Brogdon, ProtectTheHarvest.com team come through in the clutch at hometown race

HOUSTON, TX – ProtectTheHarvest.com Pro Stock driver Rodger Brogdon and his team overcame some adversity on Saturday and qualified No. 14 for the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals.

Brogdon was outside the top 12 after Friday and needed to make a good pass in either of the two Saturday sessions to make it into his hometown race.

But after misfortune with the staging beams in Q3, Brogdon was still not qualified. The team dug deep, though, and Brogdon drove to a pass of 6.634 seconds at 209.46 mph that got him in the show.

“We just focused on getting from A to B on that run,” Brogdon said. “With all the weird luck in these last few runs, we got to that point where you just need to get down the track. We should have something to show tomorrow that we can be proud of for this hometown crowd.”

Brogdon started well in Houston with the eighth-quickest pass in Q1, but in quicker conditions in Q2 the car made a move right off the line and he couldn’t improve, though nearly every other Pro Stock car did.

Then came Q3. Brogdon, who lives in Tomball, Texas, and has his race team headquartered nearby, shallow staged as usual, but after clicking the pre-stage light on it started flickering.

“When you’re staging the light, you want to come in as shallow as you can,” Brogdon said. “I guess we just came in a little too shallow. You would think that if the light comes on it’s going to stay on, right?

“After that light kept coming on and off I said, ‘Well, this is going to be interesting.’ Never had that happen before, but we’ll just reset and get ‘er on the next run.”

Brogdon said the team made the “most conservative run of the season” for Q4, but it was enough. He’ll face No. 3 qualifier Dave Connolly in the first round Sunday. Connolly qualified with a 6.574 at 210.05 mph.