Madison Payne Qualifies Second and Goes to Quarterfinals in Brainerd

Madison Payne, who is driving the Muscle Milk A/Fuel Dragster on a part-time basis gained some more respect when she qualified second with a sizzling 5.17 at 279 MPH at the Lucas Oil Nationals held at Brainerd International Raceway. "Madison is still learning and improving at every race. When she ran the 5.17 we were ecstatic. It was one of our better runs. It had been a while since her last race and she needed a little bit of refreshing but she is making good strides and moving forward" said Duane Shields, who is the primary driver and team owner.

In round one, Madison took on Marina Anderson. At the hit, it was Anderson out first with a .060 light to Madison's .159 but by the time the cars crossed the finish line, Madison had already gained over 2 tenths on Anderson and took the win light with a stout 5.25 at 275 MPH to Anderson's 5.59 at 228 MPH to advance to the next round.

In the quarterfinal round, Madison faced the four-time World Champ Joey Severance. At the hit, Severance was out first with a .034 to Madison's close .036. It was a close side-by-side race all the way to the finish line representing the best racing NHRA has to offer. At the stripe, it was Severance with a 5.26 at 275 MPH over Madison's oh-so-close 5.27 at 277 MPH. "It was a two for one race as the winner got a bye into the finals. Joey had a great light but so did Madison. We just came up on the wrong side of the race. In hindsight, all we could have done was give it a little more power" Duane noted.

Along with a great showing on the track, Brainerd is one of the Muscle Milk team's favorite stops on the NHRA tour because of the Zoo, a large camping area that is part of the Brainerd facility and full of thousands of fans. "Brainerd is always a great race with all of the extracurricular activities. The Zoo makes this race fun and we have great interaction with the fans here Duane added.

Next weekend, the team moves on to Maplegrove Raceway for the re-scheduled Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event and then it will be on to Indy for the US Nationals. Duane and Madison would like to thank Muscle Milk, NGK Spark Plugs, GRP Connecting Rods, Clean Boost, SRI, and Brad Anderson Enterprises for their support of Shield's Racing.