Madison: Gary Densham Friday summary

Densham already ahead of the game in St. Louis

MADISON, Ill. (June 24, 2005) -- Gary Densham drove to the No. 9 spot in qualifying Friday at Gateway International Raceway. Densham turned in a 4.912-second pass at 312.06 mph in his Racebricks.com Chevy Monte Carlo during the first of two days of qualifying for the Sears Craftsman NHRA Nationals.

Densham was the No. 1 qualifier at this race in 2003 but now has a new team, new car and a learning curve to go with the new setup. They may not be the No. 1 qualifier right now, but crew chief Greg Amaral said the team is off to a good start after one day.

"We are already in a better position than we were last week and this gives us a great baseline to use for tomorrow's qualifying," Amaral said. "We ran better than we thought we were going to and who knows what can happen in the heat of the day (Saturday). I still like the data we have and our qualifying position with two rounds left this weekend."

This is the only three-day night race on the schedule. Pro qualifying for the Sears Craftsman NHRA Nationals continues at 5 and 8 p.m. on Saturday. Final eliminations start at 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

All of the action can be seen in high definition on ESPN2 starting with qualifying between 12 -- 1 a.m. (ET) Sunday. NHRA 2Day will air at 11:30 a.m. (ET) Sunday followed by the final elimination show at 9 p.m. (ET).

-gs-