Jimmie Johnson

Noah Scott asked:


What’s new for General Motor’s? Well aside from unveiling new vehicles in recent domestic and international auto shows and manufacturing quality GM parts like GM running board, GM’s Cadillac NASCAR team also got something new for racing fans.

GM’s Team Cadillac has recently signed Jimmie Johnson, the current NASCAR Nextel Cup series champion to drive the No. 16 Cadillac CTS-V in the forthcoming SCCA SPEED World Challenge GT that will take place at Lowe’s Motor Speedway (formerly Charlotte Motor Speedway) later in May 2007.

Here is what Jimmie Johnson said in a GM official press release:

“I’ve driven thousands of laps at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and enjoyed success there, but it’s going to be a new experience for me to turn right as well as left when I race in the SPEED GT event in Charlotte. I’ve always enjoyed driving different kinds of vehicles, so I’m looking forward to racing against sports cars with the Cadillac CTS-V sedan.”

“When I tested with Team Cadillac on the Sebring road course in February, I discovered that the Cadillac CTS-V race car’s handling and braking are similar to the setups we use in NASCAR Nextel Cup road races. I’m hoping that my experience at Lowe’s Motor Speedway will benefit the team because we only have one day to practice, qualify and race,” he continued. “I really enjoyed working with the Team Cadillac crew and my teammates Andy Pilgrim and Lawson Aschenbach during the test, and I think we’ll be able to get our CTS-V race cars up to speed quickly on both the oval and the road course sections at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.”

Johnson began his career as a race driver in NEXTEL Cup series in 2002 when he entered the 2002 Daytona 500 and ended up in the 15th place. He was also the runner-up for the 2002 NASCAR Rookie of the Year. Johnson currently pilots the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet Monte Carlo SS for Hendrick Motorsports.

“We’re proud to have Jimmie as a member of the GM family, and we appreciate the cooperation between Chevrolet, Cadillac, GM Racing and Hendrick Motorsports that made this program possible.” said Steve Wesoloski, Manager of GM Road Racing Group. “This is a great opportunity to have the defending NASCAR Nextel Cup champion compete in one of our GM road racing programs, and it will certainly put the SPEED World Challenge Series in the spotlight.”

Moreover, Cadillac General Manager Jim Taylor commented:

“As we’ve been reinventing and rebuilding the Cadillac brand over the past several years, we’ve made the conscious strategic decision to align Cadillac with the best of the best in everything we do. We’ll have the past two SPEED GT champions, Andy and Lawson, for the full 2007 season, and we’re absolutely thrilled to have 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup champion Jimmie Johnson drive our third CTS-V in the upcoming Charlotte race.”

Jimmie Johnson will go aboard the Cadillac CTS-V and experience the race car’s high performance and dynamic handling coming from the monstrous 6.0-liter V8 engine pumping out 500 horses under its hood.



MERLE

James Johnson asked:


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MACK

Anthony Fontanelle asked:


With the tenth race of the Nextel Cup Series already in the books, Chevy has shown once again that they are dominating this season. Out of the ten races that has just transpired, Chevy cars have won nine of them including the recently concluded Jimmy Stewart 400 which took place at the Richmond International Speedway in Richmond, Virginia. The said race was postponed due to heavy rains and was rescheduled last Saturday night. After 400 laps or 300 miles of racing, a Chevy car driven by defending champion Jimmie Johnson emerged as the winner. This is the fourth race this season wherein Johnson won a race on his No. 48 Lowe’s Impala SS.

Speaking after the race, Johnson expressed his feelings on his victory at the event. “This means the world to me to win here,” says Johnson. “We haven’t been that strong here. It reminds me a lot of Indy last year where we came back and we were able to beat a track that’s tough on us. I think this car has been an opportunity for myself and for the team to kind of learn the right setup; feeling the right the rhythm at this track.”

This chemistry between Johnson and his engineers has led to another good showing for the champion. From the start to the finish of the race, Johnson showed why he is the man to beat this season. He took control of the top spot with 20 laps to go and never relinquished that lead until lap number 400. After the race, Johnson also expressed his feelings about the recent shootings at Virginia Tech. “I feel honored to win this race here in Virginia. Obviously what took place, no one could ever describe. It’s just so sad, I don’t even know where to start,” says Johnson. “I didn’t go to school there, have a lot of close friends that did, great people that work at Hendrick Motorsports that have and certainly want to dedicate this win to them.”

The dominance of the Chevy Impala SS this season is evident in the fact that following Johnson are three Chevy Impalas. The second place was taken by Johnson’s teammate Kyle Busch on his No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Impala SS. Speaking after the race, Busch summed up his car’s performance in the recently concluded race. “That was a good run for our Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Impala SS,” says Busch. “You know we struggle in qualifying with these things but we seem to get it when the race turns around so we also want to thank all my sponsors and all the people that are behind us,” he added.

Busch also talked about his and Johnson’s performance during the race after the restart. “I think mine fell off a little bit and his got better, because we kind of gapped out,” Busch said. “Normally we could run together but the restart before I was a little bit better than he was and I got a good start and I got down in one and two and got a good jump on everybody but that last caution came out again. I think he would have caught us anyway. He was a little bit better overall than we were but it’s still a good day for Hendrick Motorsports - one, two, four, I believe.”

Taking the third spot after the race is the No. 11 FedEx Express Impala SS driven by Denny Hamlin. The driver spoke about his performance after the race saying that: “We definitely had an up-and-down day but for the most part our car was pretty good.” He summed up his car’s performance for the race. “We were coming on there at the end and got caught behind a lot of cars,” Hamlin said. “It seemed like the fist couple of cars could clear and we just had a tough time running on the outside. For the most part I was happy about it. The FedEx Chevrolet was a winning car there at the end but we just didn’t have the track position.” Hamlin also talked about the impact of the result of the race on the special campaign for his team. “FedEx Express Chevrolet was really good and I can’t think of a better way to kick off the ‘Wear Your Heart on Your Helmet’ campaign for everyone at FedEx this year with the special paint scheme on our helmet. It’s a great way to start off that campaign and the perfect way to keep our season going in the right direction and I’m very happy with our run.”

Finishing fourth on the said race is Jeff Gordon on his No. 24 DuPont Impala SS. After the race, he talked about his performance. “We’ve got to be proud of that,” says the fans’ favorite. “This has been one of our worst tracks. To come out here in the top five just tells you what kind of improvements we’ve made with the DuPont Chevrolet team. We had great track position and we were able to maintain that. That probably helped us out for the most part. At one time I thought we had the car to beat and then we made some adjustments trying to keep up with the changing conditions of the track and just lost it. I’ve got to congratulate Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch. Those guys drove one heck of a race. We’re so proud to have those guys at Hendrick Motorsports. I was trying so hard to get that one-two-three Hendrick finish but just couldn’t pull it off. Denny Hamlin drove a great race as well. Congratulations to Jimmie and all those guys. We’ll just take our top-five and move on from here,” says Gordon.

After the tenth race of the season, Chevy looks dominant as the race once again featured that the four top spots were occupied by Chevrolet cars. This shows that these cars are not only good looking as Chevrolet pickup tail light lens but also show the true performance that one should expect from a precision engineered machine. Whether this domination continues for the rest of the Nextel Cup Series, that has yet to be seen though.



JASON

Lauren Woods asked:


The ongoing NASCAR Nextel Cup series is currently being dominated by Chevy cars and experts in the motorsport thinks that NASCAR will sooner or later step in to make some rule changes to help Dodge, Ford, and Toyota who, as we all know, are the three other suppliers of vehicles for the sport.

With seven points races for the season already over, Chevrolet cars have shown their domination by winning all but one of them. Even the first non-points race in Daytona, the Budweiser Shootout, was also won by a Chevy car. In a recent interview, Dodge driver Kasey Kahne talks about what makes Chevy cars dominating in the early part of the Nextel Cup series.

“Chevy has good teams,” says Kahne. “They have some good drivers and good teams, and so does Dodge, Toyota and Ford. Chevy just seems like they’re always a little bit ahead, whether it’s aerodynamically, or their teams are doing a better job of figuring out how to make their cars right. I don’t know. I think driving a Dodge, it seems like we always struggle more in traffic even when we won six races. It would take me longer to get to the front than say Jimmie Johnson and we could be better than him when we got to the front.”

Chevy’s dominance was manifested in the first points race, the Daytona 500, where four of the top five drivers drove a Chevrolet. Kevin Harvick driving a Chevy for the Richard Childress Racing Team took the first place at the said race. At the UAW DaimlerChrysler 400, Chevy once again showed dominance when three Chevy units took the top three finishes with Jimmie Johnson taking the win for the Hendrick Motorsports Team. At the Kobalt Tools 500, two Chevrolet cars were once again at the top of the standings after the race with Jimmie Johnson scoring another win. At the fifth race of the season, the Food City 500, Chevrolet cars were at the top of the standings with Kyle Busch leading the way. At the Goody’s Cool Orange 500, Chevy cars displayed total domination when they took the top seven places after the race with Jimmie Johnson taking his third win of the season. And at the recently concluded Samsung 500, a Chevrolet won the race driven by Jeff Burton.

The only race so far that a Chevy car has not won is the Auto Club 500 where Matt Kenseth who driving a Ford vehicle managed to get a win.

Dodge though is not giving up just yet and will be introducing the Dodge Avenger at the next race of the season in Phoenix. Kahne recently expressed his thoughts about the car and how they would do in the next race. “I think it will be fine,” says Kahne. “We’ve just got to hit on the right things. We were really good at Bristol, one of the best cars, all three of the Evernham cars, and at Martinsville we all struggled. We went the wrong direction and struggled at the Richmond test. We have some other ideas for Phoenix and hopefully we start hitting on some things. It’s time we start hitting on some things.”

While Chevy is dominating the season, Kahne’s confidence on his team is not wavering. In fact, Kahne’s coolness regarding the dominance of Chevy can be likened to the relatively cold air produced by the Dodge cold air intake system. After all, he drives a Dodge. “My confidence is all right,” Kahne said. “I feel like we still have good teams, good people. We just have to make the right adjustments and build the bodies the right way. That’s the biggest thing with say last week’s car, building the bodies the right way. We are trying to figure out what that right direction is. It feels a lot like 2005 when we changed over to the Charger nose initially. We just haven’t made the right decisions with the body, and I think once we make those right decisions we should be all right.”



LEMUEL

Mike Bartley asked:


James Kenneth Johnson, popularly known as Jimmie Johnson, took his fourth victory of the season and the ninth for Chevy in an atypical day race at the Richmond International Raceway. Rescheduled from Saturday night due to rain, the 300-mile, 400-lap race witnessed the Chevy Impala SS drivers brush the top four finishing spots. To stress, seven out of top ten finishers were Chevy drivers.

Johnson, the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Impala SS and the 2006 NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion, has this to say: “This means the world to me to win here. We haven’t been that strong here. It reminds me a lot of Indy last year where we came back and we were able to beat a track that’s tough on us. I think this car has been an opportunity for myself and for the team to kind of learn the right setup; feeling the right the rhythm at this track. We did well at being here. I was hoping one-two-three for Hendrick Motorsports, it was awesome racing with my teammate Kyle Busch.”

In his rookie year, Johnson became the first rookie in the Cup series to sweep both races at a track when he won both races at the Dover International Speedway. He became the first rookie ever to lead in the point standings. In addition, Johnson is the only driver to finish in the top five in the standings in his first five full seasons.

How does it feel to wear the Virginia Tech hat? Johnson said, “I feel honored to win this race here in Virginia. Obviously what took place, no one could ever describe. It’s just so sad, I don’t even know where to start. I didn’t go to school there, have a lot of close friends that did, great people that work at Hendrick Motorsports that have and certainly want to dedicate this win to them.”

Johnson ran near the front for most of the race, taking the lead for good with 20 laps to go. With a performance likened to that of ACT, he finished ahead of teammate Kyle Busch, the driver of the No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Impala SS and Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 FedEx Impala SS, who finished second and third, respectively.

Jeff Gordon, the owner of Johnson’s Impala SS, finished behind Hamlin. Another teammate of Johnson, the driver of the No. 24 DuPont Impala SS, kept his points in the driver with his fourth-place finish. Johnson’s win pushed him up to second place in the standings up from fourth.

Richmond’s race was the fourth race for Chevy’s new Impala SS race car. The Impala SS has won all four new-generation race car events this season with Hendrick Motorsports - Johnson’s team. Chevy drivers also hold nine of the top twelve spots in the series standings. Additionally, Chevrolet has won nine of ten races in the ‘07 series to date and leads in the Manufacturer’s Cup chase with 87 points.

Finishing second was Kyle Busch, the driver of No. 5 Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Impala SS. “That was a good run for our Kellogg’s/CARQUEST Impala SS. You know we struggle in qualifying with these things but we seem to get it when the race turns around so we also want to thank all my sponsors and all the people that are behind us,” Busch quipped.

When asked whether his car fell off on the last restart or Johnson’s car just got better, Busch said, “Well both. I think mine fell off a little bit and his got better, because we kind of gapped out. Normally we could run together but the restart before I was a little bit better than he was and I got a good start and I got down in one and two and got a good jump on everybody but that last caution came out again. I think he would have caught us anyway. He was a little bit better overall than we were but it’s still a good day for Hendrick Motorsports - one, two, four, I believe.”

Denny Hamlin, the driver of No. 11 FedEx Express Impala SS and finished third in the event, noted: “We definitely had an up-and-down day but for the most part our car was pretty good. We were coming on there at the end and got caught behind a lot of cars. It seemed like the fist couple of cars could clear and we just had a tough time running on the outside. For the most part I was happy about it. The FedEx Chevrolet was a winning car there at the end but we just didn’t have the track position.”

Driving No. 24 DuPont Impala SS is Jeff Gordon who finished fourth. Describing his race, Gordon said, “We’ve got to be proud of that. This has been one of our worst tracks. To come out here in the top five just tells you what kind of improvements we’ve made with the DuPont Chevrolet team. We had great track position and we were able to maintain that. That probably helped us out for the most part. At one time I thought we had the car to beat and then we made some adjustments trying to keep up with the changing conditions of the track and just lost it.”

He added, “I’ve got to congratulate Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch. Those guys drove one heck of a race. We’re so proud to have those guys at Hendrick Motorsports. I was trying so hard to get that one-two-three Hendrick finish but just couldn’t pull it off. Denny Hamlin drove a great race as well. Congratulations to Jimmie and all those guys. We’ll just take our top-five and move on from here.”



RUSSELL

Anthony Fontanelle asked:


The 2007 Nextel All-Star Challenge is all over and Kevin Harvick recorded his first win at the prestigious event. After 80 laps around the Lowe’s Motor Speedway on the 19th of this month, the Number 29 Chevrolet Pennzoil Platinum driven by Harvick bested former champions like Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, and Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Winning the race gave Harvick $1 million. His composure played a major role in winning the race after he fended off defending champion Jimmie Johnson on the latter stages of the race.

The race featuring perennial NBA All-Star player Michael Jordan as the grand marshal was fought to the end by Johnson and Harvick. After winning the race, Harvick is absolutely thrilled. “To win the All-Star race is just a lot of fun,” Harvick said. “Jimmy and I raced hard all night and I actually learned something for turn three tonight from him. Everything worked really well tonight and it’s pretty awesome to win this event.”

Meanwhile, two-time Nextel All-Star Challenge winner Jimmie Johnson is visibly disappointed by his second place finish. “We got close to that first place in the last few laps,” he said. “Our cars were about equal. Threw a lot at him, but just came up a little short. I’m a little disappointed on how we got started. We started off a little slow. I got really tight on that first run.” Although he may have lost the chance to win back-to-back All-Star wins, Johnson is already concentrating on the next race. “Looking to the 600 next week, I’m ready to come back and get started,” he added.

The third driver to cross the finish line was Mark Martin on his Chevrolet Impala. After the race, he talked about his performance at the race: “Started in the back and came up a little short after working our way to the front and getting some track position. This format is not my style. I’m not much of a short-distance racer. I’m more of a long-distance racer. The three cars there at the end were about equal. My specialty is a little more than 20 laps. There are a lot of good cars to contend with for the 600 next week.”

The dominance of Chevrolet cars in this year’s Nextel Cup Series continues in the All-Star. The top six spots after the race were taken by Chevrolet cars and eight out of the top ten are Chevrolets. Harvick, Johnson, and Martin all drove Chevrolet Impalas. Aside from them other Chevrolet drivers who made it to the top ten are Jeff Burton who finished fourth, Tony Stewart finished at fifth, Johnny Sauter finished sixth, Dale Earnhardt Jr. at ninth, and Martin Truex Jr. who finished tenth. At this rate, not even a brake component from Active Brakes Direct can stop the Chevrolet in the Nextel Cup.



BRENT