Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Johnson enjoys being Pro Stock’s ‘hunter’

Friday, March 26, 2004 | 9:41 a.m.

Brian Hilderbrand covers motor sports for the Las Vegas Sun. His motor sports notebook appears Friday. He can be reached at bh@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4089.

One might think Kurt Johnson would be getting frustrated running second to NHRA Pro Stock rival Greg Anderson the way he has the past 12 months.

Johnson advanced to the final round of eliminations at both Las Vegas NHRA events last season -- only to finish second to Anderson on each occasion. Johnson enjoyed one of the best seasons of his career last year, winning four times and advancing to a personal-best 10 final rounds, but was runner-up to Anderson for the Pro Stock championship.

And now, after three rounds of the 23-race NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series season, Johnson comes into next weekend's fifth annual SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway second to Anderson in Pro Stock points.

Rather than being frustrated about chasing Anderson, Johnson said he is enjoying being the hunter as opposed to the hunted.

"It actually adds a little bit of excitement when you're behind," Johnson said Thursday as he prepared his ACDelco Chevrolet Cavalier for the trip to Las Vegas. "You're always motivated and you're thinking rather than being in a laid-back type of mode.

"Greg's been around long enough to know that people aren't sitting still right now -- everybody is after him -- and I guarantee you, he's looking over his shoulder a little bit."

Anderson won a category-record 12 national events last season -- including both Las Vegas races -- and has opened the 2004 season with victories in Pomona, Calif., and last weekend in Gainesville, Fla. Johnson won at Firebird International Raceway three weeks ago but said Johnson still has an edge over the rest of the Pro Stock field.

"Greg's in a new car, so I think he found some performance advantage as far as the chassis goes and that has put him a little bit ahead -- even more than he was last year," Johnson said. "He's doing something unique that nobody else is doing. Everybody is kind of bunched together a little bit, except for him.

"Whatever he's doing, it's working. It's just kind of strange because it doesn't work in any other car. I don't know what it is, but we're just going to keep working at it -- that's all we can do -- and not worry about what he's doing."

Although Johnson already has visited the winner's circle once this season, he said he was upset with his performance at Gainesville, where he lost in the second round of eliminations.

"Phoenix was our day and we made the right calls that day and we were lucky enough to walk away with the trophy," he said. "Then we went to Gainesville and we tried some new components, trying to pick up a little bit, and it kind of bit us in the back.

"But we'll be back on track come Vegas. It's one of my favorite venues to race at and we ran good there last year; we'll see if we can advance one position from where we've been lately out there."

Busch, who has won three of the past four races at the half-mile oval, said he now counts Bristol among his favorite tracks.

"If you had asked me three years ago what my favorite track was, I never would have said Bristol -- it's just such an intimidating racetrack," Busch said. "But now after the success that we've been fortunate enough to achieve here, it's right up there.

"Our sponsor, Sharpie, stepped up a few years ago to sponsor the night race and now this year they are sponsoring the Busch race this year for the first time, so coming to Bristol is like a second home track after Vegas. We've been so close to a top-five this year, especially last week in Darlington, and we've always had luck in special paint scheme cars here at Bristol."

Busch, who is fourth in points after five races, will run a special paint scheme on his No. 97 Ford commemorating the 40th anniversary of Sharpie markers.

This year's inductees also include Jack Cason, a longtime contributor to sports in Las Vegas; former UNLV head football coach Tony Knap; UNLV head golf coach Dwaine Knight; and former NFL Pro Bowl running back Gerald Riggs, a Bonanza High graduate.

Induction ceremonies will be Friday, June 11 at Cox Pavilion. Tickets can be purchased by calling 566-2000, ext. 2551 or by visiting www.sportshalloffame.org.

Carpentier temporarily was bumped from his ride with Forsythe when the team signed Rodolfo Lavin, who brought his Corona beer sponsorship to the team. Carpentier will join Lavin and defending series champion Paul Tracy in Gerald Forsythe's first three-car effort.

Although Carpentier still was under contract with Forsythe, it had been speculated that the team would farm out Carpentier to another team, as it did with Alex Tagliani last season.

"Now that the final details of running three cars has been worked out by the team, I'm really looking forward to testing next week and the first race," Carpentier said. "We have a lot of veteran leadership in this team and we expect to be challenging for the championship."

Carpentier, 32, has four victories and four poles in 126 career Champ Car starts and has finished in the top five in the championship each of the past two seasons.

The Champ Car World Series will open its 2004 season on April 18 with the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach.

Team co-owner Eric Bachelart also said Thursday that he was "very close" to completing a deal to run a second car this season.

Wilson, 25, won the 2001 FIA International Formula 3000 championship and drove in the Formula One World Championship last season. Wilson drove in 11 races with Minardi before finishing the season with the Jaguar team. His best finish was eighth place in the United States Grand Prix in Indianapolis.

Jaskol earned three victories in the Formula Dodge National Championship last season and finished third in points.

Qualifying for the April 24 race will be on a shortened 10-mile course the day before the race and will determine the starting positions for the top 20 cars and trucks. Previously, starting positions for the race had been determined by a random draw.