Shields Takes Poll Again

Chicago - If national championships were decided on qualifying positions Duane Shields would already be crowned the champ as he's qualified on the poll at nearly every event he has raced at lately. This past weekend at the Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals was no exception as Shields qualified number again with a stout 5.21. Shields grabbed the pole from a field that included every top ten car in the country!

In the first round, Shields took on popular Oklahoma driver Brandon Lewis and got the win with a clean 5.40 ET at 256 MPH to Lewis' 5.80 at 247 MPH. Lewis reportedly had a cylinder out on the entire run.

In the second round, once the cars were called to the lanes the weather dramatically changed from hot to wind and rain causing a three hour delay. Finally, the weather warmed up again and the racing resumed. Because of the weather change, the Shortline Express team missed the tune up. In addition, their opponent, Noha Condo, had his best light of the weekend, a 0.031 reaction time to Shields' respectable 0.043. At the stripe it was Condo with a 5.48 holeshot win to Shields slightly quicker 5.47. 'It was a good race but I came up .005 seconds short.' Shields said.

The team will stay in Chicago for this week's Lucas Oil race and hope to turn one of these number one qualifiers into a big win