KJ's Brainerd Title Defense Will Start from Seventh

BRAINERD, Minn. (8/12/06) -- Kurt Johnson completed a very consistent qualifying effort on Saturday at the Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, MN, capturing the seventh starting position for Sunday's final eliminations. Racing his new ACDelco Cobalt for the first time, three of Johnson's four attempts at Brainerd International Raceway were within four thousandths of a second of each other, with his quickest attempt of 6.767 seconds at 203.31 mph coming in the third session on Saturday morning. Heading into race day, the Minnesota native will hope to repeat this high level of performance as they look to defend their win at this event from one year ago.

"Coming here with a completely new and untested race car, our first goal was simply to qualify. Having accomplished that, we will now concentrate on making our ACDelco Cobalt go faster. We know what areas we have to work on, which makes it somewhat easier. It's really quick in the first sixty feet, which we are extremely pleased with, but now we have to work on getting it better in second and third gear.

"Fortunately, it appears to be pretty happy. It made two straight runs today and I had four good lights (reaction times), so if I can keep that up, we can go some rounds tomorrow. We'll go up there and throw everything we have at it, with everyone from the team, the car and the driver doing what they can to be perfect, leaving no stone unturned, looking to be on the good end of that four-inch run at the finish line late tomorrow afternoon. We were able to get the job done one year ago and had a great time celebrating in the winner's circle with our family and friends here in our home state, and we'd like nothing more than to do it again tomorrow."