Baytown: Dave Connolly final summary

Dave Connolly Advances to Quarterfinals at Spring Nationals

Dave Connolly won his first Pro Stock elimination round of 2006 Sunday at Houston Raceway Park and recorded a quarterfinal finish in the O'Reilly Spring Nationals.

Connolly's first-round foe, Kurt Johnson, experienced mechanical problems that led to a foul start and Connolly drove the SKULL GEAR Chevrolet Cobalt to an elapsed time of 6.734 seconds at 205.29 mph. Eventual race winner Mike Edwards stopped Connolly in the quarterfinals, 6.722 at 206.42 to 6.758 at 205.94.

Crew chief Terry Adams continued working with the chassis to improve the car' s 60 to 330-foot elapsed times. Connolly qualified 12th at 6.726 seconds, 205.66 mph as the team bounced back after not qualifying at Gainesville, Fla., two weeks ago.

"I know we have a good  motor," said Adams, "but we still need to improve
our 60 to 330-foot  times."

"We did have a better time here than we did at Gainesville  because we
qualified," added Connolly.  "But we need to start going rounds  on Sunday."

Adams will continue mulling his tuning options until  Friday when the
Summitracing.com Nationals begins at The Strip at Las Vegas  Motor Speedway.

-jls