CANIDAE Team Concludes Challenging Four-Race Stretch at Virginia NHRA Nationals

A four-races-in-four-weeks stretch concludes for NHRA teams with this weekend's Fourth annual Virginia NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park, and Funny Car driver Jerry Toliver and the Jim Dunn Racing look to finish the arduous stretch on a high note.

Toliver had a late-season surge in the CANIDAE car interrupted last weekend at Memphis, but the affable Californian is confident the team can bounce back here at Richmond. He has qualified the CANIDAE/Lucas Oil/WileyX Chevy in the top-half of the Funny Car field in two of the last four races including a season-best third at Dallas. The Jim Dunn Racing team also had its best day of eliminations on the season at the Texas Motorplex when Toliver defeated Memphis winner Jeff Arend in the first round and Bob Tasca III in the second round before losing to Jack Beckman in the semifinals.

"We made a solid 4.18 pass right off the truck at Memphis, but then the car just didn't want to go down the track," Toliver said. "Every run after that the car just shook the tires off before it even got to the 'tree'. Big Jim (team owner/crew chief Dunn) just couldn't tune it out no matter which way he went which is really surprising the way this CANIDAE car had been running. He had the car in a tuning window where it was really responding to the changes he was making and was making real consistent runs.

"That just shows you how temperamental these 7,000-horsepower beasts can be. It seems like the weather this time of year in Richmond always produces great racing conditions so we look forward to getting this CANIDAE hot rod back on track. Our goals are still the same for these last few races; try and win as many rounds as we can and hopefully get a race win, at it starts this weekend at Richmond."

A two-hour telecast of qualifying coverage for the Virginia NHRA Nationals can be seen on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD on Saturday, Oct. 10, beginning at 10:30 p.m. (ET). Coverage on ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD continues on Sunday, Oct. 11, 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 7:00 p.m. (ET).

Kirk Weeks