BERNSTEIN USES RAIN DELAYS TO INTRODUCE TEAMMATES TO SOCCER

Rainy days at the racetrack are ideal times for drivers and crew members to get in some bonding time. Some guys play cards or share photos of their kids or tell stories of past racing glory.

For Brandon Bernstein, driver of the ProtectTheHarvest.com/MAVTV Top Fuel dragster, Sunday's mission during the rain-shortened 58th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Auto-Plus at Lucas Oil Raceway was to introduce his crew to English Premiere League soccer.

"There wasn't much to do other than watch soccer," Bernstein said. "I watched my team Man U (Manchester United) win, which was unbelievable because they were down a goal and scored twice in the last seven minutes of the match.

"It was pretty exciting up there and I got my crew chief Joe (Barlam) and the other guys into it too. They were screaming when they scored two goals like that. It was cool."

The remains of Hurricane Isaac made for slow going for much of the weekend, but the ProtectTheHarvest.com dragster made it down the track in two of the three qualifying rounds that were run and got into the field in the No. 10 spot.

"Not much you can do about the rain and the weather," Bernstein said. "It's unfortunate we didn't get all the qualifying runs in, because we feel like we could have run a little bit better and been higher in the field. But we're in and we can win from anywhere."

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