The Advance Auto Parts/ Solara team continued to be one of the more consistent cars during all four qualifying sessions at Brainerd International Raceway this past weekend. Four solid runs, all in the low 4 second range landed Cruz and team in the number 10 qualifying position. Their best qualifying run came in the heat of the day with a track temperature of 119 degrees. The ET of 4.226 seconds at 292.01 mph was the second quickest run of the session.
On race day the conditions were a little cooler. During first round the track temperature was only 95 degrees. The car rode well and powered to a winning ET of 4.302 at 261.07 mph against Jerry Toliver’s 5.658. They were ahead of John Force past the 660 ft mark in the quarter-finals. Both cars hazed the tires towards the top end of the track and in the end Cruz ran an ET of 4.314 at 265.48 mph, against John Force’s 4.294. “Rahn and the team did their jobs. There’s a fine line between running quick and fast, or spinning the tires which is what happened on that run.” Cruz noted after the run.
With this quarter-final finish the team now moves up in the POWERade points to the number four spot. “Day in and day out is what I look at.” said Cruz “We are in the mix at every race and that, to me, means more in the long run. We’re winning rounds and have stayed in the top five all year and that is hard to do after sixteen races.”
The next event on the NHRA POWERade Series schedule is in Reading, Pennsylvania at Maple Grove Raceway from August 14th through the 17th.
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