Jason Cannon Commerce preview

Cannon hopes to have the 'hot' car in Atlanta

COMMERCE, Ga. - The hotter it gets, the bigger the smile on defending NHRA Division 2 Top Alcohol Dragster Champion Jason Cannon's face. Going into this weekend's Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in a town nicknamed 'Hotlanta,' Cannon and his Caps Coach & Trailer/InsideTopAlcohol.com team hope to turn the heat up on the competition this weekend.

Cannon, who helps his father Phil run the family's boat dealership, Caps Marine Center in Middleburg, Fla., hopes the hot weather and high altitude will help slow the A/Fuelers down this weekend.

"Hot weather definitely plays into our hand," said Cannon. "There's a few teams out there that know how to run strong when its hot, namely [Bill] Reichert. Hopefully the heat will make it a little trickier for them. We kind of like it when it gets a little hot and greasy."

Cannon and Crew Chief Will Hanna plan to use the same consistency approach that netted them a semifinal finish at the O'Reilly Spring Nationals in Houston last month.

"We're going to try to find whatever the track lets us have, and lock it down there," stated Hanna. "We're going to play with a few things we found in Houston, but once eliminations come around, we're going to just make the car a bracket car and get down the track. Me and Jason both have to stay disciplined to not hop it up when we know better. We got our hand slapped when we shook our brains out in the semi's in Houston. We won't be reaching our hands in the clutch jar this weekend."

Team owner Phil Cannon intends to base the team's strategy for the year around the hot weather.

"We have to make hay while the sun shines, both literally and figuratively," explained Cannon. "You just can't run with those A/Fuelers in good air and good tracks. It's hard enough when it's hot. So we're going to try to hit this race, Columbus and Englishtown since they are all during the summer. We have a couple of Division 2 races in the summer as well, and Indy is a 50/50 shot of being hot or cool. You won't see us racing too much besides our Division 2 stuff in the fall unless we make the All-Stars. We'll just take it one run at a time, and see where the chips fall."

Qualifying begins on Friday for the alcohol cars with two sessions. Qualifying concludes Saturday afternoon, and eliminations will begin with first round Saturday evening. Final eliminations will conclude the event on Sunday. Stay tuned to InsideTopAlcohol.com for the latest news in alcohol racing.

"We learned some things this weekend," said Cannon. "We're looking forward to using them in Atlanta. We'll have our normal crew back, so we should be good to go."

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