A crashed car, a mad thrash to rebuild and a determined driver personally challenged to perform were the key elements over the course of the NHRA Southern Nationals for Rodger Brogdon.

Brogdon released the clutch of his repaired Pontiac Pro Stock for the first time since a high speed crash in St. Louis two weeks ago. The spirit of the team was certainly willing, but without a few shakedown runs, the Steve Kent Racing, Attitude Apparel-sponsored team just couldn’t pull off the improbable.

“We loaded the Pistonator into the truck at Jerry Haas shop late this past Wednesday afternoon,” said Brogdon, “and if we had one more day to make some test laps I think everything would have worked out OK. But as it was we just ran out of time. We hate to see the qualifying streak come to an end especially as well as we’ve been running of late, but we’ll get some test laps in between here and Topeka and we’ll get back on track.

A crashed car, a mad thrash to rebuild and a determined driver personally challenged to perform were the key elements over the course of the NHRA Southern Nationals for Rodger Brogdon.

Brogdon released the clutch of his repaired Pontiac Pro Stock for the first time since a high speed crash in St. Louis two weeks ago. The spirit of the team was certainly willing, but without a few shakedown runs, the Steve Kent Racing, Attitude Apparel-sponsored team just couldn’t pull off the improbable.

“We loaded the Pistonator into the truck at Jerry Haas shop late this past Wednesday afternoon,” said Brogdon, “and if we had one more day to make some test laps I think everything would have worked out OK. But as it was we just ran out of time. We hate to see the qualifying streak come to an end especially as well as we’ve been running of late, but we’ll get some test laps in between here and Topeka and we’ll get back on track.

“Both of our qualifying runs on Friday were unfortunately needed to get the chassis dialed in again. Saturday’s early session netted us our first full run in the car and by five thousandths of a second we were sitting on the outside of the 16 car field, yet we were the 5th fastest car of the session, so we know the guys in the engine shop did their job. We know that Jerry Haas and his guys did their job too, we’ve just got to fine tune the chassis they gave us back, and that’s just a matter of getting some laps on the car to get it dialed in again.”

Commerce held a special place in Brogdon’s heart adding more pressure to qualify. It was at Atlanta Dragway one year ago that Steve Kent and Brogdon solidified their relationship with Victor Cagnazzi and debuted a Charter Communications-sponsored Pontiac Pro Stocker during the NHRA Southern Nationals. Brogdon responded to the opportunity by qualifying in the field, a feat which had been challenge prior.

Brogdon will attempt to get the car back up to speed during this weekend’s NHRA Summernationals in Topeka, Kan.

“After being the #2 qualifier in St. Louis, we know we’re ready to do battle with the rest of the field,” Brogdon said. “With the way the Final Countdown works, we just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing and start building momentum for the rest of the year. This weekend’s setback may cost us in the K & N Horsepower Challenge at Norwalk, but obviously it’s the season championship chase that’s the most important, and I’m pretty sure we’ll be around at the end of the season to mix it up with the rest of the field.”