SATURDAY NOTEBOOK – NOT A LOT OF GROUNDBREAKING STUFF FROM SATURDAY

JOHNSON REMAINS THE ONE TO BEAT – Nobody could match Allen Johnson’s top qualifying time of 661 at 207.02 from Friday in Pro Stock, keeping the defending world champion in the No. 1 position in his Team Mopar Dodge Avenger.

Johnson, who is looking for his first Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals win, would claim his third No. 1 qualifier of the season and 31st of his career if it holds on Sunday.

Shane Gray stayed qualified second in his Gray Motorsports Chevy Camaro after going 6.665 at 207.78 on Friday. Points leader and five-time 2013 winner Mike Edwards remained third in his Interstate Batteries/I Am Second Camaro with his run of 6.669 at 206.70.

TOUGH DAY IN THE OFFICE – Of the 23 cars which made qualifying runs during Saturday’s lone session, only one car improved and the run will not count in their qualifying efforts. John Gaydosh stepped up from a 7.048 to a 6.993 but remained 14th. Greg Stanfield remained 12th with a 6.714 from Friday’s qualifying.

CLOSE BUT NO IMPROVEMENT – Jason Line was the quickest car on Saturday running a 6.690, just .002 off of his Friday run. The Summit-sponsored driver was the only one in the 6.60s during the second day of qualifying. Line’s 206.95 was also top speed in the heat of the day.

UNDER THE OLD SYSTEM – Matt Hartford’s 6.714 elapsed time would have been the bump spot.

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – JOHNSON’S MOPAR IS THE KING OF FRIDAY

DEFENDING SERIES CHAMPION JOHNSON TOPS FRIDAY INDY PS QUALIFYING – Allen Johnson categorizes the NHRA U.S. Nationals as the one event victory which has eluded him and his family throughout their involvement in the sport. Friday evening during the prestigious event in Indianapolis, the Greeneville, Tenn.-based driver took a step in the right direction towards rectify the shortcoming.

Johnson, during Friday’s lone session, covered the Lucas Oil Raceway quarter-mile in 6.611 seconds at 207.02 miles per hour to beat out Shane Gray’s 6.665 effort. Point leader Mike Edwards was third with a 6.669.

“Winning this race is definitely on my bucket list,” Johnson said. “I’ve never really been close [in winning] to be honest. It’s right up there with winning the championship, Gainesville, Pomona and some of the other special races. Winning this would be really special.”

Johnson said the real treat in winning the event would be in doing it for his dad and engine builder Roy Johnson, who as a former sportsman racer never won the event either.

“It would probably mean more to my dad for us to win because he raced for many years here as a sportsman,” Johnson said. “He raced different cars in Comp eliminator and got close but never sealed the deal. It would mean a lot to do something like that for him.”

Johnson, in looking at the rest of the event’s weather forecast, believes his run is going to be tough to overtake for the pole position.

“We definitely made the perfect run in the first session,” said Johnson. “There was nothing left in there. We tested in St. Louis on Tuesday and Wednesday in similar conditions, hot, humid and grimy weather. We gained a really good set-up. The Expresslane Dodge Avenger absolutely made a perfect run there. I didn’t have much left for them.”

Johnson didn’t rule out Sunday’s early Q-4 session as the one to produce a better run.

“That might be about as close as you can get or unless Sunday’s morning session is better conditions,” said Johnson. “It could be about 500 or 600 feet better. You could see a .64 or something like that. Each day of the event is supposed to be like we had today, so I don’t think you’ll see much improvement.”

MCGAHA ENJOYS PRO STOCK CHALLENGE – Chris McGaha knows he isn’t going to challenge to win an NHRA Pro Stock world championship any time soon.

McGaha, however, enjoys the challenge of competing against the world’s top Pro Stock drivers.

“Since I started this two years ago, I have been four- hundredths out of the hunt and I’m still four-hundredths out of the hunt,” McGaha, 34, said.

McGaha has competed in 10 of the 16 races this season and is scheduled to be in action Friday through Monday at the U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. McGaha is 15th in the point standings.

McGaha is behind the wheel of a Dodge Avenger and his team is based out of Odessa, Texas.

“It hasn’t gone like you always want it to, but it hasn’t gone that bad,” McGaha said about his 2013 season. “We have been in and out a crew chief. I had Brian Self doing it for a while. I have been my own crew chief, I guess you would say since Topeka (May 17-19). I bought all of Jeg (Coughlin’s) stuff from last year. I have all that stuff and I have my own stuff as well. Both engine combinations are way different. It is two different perspectives. We have been jumping back and forth between them.”

After Indy, McGaha is planning to compete at Dallas Sept. 19-22, St. Louis Sept. 27-29, Las Vegas Oct. 24-27 and Pomona, Calif. Nov. 7-10.

Regardless of how this season ends up, McGaha will be back in 2014.

“We are going to keep doing it,” McGaha said. “We have talked about a lot of different things, but we are not really sure. We have had a lot of people approach us wanting us to team up. I will be out here next year.”

McGaha has made it to the semifinals twice in his brief NHRA Pro Stock career. This year his lone round win came at the season-opening race at the Winternationals when he beat Mike Edwards.

When McGaha isn’t racing, he works at his family-owned machine shop and fabrication shop in Odessa.

“We build oil field equipment,” said Chris, whose family’s business is named Harlow Sammons.

DIFFERENT KIND OF VENUE – Most NHRA Pro Stock racers limit their between-race strip action to testing. Larry Morgan is far from being a blend-into-the-crowd kind of factory hot rod racer, however.

Instead of testing, Morgan traveled back in time to partake in the old-school ritual of match racing.

During the recently completed 60th annual World Series of Drag Racing hosted by Cordova Dragway, Morgan squared off in a best two out of three battle against longtime rival Warren Johnson.

“It was a good time,” Morgan said. “You might have to get Warren’s version of the story on that, though, after my parachutes didn’t deploy after a run and I blew out a front tire trying to skid to a stop right in front of him. He seemed to get a kick out of it; the rest of the weekend he called me Larry ‘Skidmore’ Morgan.”

Mishap aside, Morgan had fun and gleaned useful information for this weekend’s event.

“I wanted to get some runs on some tires before we got to Indy. We made a few passes for the crowd and it all worked out great.”

This weekend’s event features the largest entry list thus far in 2013 with 26 entries.

“I’ve got to be on my game from the very start,” Morgan said. “There’s no room for error because there will be too many good cars there. We’ve got two nighttime qualifying sessions, which are going to be the two that are the most important.

“We’ve also got a new motor we’ve been working on, so we’ll bring it along, too. I’ve done well at Indy in the past and we’re excited to see what we can do there again this year.”

On Friday, Morgan slipped into the provisional field with a 6.712 best.

WAITING ON ANOTHER – There’s a common belief in drag racing circles that suggests the first win is always the toughest and once it comes, others follow. If Roger Brogdon had his druthers, the wins would be coming more often.

Brogdon broke through during Father’s Day weekend with his first Pro Stock national event title at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. Since then, he hasn’t won a round of competition. Despite the barren times he managed to secure a spot in the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship.

Just making the Countdown eased the pain of the recent lean times.

“It’s a big load off our minds,” Brogdon said. “We’re just going to Indy trying to win it. The best I’ve ever done there was three or four years ago in Comp. I went down to the semifinals and got beat.

“There are only two things people remember at the end of the season: Who wins Indy and who wins the world championship. I’d like to do either one of them.”

Putting his money where his mouth is, Brogdon has brought in new equipment and has had the Brogdon-Kent team working overtime to prepare the team for a championship run.

“We tested in St. Louis before heading to Indy,” Brogdon said. “We tested all of our engines all week long. There’s not a lot of time to develop stuff once the Countdown starts. It’s going to be tough, but we’re up to the challenge.”

Brogdon failed to make the cut in Friday’s lone session with a 7.022 best.

KNOWS THE IMPORTANCE – Jeg Coughlin Jr. understands the importance of winning the NHRA U.S. Nationals. The Pro Stock standout has 70 career national event victories and comes into this weekend’s event with two in 2013.

“We’ve turned in several very, very strong performances this year and the guys have this JEGS.com/Mopar Dodge Avenger tuned-up and ready to get after it in Indy,” said Coughlin, who entered the weekend as third in points. “We went to two finals out there on the Western Swing, and although we had a slight misstep at the last race in Brainerd (Minn.), I feel as though that was an anomaly and not the norm for this team this season. I believe our results speak to that.

“Of course, you’re always looking to improve. We will test just before the race in St. Louis to see if we can’t find another level of consistency. That’s so key in the sport. We definitely want to be as prepared as possible because this is the granddaddy of them all. Everyone wants to win Indy. That’s why you put in the extra work.”

Coughlin is a three-time Indy winner, having won Pro Stock in 2000, 2002 and 2009. He also won the Super Gas title in Indy in 1992, and was fortunate enough to bag the Mopar HEMI Challenge crown in 2004.

Coughlin was seventh quickest after the first day with a 6.688 elapsed time at 206.07.

PLAYING CATCH-UP – Greg Stanfield prefers to race from in front. However, since getting much needed funding from Lucas Oil to finish the season, the Bossier City, La.-based driver has been non-stop in getting back up to speed he lost while sitting on the sidelines.

“We’ve been really thrashing to get everything taken care of,” Stanfield said. “We’ve been in St. Louis testing for this weekend. We’ve got tires and clutch discs to get ready along with getting up to speed. It’s been hard picking up where we left off but we’re getting there. We’re going to have some new stuff ready by Charlotte, but at the moment our focus is on Indy.”

Stanfield made his return to competition in Brainerd after sitting out nearly half of the regular season.

“Our primary goal is to get qualified because there’s going to be a lot of cars there,” Stanfield said. “We’re going to have to make some consistent runs down the track. After that, we’ll try to go a couple of rounds.”

Stanfield made his way into the provisional field as the twelfth quickest with a 6.714, 205.22 pass.

Stanfield, the 2010 U.S. Nationals champion, understands the challenges he faces this weekend.

“This race is grueling,” he said. “In 2009 we got beat in the final by Jeg (Coughlin Jr.) by about two inches, and the next year we came back and won the thing. We always tend to race well there.”