Shields Takes Quarter Final Finish at Dodge NHRA Finals in Las Vegas

Las Vegas - The Muscle Milk A/Fuel Dragster rebounded from an intermittent mechanical problem that hurt the team's performance in two consecutive races in Texas. At this weekend's Dodge Finals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Duane Shields qualified fifth with a fine 5.30 at 275 MPH. "The car ran well and it did what we wanted it to do" Duane said after the event.

In the first round, Duane raced Nick Januik. At the hit, Duane was out of the hole first with a .086 to Januik's .508. Duane's car shook bad and he had to pedal. Fortunately, Duane was able to maintain his lead and beat Januik to the finish line stripe with a 5.49 at 270 MPH.

In the quarterfinals, Duane raced familier east coast challenger Jackie Fricke. At the hit it was Fricke out first with an .067 to Duane's .091. Both A/Fuelers were on a great run with Duane stopping the clock with a quicker 5.33 at 275 MPH to Fricke's close 5.34 at 272 MPH. But it was Fricke that got the win with the holeshot. "We backed the power down going into the second round so it would be a smooth run and it was. So, this time it was the driver that let down his crew by losing on a holeshot" Duane said.

Next weekend will be the final race of the year as the Lucas Oil series has one more event in Las Vegas even though the pro series ended this weekend due to COVID 19 and the cancellation of the NHRA Finals in Pomona. "We will see if we can win before calling it a season" he said. Duane would like to thank his sponsors including Muscle Milk, NGK, Brad Anderson Enterprises, GRP Connecting Rods, SRI, CleanBoost and Accelerated Travel.