Race 2 Win: Golden Corral 500 - Jimmie Johnson Notes

Nextel Cup Series

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Food City 500 - Jimmie Johnson Notes

Team 48 Bristol Preview

Lowe’s Monte Carlo driver Jimmie Johnson and Team 48 travel to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend for the 500-lap NASCAR Nextel Cup race. Johnson leads Kasey Kahne by 50 points in the season points race. Johnson earned his first Daytona 500 victory at the first race of the season, followed by a second-place finish at California Speedway and a win at Las Vegas. He finished sixth on Monday at Atlanta. Crew Chief Chad Knaus will be back at the track this weekend for the first time since Daytona.

DRIVER JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTES:

BRISTOL: "Bristol is a tough place. A lot can happen. I absolutely stink there in qualifying, so I hope no one reads too much into the qualifying routine there. Once we get in the race and get going, I usually find my rhythm and we'll be fine. Bristol...it's a place...you love to go there and you love the excitement, but you're happy to leave. So much can happen. I'm excited to see what the track is like and what's going to take place there. I'm excited in one light, but I'm also nervous on the other side."

HAS THIS TEAM GROWN THIS SEASON? "Quite a bit. Chad is such a strong leader and so on top of so many departments, we were just sort of delivering information. Now we've been forced to think a lot more and make more decisions independently. The track record has been speaking for itself. We've gained more confidence."

WOULD YOU PREFER TO HAVE KNAUS AT THE TRACK RATHER THAN BACK HOME WORKING AHEAD? "It's such a disadvantage to not have him that, ultimately, I wish he were here where we need him. But we can't argue the fact that we're all stronger through this. That's the thing I'm happy and excited about. We're all stronger coming into the season. I wish we hadn't gone through the negative issue that took place, but we're all stronger, so there is a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel.”

RACE NOTES

Chassis

Team 48 will use chassis No. 48329 as the primary car and chassis No. 48264 as the backup. The primary car raced at Homestead last year. The backup car last raced at Pocono in July.

Career

Johnson’s victory at Las Vegas was the 20th of his Nextel Cup career. This win tied him with Speedy Thompson for 30th on the list for most victories since 1949. Only eight active drivers have more victories.

In 151 starts, Johnson has posted 56 top-5 finishes and 89 top-10 finishes. He has a top-10 finish at every track on the NASCAR Nextel Cup series circuit. Indianapolis and Kansas are the only two tracks where he has not posted a top-five finish. Johnson has led 3,366 laps and driven 43,023 laps in his Nextel Cup career covering 57,968.5 miles. He has a career average starting spot of 12.5 and an average finishing position of 12.5. He has finished on the lead lap 114 times.

Good Start

Johnson is the only driver to start the season with four top-10 finishes.

Top 10

Johnson has ranked among the top 10 in the points standings since Atlanta in March 2004, a string of 73 consecutive races – the longest of any driver.

Loves Superspeedways

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

New Stats

Johnson leads the field in two categories of NASCAR’s new Loop Data statistics with a Driver Rating of 114.1 and an Average Running Position of 5.719

Last Race at Bristol Motor Speedway

Jimmie Johnson’s Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway came to an early end around the 400-lap mark when engine problems sent the Lowe’s Monte Carlo to the garage with a 36th-place finish.

News and Results | Point Standings | 2006 Schedule | 2006 Teams | 2005 Schedule and Results