Before last month, veteran NHRA Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson had never been to an NHL hockey game.

Now, he has been to a couple and he thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

Johnson’s most recent NHL adventure came Jan. 24 when he attended a Nashville Predators home game against the Buffalo Sabres at Bridgestone Arena.

Johnson was in attendance as part of a promotion giveaway from Marathon Petroleum Corporation – the primary sponsor on his Dodge.

“That was a lot of fun,” said Johnson, the 2012 NHRA Pro Stock world champion. “I didn’t have to put on skates, but I had to go out there and flag off an official tricycle race.”

Johnson was joined during the promotion with the Predators official mascot, GNASH.

“Marathon gave away a $250, $500 and $1,000 gasoline gift cards,” Johnson said. “I had never done anything like that before. This was only the second hockey game I had ever been to and the first one I went to was Dec. 29 in Tampa (the Lightning played the Toronto Maple Leafs). That was another Marathon gig. Marathon sponsors the Tampa Bay Lightning and I was just at that game as a guest.”

Johnson acknowledged he has a new appreciation for the NHL.

“We’ve never been around hockey, but Pam (Johnson’s wife) and I both, we love it,” Allen said. “It’s really hyper-paced and that fits right along with how I am and a lot of excitement. There were a lot of racing fans there at those games I went to. There are a lot of cross-sectional fans. I don’t have any more hockey games on my schedule right now, because now we start racing.”

Johnson said the first order of business for his race team will be a stop in Phoenix to test at Wild Horse Motorsports Park. The Nitro Spring Training is being held Feb. 1-4 at Wild Horse Motorsports Park, followed by Pro Stock testing scheduled for Feb. 6-8 at Wild Horse. NHRA’s season-opening Winternationals are Feb. 9-12 in Pomona, Calif.

“We’ve really, really worked hard on our engine combination all winter and really we have like three different combinations in our truck going to Pomona, and we will work through all three combinations at the Phoenix test and hopefully have something a little better for Pomona than we had last time we were there.”

At the 2016 season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals this past November in Pomona, Johnson qualified 10th and lost in the first round to Drew Skillman.

Johnson, who had one win last season at the Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Denver, July 31, finished eighth in the season points standings. Johnson has finished in the top 10 in the points every year since 2005, highlighted by his 2012 championship.

Johnson, who also had two runner-up finishes at Epping, N.H., and Indianapolis last season, took a moment to discuss his thoughts on how the massive changes in Pro Stock impacted his team.

“I don’t really think it gained anything toward what the objectives were, but I think the class now will be a lot different this year than it was starting last year,” Johnson said. “I think it will be 10 to 12 cars that can win the race versus the first 10 or 12 races last year two cars could win the race. I think it is going to be a knockdown, drag out this year because everybody is going to be really close. We have to be in the top four or five cars to have a shot (for a world championship). Everybody is going to be so close now, so we have to be a top five car every run.”