Paul Jones Sunday pit notes

Western Stabilization Racing
Edgecomb Racing/ Redline Oil

Jones advances to round 2

CLERMONT, Ind. - NHRA Federal Mogul Dragster rookie Paul Jones won his first round race at this weekend's Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. Jones used his best run of the race thus far to put away fellow rookie driver Jason Cannon.

Jones, from Stockton, Calif., ran an elapsed time of 5.446 seconds at 257.14 mph in the Western Stabilization/Redline Oil Blown Alcohol Dragster. Cannon smoked the tires and shut off to a 9.584 at 99.30 mph.

"Everything went real well," said Jones. "It rolled in a little quicker than I wanted. I think we need to put a little more air gap in the clutch. I had a .480 light to his .495 light. It went out, didn't shake, didn't rattle, I hit the shifts right on the shift light, and it went right on down the middle to a 5.44 at 258 [mph]."

In tomorrow's second round, Jones will face A/Fuel powerhouse Keith Stark, who ran low e.t. and top speed of the race in round one with a 5.32 at 265 mph. Jones feels the warmer conditions they will face tomorrow will give him a better chance to upset Stark.

"The nice thing about tomorrow, the fuel cars are going to run first," explained Jones. "That kind of gives us an idea of what the track is doing. We'll know from what the cars are running if the track is there or not there. It not so much of us adjusting to different conditions, its a matter of how much the track can hold. We don't want to go out there and overpower the track. The A/Fuel cars are a little less fortunate when the weather conditions heat up. We're real confident that we can go out there and still run in the .40's. We'll just go out there and try to do our job and make him beat us."

Final eliminations will conclude the event tomorrow. Stay tuned to InsideFMRacing.com for the latest news from Indy.

-WSR-