FW: Kurt Johnson Qualifies ACDelco Chevrolet No. 7 at NHRA Winternationals

From: Jeff Romack
Sent: Saturday, February 07, 2009 8:59 PM
To: Jeff Romack
Subject: Kurt Johnson Qualifies ACDelco Chevrolet No. 7 at NHRA Winternationals

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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

Kurt Johnson Qualifies
ACDelco Chevrolet No. 7
At NHRA Winternatonals

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POMONA, Calif., Feb. 7, 2009 - For the last three days rain and cool temperatures have caused havoc with the racing schedule for the 49th annual NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. On Saturday, the precipitation let up just long enough to allow one essential round of qualifying, and ACDelco's Kurt Johnson took advantage of this lone opportunity to solidly place his Chevy Cobalt in the 16-car Pro Stock field.

A nice run out of the right lane by the ACDelco car, on a relatively green racing surface, that had seen very little activity over the last 72 hours, stopped the timers with a 6.642-second e.t. at 207.91 mph. That was good enough to give Johnson the No. 7 starting position on race day.

"I was loose from second gear to the finish line," Johnson said. "NHRA did all they could to prepare the race track - it wasn't anything they did wrong. They used plenty of traction compound, but it was cold and enough cars hadn't run on the track yet. I came out of it with a 6.64, No. 7, top half of the field, and lane choice, and that's all we can ask for right now."

This is Johnson's 350th race as an NHRA competitor and it comes 16 years after he made his first Pro Stock appearance at the 1993 Winternationals. Over the years Johnson has experienced his fair share of success at the fabled Auto Club Raceway. He has four victories in seven final-round appearances including a win at the season-opening Winternationals in 2001, and a runner-up in 1997. He was runner-up here at last year's season-ending NHRA Winternationals.

Tomorrow Johnson will race Johnny Gray in round one of eliminations.

"This was only the eighth run we've made this year but we felt like we were prepared," Johnson said. "We felt like we made the right calls. The ACDelco Chevrolet was good in testing, and today it didn't really didn't come close to what it ran in testing. We feel there's a huge room for improvement and that we can run up front."

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.

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