Pepsi 400 - Jimmie Johnson Notes

Team 48 Daytona Preview

Jimmie Johnson and Team 48 race at Daytona International Speedway on Saturday in the 17th race of the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup season. Johnson is second in the 2005 points race, trailing Greg Biffle by 22 points. For the first time in a restrictor plate race, NASCAR will impound the cars after qualifying.

Jimmie Johnson On Daytona Qualifying: “With the impound schedule, it’s going to really eliminate, in my eyes, the crazy stuff that goes on and penalties put in place after a restrictor plate race. You cannot race these ‘trick’ ideas everyone comes up with to find speed for qualifying. The cars are going to be in race trim, taped up and off we go, so I am looking forward to it.”

Does Qualifying Matter At Daytona? “No. Not really. Even the pit boxes are fairly decent in size to where you don’t have any issues. So qualifying doesn’t matter.

How Tough Is Racing In California on Sunday and Daytona On Thursday? “It’s tough on the teams, but with us having the schedule so far in advance, we really get the shop setup and have the cars ready three and four weeks out if it is possible. We are taking a new car down there so it has been a little tougher. Basically, it has boiled down to staffing up. You have to have more people in the shop and be further prepared in advance for the races. We try to let the road crew guys get home and have a day off, get some sleep and rest and turned around again. It’s just planning and having more bodies in the shop.”

Crew Chief Chad Knaus On Approaching the Daytona 500 and Saturday’s 400-Mile Race Differently: “You know, it’s weird, but you truly do. When you’re down there in the spring, the air is crisper and the ground temperature is a little bit cooler, which all makes sense with the changing of the seasons. But that race track really changes when you go back there in mid-summer because it’s very humid and the air is very heavy. You need to build a lot of downforce into the car because the car is going 190-some miles per hour into the turns. But the air being as heavy as it is in the evening there makes the cars have a lot more front down force and the cars get a lot freer. So you have to build in some more rear down force. The track temperature is a lot hotter than what it is in the spring, so the track loses a lot of grip, so the car gets skating and sort of slides a little bit more. So, yeah, there are some pretty big changes to the race track.”

RACE NOTES

Chassis
Team 48 will bring car 48350 as the primary car to Daytona. This car is making its first appearance at a racetrack. Car No. 48253 will serve as the backup and finished fifth in the Daytona 500.

Daytona
Johnson has led 30 and completed all but one of the 1,192 laps in his seven races at Daytona. His average start is 9.3 and average finish is 8.0. He has posted four top five finishes and five top-10 finishes in those seven races. He won the Bud Shootout in February.

Top 10s
Johnson is the only driver to score 11 top-10 finishes in the16 races held so far in 2005.

Career
Johnson’s latest victory at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May is the 16th of his Nextel Cup career and moved him to 40th on the list for most wins since 1949. In 127 starts, Johnson has posted 47 top-5 finishes and 75 top-10 finishes. He has a top-10 finish at every track on the NASCAR Nextel Cup series circuit.

Laps Led
Johnson has led 3,165 laps and driven 36,485 laps in his Nextel Cup career. He has a career average starting and finishing position of 12.6.

Loves Superspeedways
All but one of Johnson’s career victories have come on superspeedways, with his win at Martinsville Speedway in October, 2004, being the lone exception.

Career Poles
Johnson owns seven career poles, including one in May, 2004, at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Johnson’s first career NASCAR Nextel Cup pole award came at Daytona in Feb., 2002.

MOST RECENT DAYTONA RACE – Johnson led the opening lap of the Daytona 500 and ran in the top five most of the day until a lap 63 penalty for speeding on pit road. He dropped to 26th place but stayed on the lead lap and clawed his way back to the front of the field. Johnson joined about a half dozen cars that battled for the victory in the closing laps before he finished fifth.