Allen Johnson can’t help but wonder if a midweek accident in a pre-Bristol test session worked in his favor alleviating pressure which usually accompanies an event deemed as his hometown race.

Johnson, of Greeneville, Tenn., knows the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals is the one race where he gets to perform before hundreds of friends and family. That creates a pressure to perform like none of the other stops on the 24-race NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

Johnson crashed his Mopar-sponsored Dodge Stratus earlier in the weekend while testing in Radford, Va., when his parachutes failed to deploy. Johnson turned the car into an earthen berm to scrub speed off the race car.

Days before a major event is an inopportune time to crash a Pro Stocker, as if there is really a right time for such a calamity. But, in this case the crash has worked to refocus Johnson.

“My team has been working night and day to get everything lined up with the new parts and pieces,” Johnson said. “It’s just been a little bit of drama that has taken all of the usual anxiety out of my system.”

There’s a huge anxiety that accompanies ensuring friends, family and vendors of his business are entertained before and during a national event drag race.

“It’s a non-stop weekend,” Johnson admits. “On Friday my phone hasn’t stopped ringing. I’ve had to concentrate more on getting the car out here.”

Yes, there are those who want tickets.

“I’ve had about 80 phone calls for tickets and made about six trips to will call,” Johnson admitted. “It’s a lot of work but these are people who have been good to me.”

Then there are the details associated with repairing his Pro Stocker. Johnson took his wounded racer to Galesburg, Ill., for the necessary repairs by chassis builder Rick Jones. One of the troublesome areas of repairing the car was in finding a suitable carbon fiber front end in time for the weekend’s event.

That’s when Jones offered up a front end from a spare Stratus belonging to part-time Pro Stock racer John Nobile.

“I just hope that we have covered the purple up to the point that it won’t jinx us,” Johnson said. “It was really nice of John to allow us to do that and Rick to get the car fixed like he did. I’m just glad we had one sitting around.”

What's the problem with the purple on the nose?

“Purple and me … we have history,” Johnson admitted. “I’ve just always felt that was a color that will jinx you.”

Johnson has no basis for his reasoning. He just always believed purple was a bad color to be associated with.

“Ever since I was a kid, I have felt that way,” Johnson said.   

Johnson suffered no ill-effects of either the former purple front end or the wrecked racer by racing to the No. 6 position in qualifying with a 6.723 elapsed time at 204.94 miles per hour in his second qualifying run.
 

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