Pomona brings high hopes for Owens Corning driver Brogdon

POMONA, CA – Pro Stock winner Rodger Brogdon has high hopes for his Owens Corning Chevrolet team at this weekend’s Auto Club NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona based on improved performance over the last two NHRA races.

Brogdon won in Reading, Pa., and then qualified ninth and advanced to the second round in Las Vegas. For the season finale, Brogdon has his sights set on another long day of eliminations.

“I think we’re going to be good,” Brogdon said. “I plan on going out there and qualifying in the top five or six and winning the race. I really think we’ve got a hot rod that can run with anybody, except for that red car.”

That red car belongs to Erica Enders-Stevens and her Elite Motorsports team. Elite provides the horsepower for Brogdon’s Camaro, too, so he knows he has the power to compete with anyone in Pro Stock.

But he’d just as soon avoid Enders-Stevens — the Pro Stock points leader — until the final round.

“I’ve got to stay away from that thing until the finals,” Brogdon said. “I think that’s what the other 15 drivers are thinking, too: Stay away from that red car until you have to run it. That car is bad to the bone.”

If they do reach the final round, Brogdon has a plan in store for his fellow Houston, Texas, native.

“That means you know who (Jason Line) is already out and she has won the championship,” Brogdon said. “She’d probably go up there lackadaisical and I’d bust her butt! Sounds like a plan.”

Brogdon laughs at the possibility but he knows it’s possible, especially after he won at Maple Grove Raceway last month to secure his second career Pro Stock victory.

That win was the clear highlight in what has been an interesting 2014 season.

“We did manage to win a race this year, but this year has been a lot of ups and downs and craziness, so I’m about ready for it to be over,” Brogdon said. “That win basically salvaged most of my year. We all know the issues we had this year, but we can say we went to the winner’s circle.”

Brogdon would love to close out the year with another victory, and it would be even sweeter to win at the historic racetrack. He first raced there nearly 30 years ago in 1985 when he brought a ’80 Chevrolet Monte Carlo to Pomona to race in Super Stock.

“It’s a great place to go race,” Brogdon said. “I remember the first time I went out there in the 1980s. That was one of my best trips ever, just experiencing Pomona for the first time. Everybody looks forward to going to Pomona.”

Qualifying sessions are scheduled for 11:45 and 2:45 p.m. PT, Friday and Saturday. Eliminations will start at approximately noon, Sunday, with both qualifying and elimination action broadcast on ESPN2 on tape-delay basis.