NHRA Kurt Johnson Friday Update: KJ's "Shot in the Dark" Nets the Sixth Spot on Friday in Memphis

Contact:  Jon Knapp   

TMG Sports Marketing, Inc.

 Ph: (704) 662-3121

jgknapp@tmgsports.net

 

KJ's "Shot in the Dark" Nets the Sixth Spot on Friday in Memphis

 

Event:  20th Annual O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals

Day/Date: Friday, September 14, 2007

Location:  Memphis Motorsports Park, Memphis, Tennessee

 

After their first qualifying attempt at the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals
was cut short by a malfunction, Kurt Johnson and the ACDelco Cobalt
Racing team found themselves fighting to catch up in the Friday evening
session.  This challenge was made even greater by their being in the
second pair of cars out of the twenty-four making an attempt as well as
their not having tuning information from their earlier run on the tricky
Memphis Motorsports Park track.  

 

Undaunted, the Johnson-led crew responded, focusing on their next
attempt.  Their efforts were rewarded with a 6.709-second elapsed time
and the top speed of the session at 205.76 mph, good enough for sixth
midway through the qualifying procedure.  

 

"We looked at tonight's run as a shot in the dark, simply due to the
fact that we had issues on the first session.  When you miss a run,
especially the first one, it really hurts you.  Fortunately, we
regrouped.  We went up with pretty much the same set-up as we had used
for the afternoon, with only a few small changes.  

 

"Fortunately, the conditions didn't change a lot except for the track
temperature, and we compensated for that.  We were pretty happy to go
6.70, especially considering there is a couple of hundredths difference
between the lanes.  We're going to go in that left lane tomorrow
morning, and we need to hit a home run.  After all, right now every
point counts."  

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