Catchfence

LAS VEGAS  – Three-time and defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series (NSCS) champion Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Lowe’s/KOBALT Tools Impala SS, qualified third for the Shelby 427 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The effort will put the California native on the second row behind pole winner Kyle Busch.

Ryan Newman, No. 39 Haas Automation Impala SS qualified sixth, Mark Martin, No. 5 Pop-Tarts /CARQUEST Impala SS qualified 8^th, Kevin Harvick, No. 29 Shell/Penzoil Impala SS qualified 9^th, and Newman’s teammate, Tony Stewart, No. 14 Old Spice Chevrolet qualified 10^th to give Team Chevy five of the top 10 starting spots.

A total of 16 Impala SS drivers qualified to start round three of the 36-race 2009 NSCS season. The race is slated to take the green flag at 1:30 p.m. Pacific (4:30 Eastern) with live coverage on FOX TV, MRN Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio.

JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 Lowe’s/KOBALT Tools Impala SS, Qualified 3^rd: “We are better here especially compared to last year and how bad we were here. This is a nice surprise. It was a good lap, definitely a solid lap. Maybe a little too comfortable, but we went a lot faster than we did in practice and I am very proud of the effort we put in. Hopefully, we’ve got everything right and where it needs to be come Sunday.”

HOW ARE YOU DOING WITH THE BEARD? “I keep it short so the grey doesn’t have a chance to really show. It is hilarious the interest and blogs and the “should I shave or should I not” I read. It is hilarious. I didn’t think that facial hair would cause so much of a talking point. But Momma loves it so, I am keepin’ it.”

RYAN NEWMAN, NO. 39 HAAS AUTOMATION IMPALA SS, Qualified 6^th:  ““I’m really proud of the Haas Automation team today. The guys did a great job getting the car ready for qualifying. I was a little tight during my qualifying lap, and I probably under drove it a little bit in turns three and four. But I think we’re going to end up with a good starting spot for Sunday’s race.  Overall, it was a good effort by our team, and it’s a good way to kick off our weekend. Hopefully, this means the tides are changing for us. We’ve had such a run of bad luck the first two races, I would like to think that we’re going to have some good luck this weekend in Las Vegas.”

MARK MARTIN, NO. 5 POP TARTS/CARQUEST IMPALA SS, Qualified 8^th : “That was a 10 man, that is what I am in for right there. Man I want to thank Alan Gustafson and everybody on the Pop Tarts/CARQUEST Impala team for letting me drive that car. Thank you. Thank you. Thank the fans. That was awesome. I know the draw might not help us out any, I don’t care where we wind up. That was one heck of a race car I just drove and a great lap and that is what I live for.”

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL-PENNZOIL IMPALA SS, Qualified 9^th: “I’m pretty happy with that lap. i left a little on the table. I knew I missed the pole when I got into turn 1. I just didn’t drive it in hard enough. We’ll take it and work to get it dialed in tomorrow. I think we’ll be in good shape.”

POST QUALIFYING PRESS CONFERENCE TRANSCRIPT  ~ JIMMIE JOHNSON, NO. 48 LOWE’S IMPALA SS
TELL US ABOUT YOUR RUN
“We had a great day today. We had plenty of speed in practice and working through. For us we have kind of a new set-up. Last year was so difficult on us. We are happy to see that what we learned over the year came back and applied and after the first few runs today we took a big deep breath and smiled that the car was right. We felt like we had a good shot at the pole today. We missed it by just a little bit. But my lap was pretty uneventful, which usually means you’re going to be a little slow. To be that close to the pole, I’m very pleased with our lap. I wish it would have turned a little bit better and wasn’t so tight and we could have been on top, but it was still a great day for us.

“The other day, we were all out in the sand dunes; the top three cars were all out there racing buggies around. I guess it paid off coming over here to take over those first few spots in qualifying.”

HOW WERE THE TIRES TODAY? NO POLE-SITTER HAS EVER WON THIS RACE. DOES THAT AFFECT YOUR MIND?
“No, I guess I can look at it two ways. No, it doesn’t worry me and then if it did worry me, I qualified third. So I’d find a way to not let it worry me (laughs). It’s an amazing stat that it is that, but I don’t think it means much.

“For me, the tires were fine. It seemed like the more you ran on the tires, the faster the tire was, for some reason. It’s usually the other way around. But the stability and comfort in the tire, they made some good changes in that department, and the speeds were certainly up. I hope that we have some fall-off in the tire over the course of a run and we don’t have two-tire pit stops take place during the race. In order to get the car comfortable and secure, there is usually a sacrifice somewhere. And it looks like there will be a lot of two-tire strategy being played in the race. But they did a good job. I think the tire was comfortable and balanced and tomorrow we’ll know more once we get race runs on it and how durable the tire is but all indications are showing a good tire right now.”

ON THE BUMPS IN THE FIRST COUPLE OF CORNERS
“Today is the worst situation for that with all the tape on the noses of the cars. You have max down force and traveling as far as you will the whole weekend as far as the speeds with the wheel travel and stuff. So today it was tough. That’s was probably one of my biggest problems. I was trying to find the balance of keeping the car off the track, plus keeping it low. And I feel like if there was one area we could have worked a little harder on today it could have been there. The balance of the car everywhere else was really good. I just couldn’t carry the entry speed in to Turn 1 like I needed to because of the bumps. And on the lap tracker, that’s where I lost the bulk of my time to the No. 18 car. The bumps are there but I like the bumps. I don’t think that’s a problem where they need to go off and change that stuff. It gives us something to do and to work on and put your shock engineers into their sweet spot to do some work and the crew chiefs and the drivers and things like that. So I like the fact that the track has some bumps and it developing its character.”

WHAT WAS THE FINISHING ORDER OUT AT THE DUNES?
“We didn’t have any official races, but shocking enough as it is, I think Kyle proved once again that he is probably the craziest one out there. And damn good. He was doing some stuff with the buggy that I’m not sure I’d do with a quad. He had some pretty big jumps and some great wheelies and stuff. But if you haven’t been out to the sand dunes to drive around on these cars and the stuff that they have these days, it’s unbelievable. And some of the buggies have over 1200 horsepower in them. You can do a wheelie at 100 mph, uphill. It’s unbelievable. There was a big group of guys. Casey Mears was out there. Matt Crafton, Robby Gordon, Gilliland was out, the Busch brothers, myself; it looked like a racing series was going to start out there in four-wheelers and stuff (laughter).”

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), one of the world’s largest automakers, was founded in 1908, and today manufactures cars and trucks in 34 countries.  With its global headquarters in Detroit, GM employs 244,500 people in every major region of the world, and sells and services vehicles in some 140 countries.  In 2008, GM sold 8.35 million cars and trucks globally under the following brands:  Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall and Wuling.  GM’s largest national market is the United States, followed by China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia and Germany.  GM’s OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services.  More information on GM can be found at www.gm.com.

GM Racing Communications, Press Release