Johnson Ready For Gatornationals

Center Line, Mich. March 15, 2005: When the NHRA POWERade Pro Stock Series heads to Florida 
this week, Mopar's Allen Johnson will be seeing the competition from a new 
vantage point. For the first time in his racing career, Johnson leads the 
series' points chase. While leading the points is a first for Johnson, don't bet on 
him relinquishing that position without a fight.

"I really don't know what to think about leading the points," Johnson said. 
"I can tell you that I don't want to be a flash in the pan. We want to keep 
this going for as many races as we can. But in order to do so, we'll have to be 
just perfect. There are 25 other cars that are capable of leading this series 
at any given time, and we don't want to give them any opportunity to do so."

While Johnson knows his team will need to be on top of its game to maintain 
the series' lead, the task at hand has given them a renewed enthusiasm as they 
prepare for the 36th Annual Mac Tools Gatornationals. 

"We're really excited to be in a position at the front of the pack this early 
in the season," Johnson said. "We've tried to put it on a level we can relate 
to. That way no one gets stressed out or takes things too seriously."

Make no mistake, though, as Johnson is quick to reassure that the J&J Racing 
team's plan is to put the Mopar Dodge Stratus R/T at the top of the brackets 
when the smoke clears on Sunday. 

"We're going to come at them with everything we've got," Johnson said. "We 
aren't going to lay back and be cautious. We're going to take everything we can 
to this race and push as hard as we can to get the win."

Qualifying for the 36th Annual Mac Tools begins Friday and Saturday, with 
final eliminations scheduled for Sunday. 

ESPN2 will broadcast qualifying highlights on Sunday at 12:30 a.m. EST, and 
NHRA2Day will air on Sunday at 11:30 a.m. EST. ESPN2 will also broadcast 
elimination highlights on Sunday at 5 p.m. EST and again at 2:30 a.m. on Monday, 
March 21. 

For more information regarding Team Mopar or the 36th Annual Mac Tools 
Gatornationals, log on to http://www.moparspeed.com/ or http://www.nhra.com/. 

Mopar is based in Center Line, Mich., and is the exclusive original equipment 
supplier of parts and accessories for Chrysler, Jeep® and Dodge vehicles.