Gainesville Report
By
Joe Sherk
March 17, 2007

Three Drivers in Top 10 Fail to Make Gatornationals Line-up

GAINESVILLE, Fla., March 17, 2007 -- Jim Yates shook his head. "Three of the top 10 in Pro Stock didn't make the field here, and that's an eye-opener, including the driver who won the last race."

Such was the case as Saturday's qualifying concluded for Sunday's ACDelco Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.

Yates, who was seventh in points coming into Florida, ran his quickest elapsed time of the weekend on his last attempt, 6.653 seconds at 208.52 mph, but his Sea Ray Boats/Wiley X Eye Wear Pontiac GTO needed to run better than 6.634 seconds.

"We aren't going to panic," the veteran from Occoquan, Va., said. "The track threw us a curve ball. We are a better team than what we showed, but the track was very, very difficult. We've been coming here for 18 years and I can't remember it being like this before.

"We got behind early and had to change motors and we just couldn't adapt to the horsepower curve fast enough."