---

Keith Haney Racing cars poised for breakthrough in Charlotte

The Keith Haney Racing ADRL Pro Nitrous team of Keith Haney and Monroe Guest continued to make improvements during two rounds of qualifying during Dragstock IX at zMax Dragway on Friday.

Haney and Guest were hoping to get even better in the third qualifying session, but rain interrupted activities Friday night. Q3 and Q4 will be run Saturday morning, with eliminations beginning at 3:30 p.m. EDT.

Guest is No. 12 after a pass of 4.096 seconds at 183.59 mph, with Haney slotted at No. 18 with a run of 4.442 at 144.80 mph. The top 16 qualify for eliminations.

The Haney/Guest team took delivery of new 2012 Chevrolet Camaro race cars in February from Stroupe Race Cars. After some issues with one engine supplier, Haney switched to Reher-Morrison power, and the move has been seamless.

Two-and-a-half months ago, Jeff Pierce was brought on as crew chief, and he has made numerous changes to the cars in preparation for the team's first race, in Martin, Mich., last month.

"We went through the new car/team blues," Haney said. "The right hand didn't know what the left hand was doing. This race, everybody's come here and done their job. We've all worked together as a team, and that's pretty special."

Plus, both cars debuted new three-speed transmissions for Charlotte.

"We have changed literally everything since Day 1," Haney said. "It'll take us time to get ours there, but we'll get there. We're only going to get faster as a team. As we work as a team, we get better.
And as we find what the cars and the chassis like, they'll get better."

Haney noted the improvement for his car from Q1 to Q2, as he went 4.688 seconds at 126.33 mph in the first session before the team made some adjustments for Q2.

"Mine's a little more finicky than the other car," Haney said. "It's making a little more horsepower, and not every car is the same. With mine, we've been chasing the chassis setup. The motor's there; Reher-Morrison has done a phenomenal job.

"We definitely made progress in the second one, and we were really looking forward to this third session. We did some more shock adjustments for this next hit, and we were hoping to make it down the track with a good run."

Still, Haney is ready to put the car in the top 16 Saturday.

"We're very confident we can put it in the show," Haney said. "Are we going to be No. 1 qualifier? Probably not. But they know we'll come. We've got the right parts, the right pieces and the right people. That's what it takes it make a good race team."

Guest's first pass put his car No. 12 after one session, though a conservative setup left room for improvement.
"First round went very well," Guest said. "The car went straight down the groove, no shake, and we ran a 4.09. We were soft on the start, which we knew we would be. We just wanted to get a good baseline. Jeff tuned her up for the second pass to see if we could get a little more out of her, and she shook pretty much at the hit. It shook hard enough that it knocked the hoodscoop off."

The hoodscoop flew into the air during Q2, and Guest was forced to abort the run. The team made quick repairs, and Guest was ready for Q3.

"We were ready to go for Round 3, but obviously it's a rainout," Guest said. "We'll have her dialed for kill for Round 3 and 4 and see if we can't put it in the top half of the field.

"I think session three, we should be able to pick up maybe a tenth. Session four will give us our first- or second-round tuneup for eliminations, and then Jeff will start digging through the books, looking Round 3 and round 4 for winner's circle pictures."

Back to News