NHRA Saturday: KJ Will Defend his Gatornationals Title from the Seventh Position

Event: 35th annual Mac Tools Gatornationals
Location:  Gainesville Raceway
       Gainesville, Florida
Day/Date: Saturday March 20, 2004

On the strength of a 6.798-second, 204.96 mph pass made on Friday evening, Kurt Johnson qualified his ACDelco Cavalier seventh for Sunday's final eliminations of the Mac Tools Gatornationals.  

After securing his spot in the field on Friday, KJ looked to improve his standing during one of his final two attempts on Saturday.  Although his elapsed times were certainly competitive, Johnson was forced to bring his car back into the racing groove each time, which scrubbed off valuable time, and prevented any advancement.

Facing another tough field in eliminations, Johnson and crew were facing a long night of data review and analysis in preparation for race day.

"We spun (the tires) really hard this morning, which caused it to hook to the right.  Between the bad sixty-foot time, and getting out of the groove, we probably knocked about three hundredths out of that run, which means we could have run about a 6.78.  

"This afternoon, the air actually got a hundred feet better, and the track temperature was down a little bit, so we thought we could go 6.76 or 6.77, but we weren't going to do it shaking the tries as we did.

"The car has just not been happy this weekend.  I can feel it in the car that something just isn't right.  This is the first time we've run on this type of racetrack under these conditions, and it seems to be a little off in every part of the run.  

"We're going to go over our data and figure out what it needs for tomorrow.  Obviously, the key will be to make sure our ACDelco Cavalier makes a smooth run every round.  If we can do that, we figure to pick up about five hundredths right off the bat.  However, we've certainly got our homework cut out for us."