Team 48 Bristol Preview
This weekend Lowe’s Monte Carlo driver Jimmie Johnson and Team 48 travel to Bristol Motor Speedway for Saturday’s NASCAR Nextel Cup race. Johnson leads the point’s race by 58 points over Matt Kenseth. Only three races remain before the 2006 “Chase For The Championship.”
DRIVER JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTES:
ON GOING TO BRISTOL: "I'm ready for it. I'm ready to have it behind me. That race is a great a time. I love going there and I love watching races. I even enjoy being in the race but you never know what is going to happen. It's a lot like a plate race. I look forward to being in the helicopter leaving that race hopefully with a lot of points and heading back to Charlotte."
HAS IT HELPED YOU THAT YOU'VE HAD A BUBBLE MENTALITY, THINKING THAT NOBODY HAS REALLY BEEN SAFE IN THE CHASE? "I don't think you can put your guard down at anytime. Granted we're in a safe situation in the points but I'm really looking at who's been earning the most points over the last 10 races, who that is and what they've been doing. We've been right there with those guys. I keep saying it, I think this year's Chase is going to be extremely exciting, extremely competitive and really interesting for the fans."
IS THERE PRESSURE AS THE LEADER? "I don't think pressure falls into that. I put a lot of pressure on myself. I do think it's the point leader's role to try to keep the 400-piont gap there. We put a lot of other pressure on ourselves worrying about other things. That's just kind of a bonus where it needs to take place. Whoever the points leader has been, it's been their objective to try and keep it a 10-man race. I can remember from the first Chase that we had through last year, that was a pretty good talking point that everybody wanted to keep it a 10-car race instead of possibly more."
Race Notes
Chassis
Team Lowe’s Racing will take chassis 48329 to Bristol on Saturday. This chassis finished fourth at Darlington and 30th at Bristol in April. Chassis 48264 will serve as backup. It has not raced in 2006.
Bristol
Johnson has completed 4,358 of 4,500 laps in his nine starts at Bristol Motor Speedway. He has an average starting position of 19.3 and an average finishing position of 16.1. He has led 29 laps.
Last Lap
Johnson pass for victory at Las Vegas was the first last-lap pass for a win since Talladega in October. Johnson has been involved in three of the four last lap passes for victory winning two (Lowe’s Motor Speedway in May 2005 and Las Vegas 2006)
Year
Johnson’s Lowe’s Monte Carlo has been running at the end of every race in 2006. He and Kasey Kahne are the only drivers to win four races this season. He is the only driver to post 17 top-10 finishes. He has finished outside the top 15 only twice.
Streak
Johnson has been among the top 10 in points for 92 consecutive races, since March 2004. Johnson is fifth on the consecutive races in the modern era’s point’s top 10 list. Dale Earnhardt’s 174 races tops the list.
Career
Johnson has won at least three races a season since he posted his first victory in 2002. He is the only driver in the modern era to win at least three races in each of his first five full-time seasons. He has won a pole award each of those seasons.
Johnson’s victory at Indianapolis was the 22nd of his Nextel Cup career. This win tied him with Terry Labonte for 26th on the list for most victories since 1949. Only five active drivers have more victories.
Pole
Johnson’s pole at Martinsville was the ninth of his career.
History
In 170 starts, Johnson has posted 61 top-5 finishes and 103 top-10 finishes. He has a top-10 finish at every track on the NASCAR Nextel Cup series circuit. Kansas is the only track where he has not posted a top-five finish. Johnson has led 3,705 laps and driven 48,238 laps in his Nextel Cup career covering over 65,233.7 miles. He has finished on the lead lap 132 times.
April Bristol Race
Johnson cut a tire on lap three and lost several laps in the pits. When he returned to the track he began making up those laps and was just one lap down on lap 15. Then a brush with the wall on lap 125 damage the handling of the Lowe’s Chevrolet forcing Johnson to make a return trip to pit lane. The No. 48 struggled the rest of the race finishing 30th - 13 laps behind race winner Kurt Busch.
