Dallas: Warren Johnson Saturday summary

GM Performance Parts driver Warren Johnson completed an extremely consistent qualifying effort on Saturday at the O'Reilly Fall Nationals in Ennis, TX. Three of his four attempts were within five thousandths of a second of each other, with his best effort of 6.862-seconds with a top speed of 202.11 mph earning him the eighth starting position for Sunday's final eliminations.

Although any of the 24 competitors who qualified behind him would gladly have taken this performance, at the conclusion of qualifying, Johnson and crew immediately began going over their race car and notes to see how they could improve their performance for race day.

"We may have been consistent, but we are certainly not pleased, as our performance was not at the level we would like it to be. The car is just not moving in the middle of the racetrack, losing a car length to our competitors in third and fourth gear. Obviously, it's not comfortable in the middle of the track.

"Naturally, our top priority is determining exactly where the problem lies and fix it. It's obviously engine-related, and with the gearing intervals correct, it's something in the tune-up that's wrong. So far, we have not been able to pinpoint it.

"Our efforts were not helped by having a crank trigger go bad this morning, taking up to four cylinders away in the last two seconds of the run, and forcing us to change motors between sessions. We'll go over our notes and come up with a different tune-up for tomorrow, doing a better job of adapting to the racetrack. I'm afraid we have some homework to take back to the hotel with us tonight, but our GM Performance Parts Grand Am will be ready for tomorrow."