DALLAS (Sept. 21) - Owens Corning Pro Stock driver Rodger Brogdon understands the Texas heat because he's a native of the Houston area, but he is more than willing to battle the heat and humidity one more day after falling out of the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals on Sunday at Texas Motorplex.
A perplexing engine issue hampered Brogdon's efforts, with computer data showing the powerplant in Brogdon's Camaro shut off ever so briefly during his first-round run against Erica Enders-Stevens. So Brogdon and his team will stay another day in Dallas to test their Owens Corning Camaro.
"We can't put it in the trailer and go to St. Louis like this," Brogdon said. "We need to make some runs and figure it out. We'll regroup, fix the problems, and be better in St. Louis. That's the plan."
Brogdon qualified No. 11 this weekend in his return to Elite Motorsports horsepower. That could've been higher, but the mysterious electrical problem cropped up in the fourth qualifying session Saturday.
Then against Enders-Stevens on Sunday, Brogdon made a pass of 6.646 seconds at 209.49 mph while she got to the finish line first on a 6.574-second pass at 210.44 mph.
"It cut out halfway through second gear and all the way through third," Brogdon said. "It shuts off and sputters. We don't know what's wrong with it."
But that wasn't the only problem Brogdon had Sunday. The parachutes didn't properly deploy, and he had to fight to bring his race car to a stop. Fortunately, Texas Motorplex has a long shutdown area, so it wasn't a major issue.
"We had a long way to stop," Brogdon said. "We don't know why they weren't working. It seems like nothing is working. This was just one of those weekends where not much went right."
