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SONOMA, post-race: Doug Herbert and the Snap-on Tools Racing team endured a bump in the road in their effort to turn things around in Sonoma on Sunday. After qualifying for his second straight race with new tuners Jim Brissette and John Smith, Herbert was eliminated in the first round at the FRAM Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
Sunday featured the third straight day of beautiful weather at the picturesque Northern California facility. Herbert began the day by participating in a special morning autograph session in front of the main grandstands along with a host of other NHRA drivers. Then it was time to prepare for eliminations.
Herbert entered race day from the No. 13 position after posting a 4.695 elapsed time during qualifying. His first round opponent was Rod Fuller, the second time the pair have raced each other this season. Both cars left the starting line together but Fuller pulled away to take the win with a 4.612 at 324.44 mph to Herbert's back peddling 5.022 at 264.34 mph.
The Snap-on Tools team is gathering valuable data to work with after each run as they continue to build a new tuning log book. The team has basically started from scratch since the departure of Herbert's former crew chief after the Denver race two weeks ago.
"The performance of the Snap-on Tools dragster right now is just not acceptable," said Herbert. "We're going to put our nose to the grindstone and work as hard as we can until we can get out the hole we've dug for ourselves. It's not entirely my fault or the team's, but we're the one's that have to work our way back out of it. The Snap-on Tools team is too good to lose in the first round. We owe more than that to Snap-on and all of our associate sponsors and fans. We won't stop working until we've turned things around."
Herbert bows out early in Sonoma
SONOMA, post-race: Doug Herbert and the Snap-on Tools Racing team endured a bump in the road in their effort to turn things around in Sonoma on Sunday. After qualifying for his second straight race with new tuners Jim Brissette and John Smith, Herbert was eliminated in the first round at the FRAM Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway.
Sunday featured the third straight day of beautiful weather at the picturesque Northern California facility. Herbert began the day by participating in a special morning autograph session in front of the main grandstands along with a host of other NHRA drivers. Then it was time to prepare for eliminations.
Herbert entered race day from the No. 13 position after posting a 4.695 elapsed time during qualifying. His first round opponent was Rod Fuller, the second time the pair have raced each other this season. Both cars left the starting line together but Fuller pulled away to take the win with a 4.612 at 324.44 mph to Herbert's back peddling 5.022 at 264.34 mph.
The Snap-on Tools team is gathering valuable data to work with after each run as they continue to build a new tuning log book. The team has basically started from scratch since the departure of Herbert's former crew chief after the Denver race two weeks ago.
"The performance of the Snap-on Tools dragster right now is just not acceptable," said Herbert. "We're going to put our nose to the grindstone and work as hard as we can until we can get out the hole we've dug for ourselves. It's not entirely my fault or the team's, but we're the one's that have to work our way back out of it. The Snap-on Tools team is too good to lose in the first round. We owe more than that to Snap-on and all of our associate sponsors and fans. We won't stop working until we've turned things around."
