On a day that tested the patience, determination, and sheer will of both racers and fans alike, during which the Funny Car class finally and mercifully completed a session as the clock neared 11:00 on a Friday night, Tim Wilkerson did something he rarely does on any day other than Sunday, and it earned him a spot in the top 12.
He’ll sit 10th overnight, after running a 4.813 that featured two slaps of the throttle around half-track.
“If you circled on the calendar all the Fridays in my career when I’ve pedaled the car, you’re not going to be making many circles, but it was worth it here tonight,” Wilkerson said. “Usually you just lift and move on with things when you have any issues with traction on Friday, and actually for me it’s kind of rare to even pedal the car on Saturday.
Sunday’s a different deal, of course, because you’ll do about anything to beat the other driver to the finish line, even if you have to get out and push, but I haven’t slapped the pedal too many times at all during the first session at a race.
“We were out here all day, all evening, and into the night. We can all read a forecast, and between us we’ve been peeking at about eight different ones on phones and laptops, and there’s no way you can say for sure we’ll get both, or even one session, in tomorrow.
It’s the Midwest, so you never know, but with that much uncertainty, you have to realize that this late one on Friday could potentially be the only lap, so I gave her a couple of little love taps out there after it smoked the tires, just to pick up what I could. With 20 cars here, I didn’t want to risk being No. 17, if you know what I mean. We’ll just come back out here tomorrow and hope all the weather misses us.”
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