Topeka: Doug Herbert Saturday summary

HERBERT FRUSTRATED IN HEARTLAND PARK

Topeka, Kan. (June 2, 2007) Doug Herbert and the Snap-on Tools Top Fuel team weathered a frustrating weekend at the 19th annual NHRA Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka.

With intermittent rain showers preventing the second qualifying session on Friday, Herbert went into Saturday's qualifying session sitting in the No. 17 spot after a single pass down the quarter-mile.

Saturday brought improved weather conditions, but the track at Heartland Park Topeka remained tricky.

The frustration felt over the course of the entire qualifying session only worsened as Herbert and the Snap-on Tools dragster missed the 16 car field by a narrow margin.

"We obviously didn't run like we wanted to," said Herbert. "We're going to fix it. We know the car can run better than this because it has run better than this. We are going to make sure all the gremlins are out by Chicago.

"Snap-on will have a big presence in Chicago next weekend, and we want to make sure we show them what we can do. We'll spend this week making sure that happens, no doubt about it."

-credit: dhr