HARTLEY TAKES PROVISIONAL NO. 1 in TOP FUEL at the O’REILLY NHRA SUMMERNATIONALS

TOPEKA , KS (June 1, 2007) – In a true Cinderella story, Joe Harley took his first ever provisional No. 1 position at the O’Reilly NHRA SummerNationals, Heartland Park, Topeka. Despite not running full-time on the NHRA professional tour, Hartley is hoping to be the belle of the ball by the end of the weekend.

“They put us in the Tricky Tipster in National Dragster, which is kind of an odds to win and is 14-1,” said Hartley. “We’ve always had such bad luck here in Topeka , we just really wanted to have a nice run out of the box. We were shooting to run a high .50, or a low .60, and to be able to rip off that .51 right out of the box was very awesome. This is what we consider our hometown track. There is nothing close to the team out of Omaha ; the team used to be based out of Wichita . We have a lot of guys from Kansas working on the car. So, this is our hometown track. Over the years coming here we’ve maybe qualified once, so to come out here this weekend and start as strong as we did is awesome.”

Hartley went on to say, “It was kind of a weird run. On a lot of the quicker runs I’ve had, you really kind of have to handle the car out there in the middle of the track. This run was so smooth, and so straight I really didn’t think I ran that fast. It was a little bit of a shock to me. It was a nice, smooth run, but it was kind of a shock.”

Friday night qualifying was cut a session short, because of rain and poor weather. Although the night was brought to a close, Hartley and team are elated to be in the strong position they are in.

“There are a little bit of mixed feeling there,” said Hartley. “There is a part of us that doesn’t mind the rain came and be able to hold that No. 1 spot. But we did want to run for that .40. We had a game plan to try and pick it up a little bit and dip it into the .40’s.”

“It’s amazing. I don’t think it’s really sunk in yet that we are actually sitting in the No. 1 spot. If we can hold it or even maintain that top portion of the field going into Sunday, it will be great. It gives you that much of a better chance going into Sunday.”