Duane Shields Goes to Semi-Finals in Muscle Milk Debut

Duane Shields debuted his new-look Muscle Milk A/Fuel Dragster in Pomona at the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals presented by Protect the Harvest and had great results by making it all the way to the semi-finals where he lost a close race to eventual winner Shawn Cowie. "We couldn't wait for the Winternationals so we could debut the new Muscle Milk - CleanBoost dragster in front of the NHRA fans who support us year after year" Duane said.

Duane struggled with a new tune-up in qualifying but still made it into the field in the tenth position. "We tested in Vegas and had good results but we didn't have the same success in qualifying here so we switched back to our old reliable tune-up before eliminations," Duane said

In round one, Duane faced Southern California fireman Johnny Ahten. At the hit, Ahten got the starting line advantage but Duane was able to drive around him to secure the first-round win with a competitive 5.31 at 278 MPH to Athen's 5.46 at 267 MPH. "After going back to our old baseline we were instantly happy with the results" Duane observed.

In round two, Duane took on the four-time National Champion, Joey Severance. As both cars left the line they each began to experience tire shake as the track began to cool off late in the day. Severance was having the most difficult time of the two cars and Duane was able to pull away for the win with a 5.38 at 275 MPH to Severance's 5.78 at 209 MPH. "We hopped it up against Joey and the race turned out to be a contest of who shook the least and he had the hardest time getting down the track so we managed to get the win" Duane said.

In the semi-finals, Duane raced Canadian Shawn Cowie. Cowie got out of the gate first and never looked back and covered Duane with a 5.20 at 278 MPH package to Duane's valiant 5.29 at 276 MPH. "Shawn simply outran us. We just didn't have enough muscle to beat him" Duane admitted.

Next, the team moves east to Belle Rose, LA for a Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Regional event on February 28 - March 1. Duane would like to thank Muscle Milk, NGK, SRI, GRP, CleanBoost and Brad Anderson Enterprises for their support this season.

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