Alexander Rolls Into Houston on Four-Wide Final Momentum

BAYTOWN, TX – Funny Car newcomer Blake Alexander enters this weekend’s NHRA Spring Nationals with more momentum than he’s ever had. The 24-year old driver reached the first final round of his short two-year Funny Car career at the recent Dollar General Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte. Alexander sees the back-to-back events as an advantage, as he and his Gates/Auto Service Plus teammates will have the taste of winning fresh on their palates.

“It definitely helps me as a driver. It helps the crew, too. We don’t always get the opportunity to pick up where we left off, even if we didn’t go to the final round. It’s helpful to continue racing and stay in the groove with all of the full-time teams,” Blake said.

The final round appearance was a breath of fresh air for Alexander, who is still proving himself in the competitive field of multi-car teams and seasoned veterans. Blake and the Paul Smith Racing team will use the morale boost and knowledge gained to continue improving as the 2013 Mello Yello Drag Racing Series rolls on into the warm summer months.

“Obviously it raised our level of confidence a little bit. That’s a race track that people can run 4.0s on all day,” Alexander said of zMax Dragway. “While we’re still trying to get in the groove and figure out how to run consistent 4.0s, we were happy to runner-up. I think we can continue improving as the summer season picks up where we’re racing on hotter, slicker race tracks.”

Veteran tuner and team owner Paul Smith is known for tuning his drivers to run down hot tracks consistently. Blake hopes to couple that with the momentum from Charlotte to use to their advantage going into Houston.

“We have a car that can make it down a hot track. I think we already have a better handle on this kind of track compared to what we were racing on last weekend. We were trying to run 4.0s last weekend but just couldn’t get the combination together. This weekend, I think if you can run 4.11 to 4.14, you’ll be sitting pretty. There will be a couple high 4.0s, but it all depends on the weather,” Alexander stated.