NHRA Friday: Friday in Gainesville Finds KJ in Sixth

Friday Qualifying Results



Event: 35th annual Mac Tools Gatornationals
Location:  Gainesville Raceway
       Gainesville, Florida
Day/Date: Friday March 19, 2004

Kurt Johnson entered the first day of qualifying for the Mac Tools Gatornationals looking to continue the strong performance, which had carried the ACDelco Cavalier to a dramatic win in Phoenix two weeks ago.  In the first session on Friday morning, however, the new racing surface threw Johnson and his crew a curve, as they lost valuable time when they spun the tires immediately after launching.

However, KJ returned to form on his second run, posting one of the quickest passes among the 33 drivers  attempting to qualify, with his 6.798-second elapsed time placing him in the sixth position heading into Saturday's final two qualifying sessions.  Johnson's top speed of 204.96 mph also allowed him to reclaim the Gainesville Raceway track record from Allen Johnson, who earlier in the day had broken Johnson's 2003 mark of 203.71 mph.

However, Johnson was less concerned with records, focusing instead in putting himself in a better position to defend his Gatornationals title.

"We had a few new parts under the bell housing for our first run, and the set-up was a little too aggressive, putting more power to the track than it could handle.  As a result, it spun the tires at the hit, which cost us some time.   We then made some changes for this afternoon and came back with a fairly decent run, which, most importantly, got us in the field.  We'll tune on it some more for the morning session, and see if we can move further up the ladder.    The bottom line is that definitely something left in our ACDelco Cavalier."