Charlotte: Doug Herbert final report

Despite Loss in Finals, Weekend a Success for Herbert

Competing Monday in the final round of the rain-delayed Inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals, the IRWIN Tools Top Fuel dragster lost in the final round of eliminations after a broken linkage caused the car to slow before the eighth-mile mark. It was Herbert's 29th career final round appearance.

"It would have been great to win the final today but we still did pretty well," said Herbert, who plans to compete in a few other races in 2010. "It's unfortunate that the throttle cable broke on us but I think it was a huge success for us to get to the final."

During the first round of eliminations Herbert ran a 3.936 to beat Terry McMillen and Dave Grubnic. After fixing some small tune-up problems, the IRWIN Tools dragster clocked its quickest pass of the weekend during the second round to outdo Shawn Langdon and Larry Dixon.

In the finals Herbert was matched against Doug Kalitta, Cory McClenathan and Antron Brown, who he raced three times during eliminations. McClenathan, who took the win with a 3.820, was followed closely by Kalitta, who ran a 3.825 to score a runner-up finish.

"We pulled a crew together for this race and they all worked really hard. I couldn't ask for a better group of guys," said Scott Gaddy, who made his first final round appearance as a Crew Chief. "We all really enjoyed working with the guys from IRWIN Tools. I just want to thank them for getting behind us."

"It was great to debut the IRWIN Tools car for the Four-Wide action at my hometown track," said Herbert, who also spent the weekend promoting his nonprofit organization B.R.A.K.E.S. "It was the first race for a lot of the IRWIN Tools guys and they had fun. They were really amazed at how accessible the drivers and teams are for the fans. It was fun for me to show them how exciting this sport is and I'm glad we'll be working together more."

-source: dougherbert.com