Phoenix: Bob Tasca III Friday rain notes

RAIN WASHES OUT FIRST DAY OF FUNNY CAR QUALIFYING AT FIREBIRD

CHANDLER, Ariz. -- Bob Tasca III and the rest of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center Shelby Mustang team will have to wait another day before getting a chance to qualify into their second nitro Funny Car race of the season as rain cancelled the first day of qualifying at Firebird International Raceway.

"This is racing," said Tasca of the rain. "As you go race to race throughout the year, you get these types of conditions where you're waiting around and just waiting for the rain to go away. Fortunately for this weekend, tomorrow and Sunday look good as far as the weather."

As a result of Friday's runs being cancelled, teams will only have two chances on Saturday to make it into Sunday's show.

"It puts quite a bit of pressure on the crew chiefs because now you have two runs to try to get in instead of four. You basically have one opportunity to make a mistake. There's no rubber on the track, so tomorrow will be a challenging day. The good thing is that we're all in the same boat; everyone's facing the same obstacles that we are."

"We run after the dragsters tomorrow, so that will give us an opportunity to get some rubber down and then we'll see how we go. We came off of Pomona with a great running racecar and I'm optimistic that we're going to come out tomorrow and do well."

-credit: tasca/motorcraft