NHRA Friday: Seventh Halfway through Houston Qualifying, KJ Looks to Move Up

Friday Qualifying Results

Event: 17th annual O'Reilly Spring Nationals 
Location:  Houston Raceway Park
       Baytown, Texas
Day/Date: Friday April 16, 2004

In the opening session for the O'Reilly Spring Nationals, Kurt Johnson had to call on his years of driving experience to maintain control of his car as it launched towards the wall, eventually forcing him to shut off early.  This left him in the unenviable position of entering the crucial nighttime qualifying session with no current tuning information.  In addition, running in the third pair of cars out of sixteen, he would have little opportunity to watch and learn from his competitor's runs.

Even so, the ACDelco crew responded with a solid 6.757-second, 204.11 mph pass, which placed their Cavalier in the seventh position heading into Saturday's final qualifying sessions.  With a morning session scheduled, Johnson will look to further improve his starting position for Sunday. 

"We had never raced in these types of conditions with this particular car before, and it was also the first time we carried an in-car camera, which takes away ten pounds of adjustable ballast.  That all added up to make it an animal this afternoon.  It stood up on the back bumper, wheel stood and then hooked towards the wall.  

"We made some adjustments for tonight, moving some weight around to compensate, which settled it down.  Our biggest priority was getting in the show, so we were pretty conservative with the set-up.  I shifted into second a little early, trying to make sure it wouldn't shake the tires, and it went right down the track with a 6.75.

"The good news is that our ACDelco Cavalier should be able to run even quicker, and the conditions tomorrow morning should cooperate.  We'll tweak it a little, walking that fine line of making sure we stay in the show, while also trying to move up."