Tue, 18 Jul 2006, 01:47 PM Wayne Dupuy Unexpectedly Leaves Doug Herbert Racing

Courtesy of Bill Walters Photo copyright 2006 Auto Imagery, Inc.

LINCOLNTON, N.C. --

Wayne Dupuy

Doug Herbert received a surprising phone call while boarding his flight leaving Denver on Sunday evening. Wayne Dupuy called to let him know that he was overloaded and needed to take a leave of absence and would not be able to continue as crew chief on the Snap-on Tools race team.

"To say I was shocked would be a huge understatement," said Herbert. "I spent time with Wayne after we lost in the first round and we were both encouraged with the consistency of the car in Denver and agreed that going to Seattle would be a great place to turn our season around. I had no clue Wayne was even contemplating a change. Since his accident last Thanksgiving I have stuck by Wayne and done everything that I could to help him and his family with the recovery. I wish Wayne the best."

Herbert raced to a career-best 6th place finish in the 2005 POWERade Drag Racing Series season-ending point's standings and ran a career-best 4.441 elapsed time in a No. 1 qualifying effort in Dallas with Dupuy as crew chief.

"Right now I am talking with several people about helping us run the car," said Herbert, an 8-time NHRA Top Fuel national event winner. "Luckily, I have a bunch of friends in the business and I am sure that we can find someone to help us even though it is a little tough on such short notice."