Coughlin looked like the champion he is by laying down low elapsed time on Thursday, but during qualifying on Friday Tom Hammonds took the point for just a little while, then Allen Johnson took the pole, and then Jeggie took it away from A.J. Coughlin’s pole-grabbing 6.683 elapsed time was .02 seconds quicker than the track record of 6.703 he set in early November during the Las Vegas Nationals.

Johnson has teamed up with Johnny Gray and the Mountain Tire Mopar teams to form Mopar’s best chance at taking the NHRA championship away from the GM racers.

Larry Morgan had his engines in V Gaines’ Mopar (shown) as Larry and crew were still busy back in Ohio trying to make more power on the dyno before heading out to California for the season-opening NHRA Winternationals.