Countdown to the Championship Ranking: No. 5
Charlotte II Event Highlights:
- Three-time event champion (2011, 2015, 2016)
- 2008 runner-up
2017 Charlotte II Recap:
Qualified fourth; Quarterfinal finish (defeated Terry McMillen in E1; defeated by Clay Millican in E2)
Last event (Dallas):
Qualified eleventh; Quarterfinal finish (defeated Doug Kalitta in E1; defeated by Tony Schumacher in E2)
2018 Season Statistics:
26 round wins; ranked fifth in points
Career Statistics:
403 races; 66 wins (16 Pro Stock Motorcycle); 49 No. 1 qualifiers (11 PSM)
Noteworthy:
- Leads the class in most victories (five) at zMAX Dragway:
- Spring: 2014, 2015
- Fall: 2011, 2015, 2016
- With his pink car, promoting the Matco Tools ‘Tools for the Cause’ campaign in which 15% of the purchase price of ‘Tools for the Cause’ merchandise will be donated directly to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
- Since ‘Tools for the Cause’ began in 2012, Matco has donated over $828,000 to breast cancer research
Quotable:
“The key in Charlotte will be to start off strong in the first round of qualifying. That’s what sets up the whole race weekend. If you start off with a good first-round qualifying run, then you can build off that and get better every run. For us, we’ve been missing that. If you start up behind the eight ball, then you go out Friday night and you can’t do what you want to do. You can’t cue it up and go for that number one spot, you’re forced to focus on just getting a good quality run that can put you in the top half of the field. If you can get that quality run in the first round, then the whole team can get in sync moving forward instead of playing catch-up and that’s what wins you races like we did in Seattle.”