Duane Shields and PEAK A/Fuel Dragster Go Two Rounds at Indy

Courtesy of Rich Bailey

Nate Van Wagnen photo



At the 60th annual Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals, it was two races in one for Duane Shields. Beside competing for the US National title, he had a little bit of unfinished business to attend to as the NHRA ran the final two rounds of the Lucas Oil Nationals from Brainerd during qualifying.

Duane was competing against Randy Meyer in the postponed semi-final round. At the start, Duane had to pedal the car but still had a super close race along side Meyer. At the other end it was Meyer taking the win with a 5.32 to Duane’s close 5.35.

Duane was then able to concentrate on winning the prestigious US Nationals title. In round one, Duane who qualified ninth with a 5.35 at 265 MPH faced Ashley Sanford. At the hit, Sanford red lit and then shook the tires. Duane went on to make a very smooth run after battling tire shake most of the weekend. Duane recorded a 5.37 at 263 MPH to advance to round two.

In the second round, Duane was determined to return the favor from his earlier defeat as he again faced Randy Meyer. As the lights came down, Duane was out of the gate first with an 0.050 to Meyer’s slower 0.094. Duane then experienced some early tire shake but was able to still make a race out of it. At the stripe, Meyer won a close one again as he rung up a 5.31 at 269 MPH to Duane’s valiant 5.37 at 268 MPH. The margin of victory for Meyer was just .0128 of a second.

Duane was very disappointed with the loss but happy with his team's effort. “The only reason we go to Indy is to win and Randy Meyer got me twice this weekend. We gave it a good effort but Indy plays out differently than other races so you never know what’s going to happen. We faced some of the best competition out there so we had the tune up on the edge and it was either going to work or it wasn't” Duane said.

Duane would like to congratulate Jay and Shelly Payne and the entire PEAK Top Alcohol Funny Car team on there big win at Indy as well as thank PEAK Antifreeze and Motor Oil, Final Charge, Blue Def, NGK, GRP and Brad Anderson Enterprises for all of their support in 2014.