Herrera to drive Holbrook's #8H

By Richard Day

COLUMBUS, OH (April 2) -- Johnny Herrera couldn't stay away from the Pennzoil World of Outlaws Series for long. After leaving DOCC Motorsports in early March and working on his new home in Gilbert, AZ, for several weeks, Herrera will return to sprint car racing's premier series in Junior Holbrook's #8H Maxim at Houston Raceway Park's Second Annual Texas Shootout Friday and Saturday. TNN: The National Network will televise Friday's race live.

	Johnny Herrera. Photo: WoO

"Junior called me right after Craig (Cormack) and I split up, but I told him I wanted to take a couple of weeks off to think about things and work on my home," Herrera said Monday. "I was frustrated. If you're not having any fun (racing), you better not do it ... and I wasn't having any. "I don't know if Junior's team is going to be any different, but we're going to give it a shot. He called me and we talked a long time and we decided to go racing together. I think it's going to be a better situation than I was in before." Herrera, who won the Pennzoil World of Outlaws Series' 2000 season opener at Kings Speedway, drove DOCC Motorsports' #20 Eagle Raceway Eagle into 17th place there February 23rd. The 1986 Rookie of the Year finished 22nd in the J.D. Byrider Silver State Shootout at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and left the team after running 18th in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Spring Nationals at Devil's Bowl Speedway March 10th. Terry McCarl drove the #8H in five Pennzoil World of Outlaws Series events. In his best performance, the defending Knoxville Raceway champion raced into fourth place from outside the fifth row at State Fair Motor Speedway in Sedalia, MO. "We're going to run the World of Outlaws Gumout Series," Holbrook said. "That's all I can do right now. I want to race for a points championship of some kind. We'll run as many Pennzoil World of Outlaws Series races as we can. We really can't start out as far in the hole as we are and salvage anything out of the season if we race with the big series. We've missed too many races already. We can still go and win the Gumout Series championship and have a good year."

-WoO