For Jimmie Johnson, Las Vegas is one of the track that he likes to go to each year as he spent a lot of times as a young kid racing dirt bikes in the area.
“A lot of years the mini nationals were placed over (in the Hampton area) for the amateur dirt bike racers,” Johnson commented. “Literally across the street is where the start/finish and the main pit area for The Mint 400 was which I changed a lot of tires and worked in a pit for many years. Also competed in a few of The Mint 400’s myself, Vegas has been great to me in racing. Really kind of growing up on the West Coast a racing hub, so when this track was built here hoped to race on it and certainly had my success on this track and enjoy it out here.”
In 12 career starts at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Johnson has four wins and seven top 10s.
“It’s always an interesting race because it’s so early in the season and usually one of our first big tracks that we compete on,” he commented. “You find out how you stack up and where you are at.”
Johnson is coming off a solid finish at Phoenix International Raceway, where he finished sixth. He admitted that he would’ve liked to have run better, but was pleased about what he learnt throughout the weekend about the car and the qualifying format.
Coming off of that subpar run, the No. 48 Kobalt team was looking to get some test laps down as part of yesterday’s test session. Johnson said that they had a solid test session with some highlighted points in speed. The main right now, though, is learning how to adjust according to the new rules as NASCAR has opened up the book of possible adjustments with the no minimum ride height rule.
“It is very easy to make an adjustment on your car that affects four or five other areas and takes the car right out of the race track and slows you down,” Johnson commented. “We are learning and we are enjoying the process. There are a bunch of new challenges right now with the new car.”
Johnson added that it makes communication between driver and crew chief even more important to make sure that the adjustments are right and figuring out what works and doesn’t work.
“There are more steps involved with making a decision now,” he continued. “I feel like communication still is key, but the thought process on the pit box is more important than it’s ever been because a simple change affects more things now.”
While a lot of teams have tested a lot, Hendrick Motorsports hasn’t done as much testing to date. Johnson says that they want to see how they stack up against everybody and see what they need to do moving forward.
“If we don’t have the speed or feel like directionally we are going down the right road it would be useful to test on a bigger track soon,” he commented. “A lot of people have been to Nashville and Nashville is great to get out and run on, but it’s not a mile and a half. It’s tough to really take specifics from that race track to other race tracks. It’s a concrete track, different shape and different size than a lot of places we run on. This weekend is important for sure. Yesterday was very helpful and useful. I’m glad that NASCAR allowed us to come out for a few hours.”
While Johnson may enjoy attending Las Vegas, he says that he can’t left out this area too long as he ends up going to the casino too much.
“The banquet week is three days too long because livers hate me by the end of it,” he commented.
