NHRA

Bristol: Kurt Johnson Saturday notes

KJ Will Start Second in Bristol ACDelco Cobalt racer Kurt Johnson entered the second day of qualifying at the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals looking to maintain the fast pace he had established on Friday in order to secure a top starting ...

Published: May 18, 2008, 9:20 AM

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KJ Will Start Second in Bristol

ACDelco Cobalt racer Kurt Johnson entered the second day of qualifying at the O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals looking to maintain the fast pace he had established on Friday in order to secure a top starting spot for Sunday's final eliminations. Despite the slightly higher temperatures, he was able better his time from the previous day, posting a quick 6.685-second elapsed time with a top speed of 206.29 mph. This was one of only two runs recorded in the 6.6-second range on Saturday, good enough to place KJ second on the starting grid.

Ironically, the other fast time was posted by his father and teammate Warren Johnson, whose 6.674-second clocking just nipped his son for the No. 1 position. Even so, having scored his best Bristol Dragway starting position, Johnson was optimistic about his chances for race day.

"Even though we made a pretty decent run with our ACDelco Cobalt this morning and put up another 6.68, we were just a shade off, opening the door for Dad, who was just able to get around us. Still, it's not as bad when it's your teammate ahead of you, and we're pretty pleased with qualifying second.

"Knowing we wouldn't get bumped out, we tried a few things for the afternoon session, and even though it was a couple hundredths off what it should have been, it still gave us valuable tuning information for tomorrow. We're pretty sure we know what we need to do with the tune-up to get down either lane, and I know what I need to do behind the wheel, so we're going to come out swinging, doing what we can to duplicate what we did in St. Louis a couple weeks ago."

-credit: j2r

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