Texan Brogdon pushing the pace in Pro Stock with day’s second-best run

ENGLISHTOWN, NJ – His soothing Southern drawl may seem a tad out of place this close to New York City, but Friday at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park Texan Rodger Brogdon let his ProtectTheHarvest.com Chevrolet Camaro do the talking with a stellar 6.508-second quarter-mile pass at 213.00 mph.

The run, the only one of the day after the first session was lost due to extensive track repairs, placed Brogdon second in a near-record field. It also put smiles on the faces of all of his crewmen, plus the gang from Elite Motorsports, who are supplying Brogdon engines for the third race in a row.

“That was a good run but there was more in it,” Brogdon said. “I got to the other end and knew I had short-shifted a couple of gears. I was probably 150 rpm short on at least a few shift points. If the conditions are right we can go .48 or .49 tomorrow morning. If that happens we will stay top three and we will be in great shape for race day.”

Although the first round was called off, Brogdon and crew decided not to play it safe with the tune-up, electing instead to turn up the wick and see what their 1,300-horsepower beast would do.

“We were far enough back, being the fourth pair on the track, that we were able to make some adjustments and pretty much assure ourselves of making a good run,” Brogdon said. “Our position had a big input on the decision we made. If we had been the second pair, we wouldn’t do something like that. But by the time you get back to the fourth or fifth pair, you have an idea the track is going to be good, probably as good as it’s going to get for the whole session.

“It was close for us today. It could have gone over-center, but I was able to get all the way through fourth gear with not too much trouble and by then you’re just sailing along. It was a fun ride.”

With just two rounds of qualifying left, Brogdon says the plan is to go for another big number in Saturday’s first session, scheduled for 12:45 p.m. They will then analyze that data and most likely begin working on a race day setup in the last time trial, scheduled for 3:15 p.m.

“When you get all four rounds in, usually you’ll try something you’ve been wanting to try in Q4 just to see what you can get away with. Q4 is usually in the afternoon and it’s around the time you would run the second round of eliminations on Sunday, so there is important data to be gained. We’ll get after it in the first one and let that dictate what we do in the final round.”

ESPN2 will carry all qualifying and elimination action.