Commerce: Jerry Toliver final summary

TOLIVER MAKES EARLY EXIT AT SOUTHERN NATIONALS

COMMERCE, Ga. (April 27, 2008) -- Rockstar Energy Drink Funny Car driver Jerry Toliver went out in the first round of eliminations on Sunday at the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, the sixth round of 24 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series events. Toliver lost a tire-smoking pedaling match against Cruz Pedregon after a pair of rain delays pushed back the start of the Funny Car first round several hours.

It looked as though Toliver would get his first round win of the season when Pedregon's car lost traction early in the run. The Rockstar Dodge Charger R/T, however, also smoked the tires soon after, and Pedregon recovered first to take the win with a 5.572-second elapsed time at 244.34 mph to Toliver's losing 6.774/136.86.

"It's a frustrating experience," said Toliver. "He smoked the tires first and I smoked the tires a little further down the track. Sometimes in a smoke-fest like that it's better to be the one that does it first.

"Bottom line was that the Rockstar Energy Drink Dodge was going right down the middle of the race track and it moved over just a couple of inches and I went to correct it and it hit the bump in the left lane and unloaded. By the time I got it to recover he was sailing by me.

"Like I said before, we need some racing luck. But the Rockstar boys will dig deep and we'll be in St. Louis in a week and get this thing going. We're close."

Toliver is now 17th in the Funny Car point standings.

-credit: dsr