FW: ACDelco's Kurt Johnson will have to wait another day to start NHRA campaign

From: Jeff Romack
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 7:42 PM
To: Jeff Romack
Subject: ACDelco's Kurt Johnson will have to wait another day to start NHRA campaign

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jeff Romack
ACDelco Racing Communications
Office: 317.843.5447
Cell: 317.698.1016
jfromack@cs.com
www.ACDelco.com

ACDelco's Kurt Johnson will have to wait
another day to start 2009 NHRA campaign -
Rain Washes out First Day of Qualifying at Winternationals

POMONA, Calif., Feb. 5, 2009 - The beginning of the NHRA Full Throttle season, and ACDelco driver Kurt Johnson's quest for the 2009 Pro Stock championship, will have to wait at least one more day. Just as the weather forecasters predicted, rain began falling on Auto Club Raceway just before the first round of professional qualifying and continued into the late afternoon, forcing cancellation of the first day of qualifying for the 49th annual Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals.

"We're obviously pumped to come here," Johnson said. "We've been working all winter, we only made seven runs, and we felt we were pretty fast. We were stoked and ready to go down the boulevard. We felt we made the right calls on the ACDelco Chevrolet and that the car was going to be fast. It's exciting knowing that you're probably going to be fast, but it's kind of interesting finding out what everybody else did over the winter, and seeing how everybody else runs, even though it's just one run.

"There's a lot of excitement about being at the track for the first time this year. It was like Grand Central Station in the trailer this morning. People that you hadn't seen in awhile, everybody wants to talks, everybody's excited. The rain was kind of a letdown, but on a positive side, the last time it rained here for two days straight we ended up winning the race (2002 NHRA Finals) in the KISS car."

At the fabled Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Johnson has experienced his fair share of success notching four victories in seven final-round appearances including a win at the season-opening Winternationals in 2001 and a runner-up in 1997.

The 49th annual Kragen O'Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals is the first race on the 24-event NHRA Full Throttle schedule, and also, the first race of the 18-event Countdown to 10. A two-hour telecast of qualifying coverage for the Winternationals can be seen on ESPN2 on Saturday, Feb. 7, beginning at 10 p.m. (ET). Coverage on ESPN2 continues on Sunday, Feb. 8, when NHRA Race Day will kick off eliminator coverage starting at 11:00 a.m. (ET), and concludes with three hours and thirty minutes of final eliminations coverage beginning at 7 p.m. (ET).

ACDelco is a global leader in high-quality automotive replacement parts and related services and offers quality aftermarket products for all makes and models, plus GM original equipment replacement parts. For more information go to www.ACDelco.com.