Team 48 Pocono Preview

Lowe’s Monte Carlo driver Jimmie Johnson and Team 48 travel to Pocono International Raceway this weekend for Sunday’s 500-mile NASCAR Nextel Cup race. Johnson leads Matt Kenseth by 74 points in the season point’s race.

DRIVER JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTES:

Pocono: "Last year we struggled there. I lost a car in practice and made a mistake. We're looking forward to going back. It's a good track for us. It's important for us to run well there so we can go to Indy. Indy has kind of been the hard part of the season for us the last few years so if we can get through Pocono and get the cars right, it will give us a lot of hope going into Indy where we've had some troubles in the past."

Pocono Track Challenges: "It was a lot more fun when we could shift. Now it's such an odd shaped track. Now that we don't shift it's kind of boring to drive the track. I think it's tough to really put on a good show there. The corners are tight. There really isn't an outside lane except for turn one. You've got to wait to 50-something seconds before you have another shot at getting position on someone making the pass. I felt like the passing and racing was better when we could downshift. Maybe an option would be that you could run some different gear ratios and we'd have a little separation in the cars where you could play with some things. The track is old. It's fun in the respect that it's very sensitive to the sun. I think it puts a lot back in the team and drivers' hands as the sun comes out and the track heats up. It's a tough track to get hold of and I like that challenge."

Points Lead This Year Versus Last Year:” I feel we're in a very similar situation. The one difference would be that we've had a lot of success and I don't feel that our cars have been as refined as they were in previous years so that gives me a lot of excitement. Looking forward and getting closer to the Chase, I still think we have a lot of room to go with our race cars."

Race Notes

Chassis