Mopar Motorsports NHRA Notes for Las Vegas
Mopar Motorsports NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series 4th Annual SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals The Strip at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Las Vegas, Nev. Pre-Race Notes Weekend Television: (All Times Eastern) April 5 Qualifying ESPN2 10:00 pm-Midnight April 6 Early Elims. ESPN 2:00-3:00 pm April 6 Finals ESPN2 11 pm 1 am April 11 Repeat ESPN2 12:30-2:30 am Mopar Drivers Prepare for Sin City Johnson & Alderman Are Top 10 in Points After Three Races LAS VEGAS (March 31, 2003) -- Johnson & Johnson Racing has had a resounding start to the 2003 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season. Mopar drivers Allen Johnson (fourth) and Darrell Alderman (seventh) each possess top-10 points positions, and look to improve upon that heading into this weekend¹s 4th annual SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals at The Strip at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Johnson has had a final-round appearance at Pomona (Calif.) Raceway and a semifinal round (Gainesville, Fla.) outing already this season. Quite a different story from last year, where the Greenville, Tenn., resident missed the first four races. ³We have definitely been ready for this season,² Johnson said. ³Along with the help of the Mopar engineers, our guys have really come together. We¹re running consistently and the cars are real comfortable. We knew we had a good team and I think we¹re on track for some real good things here in the near future.² Teammate Alderman, who capped off seven-straight round victories with a final-round appearance in last year¹s SummitRacing.com Nationals, is fond of visiting the Las Vegas facility. ³For some reason, even though we haven¹t won here, we seem to run real well in Vegas,² said Alderman, who has 28 national event victories to his credit. ³We¹ve completed a lot of testing here already and I think we¹ve got a real good package for the weekend. We¹re here to win the thing. Not just chase points.² Ready Stratus Larry Morgan and Gene Wilson are in the fourth race weekend working with the new Hemi-powered Dodge Stratus R/T Pro Stock car. Morgan has high hopes heading into the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals. ³Contrary to popular belief, I think the Stratus is going to be a great Pro Stock car,² Morgan said. ³We¹ve done a lot of testing recently and it¹s been very positive. We¹ve just needed a little more time with the cars. We made a lot of discoveries and made a lot of changes during the Gainesville event. We¹re right there with these cars.² Wilson, last year¹s NHRA rookie of the Year, demonstrated those thoughts, barely missing the 16-car field during the most recent Mac Tools Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. ³After Friday night qualifying sessions in Gainesville, we made a lot of changes to the car,² Wilson said. ³Nothing specific, but we changed everything from the clutch set up to the suspension. We made huge changes and I think we hit a sweet spot. We are very happy with what we learned.² -Mopar.com- For more information, contact: David Harris, Cox Marketing Group Public Relations Manager Mopar Motorsports NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series davidh@coxmarketinggroup.com (704) 799-2114 office (704) 756-9301 - mobile Mike Mooney, Cox Marketing Group Account Manager Mopar Motorsports NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series mikem@coxmarketinggroup.com (704) 799-2114 office (704) 906-5818 mobile