Brainerd: Dave Connolly final summary

Dave Connolly Sidelined Early at Lucas Oil Nationals

BRAINERD, Minn. - Dave Connolly knew what he needed to do in his first-round Pro Stock race against Greg Anderson Sunday in the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway. The only problem was that he was two-thousandths of a second too soon.

The foul start in the right lane -- which wasn't the preferred lane -- automatically sent Connolly to the sidelines and ended a frustrating weekend for the driver from Elyria, Ohio. With his SKULL GEAR Chevrolet Cobalt suffering from a power shortage, Connolly qualified 15th with a best of 6.741 seconds at 204.57 mph while Anderson started second (6.700 at 206.35 mph). Anderson, meanwhile, was timed in 6.707 seconds at 206.26 mph in the opening round.

Connolly claimed his first Pro Stock victory here a year ago.

"I took a shot at the tree," said Connolly. "Greg's been running good and I figured it could be a close race, but I had to have a double-0 (reaction time) light. That's not the way it panned out and he made a good run."

He did have a .002 light, but it was on the minus side.

Only one Pro Stock driver won his first-round race in the right lane as all drivers who had lane choice took the left lane in each round.

"We were in the bad lane and we had a bad finish," was the succinct comment from crew chief Terry Adams, who's looking forward to next week's race at Memphis. "We did well there last year (a runner-up finish) and we hope to do well again next Sunday."

Connolly maintain fifth in POWERade Series points with 733.

-jls-