Reading: Dave Connoly final summary

Connolly Loses Close Decision in Opening Round
Eight-Thousandths of Second Separate Connolly and Morgan

READING, Pa., Sept. 18, 2005 -- Dave Connolly shook his head and said, "That wasn't what we were looking for," following his narrow loss to Larry Morgan in the opening round of Sunday's Toyo Tires Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.

"We caught Larry at the wrong time," added the driver of the SKULL GEAR Pro Stock Chevrolet Cobalt. "He was ready for us. We missed our tune-up down low and that cost us."

There wasn't much difference at the finish line because both cars ran 6.741 seconds, Connolly at 205.01 mph and Morgan at 204.82 mph. The difference here was at the starting line, a place where Connolly usually excels. Morgan had a .013-second reaction time to Connolly's .021.

"We missed our tune-up down low and that cost us," added Connolly. "We made improvements this weekend and our motors ran pretty good. We were hurt on Saturday when we broke two valve springs in the motor on what was the best qualifying session of the weekend. We likely wouldn't have qualified ninth and would've had lane choice in the first round."

"The track was probably the best it's been all weekend," said crew chief Terry Adams. "I just missed the tune-up in first gear."

The team moves to the Texas Motorplex at Ennis, Texas, next week for the O'Reilly Fall Nationals, Sept. 23-25. It's a race Connolly won a year ago.

-dcr-