Commerce: Jerry Toliver preview

Jerry Toliver Expects More Good Times From ROCKSTAR Energy Drink Toyota at Atlanta

Call Jerry Toliver's return to NHRA Funny Car racing at Las Vegas almost two weeks ago a dress rehearsal. The real deal, he says, comes Friday when qualifying begins for the Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.

"We are really excited about going to this race," said the driver of the ROCKSTAR Energy Drink Toyota Solar. "We feel like we had a great outing at Las Vegas. Even though we didn't qualify, we had a good lap (4.859 seconds at 298.40 mph), and that's all we could really ask for.

"It was a mad scramble to get to the starting line Friday night at Las Vegas, but it paid off. At that point, all we wanted to do was get down the race track, get a good (tuning) baseline and go on from there."

At the time of his run, Toliver was 15th overall but he was later bumped to 18th and out of the top 16.

The ROCKSTAR crew spent the next eight days "getting everything together," added Toliver, of Temecula, Calif. "We needed the time between races. Our new tractor arrived and a lot of the tools came in. We will be much more rested and much better prepared going into this race than we were at Vegas.

A five-time national-event winner, Toliver is coming back following a two-year hiatus, and he coaxed renowned crew chief Dale Armstrong out of retirement to make the tuning calls.

"We are very pleased with what happened and we look forward to big things in Atlanta," Toliver said. "We have our act together."

Southern Nationals qualifying is scheduled for 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. Friday and 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Eliminations begin at 11 a.m. Sunday.

-credit: jtr