NHRA

Las Vegas: Mark Pawuk final summary

Pawuk's Pontiac Makes Progress at SummitRacing.com Nationals LAS VEGAS, NV 4/5/04 "The first one's always the hardest," said Mark "Cowboy" Pawuk following his first round victory at the Summitracing.com Nationals, the fourth race of the ...

Edited: Apr 8, 2004, 3:31 AM

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Pawuk's Pontiac Makes Progress at SummitRacing.com Nationals

LAS VEGAS, NV 4/5/04 "The first one's always the hardest," said Mark "Cowboy" Pawuk following his first round victory at the Summitracing.com Nationals, the fourth race of the still-young NHRA POWERade season.

In three previous outings Pawuk had suffered through two DNQs and a first round loss at the CSK Nationals in Phoenix.

"It's been a tough year," Pawuk added, "but every season is tough in Pro Stock, and I wouldn't want it any other way.

"Even though we lost in the second round in Las Vegas, it's obvious to everyone on our Summit Racing team that we're making progress. We made two strong qualifying runs, and if the weather hadn't washed out all of Friday's action, I think we could have run even harder. As it turned out, we qualified in the top half of the field for the first time this year, so I'm convinced we're heading in the right direction. There's no doubt that we've still got a long way to go, but at least we're aimed towards where we want to be, and that's the winners circle."

Although first round opponent Rickie Smith redlighted against him, Pawuk still notched a very credible Reaction Time, and was even quicker in his second round loss to Jason Line, cutting a .039-second R.T. to Line's slower .085-second effort.

"I'm not making any excuses, but I'll tell you what won that race for Jason," said Pawuk. "It was horsepower, plain and simple. He had more than we did, but hopefully, we'll continue to get better with each race. The big gains we're looking for are going to come out of our engine shop, so the pressure's really on those guys to deliver. I'm confident that they're going to continue to make the same kind of positive progress we're making at the track."

-mpr-

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