Three all-Countdown matches and an intriguing pairing will highlight the first round of Top Fuel. Playoff contenders Steve Torrence and Bob Vandergriff Jr., Doug Kalitta and Brandon Bernstein, and Shawn Langdon and Morgan Lucas will do battle.

Dixon

alBalooshi

Larry Dixon, meanwhile, will square off with one of the drivers who took over his spot on the Al-Anabi team, rapidly improving rookie Khalid alBalooshi. After losing in round one at the first 12 events this season, alBalooshi has won his first-round race at six of the last seven races, including each of the last five. The two qualified just .003-second apart, so anything could happen.

The match between former teammates Lucas and Langdon will be just the third since Langdon joined the Al-Anabi team this season; they're 1-1 to date. The Bernstein-Kalitta duel is a familiar one; it will mark the fifth time in the last six races that the two have raced, including the last four straight. Bernstein has won their last three meetings.

As the result of qualifying, the incoming tie for the top spot in Top Fuel was broken because Antron Brown outpointed teammate Spencer Massey, 12-11, and enters eliminations with a one-point lead.

Capps

Gray

In Funny Car, teammates and fellow Countdown combatants Courtney Force and Mike Neff will race. Neff, who entered the event second in points, dropped to third behind Jack Beckman after struggling in qualifying. Other all-Countdown battles will pit Cruz Pedregon against Jeff Arend, Robert Hight against Tim Wilkerson, and DSR teammates Ron Capps and Johnny Gray.

"When you have to run a Johnny Gray in the first round, you're a little apprehensive, but we'll have lane choice,” said Capps, the current points leader. “It seems like every time we've won an event this year we've had a super tough race in the first round. I like it when it's this tough. I get up for racing Johnny and our other cars."

Countered Gray, “We're a little bit behind in the points deal here, and the best way to catch up is to take the No. 1 guy out first round."

Even as the low qualifier, Beckman doesn’t have an easy draw in rookie Alexis DeJoria, who struggled with clutch parts early in qualifying, and her 4.18 might not be indicative of the hand she holds because it came on a less than perfect run, with a cylinder out at 800 feet and a speed of just 291.13 mph.

Line

Coughlin

Pro Stock has a pair of crucial first-round matches, too, with Countdown players Jason Line and Jeg Coughlin Jr. going off against one another, as well Mike Edwards taking on Larry Morgan. In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Countdown contestants Scotty Pollacheck and Michael Ray will square off, as will Karen Stoffer and Matt Smith and Shawn Gann and LE Tonglet. The Hectors — Arana Sr. and Jr. — are on opposite sides of the ladder as are the Harleys of Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines. Of course, none of those dominant four made the final round last weekend in Dallas, so there are no givens.

All eight incoming track records were broken multiple times throughout qualifying. Here’s a look at the carnage.

A well-attended Track Walk featuring AAA Insurance Funny Car driver Robert Hight (above) took place before the start of final eliminations today, giving fans the chance to walk on the actual racing surface that is host to 300-mph race cars this weekend. (Below) Teammates and top championship contenders Tony Schumacher — accompanied by daughter Jacqueline — and Spencer Massey shared a laugh before the opening round. The two are on opposite sides of the ladder.

Defending NHRA Full Throttle Funny Car champ Matt Hagan, left, chatted with Gateway owner Curtis Francois, one of the many people responsible for bringing NHRA Drag Racing back to the St. Louis area.

National event-winning Top Fuel and Funny Car driver Melanie Troxel, right, joined Paul Page in the ESPN2 broadcast booth this weekend while regular color commentator Mike Dunn attends to family business. ESPN2's three-hour coverage of final eliminations airs beginning at 8 p.m. ET.

[11:30 a.m.] Charlotte winner Shawn Langdon had low e.t. of round one of Top Fuel, a 3.771, and will have lane choice over No. 3 qualifier David Grubnic. Other second-round pairings (lane choice first): Steve Torrence vs. Antron Brown, Tony Schumacher vs. Brandon Bernstein, and Spencer Massey vs. Khalid alBalooshi.

[11:35 p.m.] Mike Neff (above) survived a harrowing first-round race to keep his Funny Car championship dream alive. He and teammate Courtney Force both had traction problems in their race; she got loose early and clouted the left guardwall while Neff got loose further down and fought for control, yet managed to keep his Castrol GTX Mustang in his lane until he was past the finish line, where the car veered across the centerline.

Tire smoke also settled the race between Dale Creasy Jr. and John Force; like his daughter, Force smoked the tires early in the left lane, and Creasy lost control further downtrack, touching but not crossing the centerline for the win, his third straight win over Force (and fourth in the last five after starting out 0-11 against him). Second-round Funny Car pairings (lane choice first): Jack Beckman vs. Jeff Arend, Tony Pedregon vs. Mike Neff, Tim Wilkerson vs. Creasy, and Ron Capps vs. Matt Hagan.

[12:10 p.m.] Dave Connolly (right) continues to wreak havoc in the Pro Stock Countdown playoffs; the U.S. Nationals winner — who did not qualify for the postseason battle due to running just a partial schedule — defeated playoff contender Ron Krisher in round one and will face his teammate, championship hopeful Erica Enders, in round two in a rematch of the surprising Indy final. Connolly won at Gateway in 2007 and raced to the final round in 2008. Second-round pairings (lane choice first): Jason Line vs. Buddy Perkinson, Enders vs. Connolly, Allen Johnson vs. Mike Edwards, and Greg Anderson vs. Vincent Nobile.

[12:30 p.m.] Hector Arana Sr. set the pace in round one of Pro Stock Motorcycle with low e.t., a 6.484. He'll have lane choice when he takes on Shawn Gann in round two. Other second-round pairings (lane choice first): Hector Arana Jr. vs. Scotty Pollacheck, Andrew Hines vs. Karen Stoffer, and Chip Ellis vs. Eddie Krawiec.

[1:10 p.m.] Brandon Bernstein defeated Tony Schumacher in round two of Top Fuel on a holeshot after both ran 3.795. Bernstein got off the line first, .041 to .055, to defeat Schumacher for the first time in more than a year. Gateway has been good to Bernstein in the past; he won the 2005 and was runner-up in 2006 and 2009. All four winners were grouped within a hundredth of a second. Antron Brown earned lane choice over Bernstein in the semifinals with a 3.787, and Spencer Massey and David Grubnic ran respective passes of 3.782 and 3.797.

[1:15 p.m.]  Former NHRA Funny Car champ Tony Pedregon (above), who had won just one round all season, has collected two so far today, running a 4.111 in round one to beat good friend Bob Tasca III and 4.109 to upset third-place Mike Neff in round two. He'll run Jack Beckman, who has lane choice after a 4.093, in the semifinals. (Right) Matt Hagan and crew chief Tommy DeLago have reached the Funny Car semifinals for the seventh straight race but will cede lane choice to home-state favorite Tim Wilkerson after respective second-round runs of 4.084 and 4.116.

[1:50 p.m.] The top four in Pro Stock points all advanced to the semifinals, but Vincent Nobile (above) needed a holeshot to do it when he beat Greg Anderson, 6.544 to 6.534. He'll face Allen Johnson in the semifinals; A.J. will have lane choice based on his 6.517. The other semi's will pit Jason Line, with lane choice, against Erica Enders.

[1:55 p.m.] The Pro Stock Motorcycle semifinals will have a familiar look with the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidsons squaring off with the Arana family Lucas Oil Buells. After experiencing transmission problems in round one, reigning season champ and points leader Eddie Krawiec (right) ran 6.810 at top speed of the meet, 197.10 mph, in round two and will have lane choice over Hector Arana Sr. Krawiec's teammate, Andrew Hines, will pick his lane against Hector Arana Jr. after respective passes of 6.850 and 6.882.

If today's crowd is any indication, Midwest fans are thrilled to have the NHRA back at Gateway Motorsports Park.

[2:45 p.m.] For the second week in a row, the Top Fuel final will pit Don Schumacher Racing teammates Antron Brown (above) and Spencer Massey (right). Brown won in Dallas to tie Massey atop the points, then eked ahead by one point during qualifying this weekend, so the final round will determine who takes the points lead into the second half of the Countdown playoffs next weekend in Reading. Brown defeated Brandon Bernstein with a 3.812 but will give up lane choice to Massey, who ran 3.795 to defeat David Grubnic.

[2:45 p.m.] Low qualifier Jack Beckman (above)  used a second straight 4.093-second pass to advance to the Funny Car final, where he will have lane choice against Matt Hagan and the DieHard team. Hagan, runner-up last weekend in Dallas, defeated points leader and DSR teammate Ron Capps in round two, then took out Tim Wilkerson with a 4.137 in the semifinals.

[3 p.m.] As it is in Top Fuel, so it is in Pro Stock: The final round will be a repeat of the Dallas event with Erica Enders (above) taking on Allen Johnson (right). Johnson, who got the better of Enders in Dallas, barely escaped to the final after winning an 8.65 to 9.39 pedalfest with Vincent Nobile (reversing the outcome of a similar match between the two earlier this year in Norwalk). Enders will have final-round lane choice after running 6.531 to defeat low qualifier Jason Line, who also got loose. With the round-win, Enders took over third place in the standings from Nobile.

[3:10 p.m.] Shut out from a final round last week in Dallas for the first time in 13 events, Harley-Davidson teammates Andrew Hines (above left) and Eddie Krawiec (above right) will decide Pro Stock Motorcycle honors in St. Louis after each beat a member of the Arana family in the semifinals. Hines rode around Hector Jr.'s .005 holeshot to win with a 6.874, and points leader Krawiec earned lane choice with a 6.852 in defeating Hector Sr.

[4 p.m.] Troy Coughlin, who also has wins in Pro Stock and Super Gas, took the Pro Mod title over Danny Rowe.

Eddie Krawiec, near lane, moved a step closer to his third NHRA Full Throttle Pro Stock Motorcycle championship after claiming his seventh victory of the season. Krawiec won after teammate Andrew Hines fouled in the final.

Erica Enders' dream season continued when she grabbed her fourth Pro Stock title with a 6.538 to 6.540 holeshot win over current points leader Allen Johnson, far lane, in the final.

Jack Beckman, near lane, scored his third Funny Car win of the season in the final opposite Matt Hagan, who red-lighted and had a small fire midway through the run. Beckman is now 30 points from leader Ron Capps.

Top Fuel No. 1 qualifier Antron Brown, far lane, collected his sixth win of 2012 by defeating teammate Spencer Massey in a 3.76 to 3.81 final that determined the points leader. Brown's time was the quickest of eliminations.

Full Throttle event winners, from left, Antron Brown, Jack Beckman, Erica Enders, and Eddie Krawiec.

Photos provided by National DRAGSTER, the official newsweekly of the NHRA

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