Dodge/Save Mart 350 - Jimmie Johnson Notes

Team 48 Infineon Raceway Preview

Jimmie Johnson and Team 48 race at Infineon Raceway on Sunday in the 16th race of the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup season. Johnson leads the points standings by 49 points over Greg Biffle.

Jimmie Johnson:

WHAT KIND OF TRACK IS THE INFINEON ROAD COURSE WHEN IT COMES TO AGGRESSIVE DRIVING AND GUYS GETTING INTO EACH OTHER? “I don’t think you’ll see the racing a lot different at Sonoma. You have only a couple of areas to pass, which are the braking zones, and there really isn’t a lot of side-by-side racing on any road course, so I don’t believe you’ll see the issues you’ve been seeing on the ovals.”

WHAT DO YOU NEED TO DO TO GET YOUR MOMENTUM BACK BEFORE THE CHASE? “I think we’re doing the right things. Top 10’s are what will win the championship. Look at how Kurt (Busch) won the championship last year. We’re definitely in championship form. It’s nice to be in race-winning form every week like we were last year and started off this season, so we want to be back in that area. But we’re not ashamed of where we are right now. We’re running in the top five, top 10 and winning races and collecting a lot of points and stretched out the point lead. We’re doing what we need to do.”

WILL THE TRACKS YOU RACE ON THIS SUMMER HELP YOU DURING THE FINAL 10 RACES IN THE CHASE? “I think we’re learning every week with the car. We haven’t tested in quite some time. We’ve been testing at the race tracks during practice and trying stuff in the race. So we’re refining our package and trying to save our tests like we did last year. I think that any track time helps out and definitely helps you evolve your race cars. We’re learning and trying. The No. 5 and the No. 25 are helping to advance the whole Hendrick program. So we’re just logging races right now.”

CREW CHIEF CHAD KNAUS

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO THE RACE CAR TO PREVENT GRAVEL FROM GETTING INTO THE REAR GEAR OR TRANSMISSION AT ROAD COURSE RACES? “First off, they’ve got to stay on the race track so they don’t get that kind of debris up into the mechanical parts of the race car. That’s one of the biggest things. But we’re going to run a different style transmission at Sonoma than what we’ve run in the past. The transmission itself it more enclosed so it doesn’t allow a lot of debris to get up inside there. It’s more confined. That’s one of the things we’re doing from things we’ve done in the past. But as far as road course advancement, the cars do evolve. They do not evolve nearly as quickly as our regular race cars do for the simple fact that nobody in the Nextel Cup garage puts as much effort into the road course cars because we only go road racing twice a year. It’s not typically something we have to focus on because it’s not in the final 10 events. We take them seriously, we want to win the races, but the cars don’t advance quite as far or as quick as our other ones do.”

RACE NOTES

Chassis