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2013 NHRA: Spencer Massey NHRA Gatornationals Qualifying Results: No 6
To an outsider, Spencer Massey and the Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher Top Fuel team is making it look easy at the NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.
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But from Massey's point of view, it isn't as easy as it looks. He credits crew chief Phil Shuler and Todd Okuhara, Don Schumacher Racing's director of racing, for all the hard work. The team produced their best qualifying effort of the 2013 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season with a sixth-place starting position.
"I can't say enough about Phil and Todd," Massey said. "It's been tricky out here. The air is so good and the track has just been tough. You've seen a lot of teams struggling, but Phil and Todd have been making really great decisions and it shows."
The weather forecast for Sunday calls for sunny skies with highs in the low 80s, which will be slightly warmer than the two days of qualifying.
"The name of the game is to go A to B on Sunday and, of course, if you can do that during all four runs of qualifying it makes you feel that much better going into Sunday's eliminations," Massey said. "It's supposed to be a little warmer tomorrow (Sunday) but I think Phil has all the data he needs to get this Battery Extender dragster down the track."
Massey's four qualifying passes ranged between 3.821-seconds and 3.844-seconds.
"To make it down the track on all four runs between two-hundredths of each other gives us that much more confidence going into Sunday," he said. "You could say we have a bracket car so far this weekend with all of those runs so close together. You know the car can go down the race track and that definitely helps your confidence for race day."
During the two-week break from racing, Massey's Battery Extender dragster visited the paint shop for a bit of a makeover and debuted at Gainesville with metallic red, black and silver scheme this weekend.
"The car must love its new paint job because it's gone to the finish line on all four runs. Don (Schumacher) wanted to have one of the best looking dragsters out here, and I think he does that with this Battery Extender dragster.
"It's not a new car, we just made it look pretty. Now we just have to get some pictures of it looking good in the Winner's Circle."
The following are Massey's qualifying results and other event notes for the NHRA Gatornationals.
TOP FUEL
No. 1 qualifier: Doug Kalitta (Kalitta Motorsports) 3.779 sec., 326.32 mph
Spencer Massey, Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher dragster
Qualifying position: No. 6
First round opponent: David Grubnic
FRIDAY
Session 1: 3.821 sec., 322.65 mph
Session 2: 3.834, 322.73
SATURDAY Session 3: 3.841, 315.34
Session 4: 3.844, 321.35
GOING FOR 200
This weekend at the Gatornationals, Don Schumacher Racing can reach the milestone of getting its 200th NHRA national event title.
DSR drivers Ron Capps and Tony Schumacher won respective Top Fuel and Funny Car titles at the last race near Phoenix to push the total to 198.
Two of the seven DSR teams in the Gatornationals would need to repeat the double-up to reach 200. That isn't farfetched considering DSR has won at least two titles at the same event 35 times since the organization based near Indianapolis began fielding more than one team in 2001.
DSR also is the only organization in NHRA history to have won event titles in each of the series' four pro categories.
GATORNATIONALS NITRO SCHEDULE (All times EDT)
Sunday: 11 a.m., championship eliminations
NHRA ON ESPN2 (All times EDT)
Sunday: 1:30 a.m., 8 a.m. (re-air) qualifying; 7 p.m. eliminations
WEATHER.COM FOR GAINESVILLE
Sunday: High 80; 0 percent chance of rain
PaddockTalk Perspective
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