Bristol: John Connolly Saturday notes

Connolly Rallies Saturday; Starts Sixth at Bristol
Opening Lap of 6.711 Seconds Best Time for Charter Communications Cobalt

BRISTOL, Tenn., May 17, 2008 -- Dave Connolly and the Charter Communications Pro Stock Chevy Cobalt team wasted little time Saturday solidifying a starting position for Sunday's O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway. The 6.711-second elapsed time at 205.54 mph was sixth-quickest when qualifying concluded and sends him against Tom Hammonds (No. 11, 6.730 at 203.77 mph) in the first round.

Connolly was last after failing to get down the track on Friday's first run and crossing the center line and hitting two timing cones on the next run.

But things were brighter Saturday.

"It put a smile on my face when I walked out of the hotel this morning and it wasn't raining," said Connolly. "We were hoping Mother Nature would cooperate with us and give us another shot and she did. And we took advantage of it in the first round. We made a somewhat conservative run . . . just enough to get into the top half of the field.

"We got to try some things in Q4 (the final qualifying session when he ran 6.750 seconds) and we learned some things. We'll have a good race car on Sunday. Maybe we'll be able to get our first win of 2008."

-credit: jcr