Reading: Mark Whisnant Saturday summary

Whisnant number 3 in Keystone State.

READING, Pa. -- Mark Whisnant, driver of the RW Performance Chevrolet Cavalier, will enter eliminations at the 18th Annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals hold the third position on the Pro Stock eliminations ladder.

It was in the second session, of qualifying that Whisnant drove his Cavalier to a 6.830 / 201.49 mph to secure his Number 3 birth. In round 1 of eliminations, Whisnant will be paired against Number 14 qualifier Greg Anderson.

"I feel very good about the race tomorrow," said Whisnant. "The car is just were we want it. My crew has worked very hard to make everything right on this car, and it shows. They gave me a great racecar. I think if I had not been out of shape in the night session, we probably could have qualified higher, but Number 3 is a good place to start.

"It is true. If you can qualify for one of these things, you can win the race. Qualifying is half the battle. Now that we are in, we need to concentrate on getting past the first round. We used the last session today to prepare for the race, because Anderson is going to be hard to get past.

"I feel pretty good about the race tomorrow. If we can get past Anderson, we will have a good chance of going to another final. We have found our way to the final round twice before. We know how to get there. Now we are going to give it everything we have to close the deal."

Eliminations at the 18th Annual Lucas Oils NHRA Nationals begins at 11:00 AM EST on Sunday Sept. 15.

-mwr-