Gainesville: Tommy Johnson Jr Friday summary

JOHNSON JR. WINDS UP SEVENTH ON FRIDAY AT GAINESVILLE

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 17, 2006) -- Tommy Johnson Jr. drove his Don Prudhomme-owned Skoal RacingSM Funny Car to the No. 7 qualifying position Friday at Gainesville Raceway.

Coming off of his recent win at the Phoenix race (February 26), the seven-time NHRA winner opened qualifying at Gainesville with a conservative 4.918 second, 284.45 mph pass to place the Skoal Racing flopper fourth following the first of four scheduled qualifying sessions. On his second pass of the day, the veteran nitro pilot powered his Mike Green-tuned Monte Carlo to a performance of 4.866 at 322.58 to finish seventh on the first day of qualifying at Gainesville.

"We made two nice, conservative runs on Friday," Johnson said. "That proves we have a good race day set-up for this warm weather. Now, we have to work on our early numbers a little bit and that will help our E.T."

The Skoal Racing team will continue qualifying for the 37th annual ACDelco Gatornationals at noon and 3:30 p.m. (ET) on Saturday afternoon at the Phoenix track.

-www.snakeracing.com