Thirty-nine NHRA Full Throttle Pro Stock victories highlight a storied  career for veteran driver Kurt Johnson. For the second generation driver, those 39 triumphs started with a single win.

Johnson got his first win sixteen years ago in Seattle, the site of this weekend’s NHRA Northwest Nationals hosted by Pacific Raceways.

"I remember Bob Glidden telling me at the finish line after the first round that if I kept my head screwed on straight I could win the race," Johnson said. "We took Bob's advice … made sure we kept our cool, and came away with a win.

Thirty-nine NHRA Full Throttle Pro Stock victories highlight a storied  career for veteran driver Kurt Johnson. For the second generation driver, those 39 triumphs started with a single win.

Johnson got his first win sixteen years ago in Seattle, the site of this weekend’s NHRA Northwest Nationals hosted by Pacific Raceways.

"I remember Bob Glidden telling me at the finish line after the first round that if I kept my head screwed on straight I could win the race," Johnson said. "We took Bob's advice … made sure we kept our cool, and came away with a win.

"Winning a race like that during my first year was kind of exciting from the fact that I had never driven any sportsman classes, or anything like that – we went right into Pro Stock. It was definitely a learning curve but it's come together for us quite well."

Johnson has since won Seattle twice (1999, 2005), has been runner-up twice (1996, 1998) and was No. 1 qualifier in 1997.

"It seems like Seattle has always been a good place for us to race," Johnson said. "It's a good, wide racetrack, you have a lot of trees and the Pro Stock cars can really thrive in that kind of environment. The weather seems to be cool in the morning, sunny in the afternoon, and it stays around the mid-80s in temperature. Plus, it can very fast. You're right there at sea level, and the track seems to run slightly downhill so you can definitely light up the board."

Johnson enters this year's race in eighth place in the Full Throttle points standings. He and the team are coming off an outing at the Mile-High Nationals where they battled to find a consistent chassis setup. Heading into Seattle, and going forward, Johnson is confident that the chassis issues are solved, and that the ACDelco Chevrolet is ready to return to the consistent, competitive setup displayed throughout the 2008 campaign. 

"We gave our combination one more chance in Denver, and the changes we made didn't pan out until Sunday," Johnson said. "Even though we lost, we felt it was because of an engine issue. The car made a nice, smooth run – it did everything it should have. We compared the run to our notes from last year and the graph was almost identical. I think the chassis is pretty solid right now. We just need to address the engine issue and move on, and we know how to do that."

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