ACDelco's Kurt Johnson will start in the No. 7 position for tomorrow's 21st annual NHRA Summer
Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka. After four rounds of qualifying during an extremely hot
weekend, while adjusting to a tricky 125-degree racing surface, the veteran Pro Stock competitor is
confident that he has a race car that can win Sunday's eliminator.
"From the first run yesterday, to the last run today, the ACDelco Chevrolet was a completely
different race car," Johnson said. "Hopefully we can take that into tomorrow and go some rounds.
"The track is the same for everybody so we'll have to adapt to it. Unfortunately we can't show the
full potential of the ACDelco Chevrolet. Our combination is so de-tuned right now from the normal
situation that everybody is out there running slow, spinning and shaking."
Johnson entered the final day of time trials with the ACDelco Chevrolet qualified in the No. 7
position after running 6.724 seconds during Friday's late-afternoon session. In round one of
qualifying today, Johnson's position didn't change, but his elapsed time improved. The ACDelco
Chevy driver, along with fellow Pro Stock competitor Ron Krisher, posted the second quickest run of
the session at 6.712 seconds, which was Johnson's eventual qualifying time of record. This marks
the sixth time in the first nine races of '09 that Johnson has qualified the ACDelco car in the top
half of the field.
In the final round, the ACDelco driver returned with another solid run, given the deteriorating
track and atmospheric conditions, and posted his best speed of the weekend at 206.20 mph.
"Sitting in the seat tonight you could feel how much the ACDelco Chevrolet had improved over the
last two days," Johnson said. "It's definitely picked up."
Although he's run well over the years at Heartland Park Topeka, including runner-up finishes in
2003, '04 and '06, a No. 1 qualifying award at the Fall race in 1995, and a semi-final appearance
at last year's contest, this venue is one of the few on the NHRA circuit where Johnson has not won
a race. That is a statistic he is hoping to change tomorrow as he takes aim at his 40th career
victory.
"Tomorrow is going to be a crazy day. Hopefully we can survive. I think we made some gains with the
combination - we went in the direction we thought we should go to get more traction. We changed all
but one thing on the ACDelco Cobalt and we're saving that for tomorrow. I think we're going to put
a little more hook in it."
Mike Edwards was the No. 1 qualifier in Pro Stock. The Young Life Pontiac driver posted a 6.674
e.t. at 207.08 MPH to take his fifth pole award of '09.
ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD will televise two hours of qualifying highlights at 8 p.m. (ET) on Saturday May
30. NHRA Race Day, a 30-minute pre-race show, will air at 11 a.m. (ET) on Sunday, May 31 also on
ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD. ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD will feature three hours of eliminations coverage at 4 p.m.
(ET) on Sunday, May 31.
