Pomona, California - February 8, 2014 – Rodger Brogdon's ProtectTheHarvest.com Chevrolet ran two identical passes and another within six-thousandths of a second during qualifying for the Circle K NHRA Winternationals this weekend at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, but despite that consistency Brogdon wants more and believes there is more in his Camaro.
"There's still a lot in that car," Brogdon said. "We had so many issues in testing that to get that consistent I should be happy. We've got a good two-hundredths we can still get out of it. We'll go out there tomorrow and do our best."
Brogdon snared the No. 9 qualifying spot with a top pass of 6.541 seconds at 211.79 mph. He had one other 6.541-second run and one of 6.547 seconds.
"We're less than three-hundredths of a second off the fastest people here," Brogdon said. "Considering the way we've tested, we're pretty happy with it. We weren't sure we'd be able to go that fast but we're doing OK."
While testing in the off-season, Brogdon and his team worked on refining their clutch setup. The results weren't exactly what Brogdon wanted, and the changes kept coming in qualifying.
"We tried a bunch of stuff Q4," Brogdon said. "We'll put it back tomorrow and see what we can do. We shifted a lot of weight around, and it just didn't like it. It left the starting line and got out there a little bit and it just did a wheel stand. I slowed it down. We should've been able to go .52 right there. A .547, it ain't as bad as it looks. We could've gone .52, easy."
A 6.52-second pass would've moved Brogdon to the preferable top half of the field and within a hundredth of a second of the No. 1 qualifier.
Brogdon's first 6.541 pass came in Q1, which put him third-fastest for the session.
"I shifted bad," Brogdon said. "That was the first time I've gone straight in a long time, and it kind of threw me off."
With the addition of co-crew chief Jeff Perley, who works alongside Pete Smallwood, Brogdon's team is looking to improve up the Pro Stock ladder. Qualifying ninth was a good step; it was Brogdon's best since Epping, N.H., last June.
He'll square off against defending Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. in the first round Sunday. Coughlin qualified No. 8 with a pass of 6.531 seconds at 211.96 mph.
"We'll see what happens," Brogdon said. "I ran beside him once this weekend; he went .53 and I went .541. We'll be right there with them."
Rodger Brogdon qualified No. 9 for Sunday eliminations at the Circle K NHRA Winternationals.
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