Lee Callaway Indianapolis summary

Callaway makes career showing in Indy.

CLERMONT, Ind. - NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster driver Lee Callaway had the best showing of his career during this past weekend's Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, the biggest race in all of drag racing. Callaway was defeated in the quarterfinals, but qualified No. 4 in the quickest field in the history of the class.

Just to qualify was an accomplishment for the team from Baytown, Texas. Callaway was the final car to run in the last session, and was not qualified at the time. Callaway was able to pull through with a career-best 5.452 second elapsed time at 258.52 mph to jump all the way to the No. 4 spot of the history-making field.

In round one, Callaway took out a tire-smoking Bill Reichert with a 5.610 at 253.42 mph. In his second round matchup with former event winner Darren Nicholson, Callaway took a substantial .439 to .470 holeshot, but could not hold off Nicholson's 5.520 at 256.80 mph with his own 5.594 at 254.95 mph.

"This was really a great weekend for the team," said Callaway. "To come up here to Indy and do as well as we did means a lot to us. I really have to thank Tom Conway and Ora Vasquez. The tuning help they have given me this year is what has got us this far. We also saw an improvement in our speed with Chuck Haase's newest wing. Everyone on the crew did a great job, and what it boils down to is that I just need to drive the car a little harder."

Callaway and his team will head straight into their next event, the Division 5 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Tri-State Raceway in Earlville, Iowa. There Callaway, who is currently in second place in Division 4 standings, will be looking to gain ground on current leader Nick Copeland.

"We really need to go up there and do well," stated Callaway. "We still have a shot at the division championship, so it's all coming down to the wire. We're going to give it our best shot."

-cr-