Bristol: Doug Herbert Saturday report

Herbert Qualifies No. 11 at Thunder Valley

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (June 19, 2010) - Doug Herbert, a six-time winner at Bristol, qualified the Mail Terminal Services "Mail from Home" Program/B.R.A.K.E.S. dragster in the 11th spot at this weekend's NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. In Round 1 of eliminations Herbert will face the No. 6 qualifier Tony Schumacher.

"It was good to be back at the race track," said Herbert. "The fans here at Bristol are wonderful. As they came through the pit I was asking them to send letters to the troops through the Mail Terminal Services 'Mail from Home' Program. I think it's a great way for NHRA fans to show the service men and women stationed overseas how thankful we are for what they do."

Herbert, competing in only his second race of the 2010 season, made a good showing in the first qualifying session Friday. With a 3.994 ET he was qualified fourth. The team planned for an even quicker pass during Friday night's session, but the track wouldn't hold the setup and the car smoked the tires at 400 ft.

Running in the heat during session three on Saturday the Mail from Home Program dragster was, for the second time during the weekend, the fourth quickest of the session with a 4.016 ET.

"It feels good to come back, when we haven't raced in three months, with totally different track and weather conditions and still be able to run with some of the top contenders when other cars have struggled to get down the race track," said Crew Chief Scott Gaddy. "I owe a big thanks to the crew guys that come out for the weekend to help on the car. They make it easy on us, they've been great. Without them we couldn't do it.

-source: doug herbert PR