Pre race quotes - Jimmie Johnson.

Jimmie Johnson enters this weekend's Mountain Dew Southern 500 at the Darlington Raceway with a three-point lead over fellow Raybestos Rookie of the Year contender Ryan Newman despite finishing 34th in last Saturday's Sharpie 500 at Bristol.

The driver of the No.48 Lowe's Home Improvements Chevrolet dropped to fifth in the overall NASCAR Winston Cup points chase, 145 points behind leader Sterling Marlin and will be hoping to at least match his sixth place finish at Darlington earlier this season.

Jimmie Johnson "I think the veterans have an upper hand on the Raybestos(R) Rookies at Darlington and Rockingham. They've been there enough times to know how to budget their tires at the beginning of a run and how much they can slide them around and beat up on them and still be fast at the end of a run.

"I've been there for three years now and in the spring there in the Winston Cup car I had a great run. I finally understood how hard I could push it at the beginning and still have something left at the end of run. I think it will actually favour a veteran especially with how many quirks that Darlington has and the ways to get around there. I think it plays into the veterans hands."

HOW HARD IS IT TO LEARN TO RACE AND RACE WELL AT DARLINGTON?

JJ "It's hard because your margin for error is real small. There's not a lot of room. The groove is real narrow and there are some really tight spots, especially off of turn two if you do something wrong you run out of racetrack in a hurry and you end up in a wreck. It's a very challenging racetrack."

HOW MUCH WILL HEAT BE A FACTOR AT DARLINGTON?

JJ "I thought Indy was warm but I still felt fine at the end of the race. At Darlington, you have a lot more going on inside the car plus with the heat, I'm sure it will be a tough day."