TOMMY JOHNSON WINS ROUND ONE OF 2008 ENERGY DRINK WARS; DRIVES TO FINAL FOUR AT PHOENIX.

PHOENIX (Feb. 24) – The Monster Energy Funny Car team took the information and performance gains made in pre-race testing and used it to pay dividends at the Checker Schuck’s Kragen Nationals.

The team qualified fourth with a 4.815/318.99.

After rain washed out Friday’s qualifying, the fields were set following two Saturday runs.

“I was really confident that we would be able to capitalize on the big strides we made in testing before this event,” said Johnson. “All the crew chiefs were a little nervous after losing a whole day to rain and having only two runs to make the field, but Jimmy (Walsh, crew chief) stepped up to the plate with a competitive tune-up on the first qualifying run Saturday to get us solidly in the show.”

The first round of eliminations was slated to be a battle of the energy drinks: Johnson in the Monster Energy car versus Jerry Toliver in the Rockstar Funny Car. Johnson won the round handily, driving the Monster Energy Dodge Charger to an aggressive 4.834/310.63 while Toliver was on and off the throttle trying to gain traction.

“We were tickled pink to get that round win,” said Johnson. “Before that run Kenny (Bernstein, team owner) told me to just think of it as any other round, but I really wanted to get that win for him, for Monster, and the team. I guess you could call that a high energy round,” joked Johnson.

Johnson transferred to the quarterfinals to face Cruz Pedregon. The Monster Energy car stretched the lead and won the round with a 4.908/311.41 while Pedregon struggled to gain traction.

“We’re excited to be going to the semifinals,” said Johnson. “We had a little bit of a problem on that run, but we’re still showing big signs of improvement.

When the green lights flashed on the Christmas tree to signal the start of the semifinal battle, Johnson and Hight were neck and neck, but Hight got the edge at the finish line. Hight: 4.803/318.92; Johnson: 4.837/323.50.

“We gave him a run for the money,” said Johnson. “He just nicked us at the finish line. It’s hard to be disappointed after a performance like that. It looked like his engine was hurt, and I thought we could reel him in, but we ran out of racetrack.

“All in all we made some great progress today and a great rebound after Pomona. This team put in a lot of hard work and the comeback here in Phoenix is a statement for the team. This didn’t happen by accident. It happened because Jimmy and the crew buckled down and got results.

“Our performance here is a big confidence booster for the whole team and I think we’re going to be very competitive for the rest of the year.”

Johnson’s run to the semis contributed to a huge leap for the team to No. 7 in Funny Car point standings