Jimmie Johnson's Daytona Diary: Monday

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Finally, the rain cleared and the Winston Cup Series was able to qualify for the Daytona 500. Jimmie Johnson didn't quite back up last year's pole-winning effort, but was plenty content with the 16th-fastest time.

He'll start eighth in the second Gatorade 125-mile qualifying race Thursday at DIS.

Monday, February 11

8:15 a.m -- Woke up and saw that it was raining ... still.

8:20 a.m. -- Worked out

9:30 a.m. -- Started getting ready for the day

10 a.m. -- Watched some television to catch up on the goings-on in the news.

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"I wanted to catch the news and see how things are going with Iraq."

10:30 a.m. -- Left for the track

10:50 a.m. -- Arrived at the motor coach and chatted with my dad

11:30 a.m. - 1 p.m. -- Photo shoot for FOX at the airport

"It was not your typical photo shoot, we had a lot of fun. We taught Chris Long with FOX how to stair dive, it was pretty funny."

1:05 p.m. -- Returned to the motor coach

1:15 p.m. -- Went into the garage to chat with Chad and the team.

2:15 p.m. -- Qualifying begins

3:15 p.m. -- Got into my fire suit

"We didn't qualify until 43rd, so I had some time before I needed to get ready."

3:40 p.m. -- Walked out to pit road

3:40 - 4:00 p.m. -- Did live interviews with MRN and FOX on pit road

4:05 p.m. -- Completed my qualifying laps

"We ended up 16th overall and the Lowe's team is pretty happy with that. We know that we have a great Chevy that can run well in the back and has the Hendrick horsepower to get us to the front. We'll start eighth in the second Gatorade 125 on Thursday."

4:15 p.m. -- Did an interview with Michael Waltrip for this season's EA Sports' NASCAR game.

4:20 p.m. -- Changed into my street clothes.

4:35 p.m. -- Returned to the motor coach and relaxed

"I played some new EA games, listened to the CDs that I bought on Sunday and started watching a DVD to kill time before I had an MRN interview at Daytona USA."

8 p.m. -- Drove to Daytona USA for my MRN interview

8:10 p.m. -- Arrived at Daytona USA for the interview

8:15 - 8:20 p.m. -- Signed autographs for fans

8:20 - 8:40 p.m. -- Interview with MRN

8:40 - 8:50 p.m. -- Signed autographs for fans

8:55 p.m. -- Drove back to the condo

9:15 p.m. -- Arrived at the condo

9:15 - 11 p.m. -- Chilled out

"I just relaxed at the condo. I watched a replay of qualifying on SPEED and spoke with friends and family before a fell asleep on the coach.

11 p.m. -- Bedtime