The first of six races in NHRA's Countdown to 1 playoffs, the NHRA Carolinas Nationals, was completed today at zMAX Dragway. In a first-round match-up with Force Racing's Robert Hight, Jerry Toliver and the Jim Dunn Racing team matched its qualifying numbers but that wasn't enough to get past Hight. He went on to defeat Matt Hagan in the Funny Car finals.
"We ran our exact time from qualifying but that wasn't quite good enough against Robert," Toliver said. "That team showed they had a good hot rod by going on and winning the race. Overall I thought the CANIDAE car ran pretty good this weekend. It definitely ran more consistent and is responding to the changes Big Jim (team owner/crew chief Dunn) is making."
Toliver entered eliminations as the No. 14 qualifier in a tight Funny Car field, qualifying the CANIDAE/Lucas Oil/WileyX Chevy with an elapsed time of 4.148 seconds at 301.74 mph to earn No. 3 qualifier Hight as a first-round opponent. In today's first round, Toliver ran a 4.147 elapsed time at 304.46 mph to Hight's winning 4.105 e.t. at 308.99 mph. Only four other drivers topped Toliver's speed in the first round.
"This is probably the most consistent the CANIDAE car has run all season," Toliver said. "Now we just need to pump up the performance a little bit and see if we can't go some rounds and win a race in these last five races."
The next stop on the 24-race NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series is the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals on Sept. 14-27 at the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas, the second of six races in the NHRA Countdown to 1 for the 2009 Full Throttle Series championship.
Kirk Weeks
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