Commerce: Gary Densham final summary

Densham's demeanor takes a detour

COMMERCE, Ga. --Funny Car driver Gary Densham is known for his broad smile. No matter the situation, Densham is usually all teeth. But proving he's human, the Racebricks-sponsored Pro, whose mantra is "any day at the racetrack is better than any day at a real job," actually lost his cool for a minute after losing a gimme first-round race against Tommy Johnson Jr. at the 25th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals.

"I don't get mad very often but I'm mad right now," Densham said. "We had a good car this weekend and the motor was totally happy in the first round but for some reason we had no driveshaft speed. It's really disappointing because we've been moving in the right direction the last few races and we had another good qualifying session."

Johnson was a sitting duck. His 5.603 at 267.64 mph was the second slowest winning elapsed time in the entire session. Only Gary Scelzi's fire-belching 7.425 was slower. But Densham's car just wouldn't move, laboring down the quarter-mile in a pedestrian 10.069 seconds at 95.46 mph.

"Those are the rounds you have to win and we didn't get it done," Densham said. "I don't think anyone is to blame. We need to figure out why this happened so we can prevent it from happening again but I just think it was one of those freak deals that pop up every once in awhile.

"We really want to get a win for Marty Yacoobian (CEO of Racebricks Collectables) and put this Racebricks Chevrolet Monte Carlo in the winner's circle. He's put his heart and soul into this deal and I want to see him happy. The good thing is he's with us most of the time so he knows how hard we're all trying."

Densham won't have long to mope as the POWERade Drag Racing Series returns to action in just five days with the 41st annual Pontiac Performance NHRA Nationals presented by Summit Racing at National Trail Raceway.

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