Qualified: No. 8 (3.929 E.T. at 326.00 MPH)

The Results: E1: 4.523 E.T. at 185.28 MPH defeated by John Force 4.025 E.T. at 322.96 MPH

“Broken blower drive shaft. It’s the shaft behind the upper pulley that spins the rotors in the supercharger, and it snapped. Wow. We’re finding a lot of ways to lose right now and that’s the problem with the Countdown, you can’t have these stumbles. We had a wonderful first round car even when we were struggling in the middle part of the season, and now three first round losses in a row. Barring a miracle, we’re not going to be running for a championship, we’re going to be running for trophies at the next four races. We are going to stay and test tomorrow. This is devastating, there’s no way to spin this and say ‘gee we’re going to make the best of this.’ We’re going to do the best we can from here on out, but it’s a gut punch to get two first round losses to open up the Countdown. We’ll run our car tomorrow, we’ll try some things that we think might give us a benefit and now we’re in a situation where not only do we have to win the next couple of races, we have to rely on four or five other cars losing first or second round. It’s not impossible, but we’re going to just control our own destiny at this point.”

Countdown to the Championship Ranking: No. 9

…overjoyed at the fact that I am now in my twelfth year of remission, have a gorgeous wife and two perfect children, and have the job that I’d always dreamed of.