More NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Team Reports
Team 48 Auto Club 500 Preview
Lowe's Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson returns to his home state of California, the site of his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win. Johnson went to victory lane at California Speedway in his rookie season on April 28th, 2002, in just his 13th Sprint Cup Series start. Johnson is also the defending champion of the Labor Day Weekend Sprint Cup Series race at the facility, having won the Sharp Aquos 500 on Sept. 2, 2007.
JIMMIE JOHNSON QUOTES:
ON RETURNING TO HIS HOME STATE OF CALIFORNIA:
"You want to win every race, but you especially want to win in front of the home crowd. It can be a little bit of a challenge to try and visit with everyone, though. You can only do so much. I just try to spend as much time as I can with everyone, but when it comes time to get in the car, I set all that aside and focus on getting the job done."
ON LAST WEEKEND'S DAYTONA 500:
"It was a disappointing finish, no doubt. When you start on the front row, you definitely want to try and finish there. We had a couple of setbacks, but as a team, we know it's how we respond to those setbacks that will dictate where we are in points at the end of the year. Even with the problems, we managed to stay on the lead lap. I'm proud of the team for that.
"We bounced back from a bad finish at Daytona last year, so last weekend didn't shake our confidence at all. You'd definitely like to head to California in the top-10 (in points), but this early in the season, you just have to try and be consistent and get the best finishes you can. Everyone's going to have a bad day at some point, so as long as we don't have too many bad days ourselves, it will all shake out."
Dave Blaney (NO. 22 CATERPILLAR CAMRY)BLANEY'S THOUGHTS ON CALIFORNIA:
"I like California Speedway. Once we get racing there, you can run the top of the track or the bottom of the track -- it doesn't seem to matter. All the drivers like that part of it, I'm sure. The race might be a little spread out as far as being a good race fan-wise, but the drivers enjoy it, just having a lot of room to race. If you get you're car good you can go to the front. We've opted to bring a different car this weekend than we tested a couple of weeks ago. We just weren't happy enough with the results of that test, and we think this car, which we ran last year but has been totally rebuilt, should be pretty good.
"Obviously our main goal will have to be to finish this race. We got ourselves into a hole last week by not finishing the 500, and we just can't have that happen again. Just the thought of not being in the top 35 after the fifth race is enough to make you sick. We went through it last year, and we're not going through it again."
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