NHRA Friday: Kurt Johnson Powers to the No. 1 position on Friday in Indy

Friday Qualifying Results					

Kurt Johnson Powers to the No. 1 position on Friday in Indy

Event: 48th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals
Location: Indianapolis Raceway Park
      Clermont, IN
Day/Date: Friday September 5, 2003 

The NHRA returned to action on Friday at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals following a one-week delay due to heavy rains in the Indianapolis area.  Even though two qualifying rounds were completed last weekend, the unique nature of this event gave the 46-car Pro Stock field three more attempts to make Sunday's final eliminations.  

Entering Friday's single session, Kurt Johnson held the second position, with his sights set on the top spot.  Taking full advantage of the cooler conditions, Johnson's ACDelco Cavalier rocketed down the quarter-mile in 6.778 seconds with a top speed of 203.77 mph, to set a new Indianapolis Raceway Park track record and claim the provisional No. 1 position entering Saturday's final two qualifying sessions.

"I can't believe it went that fast, because it actually felt a little lazy on that run.  The conditions were great.  We had a track that had been washed off and recently sprayed with traction compound.  The most important part, however, was the lack of water in the air.  When the humidity is high, you can't make horsepower, and you can't push the body through the air.  That's why you saw the record breaking times and speeds tonight.

"We made three testing runs in Atlanta during the week, and they really paid off.  Even though we were second last weekend, we didn't make a clean, straight run, and tonight our ACDelco Cavalier went fairly straight.  In fact it may have even gone a little to the right, so we'll just have to find a happy medium.

"I think tomorrow morning's session will be even better than tonight, so we'll go out, take another swing at it and try to go quicker than everyone else again.  We need every point we can get right now, and it definitely helps to have the performance.  Tonight the entire ACDelco team did their job - we just have to keep it going through Sunday night."