Allen Johnson Looking to Start Final Countdown to the Championship with a Bang at NHRA Carolina Nationals

GREENEVILLE, TN – After announcing his retirement from professional drag racing after the 2017 season at the U.S. Nationals, Johnson is switching his mind frame to focus on ending his monumental 22-year Pro Stock career with a bang and perform in the Countdown to the Championship one last time.

“The reset of points for the Countdown to the Championship is big for our Marathon Petroleum team,” Johnson said. “I think the last couple races we’ve had some good momentum and had some close races. We’ve got a decent car making decent runs so we’ve gotta take advantage of the points reset and give ourselves an early opportunity to move up a few positions and build points.”

In his last Countdown to the Championship of his professional career, Johnson acknowledges their upward swing in performance and admits he’s in a lot better shape than when he was here in the spring for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals.

“Oh, we aren’t even in the same atmosphere as when we came here in the spring,” he laughed. “We stunk it up early in the year and I think we’re about five hundredths [of a second] better compared to the No. 1 qualifier than when we came here in April. We’ve got a much better chance at winning in Charlotte this time around.”