Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Jimmie Johnson Using Winning Talladega Chassis Again This Week

JIMMIE JOHNSON

NEWS
Johnson will drive the No. 48 MyLowe’s paint scheme in Talladega. MyLowe’s is an integrated online tool on Lowes.com that helps keep track of everything in your home. Users will never have to remember paint colors, warranty information or room dimensions again. When using the My Lowe’s card, purchases will all automatically upload to the users MyLowe’s site and can be customized from there. Johnson also will run the scheme in Martinsville and Texas.

RACE NOTES
Talladega Superspeedway
• Johnson has made 19 Sprint Cup Series starts at Talladega Superspeedway, where he has two wins, five top-five and nine top-10 finishes.
• Johnson has completed 96.3% (6468 of 3601) of competition laps at the 2.66-mile track and has led 217.
• He has an average start and finish of 9.8 and 16.4.

Chassis
• Johnson will drive chassis No. 628 in Sunday’s restrictor-plate race. He won the April race at Talladega Superspeedway in that chassis.
• Johnson finished fourth in backup chassis No. 618 in February’s Budweiser Shootout at Daytona International Speedway on Oct.


JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTES

YOU WON AT TALLADEGA SO DID YOU NOT WANT THE RULE TO CHANGE?
“I think with the new rules it’s a step to make us pass more. I don’t think we are going to be able to stay connected as long. Any time you put a bigger plate on the cars it allows for a larger closing rate with more opportunities to pass with more power. With that said, I don’t think the changes are large enough to have us not push. That threshold for pushing, the grip level is still so high at the race track that I don’t think it’s going to separate us yet but it should make for more passing. We see that more with a larger plate and then the fact that we can’t stay together we’re going to be changing, I don’t think we’ll be staying together as long we’ll be changing out more often which could lead to us being in a big pack like some of the fans want to see. We’ll get down there and see what happens. I don’t care what the rules are. I learned a long time ago to stop worrying about that stuff. I just go.”

SPRINT CUP SERIES CAREER NOTES

Career Wins
• Johnson has 55 wins in his Sprint Cup Series career, his most recent coming at Kansas Speedway on Oct. 9, 2011.
• The El Cajon, Calif.-native is currently tied with Rusty Wallace for eighth on NASCAR’s all-time wins list.
• He is second in total wins among active drivers, behind Jeff Gordon (85).
• Johnson needed only 296 starts to hit the 50 mark. Only three drivers have reached 50 victories quicker – Gordon (232), Darrell Waltrip (278) and David Pearson (293).
• Johnson has won at least three Cup races a season since he posted his first victory in 2002. He is the only driver in the modern era to win at least three races in each of his first eight full-time seasons.
• Johnson has won Sprint Cup Series races at all but five (Michigan, Chicago, Watkins Glen, Homestead, Kentucky) of the 23 tracks on which the series competes.
• Johnson’s 10 wins in 2007 was the highest number recorded in a single season since Jeff Gordon posted 13 victories in 1998.
• The four-consecutive wins scored by the No. 48 team in the 2007 Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup ties a modern-era NASCAR record.

Career Poles
• Johnson has collected 25 poles in his Sprint Cup career.
• The championship driver has earned at least one pole a year since his first full-time season in 2002.
• He had a career-high six poles in 2008.
• Johnson’s most recent pole position was at Dover International Speedway on Sept. 24, 2010.

Career Starts
• Johnson has finished in the top five in the Sprint Cup Series point standings each year since his first full season in 2002.
• Johnson is the only driver to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup every year since the format was adopted in 2004.
• In 358 Sprint Cup Series starts, Johnson has posted 147 top-five and 223 top-10 finishes.
• He has a top-five finish at every track on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit.
• Johnson has led a total of 12,047 laps (of 103,194) in his Sprint Cup career, covering over 138,401 miles.
• He has finished on the lead lap 279 times.

Career Recognition
• Johnson was named by Forbes as the Most Influential Athlete in 2011.
• In 2009, Johnson became the first race car driver to be named Male Athlete of the Year by the Associated Press in its 78-year history.
• Voted Driver of the Year four times in his career (2006, 2007, 2008, 2010), Johnson joins Jeff Gordon as four-time winners of the prestigious award.
• Johnson has won an ESPY for Best Driver four times, in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

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