Team 48 Talladega Superspeedway
JIMMIE JOHNSON 2011
STARTS: 7 WINS: 0 TOP 5: 3 TOP 10: 4
CURRENT DRIVER POINT STANDINGS: 4th POINTS BEHIND 1st: 13
FINISH IN TEXAS: 8th SPRING 2010 FINISH AT TALLADEGA: 31st
TEAM ROSTERS WILL BE POSTED ON MEDIA.LOWESRACING.COM WHEN AVAILABLE
RACE NOTES
Talladega Superspeedway
• Johnson has made 18 Sprint Cup Series starts at Talladega Superspeedway, where he has earned one win, four top-five and eight top-10 finishes.
• Johnson has completed 96.1% (3280 of 3413) of competition laps and has led 203.
• He has an average start and finish of 10.2 and 17.2.
Chassis
• Johnson will pilot chassis No. 628 in Sunday’s restrictor-plate event. He crossed the finish line 27th with that chassis at the Daytona 500 in February.
• Johnson finished fourth in backup chassis No. 618 during February’s Budweiser Shootout.
Primary Car History – Chassis No. 628
Date Event Start Finish
02/20/2011 Daytona 23 27
Backup Car History – Chassis No. 618
Date Event Start Finish
10/31/2010 Talladega 19 7
02/03/2011 Bud Shootout 17 4
JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTES
WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE HEADING TO TALLADEGA?:
“A driver goes to a plate track on Friday for qualifying or whenever qualifying is and qualifies and practices – it’s pretty easy for the driver and there’s no pressure on the driver so it’s nice to go to the track and be relaxed. You don’t have to get inside your head and drive your line or worry about your reference points. But when you get in drafting practice and you’re still kind of reserved because you don’t want to be in a wreck and then the race takes off and it’s such a dynamic all to itself. Plate races are pretty easy to prepare for from a driver’s standpoint, but on the flip side, especially in qualifying, that’s all the speed depends on the work that’s done at the shop. It’s somewhat of an off weekend for the drivers from a work standpoint, but for the crews it’s one of the most difficult weeks.”
WILL THE TANDEM DRAFTING STILL RESULT IN A BIG DRAFT PACK?:
“That possibility is definitely there. We’re all learning a lot about the push drafting and how it works. It just depends on how close together we can all stay. If we’re all in a big pack, regardless of the tandem pushing or not, your chances of a big crash are there. Then if we get into a spread out situation where cars are separated, you might have a single car spin or something like that. It just depends on where the pack is.”
SPRINT CUP SERIES CAREER NOTES
Career Wins
• Johnson has 53 wins in his Sprint Cup Series career, his most recent coming at Dover International Speedway on Sept. 26, 2010.
• The El Cajon, Calif.-native is currently 10th on NASCAR’s all-time wins list, one victory behind Lee Petty.
• He is second in total wins among active drivers, behind Jeff Gordon (82).
• 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 four (Michigan, Chicago, Watkins Glen, Homestead) of the 22 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 334 Sprint Cup Series starts, Johnson has posted 137 top-five and 207 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 11,247 laps (of 96,530) in his Sprint Cup career, covering over 128,872 miles.
• He has finished on the lead lap 259 times.
