On the Run with Tommy Johnson Jr. driver of the Skoal Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo Funny Car

I had so much going on this winter that it seemed like I was away from home more than during the racing season. I had a few sponsor commitments for Skoal Racing in Las Vegas, and with holiday travel to Iowa, North Carolina, and Colorado, my wife Melanie and I were home for maybe three full weeks before we left for testing in Las Vegas in mid-January with our Monaco motorhome.

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I’m so excited to begin the 2005 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season, and Fm really confident that there are good things in store for our Skoal Racing team. The way our car performed toward the end of last season, I’m glad the off-season sped by like a 320-mph Funny Car. Granted, none of us was pleased with the way things turned out the last few seasons, but we’ve assembled a talented race team, and I think the performance of our race car will do a complete 180 this year.

Having only one Funny Car in the Skoal Racing camp will definitely be an adjustment for our team. Ron Capps was a great teammate during the last four years, but being able to combine the best of both teams makes me very confident that we’ll be more competitive this season. After just a few weeks of winter test ing, I can already see a difference in the focus and attitude of our race team. I know the recent trend is toward multicar teams, but Fm optimistic about our one-car effort. We have all of the parts and pieces in place to make a strong run this year.

Between the Las Vegas and Phoenix test sessions, we spent nine days testing our race car, completing preseason testing in Phoenix Feb. 1. We ran very well in Las Vegas but encountered a tire-shake problem in our first few days in Phoenix. This is why we test. We found the problem, fixed it, and proved it was fixed by our performance in the last two days of testing.

Las Vegas is such a super track that it’s easy to post strong numbers there, but in Phoenix, we dealt with very different and difficult conditions - from a warm, tricky racetrack to very cool conditions. That allowed us to work on our tune-up for conditions that we’ll face during the season.

After five days in Phoenix, crew chief Mike Green and the rest of our crew were very pleased with the way our race car performed. The goal in testing is to work out the early season bug, and we did that. I’m very happy because the Skoal Racing guys had a successful test season, and I can hardly wait to strap on the helmet for real on Feb. 10. Fm confident that we can pull our Monte Carlo out of the trailer Thursday in Pomona and make a 4.7-second run.

Recently, a short piece about my sister Wendy ran in National DRAGSTER’S new Out of the Groove section. I am asked several times during a race weekend about what my parents and sister are doing these days. My family has been involved in drag racing for a long time, and we’ve become very good friends with many people over the years. My dad sold his mail-order business last fall to Bob Delia, who is carrying on the tradition of Tommy Johnson’s Motorsports Warehouse. My dad is bored with retirement already; he is looking to find something to do on the NHRA tour so that he can attend all of the events. My mom is definitely ready for him to find something to do. Wendy and her husband Mike Childers are expecting their first child in March. She and Kelly Earnhardt own and run the Scrap Shack, a scrapbook store in Mooresville, N.C., and Mike works for Robert Yates Racing. My wife is still working very hard to find funding so she can return to the cockpit on the NHRA tour. I recently found an old issue of Racer Magazine from the late 1990s that listed Melanie as a future star, and I believe she is that. Any company would benefit from having her as part of its marketing strategy - and she can drive a race car.

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