Wilkerson looks for improvement tomorrow

MEMPHIS, Friday: Tim Wilkerson made two consistent runs in his Levi, Ray & Shoup Funny Car today at the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals at Memphis Motorsports Park, which is always good, but they weren't as good as Wilkerson would have liked. And at the end of the day's qualifying session, Wilkerson sits in the No. 15 position.

On the first pass, Wilkerson made a nice clean run, posting a 4.933, which was good for the seventh spot. On the cooler evening run, Wilkerson hoped to step up, but dropped a cylinder one second into the run and slowed to a 4.960. But since most of the Funny Cars improved, Wilkerson fell to near the bottom of the heap.

"The first pass was just about what we thought it would be," said Wilkerson. "So, we just tuned it up a little bit and took it up there for the second run and the thing ran through the clutch early and so it dropped a hole. At one second it had seven holes and it's not going to run on seven holes. That's why we ended up with a 96.

"We'll just try to get the thing straighten around tomorrow. I hope our 93 will keep us in the show. It's going to be hot again tomorrow, so the track will be hot, and sticky, and slick, and all that. But we'll try to run better and I think we can. We just need to get it tuned down a little bit down at the other end. We should be able to go a high 80 or low 90 tomorrow, and hopefully stay in the show."