Commerce: Tommy Johnson Jr Saturday summary

Johnson Jr. Qualifies Fourth At Atlanta Dragway

COMMERCE, Ga. (May 15, 2004) - Tommy Johnson Jr. equaled his best qualifying position of the 2004 NHRA season Saturday, qualifying his blue Skoal RacingSM Chevy Monte Carlo in the No. 4 position at Atlanta Dragway.

The five-time NHRA winner continued to post some of the most consistent performances in the Funny Car category, making four strong runs during qualifying under difficult race conditions this weekend. Johnson posted his weekend-best effort on Friday evening when he powered his Mike Green-tuned Chevy flopper to a performance of 4.825 seconds at 321.88 mph.

Johnson made two qualifying attempts on Saturday afternoon, clocking a run of 5.201, 221.82 on his first effort of the day, before blasting to a pass of 4.913 at 312.93 on his final qualifying attempt of the weekend.

"We made four more runs down to the lights," Johnson said. "I don't have to worry about tire shake or peddling the car, that's out of the equation. Everybody's confidence level is way up on the crew. We're as about as optimistic as you can be heading into Sunday."

Johnson looks to win his first race of the season Sunday when he opens against No. 13 qualifier Jerry Toliver in the first round of Funny Car eliminations at 11 a.m. Johnson is 2-0 in his career versus Toliver.

-www.snakeracing.com