Las Vegas II: David Baca Friday notes

BACA DRIVES MATCO TOOLS RAIL TO NO. 2 SPOT FRIDAY AT THE STRIP

LAS VEGAS (Oct. 26, 2007) -- David Baca didn't miss a beat Friday afternoon at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The recently-named driver of the Matco Tools dragster raced his David Powers-owned rail to the provisional No. 2 qualifying position Friday evening at the fall Las Vegas race.

In his first pass in a Top Fuel dragster in nearly a full calendar year, Baca looked like a seasoned pro as he paced the 23-car Top Fuel field in Friday's first qualifying session. The veteran racer used a tune-up from crew chief Lee Beard to blast the Matco Tools rail to the top of the pack with a run of 4.532 seconds at 326.79 mph. On his second effort of the day, the three-time NHRA Top Fuel finalist raced the Matco rail to pass of 4.547 at 304.46 to finish second in the 16-car order.

"I don't mean to sound redundant, but I'm very fortunate to be part of this great race team," Baca said. "We're living large here working with Lee Beard and this Matco Tools team. The first pass was exhilarating. It's like riding a bike I guess. We were hoping to take the top spot back from Tony (Schumacher), but we'll go out there and hopefully have a good, clean track on Saturday. Hot Rod (Fuller) is in, so things are good."

Professional qualifying continues Saturday at 1 and 3:30 p.m. (PT) at The Strip at LVMS. ESPN2 will televise two hours of qualifying highlights from the ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals at 10 p.m. (ET) on Oct. 27.

-credit: dpm