Pennsylvania 500 - Jimmie Johnson Notes

Team 48 Pocono Preview

Jimmie Johnson and Team 48 race at Pocono Raceway on Sunday in the 20th race of the 2005 NASCAR Nextel Cup season. Johnson leads the 2005 points race by 77 points over Greg Biffle. There are seven races remaining before the “Chase for the Championship.” Only the top 10 drivers and those drivers within 400 points of the leader are eligible for the “Chase.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON:

(WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE AT POCONO THIS WEEK?) “We had a decent run up there and got a good finish out of it. But I felt like we were a little bit off. The No. 25 (Vickers) was really good. We made some changes and feel really good about going to Pocono. The No. 24 (Gordon) is up in Indy testing now. We’re looking good for the next couple of races. We’re looking forward to it.”

(REGARDING THE LAST POCONO RACE AND ALL THE TIRE PROBLEMS, ARE YOU BRINGING THE SAME TIRE AND DO YOU HAVE ANY CONCERNS?) “We didn’t have any issues on any of the Hendrick cars. We did have some problems at Michigan and sorted that out by race time. So I have no worries going into Pocono.”

(HAVING BEEN THROUGH THE CHASE FORMAT ONCE BEFORE, IS THERE ANYTHING DIFFERENT ABOUT YOUR APPROACH THIS YEAR?) “You just get what you can every week. We tried that last year and things didn’t work out for us. We hit a slow spot in the season a little bit before the final 10 started and right as it started. Hopefully our slow spots are behind us and we can just keep going and keep finishing in the top five and win a couple more races and be the champion at the end of the year.

“I am a little smarter about it this year with the experience from last year, but so is everybody else. All the teams are capable of putting together 10 good races. So it’s going to be an entirely different points championship or points race once you re-rack everything and group everybody up. It’s going to be intense like last year.”

CREW CHIEF CHAD KNAUS: (WHAT CAN WE EXPECT TO SEE AT POCONO) “Boy, if I could tell you that, we wouldn’t have to go. It’s going to be exciting. There are going to be a lot of fast cars up there. The No. 5 and No. 25 cars ran exceptionally well there last time. The Roush cars ran very competitively. We had some tire issues last time, but I think the track itself took some initiative to work on the facility to make sure we don’t have those issues with tires again. I’m looking forward to it. We’re taking the same car we ran last time, which is also the same one we won both races there with last year. I’m looking forward to it.”

RACE NOTES

Chassis