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Memphis TN (8/19/06) -- Wilkerson made a good run and a troubled run in his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo today in the steamy heat at the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park. And at the close of qualifying, Wilkerson sits in the No. 14 spot.
On the first qualifying pass, Wilkerson smoked the tires around 300 feet and coasted across the finish line at 9.539 at 88.65 mph. On the last qualifying attempt, Wilkerson made his best run of the weekend, even though he pulled his foot early and posted a 4.996 at 273.88.
"We have a different power range with this set-up," said Wilkerson, " and it's going to take some getting used to. It's a lot more wicked than our old one was and I can't get it calmed down enough. It needs to be calmed down for this hot, hot weather. I thought it was on our last pass but it was still plenty aggressive. And then it didn't wear any clutch so it didn't run in the middle the way it should. I had to shut it off early. It put a hole out and I bent the steering wheel trying to steer it, so I shut the throttle. If I hadn't, I would have hit the thousand-foot and mph cone. I was going to run them over. But that's all behind us and now we need to concentrate on tomorrow."
In the first-round tomorrow, Wilkerson will face the No. 3 qualifier, John Force.
"I'm optimistic that I can make it go tomorrow," said Wilkerson. "I just need to make it weak enough so it goes and then try to make it run in the middle. We've got to run Force in the heat of the day and he made his best run in the heat. So, all we can do is go out there and try to go from a to b, and hope that he screws up."
Wilkerson was able to take out the No. 2 qualifier last weekend in Brainerd, so maybe he'll beat the odds for the second week in a row.
Wilkerson sits in the No. 14 qualifying position.
Memphis TN (8/19/06) -- Wilkerson made a good run and a troubled run in his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo today in the steamy heat at the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park. And at the close of qualifying, Wilkerson sits in the No. 14 spot.
On the first qualifying pass, Wilkerson smoked the tires around 300 feet and coasted across the finish line at 9.539 at 88.65 mph. On the last qualifying attempt, Wilkerson made his best run of the weekend, even though he pulled his foot early and posted a 4.996 at 273.88.
"We have a different power range with this set-up," said Wilkerson, " and it's going to take some getting used to. It's a lot more wicked than our old one was and I can't get it calmed down enough. It needs to be calmed down for this hot, hot weather. I thought it was on our last pass but it was still plenty aggressive. And then it didn't wear any clutch so it didn't run in the middle the way it should. I had to shut it off early. It put a hole out and I bent the steering wheel trying to steer it, so I shut the throttle. If I hadn't, I would have hit the thousand-foot and mph cone. I was going to run them over. But that's all behind us and now we need to concentrate on tomorrow."
In the first-round tomorrow, Wilkerson will face the No. 3 qualifier, John Force.
"I'm optimistic that I can make it go tomorrow," said Wilkerson. "I just need to make it weak enough so it goes and then try to make it run in the middle. We've got to run Force in the heat of the day and he made his best run in the heat. So, all we can do is go out there and try to go from a to b, and hope that he screws up."
Wilkerson was able to take out the No. 2 qualifier last weekend in Brainerd, so maybe he'll beat the odds for the second week in a row.
