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"We have a new car that we really haven't figured out yet ... We're just going to concentrate on the run at hand, that's all we can do is to try to improve each run." -- Shelly Howard

The saying "jumping into the deep end" comes to mind when discussing Top Alcohol Dragster driver Shelly Howard's competition debut of her new Dave Uyehara chassis during this weekend's Mac Tools Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. Howard and her team aren't going in timidly, however.

Howard and her Tulsa, Okla.-based team feel pretty confident of their chances behind the leadership of their veteran tuner, two-time World Champion Tom Conway. They plan to use the same "one round at a time" mentality that brought them so much success last year, and not get caught up in the hype of one of the biggest TAD fields in recent memory (31 cars pre entered for 16-car field).

"I'm sure it will be a tough race this weekend," said Howard. "There are going to be a lot of good cars here this weekend, but we can't worry about that. We have a new car that we really haven't figured out yet. We really would have liked to race in Houston last weekend before coming all the way out here, but we really didn't have a choice to skip this race because they took so many races in our part of the country away from us. We're just going to concentrate on the run at hand, that's all we can do is to try to improve each run.

"Naturally, you want to win every race you enter," Howard continued. "But if I am worried about that when the first qualifying run comes around, then I am cheating myself and the team because my full focus is not on the run at hand. This car acts different from our old car, so its going to take the full effort of everyone on the team to get going in the right direction as soon as possible. I don't have a doubt my team will get their job done, I just have to focus on doing my job."