johnson said. "We're going on the warpath now to get us some wins. I think this ACDelco Chevrolet is going to be really fast here shortly. After talking with Greg (Anderson) after he ran at Valdosta (Ga.), he thought he was pretty fast there, and we were right there with him. We're ready to get this one out of the way and move on."

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