NHRA Saturday: Kurt Johnson captures the No. 1 qualifying position at the U.S. Nationals

Event: 48th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals
Location: Indianapolis Raceway Park
      Clermont, IN
Day/Date: Saturday September 6, 2003 

ACDelco Cavalier pilot Kurt Johnson captured the No. 1 position at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals today, completing an impressive qualifying effort that saw him post no worse than the second quickest elapsed time in four of the five qualifying sessions. Although Johnson's 6.778-second, 203.77 mph pass from Friday evening remained his run of record,  he also paced the Pro Stock contingent on Saturday morning with his 6.807-second, 202.79 mph effort, which was the second quickest pass of the day.

This was Johnson's second No. 1 qualifying performance of the season, second at Indianapolis Raceway Park, and 23rd of his ten-year career.  Despite numbers that were the envy of virtually every competitor in the Pro Stock pit area, Johnson was already preparing his game plan for Sunday's final eliminations, including what adjustments he could make to further improve his performance.

"Overall, we're pretty pleased with our qualifying effort.  Our ACDelco Cavalier went down the track on every run but the last one, when we shook the tires, just as a lot of other cars did in the left lane.  There obviously was an issue with that side tonight, because the NHRA did some work to it immediately after our run.
 .
"The important part is that we have plenty of data to tune from.  Our runs today were a little shaky, but we still managed to run well and hold on to the No. 1 position.  We'll look at the computer and see what we need to do to keep going down the boulevard.  

"Tomorrow is whole new day.  Now that qualifying is behind us, my focus has shifted to winning in the first round, taking it one step at a time.  Fortunately, we're going in with a combination that went 6.77 and 6.80 during qualifying, so we have a good baseline to work from.  

"The track should start off in good shape and deteriorate as the day goes on, so we'll have to do a good job of adjusting to it, hopefully going four rounds.  We have all the parts and pieces to get the job done, we just have to put them together."


Fast Facts:

	*	This is the 23rd No. 1 qualifying performance of Kurt's career, second of the 2003 season, and second at the U.S. Nationals (KJ's previous pole at IRP came in 1997).

	*	Kurt's most recent No. 1 qualifying performance before today came three weeks ago at the Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, MN.