Allen Johnson Hopes for a Miracle While Richie Stevens Jr. Has His Eyes on Top Ten Prize
Nov. 1, 2007 Contact: Darren Jacobs, (248) 553-4566 E-mail: djacobs@jrthompson.com Allen Johnson Hopes for a Miracle While Richie Stevens Jr. Has His Eyes on Top Ten Prize at Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals € Last shot a long shot for Allen Johnson at Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals € Richie Stevens Jr. is still fighting for every inch entering Pomona season finale € Team Mopar®¹s Allen Johnson stats € Team Mopar¹s Richie Stevens Jr. stats € Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals event details Center Line, Mich. ‹ Team Mopar® Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson is a distant fourth in the new NHRA POWERade Countdown to 1 championship playoffs entering the season finale this weekend at the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals in Pomona, Calif. Although his title chances may be bleak, Johnson isn¹t ready to throw in the towel just yet. Johnson¹s teammate, Richie Stevens Jr., didn¹t qualify for the Countdown, but the competitive nature of the New Orleans native has him focused on holding off V. Gaines for the ninth spot in the final Pro Stock points. A ninth-place result would give Stevens six career top 10 finishes in the final season standings. Last shot a long shot for Allen Johnson at Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals Johnson qualified eighth last weekend at the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals. Unfortunately, Johnson¹s fellow Countdown competitor, Jeg Coughlin, timed in at the ninth spot, setting up a critical first-round battle that didn¹t go Johnson¹s way. The Greeneville, Tenn. native fell 103 points behind leader Greg Anderson with the first-round exit, and also trails Jeg Coughlin and Dave Connolly heading into the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals this weekend. Johnson needs a mistake-free weekend‹and a mistake-filled weekend from his other three Countdown competitors‹if he is to have any hopes of bringing home his first career Pro Stock title. ³Hopefully these other boys will lose in the first round,² said Johnson, driver of the Mopar/J&J Racing Dodge Stratus R/T. ³We¹ll go in a few rounds down, but maybe we have a shot at it. ³We¹ll go for it. We¹ll go out there and try to win the race. Hopefully some of these other guys will have some bad luck. ³I¹ve been to the finals there [Pomona] before. We do okay out there. We¹ll go out and get after it. There¹s nothing to lose now. We¹ll just have to see what happens.² Richie Stevens Jr. is still fighting for every inch entering Pomona season finale The 2007 NHRA POWERade Pro Stock campaign has been a difficult one for Stevens. Scoring his first win of the season and claiming the ninth spot in the NHRA POWERade Pro Stock standings this weekend at the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals would help to ease the sting of his struggle a bit. Whether or not he breaks through for his first win, one thing is for certain‹there is no quit in Richie Stevens Jr. ³I just want to win. I¹ve got one shot left,² said Stevens, pilot of the Team Mopar/Valspar Dodge Stratus R/T. ³I want to hold off V. [Gaines, tenth in the points standings]. ³I can do no better than ninth, so I¹d like to keep that nine spot. Of course you want to finish the best as possible. I¹ll go out there and try to win. I¹ve won this race before in California [in 1998], but it¹s been a few years. ³Hopefully we¹ll go out here and have the same performance in qualifying that we had at Las Vegas [last weekend, where Stevens qualified sixth]. We¹ll have a good car and try to do again what we did there before.² Allen Johnson stats € Has 24-20 round record in 2007 € Fourth in the Countdown to 1 standings, 103 points behind leader Greg Anderson € Captured his 5th career win at the 28th Annual Mopar Mile-High Nationals in July € Took his third career No. 1 qualifier spot at the Mile-High Nationals and set the Bandimere Speedway track record € Has 13 quarterfinals, seven semifinals, and three finals appearance in 2007 (to date) Richie Stevens Jr. stats € Has the ninth spot in the NHRA Pro Stock points standings € Won the Pomona 2 event in 1998 € Had two wins (Dallas, Las Vegas) in the final five events of 2006 € Recorded a career best ET and speed of 6.598/209.20 in qualifying second at Englishtown in June € Finished in the NHRA POWERade Pro Stock top 10 for the fifth time in his career in 2006 Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals event details The Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals is scheduled for Nov. 1 4 at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif. The race is the final of two events in the NHRA Countdown to 1 championship fight. Two one-hour episodes of qualifying coverage will air on Saturday, Nov. 3 starting at 7 p.m. and 11 p.m. (EDT) on ESPN2. Three-and-a-half hours of eliminations coverage will air on Sunday, Nov. 4 starting at 7 p.m. (EDT) on ESPN2. For more info on the NHRA, log on to www.nhra.com. 70 Years of Mopar When Chrysler bought Dodge in 1928, the need for a dedicated parts manufacturer, supplier and distribution system to support the growing enterprise led to the formation of the Chrysler Motor Parts Corporation (CMPC) in 1929. Originally used in the 1920s, Mopar (a simple contraction of the words MOtor and PARts) was trademarked for a line of antifreeze products in 1937. It was also widely used as a moniker for the CMPC. The Mopar brand made its mark in the 1960s the muscle car era. The Chrysler Corporation built race-ready Dodge and Plymouth ³package cars² equipped with special high-performance parts. Mopar carried a line of ³Special Parts² for super stock drag racers and developed its racing parts division called Mopar Performance Parts to enhance speed and handling for both road and racing use. Today, Chrysler LLC¹s Global Service & Parts division is responsible for the manufacturing and distribution of nearly 250,000 authentic Mopar replacement parts, components and accessories for Chrysler, Jeep® and Dodge vehicles sold around the world. To assure quality, reliability and durability, all Mopar parts and accessories are designed in strict adherence to Chrysler engineering standards. # # # ON THE INTERNET Visit Chrysler¹s Media Services Web site at http://www.media.chrysler.com for additional Chrysler news. For additional information about Mopar, log on to http://www.mopar.com or http://www.moparspeed.com. If you wish to be removed from future emailings, please reply to this email with "Remove from list" in the subject line. 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