Rockstar Energy Drink Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car driver Jerry Toliver enjoyed his best qualifying effort since the opening race of the season today at the 21st annual Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park. He qualified No. 2 with an elapsed time of 4.093 seconds at 301.40 mph, his quickest pass since the fuel cars began running to the 1,000-foot mark in Denver eight races ago. He put an exclamation point on his strong result by posting the quickest lap of the final qualifying session on a 112-degree track: a 4.122/298.14.
Toliver’s other qualifying runs included a 4.203/288.70 (No. 8), and a 4.203/287.35 (No. 2).
“We got off on the right foot,” said Toliver, who is No. 15 in points. “We went A to B Friday on the first lap and during the night session we were able to step it up because we were in the back of the pack and we could see how the other cars were running and adjust accordingly.
“Last night’s lap was huge. That all-important Friday night session is critical. The fact that I couldn’t see from half-track on because of the clutch dust really didn’t matter because I got it down to the other end. It was pretty exciting. Today we were in the back of the pack and made a good lap on our first run with a 4.20. It ran strong in the heat and we’ll take that. We adjusted for the conditions on our last run and the Rockstar Energy Drink Dodge set low elapsed time of the round.
“It was a great qualifying effort. We wound up No. 2 and we’ve got lane choice tomorrow, so it’s good times. I’ve been saying all along that the Rockstar Energy Drink team is better than what we’ve been showing on paper. We just need a break. I want to win a race for Rockstar Energy Drink, my crew guys and Don Schumacher Racing. That’s our goal.”
Toliver will enjoy lane choice over Cruz Pedregon (No. 5 in Countdown to 1 points) in round one of Sunday’s eliminations. Toliver is not in the Countdown to 1 playoffs.
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