Richmond: Kurt Johnson Friday notes

Opening in Eighth, KJ Looks to Climb Higher on Saturday in Richmond

For ACDelco Cobalt pilot Kurt Johnson as well as all the competitors and officials at Virginia Motorsports Park, Friday's first day of qualifying at the Torco Race Fuels Nationals provided its share of challenges. After a lengthy afternoon rain shower passed through the area, the NHRA's Safety Safari worked diligently for several hours to restore the track to racing condition. This delay eventually limited the professional categories to only one attempt, which, coupled with the extreme humidity, sent tuners scrambling to find the right tune-up to traverse the tricky surface.

Johnson was finally able to take to the track on Friday evening, and used the opportunity to cover the quarter-mile in 6.689 seconds with a top speed of 206.45 mph. Sitting eighth with two attempts remaining, he viewed his opening effort as a solid foundation on which he could build.

"We've got one run in the books, with nothing too exciting to report. Considering the amount of work they had to do to get it back in shape, the track wasn't too bad. We did find some parts breakage after the run, which we can fix without a problem. That will help us step up our ACDelco Cobalt's performance in the day time on Saturday, allowing us to be in one of the top four spots by tomorrow afternoon."

-credit: j2r