Duane Shields Dallas wrap up

Shields Unable to Defend Title

Dallas - As the defending champion of the O’Reilly Fall Nationals, Duane Shields hoped to repeat his success from last year’s race. Unfortunately, that wasn’t in the cards for the driver of the Shortline Express as some traction problems sent him home early.

After getting in the show with a 5.53 at 269 MPH that landed him in the 14th spot, Shields ended up smoking the tires during the final qualifying lap which presented him and his crew the dilemma of having to soften the tune-up in order to avoid smoking the tires, yet still make a quick enough run to get past Kim Harker, who qualified third.

At the hit, Shields gave the track to much power and smoked the tires after a slight starting line advantage. Shields pedaled it but despite his effort, Harker was long gone and posted a 5.35 at 261 MPH to Shield’s disappointing 6.43 at 255 MPH. “We missed the tune-up in the first round but did find some more power in Dallas. We are going to head home to Vegas and start testing in order to work on our hot weather tune-up for next year. We need to tighten up the car and get back on track. Once we're done with testing, we'll head to Pomona and wrap up the season" Shields said after the event.