Memphis: Dave Connolly Saturday notes

Torco Racing Fuels Cobalt Driver Qualifies at 6.601 Seconds

MEMPHIS, Sept. 15, 2007 -- Neither of Dave Connolly's Saturday qualifying runs were perfect, but he nonetheless was confident he and Evan Knoll's Torco Racing Fuels Pro Stock Chevy Cobalt team will be ready for Sunday's O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park.

Connolly, on the strength of his last two wins, leads the POWERade Series by 14 points. Connolly will be seeking his third straight victory in the second of four Countdown to Four events. His wins have come at Reading, Pa., and Indianapolis.

He added elapsed times of 6.601 and 6.602 seconds Saturday, the lower one holding up for the No. 4 starting berth. He races Craig Hankinson (13th, 6.646 at 207.46) in the first round.

"We never made a perfect run Saturday," Connolly said. "The car moved to the left, but we were low for the last session in the right lane" with the 6.602. But I feel confident Tommy (Utt, crew chief) will pick up the pace Sunday. We definitely have a good car and I have to stay on my game. We made some mistakes figuring out the race track, but that's why we get four qualifying runs to tune the car to the track.

-credit: ekr