GFS Marketplace 400 - Jimmie Johnson Notes

Team 48 Michigan Preview

Lowe’s Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson and Team 48 visit Michigan International Speedway on Sunday for the NASCAR Nextel Cup race on two-mile track. Johnson has endured consecutive DNFs for the first time in his career at Indianapolis and Watkins Glen but still leads the 2004 points race by 40 points over Jeff Gordon. Johnson has held the lead for eight consecutive weeks.

JIMMIE JOHNSON:

ARE YOU PLANNING ANY CHANGES TO GET YOUR CONSISTENCY BACK? - “It's just business as usual. We’ve had some bad luck these last few races, but it’s nothing that we’re worried about. Last week we weren’t testing anything for next year. We felt we had a better transmission and something that may save us some time on the race track. That was the key. We thought we had a better performing transmission and that’s why we chose to go there with it. I had some problems with the new changes in the transmission and unfortunately, they showed up in the race. I didn’t have any issues testing or practicing with it, but in the race I had some troubles. So it was more of us just trying to find another advantage. Because of the current point system, we didn’t just have to use old faithful. We could bring in something new and take a chance with it.”

IS IT POSSIBLE TO LOSE THAT MOMENTUM THAT YOU’VE BUILT UP SO FAR THAT YOU WOULDN’T HIT THE FINAL 10 RUNNING? - “No, I don’t think so. I think the cycles of momentum come and go at different times. If you look at our past two seasons, for whatever reason in late summer – we hate that it’s there – but we kind of run through a slow spot and then pick up and end the season very strong. With the point system being how it is, it looks like our trend is doing the same thing and we’ll be headed back into familiar territory.

“I hope that’s the case and that the momentum and luck comes back. The sport humbles you after a nice run of success. It just changes everything and everyone digs in a little deeper. The No. 48 team is very good about turning the momentum around and bringing it back up. That’s where we’re at. We’re getting ready to bring that luck back to us. This past month has been a little tough on us at a few tracks. We were afraid to peak too soon. We had a great beginning of the season and we’ve had a little bit of a slump but hopefully we can raise that back up starting in the final 10.”

MICHIGAN – “Michigan is a great track for us. Not to bring up the transmission thing again, but coming to pit road earlier this year, we had a rare failure with a transmission on an oval and I didn’t have third gear on the re-starts. I led some and was up front, but the restarts would kill me. I ended up fourth with a few re-starts late in the race; I was even higher than that I believe. I would get passed and then I’d have to pass those cars back in making forward progress to the front. But we had an incredible race car. Both the No. 24 and the No. 48 were very strong. If I remember right, Hendrick was one-two- three in qualifying with the No. 24, the No. 25 Brian Vickers, and myself. So we’re looking forward to a strong qualifying effort – hopefully a red hat (pole award). We could use another one of those. It’s going to be a good track for us.”

CREW CHIEF CHAD KNAUS:

CAN YOU PEAK TOO EARLY AND DOES IT REALLY MATTER THAT MUCH? - “I’m not really concerned about anything. Everybody says we peaked early but holy smokes. We just won Pocono. (laughs) We just finished second at Daytona. We finished second in Chicago. We’re only talking a couple weeks ago. No, we didn’t peak too early. I feel fine. I feel confident. We’re going to some great race tracks. I love Michigan and Bristol and Fontana and Richmond – we run excellent there. We feel very confident going back to Loudon. At Dover, we swept in 2002. I feel great. Our inventory is built up right now. We’ve got some great race cars. We’ve got a lot of testing to do yet. I’m feeling really good about it actually.”

ON MICHIGAN THIS WEEKEND “I think we’ll do well. We’re taking one of our favorite race cars there. I’m very excited about that. It’s in the wind tunnel right now (Tuesday) as we speak with some air blowing over it. We’ll get those numbers. It’s a great race track. I like it. We qualified third there in June. I definitely feel like we had a car to win the event, but unfortunately we had a small transmission problem and lost third gear. So on restarts, we would loose two or three positions. But I think we can go up there and put on a good show and end up in the top five and roll on to Bristol and have some more fun.”

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