Indianapolis: Shelly Howard Sunday notes

CLERMONT, Ind. - In one of the biggest matchups of the year in Federal Mogul Dragster, Shelly Howard defeated Brandon Bernstein in the first round of this year's Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Entering this race, both ...

CLERMONT, Ind. - In one of the biggest matchups of the year in Federal Mogul Dragster, Shelly Howard defeated Brandon Bernstein in the first round of this year's Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Entering this race, both drivers needed wins to keep their national championship aspirations alive.

Howard, from Tulsa, Okla., took the starting line advantage and never looked back. Howard streaked away to a 5.475 second elapsed time at 256.94 mph. Bernstein followed closely with 5.517 at 255.10 mph.

"We just went out there and tried to run our own race," said Howard.  "We
were worried because the air was better.  We ran at 9:15 in the morning, and
it had really different air compared to all of the qualifying rounds.  We
knew that the A/Fuel cars would be able to step up in those conditions.  I
knew I had to run my own race and cut a half way decent light.  That's all we
could hope for.  We don't have any control of what the other teams do."

Tomorrow, final eliminations will conclude the event, starting with the second round for the Federal Mogul Dragsters. Stay tuned to InsideFMRacing.com for the latest Federal Mogul news from Indy.