The teams no give up attitude and hard worked paid off in the end. “What else could I ask for, am I excited about going to the finals yeah I’m really excited. I wish I could have won but if you look at the increments there is just no way. If we would have squeezed it really hard and run the best pass that we could run all weekend which could have been a 6.92ET. We ran a 7 flat which was not close. If I went a 6.92ET to his 6.86ET I could have a triple 0 light and he could have a .150 light and he would still out run me.”
Despite losing the respect between competitors is always there. “You got to give hats off to the Arana’s there good people. To be in the finals at the US Nationals I really don’t know what it means, but I am learning quickly about how big this race really is and I got to thank the NHRA, Full Throttle and Mac Tools for putting this on it was great.”
“To come over so much controversy just to be here and qualify was a big thing somebody told me and to go to the finals, first final of the year, all my wins were on hole shots except against Jimmy Underdahl and in the finals to do a double 06[reaction time] and get beat I have nothing to be ashamed about neither does my crew.”
Landing a spot in the countdown in ninth the team heads into the remainder of the season with a positive attitude and knowing that many more hours will be spent working in the shop. “We will just go back to the shop and work a little and try to come up with a little stronger combination. Also to debut a brand new bike that we never been down the track on but two pass and one of the two passes we blew up. To come out this weekend was a big chance with a new bike over the old bike, but we really feel like its going to be a couple miles-per-hour faster so we will run this bike the rest of the season.”
“When you try a knew bike you could have electrical problems, launching problems, frames problems you do not know what your up against. A lot of stuff could shorting out and whatever so to take a chance to bring out a new bike at the US Nationals Mark [crew chief Mark Peiser] and I both discussed it and he was like were taking a chance, but we got to do it sooner or later. To have a brand new bike and go to the finals it was pretty awesome.”
Just because they debuted the bike that does not mean it was completely ready in fact they have a few idea’s left to try. “The bike is going to get faster we have some things we can do to the body that will make a difference it could pick up a little bit or it could hurt us but we think it is going to pick up. So that will be an advantage there the engine we were running was not our best we did not have the parts to put the good stuff together so to accomplish what we did today with what we had was a really big step.”
Without the dedication of his White Alligator Racing team Jerry would have not been in the position he was on race day and have over come all of the problems throughout the week. “I am really thankful to these guys because it is more for them all the work they put in. I live in Louisiana and I work everyday, but they are actually wracking there brains on what to do and to go to the finals for those guys is really a plus. We got some promise, we got a good bike were are going to get it tuned and we still got to dial in it. Were not even close and hopefully we can do better”