NHRA (TEXAS) - Friday in Las Vegas Finds WJ in Seventh

Warren Johnson continued his string of consistent performances during Friday's qualifying sessions for the SummitRacing.com Nationals, making two competitive runs down the Nevada quarter-mile. After opening with a solid 6.805-second, 202.73 mph pass, WJ picked up the pace in the evening run, with his GM Performance Parts GTO tripping the finish line timers in 6.756 seconds with a top speed of 203.28 mph, slotting him in the seventh position midway through time trials.

"We made two pretty decent runs today, and the best news is that we're making progress. Obviously, we need to pick up the pace, but right now we're able to stay within two hundredths of the fastest cars out there, which can change from racetrack to racetrack, meaning they could have a really good tune-up for this track, or we could be a little bit off on ours. It's also an improvement from the five or six hundredths we were off two or three races ago.

"Nevertheless, we're still in the top half and got down the racetrack on both attempts, even though we seemed to be in the less-preferred lane both times, as a result of the second session being held in the evening, which allowed the track to cool, changing it significantly. Obviously, we'd certainly like our GM Performance Parts GTO to be higher in the qualifying order, but overall we're not too disappointed. We're creeping up on it, we just have to creep a little faster."