WJ's FIRST NHRA JOLIET WIN - 1999

Race Car: 1999 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Pontiac Firebird

Performance: WJ qualified second, 6.964 seconds, 198.70 mph

Defeated Richie Stevens, Jeg Coughlin, Jim Yates and Troy Coughlin

In Warren's Words:

"Ironically, even though we won, I don't really recall too much about the weekend. However, after the frustration in the final from the year before, I do remember we came back to Chicago determined to get the job done. Obviously, we learned from our mistakes and this time, we left with a much more satisfactory result."  

Notes of the time:

* This was the 76th win of WJ's career.

* This was WJ's fourth win of the 1999 season, where he would total seven victories en route to his fifth NHRA Pro Stock championship.

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* With his win at Route 66 Raceway, WJ had now scored at least one national event win at every track on the NHRA circuit at that time.

* WJ's son Kurt was the No. 1 qualifier with an elapsed time of 6.955 seconds, but was upset in the opening round.

* WJ set the top speed of the event at 198.70 mph, which he accomplished in qualifying.

* John Nobile anchored the field in the 16th position with a 7.032-second e.t.

*  33 cars attempted to make the Pro Stock Field.

* The field consisted of Pontiac Firebirds, Chevrolet Camaros, Oldsmobile Cutlasses, Dodge Avengers and a Ford Probe driven by veteran Hurley Blakeney.

* Other winners included Tim Wilkerson, who scored his first NHRA national event win by defeating John Force in the Funny Car final and current ESPN TV analyst Mike Dunn, who defeated Kenny Bernstein in the Top Fuel final. 

WJ's MOST RECENT JOLIET WIN - 2001

Race Car: 2001 GM Goodwrench Service Plus Pontiac Grand Am

Performance: WJ qualified fourth, 6.808 seconds, 201.82 mph

Defeated V. Gaines, Brad Jeter, Mike Edwards and Darrell Alderman

In Warren's Words:

"I remember that we had trouble qualifying at that particular race. In fact, we weren't even in until the last session. For some reason, we had been fighting the car all weekend, so we took the set-up right out of Kurt's car, plugged it in ours, and immediately picked up four hundredths of a second. After that, we went on to win the race. Obviously, that is one of the advantages of having a two-car team."