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NHRA Saturday: Warren Johnson Qualifies Third in Houston

Contact: Jon G. Knapp
									TMG Sports Marketing 
									Phone: (704) 662-3121
										     jgknapp@tmgsports.net

Final Qualifying Results		

Warren Johnson Qualifies Third in Houston

Event: 17th annual O'Reilly Spring Nationals 
Location:  Houston Raceway Park
       Baytown, Texas
Day/Date: Saturday April 17, 2004

After posting the second quickest pass during the first day of qualifying at the O'Reilly Spring Nationals, Warren Johnson's position in the top half of Sunday's final eliminations was relatively secure.  Therefore, he elected to use his final two attempts at Houston Raceway Park as a 200-mph test session, trying various combinations on his GM Performance Parts Grand Am in search of additional tuning information.  

Although his 6.737-second, 204.51 mph pass from Friday remained his run of record, Johnson was pleased with the data gathered throughout the day, both on his race car as well as the race track.

"In reality, we have so few runs with this particular combination on national event tracks.  Therefore, being qualified where we were, we knew we wouldn't get bumped out, so we opted to try a few things way off our normal baseline trying to uncover a kernel or two of knowledge.  We're simply working with what we have and herd it in the right direction.  

"Last night's run was pretty darn fast, but all over the race track, so we put another shock package in it this morning, which got down the track, but was not as fast.  We have a pretty good idea of where we are with this engine, and its performance characteristics, so it's a matter of adapting the car to it.  We'll put our standard set-up back in our GM Performance Parts Grand Am for tomorrow and work from there."

Johnson also took time to comment on the new racing surface at Houston Raceway Park, which had challenged tuners in all professional categories throughout qualifying.

"Although the conditions were not that drastically different, the track has changed dramatically, getting much more greasy.  They did a great job in replacing the asphalt from the 270-foot mark to the eighth mile, but it needs to be textured, because right now it's very slippery, with the little rubber that does adhere to it moving around quite a bit.  Once it settles, they will probably shot peen it, which will take care of the problem."

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