NHRA

Brainerd: Shelly Howard preview

Howard looking for repeat success in Brainerd BRAINERD, Minn. - One year ago, NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster driver Shelly Howard came within one round of winning her fourth career national event at Brainerd International Raceway. As the NHRA Lucas ...

Published: Aug 17, 2003, 2:18 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Howard looking for repeat success in Brainerd

BRAINERD, Minn. - One year ago, NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster driver Shelly Howard came within one round of winning her fourth career national event at Brainerd International Raceway. As the NHRA Lucas Oil tour heads back into Minnesota for this year's Lucas Oil Nationals, Howard and her team hope to return to a national event final round, and ultimately, get win No. 4.

Howard, a registered nurse from Tulsa, Okla., knows the task at hand will be difficult, in fact more difficult than last year, she cites. In last year's final, she was defeated by World Champion Art Gallant's A/Fuel Dragster, who ran a string of 5.30's to take the win. This year Howard feels the A/Fuelers will be even tougher to deal with.

"We go to every race hoping to win," said Howard. "But this year it has been pretty disheartening. You're really just hoping they [A/Fuelers] just mess up this year. If they don't mess up, shake, or drop a cylinder you're pretty much done in a blown car. I have all the faith in the world in my tuner Tom Conway, but with the current rules, there's only so much you can do with a blown car. We just hope to do the best we can for our sponsors Valvoline, NGK, InsideTopAlcohol.com, St. Moritz Machine and Broken Arrow Powder Coating."

Howard comes into the event fresh off a semifinal finish at the Division 5 Lucas Oil Series event in Scribner, Neb.

"Even though I redlighted in the semifinals in Nebraska, this is a new race for us, so it's behind us," Howard commented. "As a driver you just have to put stuff like that behind you and concentrate on the race at hand. That's what I plan on doing this weekend."

Qualifying begins on Friday for the alcohol cars with two qualifying sessions. Qualifying will conclude Saturday morning with one final session followed by first round of eliminations that afternoon. Final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday. Stay tuned to InsideTopAlcohol.com for the latest news in alcohol racing."

Choose the oil top racers like Shelly Howard use.  Racers who know choose
Valvoline.  Find out more at Valvoline.com

Choose the spark plugs that power racers like Shelly Howard to victory. NGK spark plugs will power you to victory.

Log on to InsideTopAlcohol.com for the latest news in alcohol racing.

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article IRL: Hornish bags Kentucky pole

Next article Bobby Labonte on Michigan pole

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

3 h

Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors

Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

4 h

Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss

IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 4 h

IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing

Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

4 h

Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts