Atlanta: Team Haas preview

underway today at the Advance Auto Parts Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway near Atlanta. Jerry Haas, from Fenton, Mo., is hoping to turn around the Team Haas fortunes at this the fifth of 14 Pro Stock Truck events on the 2001 NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series schedule.

"Anything that could go wrong has gone wrong in the first four events," said Haas. "If it hasn't been mechanical gremlins, then we have missed the set up or mental lapses have prevented us from getting full performance from our Bill 'Grumpy' Jenkins built engines. Fortunately, on the good side, if there is a good side, it's only been a lot of little things. Things that we can correct. And we plan to correct everything here at Atlanta and get our program back on track. We plan to put the brakes on and redirect our focus. We're going to go in reverse, so to speak."

With assistance from GM Racing, Ace Clutches and G-Force Transmissions, Team Haas, owned by renowned chassis builder Jerry Haas, fields two identically prepared Chevy S-10 Pro Stock Trucks on the NHRA Winston Championship Drag Racing Series. One (in team terms): the white truck, is driven by second year Pro Stock Truck driver Charlie Greco, from St. Davids, Penn. The other, the orange truck, is piloted by rookie driver Matt Rhoades, from Lake Havasu City, Ariz.

Rhoades removed some of his rookie stripes, when he qualified for his first professional NHRA national event at the SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Both Greco and Rhoades will be vying for one of the 16 spots opening to the 16 fastest qualifiers. Qualifying for the Advance Auto Parts Southern Nationals for all professional classes will start this afternoon with two sessions and concludes on Saturday with two additional sessions. Final eliminations begin at 11 a.m. (ET) on Sunday.

If you can't attend the Advance Auto Parts Southern Nationals in person, be sure to catch all the action on television:

Saturday, May 5:  ESPN2  Qualifying Highlights    4:30-6:30 p.m. (ET)
Sunday, May 6:    ESPN2   Final Round Action     5-7 p.m. (ET)

-TH