Joliet: Tom Hammonds preview

TEAM HAMMONDS SEEKS TRACK MAGIC THE WEEKEND

(HOLT, Fla., June 4, 2008) - Team Hammonds is looking to find the track magic they had in Bristol, Tenn. at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals this upcoming weekend.

Taking a step back last weekend at the NHRA Summer Nationals in Topeka, Kan. by not qualifying was a disappointment for the team, where they placed 17th just outside the qualifying field. Through disappointment a tough lesson was learned based on Hammonds' pre-race call.

Hammonds, who is also pulling triple duty serving as crew chief, made a critical change right before the competition that was not assessed in test sessions. He explains that decisions such as these are critical and can come back to bite you.

"We are coming off of a little disappointment in Topeka, because basically I made a decision, which was the wrong decision and ultimately cost our team a chance to qualify. So, we learned from that mistake and now we know once we come to a NHRA race, we never, ever, ever go into a situation where we change anything on the car," said a confident Tom Hammonds, driver/owner of No. 20 Chevy Cobalt.

In 2007 the track magic allowed the team to fair well, qualifying on the bump and beating the number one qualifier to advance to the second round of eliminations. To surpass last year's outcome, Team Hammonds will monitor atmospheric conditions and weather conditions to settle on set-ups for a baseline run for the first run and fine tune from there.

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