Indianapolis: Jim Yates Sunday summary

Yates Falls One-thousandth of Second Short of Indy Starting Line-up

It's tough bringing a new partner to the biggest dance of the year. Jim Yates found out the hard way Sunday when his new Sea Ray Boats/B&W/Wiley-X Eyewear Pontiac GTO missed the starting 16 for Monday's 51st annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park by the slimmest of margins.

Only one-thousandth of a second separated No. 17 Yates from No. 16 Bruce Allen -- 6.757 seconds to 6.758 seconds.

"This is NHRA's biggest race of the year and it's a tough race to debut a new car," said Yates.

With that said, Yates noted the car's performance picked up considerably on Sunday's two runs. "It just took time to figure out what the car needs," said the driver from Occoquan, Va. "We were in the top six in speed and elapsed time on the last two runs. If we'd been able to make one of those runs Friday or Saturday night, we'd be racing on Monday."

"We only had seven runs on the chassis when we got to IRP. We are thoroughly excited about our new GTO. It's a great car to drive and has a good aerodynamic package. We just got behind."

"I feel bad for Carlton Phillips and Bob Bagley of Sea Ray Boats and Prince William (Va.) Marina. We wanted to be flying the patriotic red, white and blue paint scheme on Labor Day but it just didn't work out."

-jyr