UAW-DaimlerChrysler 400 - Jimmie Johnson Notes

Team 48 Las Vegas Preview

Jimmie Johnson and Team 48 race at Las Vegas Speedway on Sunday in the third race of the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup season. Johnson finished fifth at the Daytona 500 and second at California Speedway. He is just five points behind leader Kurt Busch in the season point standings.

WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE FROM THIS NEW AERO PACKAGE AT THE LAST VEGAS RACE? “It worked out good (in California). I think the combination of the tire, the spoiler, and the gear has slowed the pace down and taken away some passing opportunities. I think we were all hopeful that a second and third groove would come into play and I’m really stumped as to why it didn’t. I don’t know if it’s because of what the tire is made of or what. Usually, the grooves widening out reflects the tire compound. Goodyear has built a great tire, but for whatever reason it wouldn’t lay down as easily or as we needed it for a second and third lane to come in. If we can have a second and third lane, I think that the spoiler and gear effects will be less and it’ll be more competitive. But the fact that we were on the bottom all day long just compounded the aero problem and the gear issue as well.”

SO WHEN WE GET TO LAS VEGAS, WILL WE SEE THE FIELD STRUNG OUT LIKE IT WAS IN CALIFORNIA? “I think a lot of that is just due to it being early in the season and the teams not having a lot of opportunity to work on their down force stuff. Everybody focuses so hard on Daytona that you’re burning the teams into the ground trying to do everything at the start of the season. A lot of teams are behind at the start of the season. W had so many changes over the off-season that it’s just going to take a while to adjust to the new package and track time and knowledge to bring the competition back together. Last year’s package was well refined. We had a whole year to work on it and the competition at the end of the season was the best it’s been. When they change the rules up like this, it separates the deal. And as soon as everybody closes back up, another rule change comes along. At Hendrick Motorsports, we have a change to put our resources to use and our engineers to use and find something new. I think our cars were very competitive last week. The Roush guys have definitely stepped up and improved their program. Engine-wise, they’ve made some gains. But following their cars and how well they drove showed more changes in their set-ups right now, we need to get to work and find a little bit more to get an advantage over them.”

ON THE LAS VEGAS TRACK: “We had a great test. It seemed like the groove has moved a little bit wider in Turns 3 and 4, so hopefully we’ll get a couple lanes of racing. I really hope that Vegas does. That’ll help a lot of the issues that we’re all struggling with at the beginning of the season. If we can get two or three lanes working at the track, I think the racing will improve dramatically.”

Crew Chief Chad Knaus:

ON GOING TO LAS VEGAS “I’m looking forward to it. I like Las Vegas. It’s a pretty cool race track. We’ve had some great race cars that were capable of winning races there. Hopefully this year we can make something happen. Our test there was incredible. We’re taking the same car there that we won both races with at Pocono last year. It’s been re-bodied and tested there and I feel very comfortable.”

AS THE PRE-SEASON PICK TO WIN THE TITLE, DOES THAT PUT MORE PRESSURE ON YOU? “No, it’s pretty easy for us because you guys are the ones who make that pick, not us. So if you’re wrong, it’s you, not us. We go to the race track and try to win every week. We don’t look at it as far as being picked as the favorite. We grade ourselves on our performance every week. If we run competitively, then we feel like we had a good week. If we don’t run in the top five or were a factor in the outcome of the race, then we weren’t doing our jobs. That’s how we look at it. We don’t look at it as far as the championship goes at this point in the season. It’s not necessary.”

CHASSIS INFORMATION - Team Lowe’s Racing is bringing car No. 48297 to Sunday’s race in Las Vegas. This car won both Pocono races in 2004. Car No. 48264 will be the backup.

STATS & FACTS

2004 Season