Rodger Brogdon Racing announced this afternoon that noted crew chief and tuner Rickie Smith will join the team this weekend in Pomona CA for the opening race of the 2007 NHRA POWERade season.

Initial early season testing in Houston showed that Brogdon’s new Pro Stock team had the horsepower to compete in the very competitive Pro Stock category, but during the Pro Stock Showdown event in Las Vegas this past weekend the new car showed that the team would need to rein in the new chassis to match up with the available horsepower. “Being able to compare our car to everyone else during the showdown really got us excited,” said Brogdon. “We struggled with the chassis set-up on Saturday and ended up not making the cut for the Showdown.” “But we kept after it and of the twenty cars that stayed and tested on Sunday we were the seventh fastest and saw the elapsed times continue to improve as well.”

Rodger Brogdon Racing announced this afternoon that noted crew chief and tuner Rickie Smith will join the team this weekend in Pomona CA for the opening race of the 2007 NHRA POWERade season.

Initial early season testing in Houston showed that Brogdon’s new Pro Stock team had the horsepower to compete in the very competitive Pro Stock category, but during the Pro Stock Showdown event in Las Vegas this past weekend the new car showed that the team would need to rein in the new chassis to match up with the available horsepower. “Being able to compare our car to everyone else during the showdown really got us excited,” said Brogdon. “We struggled with the chassis set-up on Saturday and ended up not making the cut for the Showdown.” “But we kept after it and of the twenty cars that stayed and tested on Sunday we were the seventh fastest and saw the elapsed times continue to improve as well.”

“That gave us the knowledge that with the right input we can become a serious contender, and trust me, I’m very serious about this Pro Stock endeavor.”Rodger added, “After making numerous inquiries as to who might be available in the way of tuning talent, the same name kept coming up, and all of the recommendations kept pointing to Rickie Smith.” “He’s been very instrumental in the development and tuning with numerous teams on the tour, and with the mountain motor Pro Stock season not set to begin for several more weeks, Rickie’s services were available for at least Pomona and Phoenix, and after that we will obviously discuss what our options are.”

“During our winning seasons in the Comp eliminator category Pete Smallwood and my crew were certainly able to set-up and tune our cars, but this Pro Stock Stratus is a completely different animal, and I’m ecstatic to be able to get a tuner with Rickie’s capabilities to get us started on the right path.”“If I had been available for the Showdown in Vegas it would have been nice to work with the car there, but we should still be OK in Pomona,” said Rickie “And the runs we get on Thursday and Friday will give me a baseline to work with before the early session on Saturday which usually produces the quickest qualifying session anyway, we should be just fine.”

Pro Stock qualifying for the season opening Carquest Auto Parts Winternationals begins this Thursday at 2:00 pm in Pomona, CA and Rodger Brogdon will be one of the first cars down track. With Rickie Smith now on board lending his knowledge and guidance this team is looking forward to being able to show that they will be a player all year long.