Joliet: Tony Bartone Saturday summary

BARTONE RUNS CAREER BEST TIME IN CHI-TOWN -- 4.761 SECONDS

JOLIET, Ill. (June 10) -- Tony Bartone celebrated his 50th birthday in grand style at the ninth annual CarQuest Auto Parts Nationals at Route 66 Raceway while driving the Jim Dunn-owned Lucas Oil Monte Carlo Funny Car. Did he not only better his best elapsed time of his storied career, but also reset it again on the same day by lowering it to time of now 4.761 seconds from his former best of 4.781 seconds, set earlier this year at the ACDelco Gatornationals in March.

On his first pass of 4.772 seconds, he eclipsed the clocks at a massive and new career best speed of 325.92 mph.

The veteran campaigner from Manhasset, N.Y. had a positive feeling going into the event and the results clearly show his good fortune.

"It's been a very good 50th birthday for myself and a great weekend for our Lucas Oil team," said Bartone. "We ran a career best 4.77 E.T. in our opening round of qualifying followed by another career best of 4.76 seconds. It's been a great way to spend my birthday.

"Not only are we running quickly, but we're also consistent, which is very important in drag racing. We were on a very good run a couple of weeks ago in Columbus, Oh. up until we broke a valve. What Jim (Dunn) did was use the information from that run and tickled that tune up a little. We thought it would work and put us in a very good direction."

That places Bartone and the Jim Dunn-led Lucas Oil team in the 10th position in the 16-car Funny Car lineup where he will race in the opening round of eliminations, 13-time NHRA Champion, John Force.

Eliminations start promptly at 11 a.m. (CDT) and will air on a taped-delay basis on ESPN2 at 5 p.m. EDT.

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