For the first time this season, Lowe's Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson will pilot the No. 48 Lowe's/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet Impala SS in Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Johnson is the defending winner of this race and also went to Victory Lane at Atlanta during the Chase for the Championship last October.

JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTES

On Sunday's finish at Las Vegas: "It was definitely a disappointment, but no one is down about it. It just makes us that much more determined. We have a lot of talented mechanics and engineers back at the shop that won't stop until they figure out what was going on with the car. Sometimes you can learn a lot more from overcoming setbacks than you do from your successes. We'll get it figured out. One thing this team doesn't do is give up."

On the race: "This is a big weekend for Lowe's and Kobalt Tools, and for our team. We're looking to bounce back from last weekend. We've got a chance to make it three (wins) in a row at Atlanta and we're running a Kobalt paint scheme, so we've got a lot of motivation to do well."

On qualifying: "It's a unique situation at Atlanta. I don't know of any other track where we qualify at night and then run the entire race during the day. Chad (Knaus) and the engineers have to make their best guess on what the track's going to do. We've qualified well there, so I'm confident we can do the same this weekend."

RACE NOTES

Chassis

Team Lowe's Racing will use chassis No. 48-480 in Sunday's Kobalt Tools 500 event at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This weekend's event will mark the first race for this chassis. The team will use chassis No. 48-465 as a backup. That chassis finished second at California Speedway two weeks ago.

Atlanta

In 13 Cup Series starts at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Johnson has completed 4,131 of 4,152 laps of competition. He has three wins, eight top-five and nine top-10 finishes. His average starting spot is 8.5 and average finish is 9.4.

No driver has scored more points than Jimmie Johnson at Atlanta Motor Speedway over the past 10 Sprint Cup Series races. Johnson has 1,592 points in his last 10 Cup starts at Atlanta, while his nearest competition, Tony Stewart, has 1,487.

Career

Johnson has won at least three 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 six full-time seasons.

Johnson's most recent victory at Phoenix was the 33rd of his Sprint Cup career. The win ties Johnson with the legendary "Fireball" Roberts for 18th on NASCAR's all-time wins list. Johnson has the fourth-highest win total among active drivers, behind Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliott and Mark Martin.

Johnson has won Sprint Cup Series events at all but seven of the 22 tracks where the series competes.

Johnson's 10 wins in 2007 is the highest number of wins 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 Championship ties a modern-era NASCAR record.

History

In 222 Sprint Cup Series starts, Johnson has posted 87 top-5 finishes and 135 top-10 finishes. He has a top-five finish at every track on the NASCAR Sprint Cup series circuit. Johnson has led 5,561 laps and driven 63,584 laps in his Sprint Cup career, covering more than 85,000 miles. He has finished on the lead lap 169 times.

BACKUP CAR (CHASSIS 48-465) HISTORY

JOHNSON'S ATLANTA MOTOR SPEEDWAY RECORD

JOHNSON'S 2008 STATISTICS

NO. 48 AT-TRACK CREW LIST