NORWALK, Ohio — Allen Johnson drove his Dodge Stratus to the $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge victory Saturday at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park.
It was the first win for Johnson in the special bonus event for the eight quickest Pro Stock teams from the last year.
Johnson covered the quarter-mile distance in 6.725 seconds at 204.91 miles per hour in his J&J Racing/Team Mopar Stratus and used a rare perfect-reaction time (.000) to beat Greg Anderson, who posted a quicker but losing performance of 6.717 at 204.91 in his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP.
“The perfect light in the final, I don’t know where that came from,” said Johnson, who is the second Mopar driver to win the Challenge in the 23-year history of the event and the first since 1991 when Darrell Alderman won in a Dodge Daytona.
“I haven’t been driving too good lately,” continued Johnson, who defeated Warren Johnson and Kurt Johnson in the first two rounds of the Challenge. “In the second round, I was able to cut a little better light; and then in the final, of course, you’re just sucking up everything you’ve got to really get it close, and fortunately, it was green and perfect.
“To win this means a lot, especially being the first Mopar driver to win in the last 17 years. I don’t think this will be our last time. Dad (Roy, crew chief) and the crew are just doing such an awesome job.”