Toliver Looks to Bounce Back at Atlanta

Despite a temporary set-back at Las Vegas when he was bumped in the final qualifying session and failed to make the 16-car Funny Car field for the first time this season, Jerry Toliver is confident his CANIDAE Racing team can get back on track at this weekend's 29th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway on April 16-19.

"Las Vegas was just a bad, bad weekend all the way around," Toliver said.  "We went in there with a lot of confidence in how we were improving the car, but we just had a bad weekend and ended up hurting a lot of parts.  We were fortunate that there was an off weekend between races, so the team had a chance to regroup before heading to Atlanta.

   

"But you're going to have a weekend like that over the course of a 24-race season, so we just have to put that one in the rearview mirror and keep marching forward starting with the race this weekend at Atlanta."

  

Starting the season as a new driver of the CANIDAE/Lucas Oil Chevy Funny Car with a new, untested Murf McKinney chassis, potential performance results, especially early in the year, were relatively unknown.  After qualifying for the season-opener at Pomona on a one-lap flyer due to weather conditions, Toliver qualified a season-best 10th at Phoenix, had his best race weekend to date with his first round-win of the season at Gainesville, and despite a close, side-by-side loss in the first round at Houston to No. 2 qualifier Del Worsham, Toliver qualified for his fourth consecutive race to start the season.  

Now he looks to start a new streak starting with Friday's first qualifying session; Toliver was a No. 1 qualifier at Atlanta Dragway in 2001.          

"Atlanta Dragway is a nice track and we're looking forward to a successful weekend there," Toliver said.  "Big Jim (team owner/crew chief Dunn) and the guys are working hard at this thing and that's all you can ask for."

A two-hour telecast of qualifying coverage for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals can be seen on ESPN2 on Saturday, April 18, beginning at 6:00 p.m. (ET).  Coverage on ESPN2 continues on Sunday, April 19, when NHRA Race Day will kick off eliminator coverage starting at 11:00 a.m. (ET), and concludes with three hours of final eliminations coverage beginning at 7:00 p.m. (ET).

Kirk Weeks