Tim Wilkerson will run out of the No. 10 spot on Sunday, after moving back up a spot with a 4.096 on his final qualifying pass in Charlotte. After having hazed the hoops, well down track, on his first run, Wilk made some adjustments and came back with a solid and straight run on his final pass, posting the fourth-quickest lap of the session.
He will race Ford teammate Bob Tasca in round one.
“The crew chief probably cost the team a little bit on the first lap, because it looks like we didn’t have enough wing in the car if we smoked the tires that far down track,” Wilkerson said, referring to himself as the crew chief. “We sent it back up there with a little less in the tune-up and a little more downforce, and she went right down there. We can run quicker than that here, but we were mostly focused on giving ourselves a nice solid lap we can tune from, going into Sunday.
“It seems like we run Bob and his gang way too much, but maybe that’s just because you remember these match-ups more than you remember running all the other guys. We talk a lot, between our groups, but in situations like this we just go to our separate corners and plot our own strategies. It will be a big round for the team that wins, and a tough loss for the team that doesn’t, but that’s how this sport works. It only rewards one team per round. It’s been that way for 60 years and it’ll be that way tomorrow.”
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