[coverattach=1]Tim Wilkerson's Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang smoked the tires on its first pass at Atlanta Dragway, leaving him in the bundled group of "also ran" drivers who were not in the top 12 after the session, but he and the LRS team bounced back with a solid performance during the second qualifying session to earn the 6th spot overnight. Wilkerson ran a 5.137 at 301.47 mph to leapfrog a large number of other competitors in his move up the ladder.
"The conditions are really good, and the track is good, but you'd be making a mistake if you thought it was just a 'hammer down' kind of deal out there," Wilkerson said. "You can't just throw everything you have at it, and some really good teams either haven't made it or haven't made it as well as they'd like to. We were over-center a little on the first one, which we never really want to be, but we came back out for Q2 and straightened it out. Just to be in the top half after Friday is always a good thing.
"The forecast for tomorrow is pretty close to what we had today, so if it does happen that way you'll still have a chance to go out there and do some good. We run a lot earlier tomorrow, though, not late in the day like we did today, so the track temp might be up a bit. With our position, we'd just like to stay right in the ballpark with most of the other top-half teams, and protect our spot up here. You never know, but lane choice can be pretty important sometimes, and it's always better to have it than give it up."
"The conditions are really good, and the track is good, but you'd be making a mistake if you thought it was just a 'hammer down' kind of deal out there," Wilkerson said. "You can't just throw everything you have at it, and some really good teams either haven't made it or haven't made it as well as they'd like to. We were over-center a little on the first one, which we never really want to be, but we came back out for Q2 and straightened it out. Just to be in the top half after Friday is always a good thing.
"The forecast for tomorrow is pretty close to what we had today, so if it does happen that way you'll still have a chance to go out there and do some good. We run a lot earlier tomorrow, though, not late in the day like we did today, so the track temp might be up a bit. With our position, we'd just like to stay right in the ballpark with most of the other top-half teams, and protect our spot up here. You never know, but lane choice can be pretty important sometimes, and it's always better to have it than give it up."
