Pomona2: Tommy Johnson Jr Friday summary

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 27, 2004) -- Tommy Johnson Jr. and Don Prudhomme's blue Skoal Racing Funny Car crew improved over their first run of the 2004 season Friday after Johnson powered his Chevy Monte Carlo to a pass of 4.891 seconds at 318.62 mph at Pomona Raceway.

"That's exactly what we wanted to do," Johnson said. "We wanted to get the car down the race track and get in the show a little better. We wanted to improve and to make sure everything went right and it went perfect. We have plenty of room for improvement."

Johnson, who clocked a run of 4.930 at 295.21 last Thursday, is the eighth quickest of the 23 Funny Cars attempting to qualify for Sunday's 16-car field. Johnson earned his last No. 1 qualifying spot at the 2001 Winternationals.

"The most encouraging thing is the speed," Johnson said. "It ran 318-mph and I shut off early. Now we can get after it tomorrow. We've got our feet on the ground and we can go for it."

Johnson and the blue Skoal Racing crew will look to move up the Funny Car order when qualifying continues Saturday with sessions at noon and 2:30 p.m. (PT). Final eliminations begin at 11 a.m. (PT) on Sunday.

ESPN2 will televise two hours of qualifying highlights from the K&N Filters Winternationals at 4:30 p.m. (ET) on Saturday, Feb. 28, and show two hours of final eliminations coverage beginning at 10 p.m. (ET) on Sunday, Feb. 29.

-www.snakeracing.com