Uncharacteristic Red Light Start ends Hernandez day early in Richmond

DINWIDDIE, Va. (October 7, 2007) - After leading the entire field of cars in the AMS Pro Mod Challenge presented by Tindle Enterprises, Inc. with blistering 5.99-second runs, No. 1 qualifier Josh Hernandez, driver of the Dr. Moon's Rage '68 Camaro, red lighted in the second round of competition at the Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals, giving Raymond Commisso a free pass into the semifinals and putting the Conroe, Texas resident on the trailer much earlier than he has become accustomed to this season.

"It's feels pretty bad when you have the competition beaten by a tenth of a second and you give it away," Hernandez said. "I'm extremely disappointed, because I knew we had the best car out there today.”

Hernandez qualified No. 1 with a track record-setting performance of 5.990/241.67, and ran 5.994/240.68 in his first-round win over Steve Engel. The second-quickest time of the day was 6.044 by Commisso in his semifinal win over Mike Janis.

"I really feel badly, more for my team than anything, because I let them down. They did their job, and I was the weakest link today. It's the first time this year I've fouled out, but, it's part of racing, and, we'll go on to race another day," he said.

"One good thing about this weekend other than the car running so well is that we know we'll move on to eliminations in the ProCare Rx Clash, and that's going to be a really exciting part of our final race in Vegas," he said.

Pairings for the $50,000 ProCare Rx Pro Mod Clash will be drawn randomly and announced prior to the event. Hernandez will try to claim his seventh race win of the year at the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals, October 25-27.