NHRA

Seattle: Dave Connolly Saturday notes

Connolly maintains hold on top qualifying spot at Seattle SEATTLE, July 19, 2008 -- The weather changed Saturday, with sun replacing cooler clouds, but Dave Connolly stayed in the No. 1 Pro Stock starting position for Sunday's Schuck's Auto ...

Published: Jul 20, 2008, 12:14 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Connolly maintains hold on top qualifying spot at Seattle

SEATTLE, July 19, 2008 -- The weather changed Saturday, with sun replacing cooler clouds, but Dave Connolly stayed in the No. 1 Pro Stock starting position for Sunday's Schuck's Auto Supply Nationals at Pacific Raceways.

Connolly, in pursuit of a coveted place in the POWERade Series top 10, drove the Cagnazzi Racing Charter Communications/LifeLock Chevy Cobalt to his quickest quarter-mile run of 6.573 seconds Friday night and that number was unbeatable Saturday. His last two passes were 6.650 and 6.629 seconds as veteran crew chief Tommy Utt dialed in what they hope will be a winning combination for eliminations.

"We are trying to get in the top 10 Countdown and every point is critical because we only have five races before they make the first cut to 10," said Connolly, "and we hope to be a part of that. To go out and pick up the No. 1 spot and get those extra eight points means a lot to us.

"We'll see what happens tomorrow, though. Sunday is our most important day. Each round counts for 20 points. We are playing catch up now and we have our work cut out for us. By the way things are going this weekend; we just hope to continue making good runs."

Connolly's showing came at the right time. He lost in the first round at Denver last week.

"What a difference a week makes," he said. "From last week to this week, our performance is a lot better and team morale is a lot higher now."

Connolly hopes the warm weather continues for at least one more day.

"Basically, our last run was all about race day setup," he pointed out. "It looks like the weather could get a little warmer for us. Tommy is usually tough on a hot track. Hopefully it's a beautiful sunny day for us tomorrow and we can go four rounds."

Connolly is 53 points out of 10th place. He races Ben Watson, the 16th qualifier, 6.725 seconds at 203.89 mph, in the opening round.

-credit: vcr

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Seattle: Antron Brown Saturday notes

Next article DC's "Ain't No Sunshine" (thus far)

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

Joe Gibbs Racing moves to resolve one portion of Spire countersuit

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup 2 h

Joe Gibbs Racing moves to resolve one portion of Spire countersuit

Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

11 h

Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors

Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

12 h

Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss

IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing

IndyCar

Indy IndyCar 12 h

IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts