Brogdon leaves Pomona optimistic about 2015 season

POMONA, CA – Continuing to put up win lights in the late going of the season, Pro Stock driver Rodger Brogdon ended the 50th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals and 2014 season on a high note.

Meeting Allen Johnson in round one of eliminations, Brogdon’s Owens Corning Chevrolet Camaro left the line second and the chase was on. After a slight slip from Johnson, Brogdon was able to motor his way to the next round with a 6.528-second pass.

“We struggled with our car since we got here and we struggled a little bit with our clutch setup,” Brogdon said. “We changed what we would normally do for an adjustment in that first run and only did about half. It really seemed to work since we usually were on either side of it, too heavy or too light. I think we got it now. That run there showed a lot of promise.”

Putting up an almost identical reaction time of .064 against Elite Motorsports partner Erica Enders-Stevens’ .061 in the second round, Brogdon made his best pass of the weekend, a 6.511, but it wasn’t quite enough to overcome Enders-Stevens’ 6.494-second pass.

“Everybody tried to avoid running that red car this weekend,” Brogdon said. “We struggled in qualifying and finally made a good run in the third session, and the fourth session wasn’t too bad either.

“We made a really, really good run against Erica (Enders-Stevens) though. I wish I had done a little bit better on the Tree, but there’s nothing I can do about it now but sit back and watch. I needed to have like a .029 or .030 reaction time but it is what it is. I wasn’t able to get off the clutch pedal all weekend. I was at a .040 to .060 every time I turned it loose. I just couldn’t figure it out this weekend.

“That was a very good run for that lane though because honestly that lane is at least a hundredth slower than the right lane.”

Turning his season around after a win at Maple Grove Raceway a few weeks ago, Brogdon is happy with the progress his team was able to make in such a short amount of time. But with that being said, Brogdon is ready for the off-season so he can begin preparing for next year.

“That win in Reading I wouldn’t say saved our whole season,” Brogdon said, “but it sure made it easier to deal with all the other things that went on. I’m just ready to take a step back from driving and hopefully, in the next few weeks, wrap up one of the sponsor partnerships that we’re working on.

“That’s the plan; we’ll see how it goes.”