Tim Wilkerson Friday report

HARD CHARGE IN SECOND QUALIFIER LANDS WILK 6th

Tim Wilkerson spun the tires just past half-track during the first qualifying session, running in Lane 4 at this special 4-wide event on Friday. With Saturday's weather looking threatening, most teams approached Q2 as potentially the final shot, and Wilk delivered with a strong 4.111 to land in the No. 6 spot overnight. The run was not without drama, as Melanie Troxel (who was running next to Wilk in Q2) had problems at half-track and made a hard move into Wilkerson's lane, luckily passing just behind him. Troxel was able to corral her mount before impacting the wall, but much breath was held for the split second when it appeared the two cars might come together.

"Great second lap for us, and we're pecking away at this car bit by bit," Wilkerson said. "We've just got it so de-tuned early, to make sure it gets out there, but it still wants to make a huge charge and we're trying to get a handle on that. Heck, we ran 307 mph on that lap, and that's really good speed for us, because we're not traditionally a big speed team. If we can keep making little steps like this, we'll have a fast car for sure. My poor wife was about white as a ghost when we got back to the pit, because I guess the deal with Melanie looked pretty scary, but I never had a clue. I'm just glad we were out in front of her, so our time counted.

"The weather forecasts for tomorrow range from 'it won't be too bad' all the way to 'it's the end of the world' so we'll see what happens. We looked at radar, and this huge storm that's spawning tornadoes all over the place covers about half the country. We'll just have to hope we get lucky and it moves through here without doing any damage. Once it's through, it's supposed to be cool and dry, so we're looking forward to that."

-source: twr