Indianapolis: Jay Meyer Saturday notes

CLERMONT, Ind. - After a bizarre starting line incident kept him from making a run yesterday, NHRA Federal Mogul Dragster driver Jay Meyer qualified fourth for this weekend's Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park, during today's last qualifying session.

Meyer, from Freeport, Texas, stepped up to an elapsed time of 5.500 seconds at 254.33 mph to place him fourth in the 16 car field. Meyer concedes his run was far from perfect however, and feels there is much room for improvement.

"We had it hopped up too much, trying to rotate the earth," said Meyer. "It smoked the tires, then started shaking. I short shifted it, it got through second [gear] pretty good, and felt like it was running pretty good in high gear, but it looked like on the computer it was slipping the clutch pretty bad. But now we have something to go off of after losing that second qualifier."

In tomorrow morning's first round, Meyer will face No. 13 qualifier Bill McCornack.

"We're in there pretty solid, and we know we can make it go quicker," stated Meyer. "We probably lost at least a tenth smoking the tires. We got something for tomorrow, though."

-JMR