Subscibe to our feedAs 2nd Half of Season Approaches, Johnson Happy with Team Progress
The 4th of July event at Daytona International Speedway is the last race in the first half of the Sprint Cup Series season. With almost 18 races down and 18 races to go, Johnson says he’s happy with where his No. 48 Lowe’s team sits in 2009.
“I'm real happy with the speed in the cars,” said Johnson speaking about the first half of the year. “Unlike other years, we've made more mistakes as a team. Like (in Sonoma) I got nailed for speeding on pit road. I've made plenty of mistakes like that this year. I've crashed a couple of cars that I shouldn't have. Pit stops are really in our rhythm now but we've had a couple of hiccups along the way. So in general, I'm really happy with where we're at.”
As Team Lowe’s Racing makes its way to Daytona International Speedway for the third restrictor-plate race of the year, Johnson hopes that they can start capitalizing on some good runs they’ve had and believes it could begin this weekend at Daytona.
“I think we've missed a few opportunities to win races,” explained Johnson. “At Michigan we were leading the race and ran out of gas; at Pocono we were in really good position there; I look at Phoenix where Mark (Martin) won earlier in the year and we had some issues we overcame there and we were the fastest car but didn't pull it off. We lost that race because of mistakes we made. So I think we could be better than where we are, but I'm very happy to see the progress.”
After Saturday night’s race there will be just eight races left before the start of the The Chase. Johnson currently sits in third place, 169 points behind leader Tony Stewart.
“We've been cleaning up things over the course of the year and I think we're going to be just right when the Chase starts. Maybe we can start with a win this weekend in Daytona."
RACE NOTES
Daytona International Speedway
- Johnson has made 15 Sprint Cup Series starts at Daytona International Speedway.
- He has collected one win, five top-five and eight top-10 finishes at the restrictor-plate track.
- The three-time Champion has completed 98.8% (2561 of 2591) of competition laps there and has led 59.
- Johnson has an average start and finish of 9.9 and 15.
Chassis- Brand new chassis No. 547 will be the primary car for Saturday night’s Sprint Cup event.
- Johnson last drove backup chassis No. 482 at the Daytona 500 in February.