JOHNSON, STEVENS JR. ONE-TWO IN FRIDAY QUALIFYING IN DENVER

Driving the Mopar/J&J Racing Dodge Stratus R/T, Allen Johnson grabbed the No. 1 position in Friday night qualifying for the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway. Two more qualifying runs are scheduled for Saturday.

His lap of 7.032 seconds at 195.73 mph also established an elapsed-time track record.

Johnson's Mopar teammate Richie Stevens Jr., in the Team Mopar/Valspar Dodge Stratus R/T, claimed the No. 2 spot, posting a 7.035/195.03, making it an all-Mopar "front row," for the time being.

"We tested up here real well, right before Chicago and right after St. Louis," said Johnson, "and we really expected to run good. Any time we get real good track conditions, Mark (Ingersoll, crew chief on both Team Mopar cars) just eats it up. Sundays sometimes give us some problems, but when we get on tracks like that he knows what to do and he'll go after it. That's what he did.

"You don't get any better than Denver. Everybody sits stadium style, you're running late under the lights at your sponsor's race, having fun all week long doing bathing suit contests and river rafting. It's been fun so far.

"We will run that high wave as long as we can, because we have more lows than highs in this game."