On paper, it would seem that Kurt Johnson and the ACDelco Cobalt Racing team had an uneventful two days in qualifying for the ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals in Las Vegas, NV. After all, their Hulkamania-themed car made four solid attempts, with their 6.749-second, 203.98 mph best earning KJ & Co. the seventh starting position.
However, in speaking to the second-generation racer after the completion of qualifying, it became apparent that their effort was far from routine, as they had to overcome issues with their race car. Despite the prospect of additional mechanical challenges on race day, the team heads into Sunday undaunted about their chances for a third win at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“We made good runs today, but they just weren’t fast enough for me. For some reason, we seem to be down on power. We’re not running as fast as we were at the last few races. We did make a few changes for the last session which might have slowed it down, including running new tires and such, which pulled it out of the groove, but there’s more to it than that.
‘The bottom line is that we’re running 6.74 and the fastest cars are going 6.72, which we can deal with. If we’re within two hundredths, we know we can drive with them. I’ll just have to get pumped up for tomorrow, which shouldn’t be a problem, especially considering we’ll have the Hulkster and everyone from ACDelco out here on our side. Besides, I usually drive better when I’m down, so it’s not such a bad position to be in. We’re just going to have to dig down and show them this ACDelco Cobalt crew’s muscle. ”
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