Bristol: Brandon Bernstein final summary

Brandon Bernstein Outruns David Baca at Bristol

BRISTOL, Tenn. - At a time when his Baca Motorsports Top Fuel dragster needed four qualifying runs to help iron out a few tune-up glitches, heavy rain doused Bristol Dragway and David Baca made only one run.

He grabbed the 16th starting position for Sunday's O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals with a traction-troubled 10.802-second effort between rain showers on a soggy Saturday.

The sun came out and made for good racing on Sunday, but Baca couldn't shake first-round foe Brandon Bernstein or his dragster's persistent lack of traction early in the run.

"We still have a problem in the clutch area," said Dennis Baca, David's father and co-tuner of the car. "Don't ask any questions because we don't have any answers."

"Losing three qualifying runs surely didn't help our situation," added David. "We are a better team than what we're showing. This has been very frustrating, but we are going to work until we solve the problem. There's no quit in this dog."

The Brentwood, Calif.-based team returns to POWERade Series competition at Atlanta, May 13-15.

-jls-