Memphis Chevy Elimination Notes and Quotes

CHEVROLET NOTES AND QUOTES AUTOZONE NATIONALS NHRA WINSTON DRAG RACING SERIES MEMPHIS MOTORPORTS PARK SUNDAY, OCT. 10, 1999

PRO STOCK TRUCK -- CHEVY S-10 PICKUP -- ELIMINATIONS

JERRY HAAS, driving VINNY BARONE'S CHEVY S-10 this weekend, was defeated by JOHN LINGENFELTER, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVY S-10, in the first round, when a spark plug broke in the 356 cu. in. Chevy V8 engine. Lingenfelter won with a 7.681-second lap at 176.79 mph to Haas' 9.466/103.45. The highlight of the match-up for Haas was his .444 reaction time to Lingenfelter's .450. Jerry has been struggling to record good reaction times all year.

HAAS: "I'm pumped up, I'm ready for Dallas now. Yesterday I worked on the tree to try a few different things. People have given me different information to help me at the light and none of it helped. I've always said, only you can help yourself. I worked on it. I didn't even try and it was a .490. We didn't make another round last night so I said OK we'll come back today and try it agian. I guess I had myelf out of whack at the tree. I went up there and let the cutch pedal out and had a .444 light against John's .450. I went about 10 feet and the S-10 dropped the No. 1 cylinder. We found the end of the spark plug broke. I only had seven cylinders. I stayed with it, but it was surging so bad. I knew it had an engine problem, and I saw him get by me in my side vision and I just shut it off. I can't wait to get to Dallas and put Ol' Betsy, the orange Chevy S-10, in the winner's circle. She's done kicked the stalls down wanting to get out. I have been trying way too hard on the reaction times. I tried everything except what Jerry Haas wanted to try. This weekend I decided to try my own strategy, but we will see when we get to Dallas. We will have a new Jenkins engine there and I'm pumped up."

No. 1 qualifier BOB PANELLA JR., PANELLA MOTORSPORTS CHEVY S-10, had his pole position/win streak dashed today when BRAD JETER, JETER RACING CHEVY S-10, eliminated him on a holeshot advantage in the semifinal with a 7.604-second pass at 176.30 mph to Panella's 7.582/177.21. (.411 reaction time for Jeter, .457 for Panella).

PANELLA: IS YOUR STREAK BROKEN?: "I hope not for long. Pretty much I just got spanked. I guess I had an average light and he had an awesome light, and the way this deal is anymore, it wasn't good enough." ON LANE CHOICE: "He had lane choice, but I don't think it mattered. The Safety Safari did an excellent job fixing those lanes, I didn't think it made any difference. Fortunately, it wasn't an issue. The other pair (Randy Daniels and Mike Coughlin) both had 7.59s side by side. I'm happy, we gained a little more in points on (Mark) Osborne. Hopefully (Randy) Daniels can take care of Jeter for me and leave me a little bit of a cushion. If I do my job a few more times it's looking good." ON THAT RUN AGAINST JETER: "Obviously I knew he was going to go for broke. Usually when he and I race it's always the best race of the day, I just came up on the short end of the stick. I kind of had a little problem all weekend cutting good lights, had them tuned up a little better the last couple of rounds, but it wsn't quite enough."