It only took 4.527-seconds for Foley to drive his way to the finish line and in doing so, the time stood as the best of the round for quite a while. When the smoke had finally cleared at the end of the night session, Foley was seeded into the field in the No.7 position.

            After four more qualifying sessions that saw the weather not cooperate with race car tune-ups, Foley remained in the No.7 position going into Monday’s final eliminations for the largest race of the year.

            Team co-owner Tim Lewis said, “This is only the second time we’ve qualified in the top half of the field, giving us lane choice for the first round, so to say we’re ecstatic is an understatement.”

            In the opening round on Monday, the Foley & Lewis car smoked the tires shortly after leaving the starting line, negating any chance of surviving the round.

            Foley said, “We broke an input shaft in the clutch during Saturday night’s qualifying session, which ruined our good clutch assembly. It forced us to go to our back-up unit, for which we had very little data in order to tune it. In the first round, we simply overpowered the race track, but we’re confident in what we need to accomplish to return to our consistent form.

            “Since we announced our plans to compete full-time on the NHRA POWERade circuit in 2008,” Foley said, “we’ve sort of been using the remaining races this year to perfect our combination. We’re in the process of hiring new full-time personnel and both Tim Lewis and Doug Kuch [crew chief], along with myself, have had a number of meetings and discussions with others who are seeing what we have to offer.

            “We can never thank Evan Knoll enough for giving us this opportunity,” Foley added, “and we’re certain we’ll be able to  be a contender for the 2008 NHRA Countdown to the Championship.”

For more information on Foley & Lewis, please visit www.dougfoley.com

For more information on the Torco Mach Series Accelerator products, please visit www.torcoracefuels.com.