WARREN JOHNSON WORKS THROUGH HIS OWN RESTRUCTURING (2024)

"Everybody seems to be getting along better with this type of program instead of trying to saddle all the problems and responsibilities on just one or two people. Everybody shares in this thing overall as far as making the program work," he said

Effective delegation is a key element to Johnson's new approach.

"You hear in business micromanagers where they manage everything to death. You have to delegate responsibility and have regular meetings to address where you think you're lacking, what you think you can do to improve, who needs to accept more or less responsibility. It's called sharing of the wealth is what you really call it," he said. "With that approach we feel we're going to go a little more successful here shortly."

Johnson said he knew for along time that his previous plan was inadequate but struggled a bit because at the same time he saw value in his unique approach.

"We knew we were off on performance. We elected to stay with this DRC-3 motor, which I think there's only one competitor out there running it on a full-time basis. That's Ken Black's operation. Right now we're about the same performance level as they are. We feel just a little bit more development time on this thing we'll be right back to where we need to be performance-wise," Johnson said.

His Sugar Hill, Ga., race shop has been far more than a house for his race car. It was a laboratory, and at the same time it was a micro-factory. And that meant a lot of frustration, a lot of triumphs in extended increments.

"Yeah, it wears on you because you put a lot of long hours in there developing these parts and pieces," he said. "We're kind of a little bit different shop here. We do everything in-house. We make virtually everything here. We can keep control on the quality a little bit better. I'm not saying we're any better machinists or R&D people, but when you do everything internally, you can keep a little bit better control of it."

That, Johnson said, is starting to pay off, although he admits he has a way to go.

"We've been focusing on trying to get the performance of these cars where they need to be," he said, referring to teammate son Kurt's Pro Stock car. "We're off three- or four-hundredths where we would be extremely competitive. It's been a case we've been trying a lot of things, doing a lot of R&D. It's slowly been coming to fruition. I think we missed qualifying a couple times this year strictly because of performance. We're on the right path. We're just not quite there yet."

He said "a number of factors" play into a complete turnaround, a return to the days when he won six championships in 10 years before between 1992 and 2001.

"Obviously you have to have enough power to get these cars to perform at the level they're competitive at," he said. "But at the same time, you still have to be able to apply that power to the ground. It's a multi-fold approach you have to use. You have to have the power, figure how to use it, and get it to the ground consistently and effectively. We've been working on all fronts. We feel we're competitive on power. We haven't been able to negotiate the early parts of the track, the 60s, the 330s. After that, we seem to be able to run with anybody out there. At the same time, we have to work on the performance while doing R&D to find more power."

Can he dominate again?

"Well, it's like any athletic endeavor: You're never as good as you used to be," Johnson said with a chuckle. "Years ago you could get near-perfect lights whenever I needed them. Now you really have to get it in the teens and 20s. You can compete for quite a few more years than in some of the other forms of motorsport. At the same time, you still have to be on top of your game.

"We're competitive I can still race effectively --not as well as the driver I used to be, for sure. But still I have to look at the quality of the competition out there. I feel I'm competitive as a driver. We just have to get the performance of the vehicles up to our standards."

The notion of domination, Johnson indicated, sounds powerful but actually is fleeting. He marvels at and respects the job Mike Edwards is doing but said, "I've never taken and looked at somebody else's program and tried to compare our program or do anything about what they're doing. I have no control over their program. All I have control over is my own program. So we just keep looking at where we need to improve."

As for Edwards' performance, Johnson said, "It's quite reminiscent of when we dominated for 10 years. Bob Glidden did it for years. Greg Anderson and Jason Line had a run for five or so years where nobody could beat them. Mike is on top of his game right now.

"That's good," he was quick to say. "If it's the same person winning all the time, it gets boring. Basically it's stagnant as far as the sport is concerned. It's almost a requirement to have different winners, not necessarily repetitive every race. If somebody dominates for one or two or three seasons, that's fine, because there's going to be somebody else coming along, and it's going to get exciting again."

As Johnson zeroes in on his milestone 100th event victory, the NHRA Pro Stock class has become more intriguing. But Johnson said qualifying for the Countdown is his priority, that his career goals never have centered on gaudy numbers.

"I never set a goal as far as the number of wins," he said. "One day when I get up, I'm going to say, 'That's enough of this, I'm going to move on to something else.' I never set a goal for ultimate number of wins."

Victory No. 97, he said, "is just as important as the first one or any of them. When you're competing to win a championship, you have to win as many of these races as possible. They all pay the same. They all have the same points total. It's no more important from an emotional standpoint or any other standpoint than any of the other victories I've had."

All he's concentrating on is this year's championship opportunities: "We're trying to get into the top 10. So the only way we're going to be able to do that is to race efficiently and effectively. We have to start going more rounds and hopefully win some more races this year."

That's especially tough when the support from GM has vanished. Sticking with his GM-centric program, Johnson said, is a matter of pragmatism rather than loyalty.

"I've been with GM as far as being supported by GM since 1983. They have been an integral part of our program. I felt obligated, and at the same time they had a competitive product out there as far as Pro Stock racing," he said. "It really made no sense for me to switch body styles, because the program, whether it had been with Ford or Chrysler, would have been no more lucrative with what I had with GM. I felt since we had an arsenal of GM engines here, let's stay with this program instead of switching."

He doesn't appear too worried about his K&N Pontiac GXP being phased out.

"NHRA had enough foresight to come up with what we call a box method of developing these cars where you have a certain wheel base, width, height and length. It still has to resemble the original vehicle and meet templates and so forth.
So aero-wise, aerodynamics, these cars are as good as anything out there," Johnson said. "In the past, there was a five-year rule on a particular body style after the body ceased production. We have a good, solid two years, three years left on this particular car today. It's still competitive with any of the body styles out there.