NHRA

Sonoma: Kurt Johnson Saturday notes

KJ Steps Up Smartly, Will Start Second in Sonoma Kurt Johnson and the ACDelco Cobalt Racing team completed another strong qualifying effort on Saturday, capturing the second starting position for Sunday's NHRA Nationals in Sonoma, CA. After ...

Published: Jul 27, 2008, 4:09 PM

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KJ Steps Up Smartly, Will Start Second in Sonoma

Kurt Johnson and the ACDelco Cobalt Racing team completed another strong qualifying effort on Saturday, capturing the second starting position for Sunday's NHRA Nationals in Sonoma, CA. After being fourth quickest on Friday, the blue crew came back to post the quickest time of the second day at 6.618-seconds with a top speed of 208.55 mph to move up two positions on Sunday's starting ladder, the greatest improvement by any of the top eight runners from the day before.

Finally, they capped their 14th top half qualifying performance of the 2008 season with the second quickest pass in the final session, a 6.656-second, 206.89 mph effort in the less-preferred right-hand lane. The Johnson-led crew's efforts were rewarded by their winning the Full Throttle award for the Pro Stock category, which is given to the most consistent and best performing team through the qualifying procedure.

"We're pretty excited with how well our ACDelco Cobalt performed throughout qualifying. We won the Full Throttle award, which shows the consistency you need to win on Sunday, and the car was exceptionally good on both runs today. We made a few changes this morning that definitely helped, and I drove well on the last run, with an .030 on the tree.

"Overall, the racetrack here in Sonoma is pretty good -- it's just up to us to figure out what to do with it. There seems to be a number difference between the two lanes, with the left side being a bit quicker, but from the seat of the pants, they both feel great.

"I believe the entire ACDelco crew is focused heading into tomorrow. We're going to treat every run like a final, driving like we were the No. 16 qualifier. It's time to get up on the wheel."

-credit: j2r

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