Gainesville: David Baca final summary

Baca No. 6 in POWERade Top Fuel point standings

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - On the strength of a quarterfinal round appearance, David Baca, from Brentwood, Calif., remained in the sixth position in the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel point standings with 158 points.

Baca qualified the American Racing/ 3-A- Day of Dairy/Dairy Farmers of Oregon dragster No. 8. In today's opening round, Baca's elapsed time of 4.756 seconds turned back Rhonda Hartman-Smith, who recorded a 9.098 second run.

In the quarterfinals, Baca and his opponent, David Grubnic, who qualified No.1, had a tire-smoking duel. Grubnic recovered first and took the win light.

"This was a tricky track," said Baca. "The new surface gave all the crew chiefs trouble. I'm sure that next year, after a little rubber is put on the track, you will see the times and speed that have been the hallmark of Gainesville Raceway return. We just missed the set up in that second round and so did Grubnic. He just recovered first. We'll move onto Las Vegas."

The next event for David Baca and the Henkelman & Baca Motorsports team is the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, April 1-4.

-b&b-