NHRA Sunday: Kurt Johnson Battles to a Runner-Up Finish in Indy

  
Kurt Johnson Battles to a Runner-Up Finish in Indy

Event: 49th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals
Location: Indianapolis Raceway Park
               Clermont, IN
Day/Date: Sunday September 7, 2003 

For the second race in a row, Kurt Johnson came within a fraction of a second 
of having a perfect weekend.   Heading into Sunday's final eliminations of 
the rain-delayed Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, Johnson's ACDelco Cavalier had 
established itself as one of the favorites, capturing the No. 1 qualifying position 
with an Indianapolis Raceway park track record 6.778-second elapsed time.

Johnson's strong performance continued in eliminations, as he consistently 
posted one of the quickest elapsed times in each of the first three rounds, 
defeating Troy Coughlin, Jason Line and Larry Morgan.  This propelled him into his 
eighth final round of the season (a new personal best), and third at drag 
racing biggest race, where he would face rival Greg Anderson, with whom Johnson 
is embroiled in a battle for the POWERade championship.

Entering the championship round without the luxury of lane choice, Johnson 
staged in the right hand lane as the sun started to set behind the grandstands.  
Knowing he would need every advantage to win his third U.S. Nationals title, 
Johnson pushed the starting line "Christmas Tree", trying to leave ahead of 
his opponent.  Unfortunately, he broke the beams ten thousandths of second too 
early, handing the automatic win to Anderson, and negating an impressive 6.808 
second, 202.39 mph run, which was the quickest pass of the day in the right 
lane, and virtually equal to Anderson's 6.803-second effort.

"That's the longest drive in drag racing - running the entire quarter-mile 
with your opponent's win light on," said Johnson.   "Everything just added up.  
The track had gotten better, and the sun was off the tree, which made those 
LED lights easier to see.  We got after it for the final, putting some more 
clutch in it and raising the rpm's, and came up ten thousandths of a second short. 
 

"I drove well all day, with two .030 reaction times and an .020, so I could 
have easily gotten the .015 light that I needed to win.  It's just one of those 
things.  Even so, it was a good weekend for the ACDelco team.  Our Cavalier 
was strong all day, and ran a 6.80 in the final.  We were the runner-up at the 
U.S. Nationals, which is quite an accomplishment, but we certainly would have 
preferring winning."