VANDERGRIFF BEGINS ELIMINATIONS FROM No. 15
2006 NHRA POWERade DRAG RACING SERIES Round 4 of 23 O'REILLY NHRA SPRING NATIONALS Houston Raceway Race Date: March 31-April 2, 2006 VANDERGRIFF BEGINS ELIMINATIONS FROM No. 15 Baytown, TX., (April 1)- Bob Vandergriff Jr. is looking at starting his third race of the season from the No. 15 position on the 23 race NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series. Vandergriff, fresh off a career best 4.52 second run at the NHRA Gatornationals two weeks ago, struggled a bit in the hot, humid Texas climate. The Alpharetta, GA. Based UPS team ran a 4.665 second pass in the final qualifying round to move into the 15th slot, drawing opponent Doug Kalitta in the opening stanza. "We are a bit disappointed after such a good performance in Gainesville," Vandergriff said. "We thought we'd do a lot better than we have. We need more runs and more information. What we thought was going to work didn't. We need to find out why it didn't. We've only had 10 runs to the finish line so far this season. That's not a lot. We're taking information and making educated guesses. Add to that the curve ball with the new tire (the Goodyear 2420) we are struggling with it since it doesn't seem to react like the old tire. During elimination's we'll try and make a good guess and try and figure out what caused it to do what it did and win a round and keep going." Crew chief Jim Dupuy recognizes that so far it has been a struggle. "We are trying to figure out what the car likes," explains Dupuy. "We haven't gotten there yet. It keeps getting better though. Hopefully we can improve on that in the first round against Kalitta. The new tire seems to require a lot of finessing in the one-second to 1.2 second range. It's really finicky." Sundays eliminations begin at 11 AM and will be telived on ESPN2 beginning at 4 PM E.D.T. # # # Ken Sklute Vandergriff Motorsports Public Relations KenSklute@mac.com 602.738.0601 www.RacersEdgePhotography.com