Pro Stock points leader Brogdon ready for Four-Wide challenge

CHARLOTTE (March 25) — For NHRA Pro Stock points leader Rodger Brogdon, this weekend’s NHRA Four-Wide Nationals is all about confidence.

Because of the unique nature of the event — racing four lanes instead of the traditional two — drivers in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series face an uncommon set of circumstances, but for Brogdon, one of those isn’t performance.

Brogdon and his Rodger Brogdon Racing team have won at least two rounds at all three races this season, including in Phoenix, where they were victorious.

“We’ll go in there and do our best,” Brogdon said. “We’re going to go in there and try to win the race. These days I feel like I can win the race every time I get on the airplane.”

The Four-Wide Nationals is often confusing to drivers because they have to pay attention to three others during a run instead of the usual one.

“The changes NHRA made to the Christmas Tree — with all the extra lights on top — a few years ago really helped,” Brogdon said. “I’m real confident, but what gets you is there is so much going on when you get up there to try to make a run. You could be in lane three, and someone in lane one and two do something silly and make the Tree come on. It’s craziness.

“I’ve never been there where I’ve been in a round where something didn’t happen during eliminations: Somebody leaves before the Tree comes on, somebody doesn’t stage in time — there’s always something. If I can avoid that, I like my chances of doing well.”

Staging is always a challenge — and sometimes comical — especially in the Pro Stock class, where drivers have to deck their engines before releasing the clutch to start a run.

“There are so many ways you can mess up doing that deal,” Brogdon said. “Last year, we had one guy who never staged, so the Tree came down but nobody got their engines up. There’s no telling what’s going to happen up there.”

Another variable this year are changes track officials made to the surface of each lane.

“We’re all going into a green track,” Brogdon said. “They dug up the starting line all the way to 600, 700 feet and redid it. We usually have notes on all the lanes because they were all different. Hopefully, they got all that fixed so it won’t be so extreme.

“Hopefully, we’ll go fast, get lane choice, and stay in the same lane on Sunday. Whoever can do that is probably going to win the race.”

Qualifying sessions are scheduled for 1:15 and 4:15 p.m. ET, Friday and Saturday, and final eliminations will start at approximately 1:45 p.m., Sunday. Qualifying will be broadcasted on ESPN2 on tape-delay basis and elimination action will be live on ESPN starting at 2 p.m. ET.