Topeka, Prerace: For Springfield, Ill. favorite, Tim Wilkerson, rolling into Heartland Park Topeka for the O’Reilly Summer Nationals as the NHRA POWERade points leader carries a special pressure that he and his team have never experienced. The unassuming talent behind the Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS Funny Car does not want the added pressure brought on by his recent good fortune to cloud his focus and get in the way of the job at hand.

“It feels good to be in first place in the points,” expressed Wilkerson, “but I don’t want to make a big deal out of it. I try not to let the pressure of being in first place get to me and the guys, and try not to pay attention to the hoopla surrounding us. The media is kind of wearing me out. I think they and the fans are making more out of it than we are, but that’s part of the fun. Don’t get me wrong, it makes us really feel good to have all the fans congratulating us and cheering for us, but we don’t want it to go to our heads. It’s still early in the season. And like Cruz (Pedregon) said, it’s going to be a long dog fight and we want to make it to the end. I hope everyone still loves us as much at the end of the year.

“It’s a long road and we have a lot of races coming up. There are a whole pile of good teams out there nipping at our heels. And we’re going to have to deal with the new chassis issue soon. So, we have to stay focused and keep up the hard work because things can change in an instant.”

Wilkerson has a strong history at Heartland Park Topeka. For the past several years, he has qualified in the top half of the field and been able to go rounds on race day. He certainly would like to continue the trend.

“Topeka’s been pretty good to me,” said Wilkerson, “and I hope it doesn’t let me down this year. The weather forecast is supposed to be hot. And I’d like that because I’m tired of these cold tracks that we’ve been dealing with lately. We’d like to leave on Sunday night in the same condition as we came, maybe even with a little bigger buffer.”

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