Vegas Testing Provides Plenty of Optimism Going into Pomona

The Skull Shine team has good reason to be optimistic going into the Carquest Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals based on this past weekend's test session at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The Dexter Tuttle owned Top Fuel dragster perfomed exactly the way crew chief Jimmy Walsh had planned. "We made five runs and the car responded like we wanted it to each time." Walsh said.

The team's best performance of the weekend came on Sunday as the car ran an elapsed time of 4.82 seconds at only 214 MPH which was a great pass considering that none of the runs that driver JR Todd made all weekend were even close to a full pass. "The car made it as far down the track as we wanted it to go and was very aggressive on every run." Todd said. Was Todd a little nervous climbing back in the seat for the first time since November? "As soon as I was belted in and the car was fired up it was like I never took a break. Once you get use to driving a Top Fuel car it's like riding a bike as you never forget how to drive it." Todd said.