Seattle: Kurt Johnson Friday notes

Sitting Eighth, KJ Looks to Move Up on Saturday in Seattle

Less than five days after fighting to find horsepower in the thin air in Denver, Kurt Johnson and the ACDelco Cobalt Racing team returned to more normal conditions at the Schuck's Auto Supply Nationals in Seattle, WA with the cool temperatures and near sea level air producing record times and speeds during the first day of qualifying.

After opening with a solid 6.623-second pass, Johnson came back on his second attempt with a 6.605-second run, which came with a career-best top speed of 209.82 mph, good enough for eighth midway through qualifying. However, having experienced issues in each session, KJ focused his attention on making a clean run on Saturday to further improve his standing for Sunday.

"To be honest, we made two terrible runs today, giving us plenty of room for improvement tomorrow. We had a couple issues, with it pulling left on the first run, and then having a problem shifting in the second session. Although it was good enough to place us eighth, we want to be number one.

"On the positive side, our ACDelco Cobalt was smooth in the first two gears on both runs, so we know the car is set-up right. It's also going straight, taking care of one problem we'd been having. Now all we have to do is address the other issue and make a good run in the morning."

-credit: j2r