Mon, 24 Sep 2007, 10:28 AM Gardella Speeds to a Win at another National Event

Courtesy of NHRA Communications Photo copyright 2007 Auto Imagery, Inc.

ENNIS, Texas --

Gary Gardella

After Gary Gardella won at the NHRA Sport Compact Nationals at the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals he was probably hoping all the Xplod Series races could be run at POWERade Series events.

Joining Gardella in the winner's circle was Pro RWD driver Brad Personett.

Gardella continued his winning streak with his third win in a row in a month. He won both the stand-alone race in August and the POWERade Series tie-in Xplod Series race at the beginning of the month in Indianapolis. These wins are helping him to gradually gain ground on the two drivers, Jason Hunt and Marty Ladwig that were ahead of him at the start of this race at Texas Motorplex.

Gardella's third win of the season in his Red Bull Chevy Cobalt was a show of performance never seen in Xplod Series history. He drove his car to a speed of 209.59 mph. Before the race in Indianapolis Gardella had never driven over 200 mph, and now he is approaching 210 mph. He needed all of that speed to reach the finish line first with a time of 7.23 seconds to Jason Hunt's equal time of 7.23 seconds at 201.16 mph. He now has nine career wins.

Brad Personett

"What a phenomenal weekend," said Gardella. "I came into it wanting to get the win and get out with the same motor we started with. I accomplished that goal. We have been hurting a lot of motors lately by pushing things. This is a phenomenal Ecotec motor. It was an awesome final with Hunt, but the Red Bull Chevy Cobalt came out on top."

Personett drove his Titan Motorsports Scion tC to the win by defeating Manny Cruz in the finals of Pro RWD. He won with a slow time for him of 8.11 seconds at 204.54. This is his fifth win of the season and 18th of his career.

"We were trying a new tire on the car," said Personett. "We didn't have much luck with it. This was not a good show for the fans. We did recover and get a good speed, though. We are working on things and we will move on."

The Xplod Series' next event with all professional categories is the NHRA Sport Compact Fallnationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, Oct. 6-7.