Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Jimmie Johnson Scored Top-Three Starting Positions at Darlington

A Total of 13 Impala SS Drivers Set to Start Dodge Challenger 400

Darlington, SC – May 9, 2008: Hendrick Motorsports teammates Dale Earnhardt, Jr., No. 88 Mountain Dew/AMP Energy/National Guard Impala SS and Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s Impala SS will start second and third respectively in Saturday night’s Dodge Challenger 500 at Darlington Raceway.

Johnson’s qualifying effort was a remarkable recovery from a day of frustration for the two-time and defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion who crashed early in practice and was forced to a backup car. He then crashed again, damaging the Lowe’s Impala SS splitter, which the team was able to repair prior to qualifying.

"I'm just proud of this whole Lowe's team,” said Johnson. “They gave me two great Impalas today."

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Impala SS and Scott Riggs,No. 66 State Water Heaters Impala SS, qualified eighth and ninth respectively to give Team Chevy four top-10 qualifiers

A total 13 Chevrolet Impala SS drivers will take the green flag for the 147-lap/500-mile race scheduled to start at 7:20 p.m. with live coverage on Fox TV, MRN Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.

DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 MOUNTAIN DEW/AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD IMPALA SS – Qualified 2nd:

ON HIS LAP: “That was a pretty good lap. The car probably had a good 30 in it. But we’re going out so early, there really is no point in just going 110% because the guys are going to beat you. We just got a good, clean lap in and kept it off the fence trying to give us a good shot for tomorrow. We’ve got a great car. We’ve had one all weekend. That’ll do okay. I think it’ll be something to see how far they’ll speed up as it gets later in qualifying here.”

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 AT&T IMPALA SS – Qualified 12th:

HOW IMPORTANT IS QUALIFYING TODAY SINCE TOMORROW, PASSING IS GOING TO BE EVEN MORE DIFFICULT? “I think it is. Because the speeds are up, it is going to be harder to pass. There is less falloff in the tires, which means there’s going to be less variance between running lap 10 to lap 20. I do believe thought that lap 20 to lap 40 or lap 50 is going to get slow. The way these tires are, you can’t really drive them loose. You’ve got to be tight. The problem with that is by lap 20, they’re just going to keep building tight. I think qualifying is important. But it’s a 500-mile race. If you can’t get it done in 500 miles from wherever you are, you ain’t going to get it done.”

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S IMPALA SS – Qualified 3rd

WHAT GREAT WORK BY YOUR TEAM TO GET THE BACK-UP CAR READY AND YOU ARE CURRENTLY IN THIRD: “Yeah, I agree. I’m speechless myself, with the equipment these guys give me week in and week out. Fortunately today we were fast the whole time, but I kept hitting things. I’m just glad I got that out of my way and I got a good clean lap in. Track position is going to be very important in the race, plus a good pit stall pick. It’s going to be tough to pass with the speed in the track. I’m just proud of this whole Lowe’s team. They gave me two great Impalas today.

“The faster you go, the more room you need to run side-by-side. And this is a very narrow track to begin with and with the speed in it now, it makes it even more difficult to run side-by-side. But as time goes on, this track will come back to what we all know and love, and we’ll be racing hard like always.”

POST-QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT:
DALE EARNHARDT JR., NO. 88 MOUNTAIN DEW/AMP ENERGY/NATIONAL GUARD IMPALA SS – QUALIFIED 2ND
JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S IMPALA SS – QUALIFIED 3RD

HAVING BEEN ON THE NEW SURFACE FOR PRACTICE LAST NIGHT AND TODAY, WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?
JUNIOR: “It’s going to be a tough race. We’re going to have to run really hard all night and the track’s going to get faster as it cools down. So you just have to have a lot of nerve because you’re going to have to run a lot of hard, fast laps the whole race. But I’m real proud of my whole team. We brought a good car. Right off the trailer it’s been fast. We had a good clean lap in qualifying. And we’ve been toward the front on the speed charts all weekend. I’m real happy with how that’s all went and hopefully we’ll have some luck tomorrow night. I know we’ve got a good enough car to get a win.”

YOU HAD TO GO TO A BACK-UP CAR, BUT YOU STILL POSTED A GREAT QUALIFYING TIME. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS?
JOHNSON: “I’m just glad I didn’t hit anything on that last outing. In some ways it’s been a tough day, but in other ways we’ve had a great race car and have been very competitive. The car has felt very good. I made two mistakes just charging hard and trying to get all I could out of the car. This new surface, they did a great job with it on the track. You cannot really notice the paving seams. There is a lot of grip. They did a great job, but this is one of the more narrow tracks we run on. And the faster you go, the more narrow it makes the track. And it’s just tough to run the speeds you commit to. And we’ve seen a lot of people commit to the corner entry and the speed that you think you need. When something goes wrong, there is just no room to save it. And then you’re in the fence. I’m very proud of my guys. I’ve worked them awfully hard today. We went through two cars and almost needed a third, so I’m just happy to be out of here with a top five starting position and starting in the front. I think it’s going to be important tomorrow.”

ADJUSTING TO THE NEW TRACK, IS IT MORE WORK OR MORE FUN?
JOHNSON: ‘It started off fun and then it kind of took a turn for the worse today for me. And now it’s back to all right.”

JUNIOR: “I think it’s fun to try new stuff every time you get to go to a brand new race track. You always look forward to it. The track itself isn’t brand new, but the new surface they did a great job on it. And it’s pretty fun. I think the second, third, and forth trip it will get even better.”

YOU LIKE A LOOSE RACE CAR. IS IT TOO LOOSE AND TOO FAST AT THIS TRACK?
JOHNSON: “No. I think at the end of the day it depends on the race that we put on. And the track isn’t really loose. The track, in my opinion, has a lot of grip. So we’re all becoming very aggressive with our set-ups and also the way you drive the car and the line is there. And once you cross it, there is no room to save the car and you are instantly in the wall. So that’s really how we’ve had so many problems today and yesterday.