EPPING, N.H. (June 3, 2017) – They say “third time’s the charm,” and Tommy Johnson Jr. and Terry Chandler’s Make-A-Wish Funny Car team hope it holds true at this weekend’s fifth annual New England Nationals in Epping, N.H.
In 2015, Johnson was the runner-up at this event to John Force. He then finished runner-up to his Don Schumacher Racing teammate, Ron Capps in 2016.
This year, Johnson and the team hope to the advance to the final for the third straight year but to end the day in the winner’s circle.
“It hasn’t been our best qualifying effort here, especially for having so much success here the last few years,” Johnson said. “We always like to qualifying better than we did.
“We’ve got an uphill battle in from of us tomorrow but I’m confident that we’re close to getting it to run where we need it to.”
The Make-A-Wish Dodge qualified No. 9 with their time of 3.900 seconds at 324.75 mph. Johnson will race J.R. Todd of Kalitta Motorsports tomorrow in the opening round of competition. This will be the first event they have met on Sunday as Todd spent the past few years racing in the Top Fuel division.
“It’s just going to be a tough day. We’re going to have to fight this one out if we’re going to try going back to the finals here for the third year in a row, we’ve got some work cut out for us.”
This weekend kicks off a four-race swing throughout the Eastern half of the U.S. and Johnson would like nothing more than to go rounds on Sunday.
The team earned their first win of the season in March in Las Vegas but has not won a round on Sunday since.
TOMMY JOHNSON JR., Terry Chandler’s Make-A-Wish 2017 Dodge Charger R/T
SUNDAY ELIMINATIONS
Qualified: No. 9
First round: J.R. Todd
QUALIFYING
FRIDAY: 3.922 sec., 325.77 mph, (Session 1); 9.059, 77.43, (Session 2)
SATURDAY: 3.900, 325.77, (Session 3); 4.360, 199.58, (Session 4)
ABOUT MAKE-A-WISH
Make-A-Wish® grants the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich the human experience with hope, strength and joy. According to a 2011 U.S. study of wish impact, most health professionals surveyed believe a wish-come-true can have positive impacts on the health of children. Kids say wishes give them renewed strength to fight their illnesses, and their parents say these experiences help strengthen the entire family. Based in Phoenix, Make-A-Wish is one of the world’s leading children’s charities, serving children in every community in the United States and its territories. With the help of generous donors and more than 27,000 volunteers, Make-A-Wish grants a wish somewhere in the country every 37 minutes. It has granted more than 254,000 wishes since its inception in 1980; more than 14,200 in 2014 alone. Visit Make-A-Wish at wish.org to learn more.
About Don Schumacher Racing
Don Schumacher Racing, headquartered in Brownsburg, Ind., fields eight professional NHRA teams. In Top Fuel, the U.S. Army dragster driven by eight-time world champion Tony Schumacher, the Matco Tools dragster driven by three-time world champion Antron Brown and the Papa John’s Top Fuel dragster driven by Leah Pritchett; and in Funny Car, 2016 world champion Ron Capps in the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T; 2011 and 2014 world champion Matt Hagan in the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T, 2012 NHRA world champion Jack Beckman in the Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge, and the Make-A-Wish Dodge driven by Tommy Johnson Jr.
DSR has won 306 NHRA national event titles and 16 world championships.
Follow Don Schumacher Racing at ShoeRacing.com, on Twitter at @shoeracing and Facebook.com/shoeracing.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Jeff Wolf (wolfj@shoeracing.com), 702.524.1368
Leah Vaughn (vaughnl@shoeracing.com), 618.516.1988