Wilkerson takes the No. 12 spot

LAS VEGAS, Friday: Tim Wilkerson made two strong, clean runs in his Levi, Ray & Shoup Monte Carlo Funny Car during qualifying today at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In the opening round, Wilkerson was one of the very few Funny Cars to get down the track. He posted a 4.913 at 315.93 mph. This put Wilkerson in the No. 2 spot, behind John Force's 4.88. On the night pass, Wilkerson stepped up to run a 4.866 at 311.20 mph, but he would have liked to improve even more since many other cars also improved. At the close of the day, Wilkerson sits in the 12 qualifying position.

"On the first run, we got a chance to watch a few cars in front of us struggle, so I was able to make a good decision on how to run our car," said Wilkerson. "The track was a little marginal in the middle, so we probably gave up two or three hundreds in the middle. And then we just didn't get it tuned up enough on the night run.

"I think we'll be okay tomorrow because it's going to be hot and nasty again. And nobody ran faster than an 88 on the first run and it will be like that on both runs tomorrow. You might see some guys go mid-80 tomorrow, and I'm hoping were one of them. I'm looking to improve on our 86 that's for sure."