St. Louis: Bob Tasca III Saturday notes

TASCA EARNS NO. 9 SPOT WITH CAREER BEST RUN; WILL FACE WORSHAM FIRST ROUND MADISON, Ill. (May 3, 2008) -- With great conditions on Saturday, Bob Tasca III put down a career-best run for the second day in a row, grabbing the No. 9 qualifying ...

TASCA EARNS NO. 9 SPOT WITH CAREER BEST RUN; WILL FACE WORSHAM FIRST ROUND

MADISON, Ill. (May 3, 2008) -- With great conditions on Saturday, Bob Tasca III put down a career-best run for the second day in a row, grabbing the No. 9 qualifying position for Sunday's NHRA Midwest Nationals at Gateway International Raceway.

"The car has just built so much confidence for our team," said Tasca. "It just makes you feel like you're up for the fight, and that's the kind of attitude that you need going into Sunday. You've gotta be on your game; the crew guys, the driver and the crew chief."

Tasca will face Del Worsham for the first time of his career on Sunday, with a crew behind him that is very familiar with the rookie driver's competition.

"Going against Worsham tomorrow is going to be kind of neat for everyone on my team," said Tasca. "Chris Cunningham [crew chief] and a lot of my guys worked over there on Del's second team last year, so after I was able to run my best friend in Atlanta, their running one of their best friends first round tomorrow. That's a big part of what this sport is all about; there's a lot of camaraderie. But no matter what, you want to go out there and win."

Very happy with his four solid qualifying runs down the quarter-mile track, the driver of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane/Ford Custom Accessories Shelby Mustang looks forward to going rounds on Sunday in his first race at the St. Louis track.

"When you come off two days the way we have, with a career best run for me this morning with a 4.79, I'm just ready to race. I wish that we could race right now. I've looked at my reaction times, I've looked at how I'm handling the car and now I'm even more aware of what's going on with the car and the track than I was even a few races ago. But that's part of my learning curve. I'm getting more and more comfortable, and I'm ready. Let's go race."

Tasca's start in Sunday's 12th annual O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals presented by Castrol will be the sixth start of Tasca's nitro Funny Car career.