Toliver will be Close to Home for FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals

Like a lot of his fellow NHRA drag racing peers, CANIDAE/Lucas Oil Funny Car driver Jerry Toliver was born and raised in Southern California. This weekend's 15th stop on the 24-race NHRA Full Throttle Series, the 22nd annual FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway just north of San Francisco, is in state and will almost be a "home" game for him and his California based sponsor CANIDAE All Natural Pet Foods. Major associate sponsor WileyX is also based in California just outside of Oakland in Livermore.

"Historically, I haven't done that well at the Sonoma race," Toliver said. "In 2000 we suffered our only DNQ of the season there and it was just devastating. (John) Force passed me for the points lead that weekend and we never did recover and he went on to win the championship (Toliver finished a career-best 3rd in points). But I like Sonoma, it's beautiful up there and close to home, but on the track I've got some making up to do. Maybe I've got some equity built up in the luck bank and it will pay out this weekend.

"It's going to be hot which really puts us right there on par with the rest of the field. I think the hot tracks really favor us because of the difficulty getting down them. Jim (team owner/crew chief Dunn) seems to have a pretty good handle on that and seems to be able to go A to B, so I think we have as good a shot as anybody. One of our sponsors, WileyX, its headquarters are in Livermore which is fairly close to the track, so we'll have some of them out during the weekend, and the CANIDAE folks are coming up, too, so hopefully we can put on a good show for them."

Toliver lost a close first-round match-up with Bob Tasca last week at Seattle and is anxious to get back on the quarter-mile at Infineon Raceway. Both drivers saw the performance of their cars fall off, but Tasca had an elapsed time of 4.498 seconds at 246.80 mph to edge Toliver's 4.535 e.t. at 205.85 mph.

"I didn't see Tasca and I saw the finish line coming up and I thought, 'Okay, here we go, we got the win,' but then it let go," Toliver said. "I coasted and didn't see him and then right at the end he went by me. Oh well. I think it's good we're getting right back on the track without a layoff. I'm still wound up and want to get back out there and win some rounds. We were close last week, let's get back out there and let's do it again."

A two-hour telecast of qualifying coverage for the FRAM-Autolite NHRA Northwest Nationals can be seen on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD on Saturday, July 25, beginning at 6:00 p.m. (ET). Coverage on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD continues on Sunday, July 26, when NHRA Race Day kicks off eliminator coverage starting at 11:00 am (ET), and concludes with three hours of final-eliminations coverage beginning at 9:00 p.m. (ET).