After experiencing “Four-Wide” competition at Charlotte, Rodger Brogdon and the Attitude Apparel/The Racers Edge team are ready to return to the norm this week, and being able to do so at Houston Raceway Park just makes it that much better,

“Steve Kent’s business operations are based out of southern Louisiana,” said Pro Stock driver Rodger Brogdon, “and my roofing business is based out of northern Houston, so racing at Houston Raceway Park this weekend is a ‘coming home’ for our race team.”

“Between Steve and myself, we’ll be entertaining over 300 clients, friends and family members this weekend so to say it’ll be a normal weekend at the races for us isn’t exactly true, but we always look forward to everyone being able to come out at our home event and see our Pro Stock team in action. We’ve had a good season so far this year and have qualified well at every event except Charlotte, and that was such a unique situation we were just glad to be there on race day.”

As Rodger Brogdon and the Attitude Apparel team were loading up after this weekend’s Four-Wide Nationals, the general opinion was that they had survived the weekend.

“We came into the event 7th in points and we’re leaving in the same position,” said Brogdon, “And, the same can be said for our standings in the K&N Horsepower Challenge, we didn’t gain, but we didn’t lose, I would say we survived the Four-Wide experience.”

“Everyone knew going in that the uniqueness of the event was going to make it a challenge, and it was. Would we have liked to have done more? Sure, we came in wanting to leave with the trophy, but to be able to head to Houston with no damage being done to our position in the Full Throttle points chase is almost as good as a win.”

“The Charlotte facility certainly ranks as one of the finest on the tour, and Bruton Smith deserves credit for all that he’s done for our sport, thankfully running four wide is just once a year and when we come back to Charlotte in the fall during the countdown we’ll be able to race in conventional side-by-side fashion.”

“We struggled in qualifying this weekend, as did everyone else, but our bad runs came in the best conditions and ending up the #16 qualifier was a first for us. Thankfully we were above the line for Sunday eliminations and we were able to get past round one, but we never did get a chance to run in lanes 1 & 2, and for Pro Stock those were definitely the lanes of choice this weekend.”

“Our home track in Houston is the next stop on the tour, and it’s always a busy event with all of the guests we entertain. Steve Kent’s associates from Kent Services and Trucking, along with my clients from RoofTec, as well as a large contingent of family and friends will all be there. But you know, after running Four-Wide this weekend I don’t think Houston will seem near as hectic as it has in the past.”

 For more information about Rodger Brogdon and the Attitude Apparel team, check out www.BrogdonRacing.com and Brogdon Racing on Facebook.

“The Pistonator,” Rodger Brogdon is coming into Concord this weekend looking to continue the early season performance level that the team has shown with strong runs at the first three races. But, the aspect of racing Four-Wide causes concerns for the Texas business man.

“Owning RoofTec, one of the largest residential roofing companies in Texas has taught me a lot about the need for marketing and promotion,” said Brogdon. “In the business world you need to constantly be waving your own flag and creating awareness of your product to drive the consumer to your door. That being said the concept of racing Four-Wide this weekend will generate that awareness and the press should be able to go nuts with what’s going to transpire.”

“Having to race Four-Wide and have it count for Full Throttle point’s causes concern because we are all fighting for the championship. I know others are also concerned with the situation and uniqueness of the race, but, and it's a big but, everyone else is going to be facing the same conditions and that will make it a very level playing field.”

“The track at Concord is a fabulous facility and Bruton (Smith) and his family have truly created one of the best venues on the circuit, and they built it with this weekend in mind, so give credit where credit is due. If the weather cooperates and gives us all four qualifying sessions I think it will go a long ways towards helping everyone adjust to using four lanes. I also think qualifying well will be more important than normal. Having lane choice is always preferential, but being able to choose the best or second best of four lanes will probably make or break many racers this weekend, so the crew chiefs are really going to be looking for every last bit of performance out of every lap down track.”

“The Attitude Apparel team stumbled a bit at Gainesville,” Rodger added, “and that was very frustrating because we know we’ve got a very good car right now. Our qualifying efforts have been solid so far, including a career best #3 effort at Phoenix. We’ve just got to take that performance level to Sunday and that’s going to be coming soon. Being able to put it all together at Concord would be rewarding not only for the notoriety of winning the first Four-Wide race, but also for everyone on the crew for their diligence and for our engine builder Victor Cagnazzi and his crew with the shop being just down the road.”

“We’ve started to climb in the K & N Horsepower Challenge rankings, and we’re currently sitting 7^th in the Full Throttle points chase. Where we are now is a whole lot better than where we were last year at this time. The Attitude Apparel and Racers Edge Pontiac has come a long way, but we’re still looking for that first final round appearance, and I can’t think of a better place than the first Four-Wide Nationals to do it.”

 For more information about Rodger Brogdon and the Attitude Apparel team, check out www.BrogdonRacing.com and Brogdon Racing on Facebook where race day stats are constantly updated throughout the event.

Rodger Brogdon was a guest on the WFO Radio show last Saturday.

Listen to the interview

One of the hottest topics of conversation in drag racing the past couple of weeks has been this weekend’s conclusion of the Arizona Nationals Pro Stock eliminations that will be contested in Gainesville Florida. How will NHRA structure the qualifying with the four drivers that have lane choice? How will the new rules that have been implemented since that race in Phoenix play into the outcome of both races this weekend? How will all of this affect the eight drivers left in competition?

For Rodger Brogdon, Steve Kent and the Attitude Apparel team, the weekend in Gainesville presents some unique challenges, but none that are felt to be that big of a deal. “We’ve run our combination pretty close to what the new rules are calling for anyway, so we just need to work out the new settings for the front splitter and the new wicker bill height and we’ll get that figured out while we’re testing this week in Florida. We’ve got several areas that we’ll be testing this week so what’s a couple more items to work out.”

As Rodger put it, “We’ve been able to start the season off with some pretty strong runs and feel we’re on the right track, but like everyone else we’re constantly searching for that extra hundredth of a second. With two races to run in one weekend we’ll test hard before heading to Gainesville and be ready to go when we hit the track. The format for running both the Phoenix and Gainesville races is similar to some of the divisional races we’ve run in the past where weather limited qualifying and we went straight into eliminations. Sure, it’ll be a hectic weekend, but I think my guys are up to the challenge and the rewards for having a successful weekend will be large, I’m really looking forward to the opportunity.”

With career best qualifying efforts at both Pomona (#5) and Phoenix (#3) the Pistonater team looks to this weekend’s race as another opportunity to build on a Full Throttle championship run in 2010. “We’ve started well, we’ve got a strong running car and a solid team. We’ve climbed a couple of notches in the K & N Horsepower rankings and look to continue that climb as well. With conditions the way they were at Phoenix, NHRA made the right call to finish that race this weekend and when the season review is done at the end of the year, making that call may make this week’s race the race of the year for Pro Stock. I just want to look back Sunday night and know that seven of our eight runs this weekend made an impact.”

Early in the week the weathermen were forecasting a perfect weekend for the Phoenix area, but as everyone knows, weathermen aren’t always on top of things.

After waiting out a wind/sand storm and rain delay earlier today, NHRA was finally able to give the racers a clean and dry racing surface and all the racers knew with the time lost to the weather that it was going to be the final session of qualifying and the fields would be set.

As Rodger Brogdon and the Attitude Apparel team prepped for the final session, the air was still cool and cloudy. In fact, as the crew rolled out to the staging lane, sprinkles began to fall again. After a brief session of raindrops, the sky finally started to clear and Pro Stock began their final session.

The scheduled 5th pair for the final session, Brogdon and crew watched as the pairs in front of them ran, with Kurt Johnson’s 6.662 the best number to come up on the scoreboard. When Rodger dumped the clutch on the Attitude Apparel Pontiac GXP the car launched straight and true and lit up the scoreboard with a 6.632/208.04 lap, the quickest of the session so far and now it would be watch and wait to see what the rest of the field would run.

Two pairs behind Brogdon, Vinnie Deceglie got loose in the left lane and put their beautiful new Mountain View Dodge on its roof. Vinnie came out a little shaken up, but most importantly OK. After the clean-up the qualifying continued and the only car to out run the Attitude Apparel car today was the #1 qualifier Mike Edwards 6.625.

With qualifying completed, Brogdon had jumped from #14 to a career best #3 and earned lane choice for his first round match-up. Scheduled to race Vinnie Deceglie in round one, it must be noted that the Mountain View Tire team has pulled their back-up car out of the trailer and is prepping it for tomorrow’s eliminations.

“I do believe we got almost everything there was to get on that run,” said Brogdon “we might have left a little in the first 60 feet but I believe everything else was about as good as it could have been. That’s our career best qualifying effort and I have to give the credit to Tommy Utt and the crew, Dr. Phil, Eckman, Weasel and Big Show are the guys that gave me the car I had today. My job is the fun part, I get to drive the hot rod that they give me. Tomorrow will be another day, but with what we’ve got to work with right now, I do believe we can mix it up with the rest of the pack here in Phoenix.

Be sure and follow Rodger Brogdon and the Attitude Apparel team during Sunday’s eliminations at www.Brogdonracing.com and Brogdon Racing on Facebook where race day stats are updated throughout the event.

With back to back races to start the season, NHRA Full Throttle competitors have but a few days and less than 400 miles before they reload and do it all over again this weekend just outside Phoenix AZ.

Rodger Brogdon and the Attitude Apparel team loaded up in Pomona and readied themselves for the short trip knowing that their race weekend in Pomona had been a successful one. After qualifying a career best fifth for Sunday’s eliminations, the team’s day ended in the second round with a .005 red light.

“Looks like we’ve got a pretty good hot rod,” said Brogdon, “we had one of the quickest cars in all but the last qualifying session, and that run we just missed the set-up on, trying to be too aggressive. The red light in the second round on Sunday was my fault, I just rolled in too deep. I knew it had happened and tried to compensate, but just missed. It was shaping up to be a pretty good race until that occurred.”

“Firebird Raceway has been good to us in the past” Rodger continued, “we won here in Comp a few years ago in a great final round against Rampy. We’re coming in ranked fifth in the points which will give us a good spot to start qualifying from on Friday. The way the car is running and responding to Tommy Utt’s input everyone on the team is excited to hit the track again as quick as we can.”

“It took us half of the season last year to get up to speed, this year we seem to be right back on the pace we ended 2009 with. We can take this momentum into each race and build as we go along. We’re going to have some FUN this year!”

With the 2010 NHRA drag racing season set to get underway this weekend in Pomona, CA, Rodger Brogdon and the Attitude Apparel Pro Stock team aren’t looking towards the end of the season, they’re focusing on the race at hand and plan on challenging the season one race at a time.

“The season is 23 races long and sometimes I think everyone gets caught up in that championship chase mentality,” said Rodger. “By taking it one race at a time and focusing on each race rather than the season as a whole we can accomplish what we need to be there at the end of the season.”

“We’ve got a new car and we’ve got a new look,” added Brogdon, “but we’ve got the same team and attitude that we had last year. The second half of the season we were running quite well and really mixing it up with the rest of the field and we don’t look for this season to be any different.”

“The season opener at Pomona last year was the only event we missed, so to say we’re anxious to get after it this weekend is an understatement. We would have liked to have put some more test laps on this new Jerry Haas Pontiac, but the weather just didn’t want to cooperate. Everyone else though has faced the same situation, so this weekend could be quite interesting. The weather forecast is looking pretty good, so I look for this race to become a crew chiefs race to see who can get their car dialed in the quickest.”

The new look for Brogdon and company comes from Attitude Apparel and the team will debut their new colors and logo this weekend. “Our look is quite a departure from last year, and we’ve got some exciting things planned to go along with the new look for this year, and it should be fun for everyone. Besides the new Attitude Apparel look, we’ve have some other exciting news that we will be releasing soon, so everyone in our camp is really excited about this season. We’re going to make a solid run for the championship, but we’re going to have some fun along the way as well, it should be quite the year.”

Be sure to keep up with Rodger and crew all season thru their Facebook and web page, Brogdon Racing and www.brogdonracing.com.