Championship Drag Racing

NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals
Las Vegas, Nevada
(April 1-4)

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Eric Medlen Castrol Syntec Ford Mustang Funny Car

Reports: Sunday

Las Vegas, Sunday: John Force sliced almost 40 points off Del Worsham's points lead and Eric Medlen reached the semifinals for the second time in four races as Team Castrol began to make its presence felt in the battle for the 2004 NHRA POWERade points championship.

Force, only the ninth qualifier at the rain-plagued fifth annual Summitracing.com Nationals, took out both Cruz and Tony Pedregon before his Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang suffered traction problems in a semifinal duel with Phil Burkart.

Medlen, meanwhile, made the third time a charm against Jerry Toliver. After losing to Toliver in the first round in two of the season's first three races, the rookie driver of the Castrol Syntec Ford got even at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Medlen used his best time of the weekend (4.836) to get past Toliver, then beat No. 3 qualifier Ron Capps before dropping a narrow semifinal decision to Whit Bazemore. The performance enabled Medlen to move up to sixth in ploints.

Gary Densham, driver of the third Team Castrol Ford, posted top speed of the meet at 327.27 mph but was upset in round two by Bazemore.