Daniel Wilkerson and the SCAG Power Equipment Ford Mustang Funny Car team are eager to improve their race day performance as they enter this weekend’s DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway.
Though Daniel has himself not handled driving duties at Sonoma Raceway, the Wilkerson name has had success at the Sonoma Nationals. Daniel’s father and crew chief Tim has picked up victory at the facility twice, in 2004 and 2009 and was runner-up in 2011 and 2017.
“I have great memories of driving down the coast with my family from Seattle to Sonoma and winning both. Since my family is still young, we decided this year I’d fly home for a local adventure in the caverns of Missouri. I miss my wife and kids like crazy when I’m on the road, so I am glad I made the trip home for a mini vacay between these back-to-back summer races,” said Daniel who is coming off a No. 8 qualifying position and first-round exit at the Northwest Nationals. “Hopefully this weekend in Sonoma we can work off of our decent round one run from Seattle and go deep on Sunday. Our SCAG Summit Ford team is hungry and, quite frankly, we got a little spoiled with our semifinal performances earlier in the year, so we need to go rounds.”
Wilkerson has already had a standout season with a career best finish of runner-up at the Four Wide Nationals in Charlotte where he also recorded his career best speed (333.16 mph) and elapsed time (3.885 seconds) and at the New England Nationals in Epping, N.H. he had his career best qualifying finish at No. 4. He’s had two semifinal appearances in Chicago and Epping, N.H. More recently however, Wilkerson has had first round exits in three of his last four starts. A performance he hopes to quickly turn around as he competes for the 2024 Rookie of the Year Award.
Competition at the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway kicks off with four rounds of qualifying Friday at 5:30 and 8:15 p.m. and Saturday at 12:30 and 3:00 p.m. Eliminations will begin Sunday at 10:30 a.m. Television coverage of qualifying will be Sunday at 2:00 p.m. ET on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) while eliminations will be on FOX Broadcasting Network (FOX) Sunday at 4:00 p.m. ET.
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