Muscle Milk Team Reaches the Finals Again

For the second race in a row, Duane Shields and the Muscle Milk Team once again made it to the final round at an NHRA Lucas Oil Divisional event. But this time it was in dramatic fashion as they lost an engine during eliminations at Lebanon Valley Dragway in beautiful Upstate New York.

Duane Qualified well landing in the second position with a 5.43 at 270 MPH and once again faced Rich McPhillips whom he defeated in round one at the last Lucas Drag Racing Series event in Epping, NH. At the start, it was the Muscle Milk car out first as Duane had a .081 reaction time over McPhillips' 0.121. At the finish line, it was all Muscle Milk with Duane scoring a 5.39 at 271 MPH win over McPhillips' valiant 5.43 at 269 MPH.

As was the case two weeks ago, Duane received a single in the semi-finals because of a short field. However, this time it was a much more dramatic situation than in Epping. Between rounds, the team discovered it was necessary to replace the engine and since it was not discovered right away the team had just 35 minutes to do it! The Muscle Milk team got the new engine installed in the nick of time and staged the car to legally win the round. Duane was very pleased with his team's effort "I can't say enough about my guys. We didn't discover the engine problem right away so they really had to work fast to make up for lost time in order to have the car ready for the semi-finals" Duane said.

In the finals, Duane once again faced Jackie Fricke. Both drivers left together with an equal .075 reaction time. On the run, Duane experienced a clutch problem which slowed him down while Fricke was on a clean pass. At the finish line, it was Fricke ringing up the victory with a 5.29 at 273 MPH to Duane's 5.52 at 266 MPH. "We were glad to get in another final round but the clutch problem showed up at the wrong time" Duane said.

The team will now take a weekend off before heading to National Trail Raceway in Columbus, Ohio on July 17-19 for another NHRA Lucas Oil Series event. Duane would like to thank Muscle Milk, NGK, SRI, GRP, CleanBoost, and Brad Anderson Enterprises for their support.