CONNOLLY'S COMEBACK CONTINUES
Going Straight, Collecting Points Connolly’s Primary Mission at E-Town
The math is simple.
Dave Connolly currently trails 10th place Warren
Johnson by 130 points as they challenge for the final Pro Stock position in the
coveted Countdown to One six-race championship playoff. Eight races remain in
the regular season. And they aren’t the only ones with designs on a top 10
finish.
Connolly has been impressive since his personal 19-race NHRA
POWERade Series campaign began five races behind the other contenders. He
signaled his return with a runner-up finish in his second race and a victory at
Bristol, Tenn., in the third event. The victory pushed him all the way up to
12th, where he remains after disappointing outings in recent back-to-back races
at Topeka, Kan., and Joliet, Ill.
Going Straight, Collecting Points Connolly’s Primary Mission at E-Town
The math is simple.
Dave Connolly currently trails 10th place Warren
Johnson by 130 points as they challenge for the final Pro Stock position in the
coveted Countdown to One six-race championship playoff. Eight races remain in
the regular season. And they aren’t the only ones with designs on a top 10
finish.
Connolly has been impressive since his personal 19-race NHRA
POWERade Series campaign began five races behind the other contenders. He
signaled his return with a runner-up finish in his second race and a victory at
Bristol, Tenn., in the third event. The victory pushed him all the way up to
12th, where he remains after disappointing outings in recent back-to-back races
at Topeka, Kan., and Joliet, Ill.
With another pair of back-to-back
stops on the docket – the Lucas Oil Nationals at Englishtown, N.J., June 20-22,
and the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Norwalk, Ohio, June 27-29 – the
Charter Communications/LifeLock Chevy Cobalt team cannot afford many more
early outs on race day.
The Cobalt was acting like a petulant child
refusing to listen to his father. Tommy Utt, a.k.a. the father in this report,
says simply the car does not respond to what it’s told to do. Utt is the
veteran crew chief in charge of Connolly’s Cagnazzi Racing entry.
“The
car has given us problems at the last two races,” said Connolly, who never made
it down the track in the first round at Topeka or Joliet. “It’s something we
have to fix.”
Utt, meanwhile, spent last week analyzing data and
attacking the trouble spots.
“It’s just the new car blues,” he noted.
“We got the car to the (Mooresville, N.C.) shop and have been working on it. It
is a new car and all cars have different personalities. We are trying to make it
more forgiving. When we get it on tracks that are hot or greasy it isn’t
responding the way our old car did. We have some new parts coming and we are
going to test Monday and Tuesday. You never know.
“We run these things
so close to the edge. We know things aren’t right (with the new car), but it’s
not a problem we can’t fix.”
Fixing it, obviously, is vital to
Connolly’s successful climb into contention.
Connolly, runner-up at Old
Bridge Township Raceway Park in 2006, has 18 career victories in 31 final
rounds. The more times he increases those numbers in the ensuing eight events,
the better his chance of being a member of the Countdown to One group.
