Struggles for Stanfield don't dampen
his enthusiasm for race day success
his enthusiasm for race day success
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (March 16) - MAVTV driver Greg Stanfield is experienced enough not to let a trying event affect him, which is a good thing as this weekend's NHRA Gatornationals at Auto-Plus Raceway has been one of those races to test him.
Even so, Stanfield, who qualified No. 13, remains confident his Pro Stock team can turn it around in Sunday's eliminations.
"When you lose two runs in qualifying, it's not good," Stanfield said. "We need a little luck now. It's not our first rodeo. We'll be all right. We'll dig deep and turn the right screws."
Stanfield made his best pass in Friday's first qualifying session, a 6.537 at 211.73 mph, and the team tried to be more aggressive in Q2 but shook the tires of their hot rod.
"We started out pretty decent with the first run," Stanfield said. "The car was pretty soft in that run, so we tried to get a little more aggressive with it but it bit us."
Stanfield also broke a pushrod tip Saturday morning that forced him to be pushed back from the starting line and miss making a run.
"The track changed; it's gotten hotter," said Stanfield, whose Q4 pass was decent, a 6.596 at 209.75 mph, but invaluable. "We made a horrible run in the last session. It shook real bad. Still, we've got something to build off of for tomorrow. We'll make some changes and see if we can close the gap on it.
"We needed that (Q4) run real bad to see where we were at. I was happy with how it ran for the run it made. We probably could have run a .54 pretty easily. We've just got to get that out of it."
Stanfield will face Jeg Coughlin Jr. in the first round of eliminations in a matchup between two of the best drivers in the class. Coughlin qualified No. 4 with a 6.487 at 213.23 mph, and Stanfield knows he'll have to be at his best, though that doesn't change from week to week.
"Same old song; everyone is tough," Stanfield said. "We'll do everything we can do."
Eliminations begin at 11 a.m. ESPN2 will cover the event.
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