Las Vegas, November 1, 2014 - Owens Corning Pro Stock driver Rodger Brogdon hasn't made a perfect run during qualifying for the NHRA Toyota Nationals this weekend at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but he's not worried.
Brogdon came into final eliminations at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., three weeks ago in a similar fashion. And what did he do there? Won the race.
"Basically, we're going in tomorrow the same way we were the Sunday at Reading by not making our best run yet," Brogdon said. "It's less of a difference this time. We'll save our best for our first run tomorrow and build off that."
Brogdon will go for his second victory in a row from the No. 9 position after a top qualifying effort of 6.627 seconds at 209.36 mph. He made a 6.627-second pass in both the third and fourth qualifying sessions, but his Q3 run was the official time because of a faster speed.
"We haven't made a good run yet to be honest with you, or at least what we consider a good run," Brogdon said. "We seem to be leaving a hundredth and a half on the table somewhere that we should be able to get."
Brogdon was on a quicker pass in the final session but didn't complete the back half of the run the way he wanted.
"We just made a hell of a run to the 330 but then lost 2 mph for some reason," Brogdon said. "We might have broken a valve spring or something but it wasn't making any noise. I know I tried to shut off but I didn't think I shut it off that early. We'll just have to look at it and figure out what it is."
Brogdon squares off against No. 8 qualifier Vincent Nobile in the first round Sunday. Nobile's best pass was 6.616 seconds at 208.65 mph, but Brogdon hopes to go even quicker.
"We can't go .57 (like No. 1 qualifier Erica Enders-Stevens) but we should be able to go .60," Brogdon said. "We'll see what happens and get it figured out for tomorrow."
Eliminations for the Pro Stock class will begin at noon. ESPN2 will carry all of the action.
