Daytona Updates

Thursday - Qualifying

Qualifying for the NASCAR trucks began at 6:30 p.m. The temperature was a tad better than their morning practice - a chilly 48 degrees.

There were 42 trucks attempting to qualify. Twenty two drivers were locked into the field. The remaining 20 drivers had to qualify on time or use a champion's provisional. Johnny was in good company - Included in the 20 driver's were Kyle Busch, Ron Hornaday, JJ Yeley and Dennis Setzer.

The top stories of the day included - Benson and Musgrave returning to the Truck Series .. Can the #46 and #95 survive their practice wreck to make the field on Friday night.

They covered the wreck several times during the qualifying session. The SPEED camera men did a good job of showing us the #95 and #46 and all the hard work that Danny Gill and his team did to repair the trucks.

They even showed Johnny getting buckled in to run his lap.

Johnny went out 28th. Luckily, the camera was focused on him during his lap ... Showed the incident this morning ... Finally the excitement from Rick assured the JB fans that Johnny would be locked into the race!

His first lap put him in the 10th position. He increased speed on his 2nd lap and was 7th on the board with a time of 51.164 at a speed of 175.905. He eventually landed in the 9th position when it was all said and done.

Kudo's to teammate Dennis Setzer who qualified 14th with a time of 51.278 at a speed of 175.514.

They interviewed Johnny after his qualifying lap and he was very pleased to be locked into the race - along with his teammate. (Side note: Ron Hornaday made it clear in his interview that he was happy Johnny made it too)

Welcome back, Johnny! You are right - it's been a long road to recovery since qualifying a NASCAR truck. Thanks to all of your doctor's - you have not lost your touch!

One goal accomplished - make the race ... On to the next goal - finish the race!

A couple of things .... In Johnny's interview after qualifying - it wasn't clear on whether he was racing at Atlanta (as he was quoted in the Scenedaily article). I will need to check with him .... How many times can Denny Hamlin say - who doesn't love love? Five times if you were watching Truck qualifying on SPEED ... And as much as I love Michael Waltrip - I'm exhausted trying to keep up with his conversation!

Thursday - Practice

The NASCAR Trucks took to the track at 9:00 a.m. for a two hour practice session. The temperature at 9:00 am was a cool and brisk 38 degrees.

Today was the day to concentrate on drafting. Johnny first run in the pack included drivers Skinner, Peters, Lofton, Dillon and Musgrave. Johnny started at the back of the pack and moved his way to the front. He then traveled to the back. Sorting his way through the pack to find the lines needed.

Times posted are the reflection of how the pack is running. Johnny's times after the pack run placed him in the top ten. Those times quickly slid as another drafting pack hit the track.

In another drafting session, the television coverage focused on Johnny. The white #46 that was following him closely was his teammate Dennis Setzer who was in a Dodge. They looked like they was doing well .. Then it was time for another commerical with Denny Hamlin ..

When they came back from commerical - Johnny was sliding down the backstretch - doing a fantastic job of keeping it on all 4 wheels. It was an unfortunate accident as the #33 tapped Johnny sending him into Setzer forcing them both to spin.

They interviewed Hornaday first ... He said it was his fault. ... They interviewed Johnny as he climbed out of his truck. Per Johnny, he does not have a back-up truck and feels this incident puts them behind the eight ball. He was happy with the handling of the truck prior to the incident.

(Special thanks to SPEED for covering the Trucks. My phone was practically vibrating off the table with my unhappy friends - ha!)

Hornaday walked down to the #95 to check out the damage and to apoligize to Danny Gill - the owner of Johnny's truck and his crew chief.

Johnny let me know ... that they are fixing the truck and he should be ok. As Michael Waltrip mentioned - the best thing Ron can do for Johnny is to qualify in the field - just in case Johnny needs a championship provisional. (I'm thinking that pulling out his back-up truck would be a better gesture - hahaha!)

Setzer's truck is not so lucky. There is damage to the right front fender which needs to be repaired. They had removed the A-frame and was working on the front end suspension.

So ... it could have been a lot worse for Johnny in the practice session.

The best news of the day I received is that Rocky is going to be spotting for Johnny during the race ... The best eyes in the sky as far as I am concerned.

Wednesday - Practice

Practice got underway at 6:00 p.m. for 90 minutes.

Johnny is driving the #95 owned and crew chiefed by Danny Gill. The truck is red with a yellow stripe on the rear quarter panels.

Thanks to Phil Parsons for his shout out to Johnny returning to the truck series.

Johnny made single file runs until the end when he was in the middle of the pack. He was 23rd fastest with a time of 49.434. Todd Bodine topped the chart with a time of 48.332.

There are 42 trucks entered for the race on Friday night.

There are 5 former champions entered - Johnny being one of them.