JIMMIE JOHNSON
NO. 48 LOWE’S CHEVROLET MONTE CARLO
TALLADEGA PREVIEW
Team 48 Talladega Preview
Jimmie Johnson and Team 48 travel to Talladega Speedway on Sunday for the 500-mile race on the 2.66-mile restrictor plate track. Johnson and his Lowe’s team are fourth in the 2004 NASCAR Nextel point standings. Johnson led 103 laps at Martinsville and finished fourth on Sunday.
Jimmie Johnson:
DO YOU PAY SPECIFIC ATTENTION TO WHAT CARS ARE AROUND YOU AT TALLADEGA?
“At Talladega, you spend so much time looking in the mirrors and paying attention to what’s going on around you that you almost lose sight of who you’re racing with and who’s around you. You’re kind of staring at the back glass of the car in front of you - you’re almost looking through his rear window and out his windshield to see what’s going on in front of you. And then in the rear view mirror, you’re trying to block and defend the position you have. At Talladega or Daytona, you forget who’s around you because you’re running in a huge group of cars. You really can’t get away from anybody you start with and you can’t control your own destiny, so you almost admit that you’re stuck in a sense and just trying to work traffic.”
DON’T YOU KNOW IF SOMEBODY LIKE DALE EARNHARDT JR. IS RIGHT BEHIND YOU?
“You’re used to seeing colors of cars. But as the race goes on, you’re just trying to use who is around you to try and get a run to try to pass somebody - or if you’re leading, to try and defend that. Your eye kind of tells you it’s the No. 8 car and he’s going to be strong and beating the bumper off your car. Maybe there’s a car or two that you’re not too comfortable around and you recognize those guys. But as a whole, you’re just using the traffic to try to make a move.”
WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THE TWO TALLADEGA RACES?
“Yeah, as a whole on the restrictor plates, everybody at Hendrick Motorsports has been working really hard to find that little bit that we need to challenge the No. 8 car. That, along with the experience I’ve been getting in the seat and working traffic and racing with the best in the business, I feel very confident. You add all that together, and we’ve been competitive at every plate race except my first one at Daytona when we sat on the pole. I really didn’t know what I was doing at that point. Since then, we’ve been competitive. Hopefully, we can go get one. For some reason, in the closing laps, we’ve had some trouble with the plate races.”
CAN YOU PUT YOUR FINGER ON WHY?
”It’s been for different reasons. Unfortunately we had a little engine trouble at Talladega last year in one of the races. In the first on, I tried to squeeze into a hole I couldn’t fit into and spun out.”
ARE YOU OKAY WITH THE CONCEPT OF RESTRICTOR PLATES?
“I know why they do it. I’m glad they’re looking out for all the drivers and for the fans in the stands and keeping the cars at controlled speeds. There has to be something that slows the cars down - tires, restrictor plates, or whatever. They have to keep us at a minimum speed. Really, the only way you can do it is to choke the engines down. We’re always going to have this controversy between the plate races and the cars running in a big pack. It’s just a necessary evil of our sport. You have to control the cars. When that happens, you close everybody into a big pack.”
Crew Chief Chad Knaus:
AT TALLADEGA, WHEN YOU’RE WATCHING YOUR FRIEND AND DRIVER OUT THERE RACING, WHAT GOES THROUGH YOUR MIND OVER AND OVER?
”I like the racing we’ve got at the superspeedways now. It’s a lot safer than what they had in the past with all the roof strips and things like that. When we were racing with those roof strips and they were three and four wide the whole race, that was nerve-wracking. I didn’t like seeing that. I didn’t like putting the drivers in that position. It was very unsafe. But with the package we’ve got now, the guys are a little bit more in control. It’ll be a good race. I wish we had our fuel cells back so we could run a fuel run. But we don’t. Typically, Talladega has long green flag runs. So it’s really going to break up the field. We may have a lot of what you saw at Daytona with maybe just two or three cars out there in the front.”
DO YOU SEE FUTURE CHANGES FROM NASCAR AGAIN?
“I think they got pretty much what they wanted at Daytona. They wanted to break up the field a little bit and a tire that gave up a little bit and that’s what they had. I don’t know what they want, how’s that? If they want the field spread out, that’s what they got. If they want the field bunched up again, they can put larger fuel cells in there a little. I think that would help. With the tire we’ve got right now, I think that would be a little better show and even the field out - especially at Talladega. We always have long green flag runs there. There’s really nothing wrong with the package. I don’t think they’re going to make any big changes or significant changes in the near future with the rules package they’ve got. There are 20 teams that can go out there and win a race just about every week.”
RACE NOTES
CHASSIS INFORMATION
Team Lowe’s Racing will bring car No. 4875 to Talladega this weekend. This car ran in the Bud Shootout in 2003 and 2004.
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. His Darlington victory last month tied him with Darel Dieringer, A.J. Foyt, Jim Reed and Marshall Teague.
Fourth Then & Now
Johnson is fourth in points. He ranked fourth in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series at this point a year ago.
On The Pole
Crew Chief Chad Knaus holds five restrictor plate pole awards - Stacey Compton at Talladega in April 2001, Compton at Talladega in October 2001, Johnson at Daytona in Feb. 2002, Johnson at Talladega in April 2002, and Johnson at Talladega October 2002 after rain cancelled qualifying.
Winning Percentage
Johnson has won 7.61 percent of the NASCAR Nextel Cup races he has entered.
Career
Sunday marks Jimmie Johnson’s 93rd NASCAR Nextel Cup start.
MOST RECENT 2004 RACE - MARTINSVILLE
Jimmie Johnson led 103 laps and finished fourth on Sunday at Martinsville, Va. Johnson appeared to have the car to beat but stayed on the track during a late-race caution while the rest of the field pitted for new tires. Johnson couldn’t hold off the newer, faster tires and finished fourth.
MOST RECENT TALLADEGA RACE
Jimmie Johnson appeared to have the car capable of challenging for the win until things slowly began to unravel for the No. 48 when, on lap 142, contact from Michael Waltrip’s car sent Johnson spinning. Johnson remained on the lead lap despite several pit stops to repair damage to the nose of his Chevrolet. He returned to the track and climbed as high as fifth before engine problems ended his day.
