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Indy ORP: Doug Herbert preview

With Countdown Position Secured, Herbert is Focused on Indy Doug Herbert and the SnaponFranchise.com Top Fuel Dragster will race in the 54th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals this weekend, Aug. 27 - Sept. 1, at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, ...

Published: Aug 27, 2008, 10:09 PM

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With Countdown Position Secured, Herbert is Focused on Indy

Doug Herbert and the SnaponFranchise.com Top Fuel Dragster will race in the 54th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals this weekend, Aug. 27 - Sept. 1, at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Ind. The annual Labor Day event, which extends into Monday, is the biggest race of the year for the NHRA.

Herbert and the Snap-on team secured their spot in the Countdown to the Championship two weekends ago at Reading. With their playoff berth now guaranteed, this weekend will be a good opportunity for driver and team to focus on the task at hand, winning the U.S. Nationals.

Over recent weeks the Snap-on team has had successful qualifying sessions, scoring a top-five qualifying position at each of the last three events. However, each of those race days has resulted in a first round loss for the group, which looks to end that pattern this weekend in Indianapolis.

Quotes from Herbert:

"This race is always big," said Herbert. "It's been around for a long time and the fact that we race on Monday, on Labor Day, makes it different. It's bigger than any other race on the schedule, it's longer and it's an important win. Winning at Indy just has that extra, 'something special' about it."

The way its set up, with five qualifying sessions and the extra day, means it's important to stay focused when you're at Indy so it's really good that we clinched our spot in the playoffs. That takes the pressure off of worrying about points and allows the whole team to focus on just this race and on winning.

We've made a lot of progress with the car's consistency, which will be important when we reach the playoffs, but we've had some bad luck with smoking the tires on race day. This team could use a shot in the arm right now so I'm hoping we can head up to Indy and turn things around before the playoffs get started in Charlotte.

-credit: dhr

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