Las Vegas II: Doug Herbert preview

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 20, 2003 - The catch phrase in the "Jerry Maguire" was "Show me the money."

Top Fuel driver Doug Herbert has one now, too. It is, "Show me the time slip." Herbert has been hoping to see impressive time slips since Wes Cerny began making changes to the Snap-on Racing dragster's combination.

"Wes has been fixing things and making parts changes to improve the car's performance so I'm ready to see that improvement," said Herbert. "We only have two races to go this year and we'd like to put up some good numbers now."

Cerny's first opportunity comes at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Oct. 24-26, during the ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals.

Herbert was low qualifier at this event last year and advanced to the semifinals. That would be a welcome showing; it's been quite a few races since he's won two elimination rounds on race day.

Herbert finished second at Bristol, Tenn., in April and was fourth in points. Since then the team has been on a roller-coast ride of ups and downs.

He's ninth (871 points) now but there is still an opportunity he could move up to seventh, a position currently held by Kenny Bernstein at 881 points. John Smith is eighth with 876.

"We've only had a couple good time slips lately and we could use a few more," Herbert said. "It would only take a couple of good time slips to help us all out. It would really be a morale boost for the guys on the crew who have been working hard to get us in the winner's circle."

"Now that is some place I'd really like to visit before the end of the season."

Time is short. Only the Auto Club Finals at Pomona, Calif., Nov. 6-9, remains after this event.

"Maybe when Wes gets the combination working like it should we'll be running in the 4.40s, too," said Herbert, whose best time is 4.518 seconds.

Some of the answers will be forthcoming Friday when qualifying gets underway with sessions at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. Saturday's sessions will be at 12:30 and 3:30 p.m. and Sunday's eliminations start at 11 a.m.

"Wins This Car" Finalists to Be Announced

Herbert will reveal the names of the three finalists in his "Win This Car" promotion Sunday. The finalists will receive expense-paid trips to Pomona, Calif., site of the Auto Club Finals, Nov. 9, and one of them will take home Herbert's Snap-on dragster.

The crew will make the car race-ready before turning it over to the winner.

Herbert said there were "thousands of entries" in this unique give-away. "The car, motor, tires and all the parts on it cost approximately $200,000 new," added Herbert, who, besides racing professionally, owns and operates a performance parts warehouse business in Cherryville, N.C.