Food City 500 - Jimmie Johnson Notes

Team 48 Bristol Preview

Jimmie Johnson and Team 48 travel to Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday for the 500-lap race on the half-mile concrete high banks. Johnson won last Sunday’s Darlington race and has moved from 25th to sixth in the driver standings in the last three races.

JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTES:

WHAT MAKES BRISTOL SO EXCITING? “It’s a half-mile bull ring that we run in 14 seconds. The race track promotes that kind of excitement just by the design of the track. If it were a big flat 1.5-mile, it wouldn’t be the same. When you say the name ‘Bristol’, you just think of a tough little short track.”

DO YOU FEEL THAT’S WHY IT’S SO POPULAR WITH THE FANS? “I think all the drivers are fans of Bristol. I think we’d love to see a second groove come in at some point – maybe how it was in the past. I never raced there or saw it in person when the track was asphalt instead of concrete, but I understand you can run from the top to the bottom. That’s the thing I hear from drivers. They wish there would be second and third lanes. But the concrete doesn’t wear out. It doesn’t change throughout the event. You don’t search out new lines. You just stay stuck to the bottom all day long. I think that’s where the frustration is. As far as going to Bristol, that’s one of the top three that all the drivers want to win. It’s still a very prestigious race for everyone.”

ARE YOU GOING TO USE ANY OF THE INFORMATION THE NO. 25 TEAM OF BRIAN VICKERS LEARNED FROM THEIR TEST AT BRISTOL? “Absolutely. With the new tire construction and everything that’s going on there, any data we can look at to compare our notes from last year to this year to get a head start is huge. We’ll definitely learn from Brian’s test.”

WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE NASCAR BUILD MORE SHORT TRACKS LIKE BRISTOL INSTEAD OF THE COOKIE CUTTER TRACKS? “Yeah, I think the three-quarter mile track to a mile-track is what we need. Rockingham is one of the most fun tracks to race on because it has a lot of banking. It’s still short enough in size to where the drivers aren’t afraid to lean on one another and race side-by-side and the aero effects don’t show up as much as they do on a 1.5-mile track. More tracks of that size I think would be great. I know there’s a concern about accommodating enough fans. But when you look at Bristol, that’s proof that you can put 180,000 people at a half-mile race track. You could take some of those seating ideas and apply them and put on a great show with good attendance.”

CHAD KNAUS QUOTES:

WHAT DID IT MEAN FOR THE TEAM TO WIN AT DARLINGTON? “Darlington has always been a real special race track for me. I was fortunate enough to be involved with the No. 24 car when Jeff (Gordon) won the Winston Million there racing with Jeff Burton and that was a lot of fun. We really had to work hard for that one. We’ve always been fortunate with the Lowe’s team to go out there and run competitively. To actually go out there on Sunday and win that race was very cool. We did not have the best product on the race track. We were able to really step it up in the pits and Jimmie really stepped it up on the race track and got it done. That’s what it’s all about.”

HOW GREAT IS IT WHEN THE TEAM SPIRIT IN THE SHOP TURNS INTO A TEAM WIN? ”When a team is out there winning and finishing in the top five, team spirit isn’t an issue. It’s always good. When you go our there and have hardships on the race track, that’s when the team spirit starts to go bad. Right now, our team spirit is pretty good.”

PIT STOPS AT BRISTOL ARE VERY IMPORTANT. CAN THIS TEAM FEED OFF THEIR MOMENTUM AT DARLINGTON AND MAYBE EVEN TAKE IT ANOTHER STEP? “Absolutely. I think in the fall we finished fifth. In the spring, we finished in the top five also. We have done excellent at Bristol. It’s definitely a place where we can win. We can run in the top 10. We don’t typically qualify that well there. But that’s not a big deal. We seem to have overcome qualifying disadvantages a couple of times. If we can qualify solidly in the field – maybe top 15, top 20 – I’ll be pretty pleased with that. And then we’ll go on a try to win the race.”

RACE NOTES

CHASSIS INFORMATION

Team Lowe’s Racing will bring car 4850. Johnson has driven this car in three of his four Bristol races in his career. This car swept both Dover races in 2002.

STATS & FACTS

Moving Up The Chart

· Jimmie Johnson's seven career victories after just two full years is good enough for 54th best in the history of the sport. Sunday’s victory tied him with Darel Dieringer, A.J. Foyt, Jim Reed and Marshall Teague.

Active Drivers List

· Only 15 drivers running the full schedule in 2004 have more career victories than Johnson.

On Points Pace

· Johnson ranked eighth in the NASCAR Top 10 at this point of the season one year ago.

Top Finishers

· Jimmie Johnson has scored three top-10 finishes in the last four races at Bristol.

Small Winners Circle

· Only Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Matt Kenseth have scored more top-10 finishes than Johnson in 2004. The three are the only race winners this season.

Pit Crew

· Four of Johnson’s pit stops at Darlington took less than 13 seconds including the 12.72-second stop with 19 laps to go that gave Johnson the lead he never relinquished.

MOST RECENT 2004 RACE – DARLINGTON

Jimmie Johnson took advantage of a timely caution, brilliant pit strategy and ultra-fast pit road work and held off a hard charging Bobby Labonte in a last lap shootout to at Darlington. Johnson, who moved to sixth in points, called the victory the “highlight” of his racing career.

Johnson was third and appeared destined to finish in that position until a caution flag fell with just 19 laps to go Sunday. Johnson took advantage of Crew Chief Chad Knaus’ decision to pit in the first stall on pit road. The location enabled Johnson to get in and out of the pits faster than the other leaders.

The race restarted with just 12 laps to go. Johnson held off Labonte who pulled beside the Lowe’s Monte Carlo in the closing laps but could not pass. A restart with just four laps remaining gave Labonte another try but Johnson still triumphed.

MOST RECENT BRISTOL RACE

Jimmie Johnson started 16th and survived the typically hectic Bristol race. Johnson started 16th and battled a tight race car, but steadily climbed up the board, making it into the top-10 by lap 100. Except for pit cycles, the team competed in the top-10 all night, and for the last 100 laps of the event, it competed in the top-five before finishing fifth. It was Johnson’s third top-10 finish in four races at Bristol.