| | | | | | NO FUN YET | 2x-champ Johnson struggling with new car at California | |
| | By Lee Montgomery / SceneDaily.com Jimmie Johnson won the last Cup series race at California Speedway, but that was in NASCAR's old car, and he and his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports team struggled with the new model during the first day of preseason testing at the track Thursday.
Johnson was only 32nd-fastest among 49 drivers to make laps around the 2-mile track as he and crew chief Chad Knaus struggled to find front grip.
"We haven't had any fun yet," the two-time reigning series champion said. "It's been a pain in the butt, so we're hopeful that after lunch we hit on some things. [The Las Vegas test] was difficult. At the end of it we got on the right track and finally found the speed that we needed for the car and the balance, but we're still searching this morning. And we have had a long morning already."
Johnson said his Chevrolet was "not driving worth a damn."
"If I had the answer, we'd fix it," Johnson said. "We're working hard on it. The car has had a major push in it. It's early. We've got a lot of time to figure stuff out and teammates to lean on now that were on break and try to figure out what's going on."
Johnson said all four Hendrick teams - his and those of Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Casey Mears - would get together and try to find a solution.
"Getting the right height of ... the front of the car has been really difficult, probably the biggest challenge that we've experienced so far," Johnson said. "We had a lot more front down force [with the old car] so we were able to do different things with the car setup. Now we don't have that front down force, so we're trying to learn that balance of how do we get the car balanced aero-wise, then find mechanical grip.
"Where before we knew the aero balance we had - It was kind of a given factor - we knew it, and we just worked on drivability. Now it's kind of the reverse order now. We're trying to find that aero balance and then work on mechanical grip. So it's a little out of sequence of what we're used to. It's a new car, so it's not surprising to me that we're going through all this."
| | Posted February 01, 2008 , 11:09 pm EST
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