Madison: Kurt Johnson Friday summary

KJ Blazes to the Top Spot on Friday in St. Louis

Kurt Johnson and the ACDelco Racing Team put on a performance during Friday's first day of qualifying the Sears Craftsman NHRA Nationals to match the blazing temperatures that enveloped Gateway International Raceway, posting the quickest and fastest runs in each session. After opening with an impressive 6.791-second, 203.65 mph pass, KJ came back in the nighttime session to blast through the quarter-mile in 6.750-seconds, 204.14 mph, claiming the No. 1 qualifying position midway through qualifying.

"Our ACDelco Cobalt made a great hit on the first run simply because we had tested in the heat on Wednesday. After that, we had to learn how to adapt our set-up for the 130 degree track temperature we ran in the earlier session to the 100 degree track for the nighttime run. Based on the scoreboard, I'd say we did a pretty good job.

"This is the result of a lot of hard work by the entire team. Hopefully we can keep this level of performance up throughout the weekend, and have it pay off on Sunday night. But, for now, we're pretty pleased."

-j2r-