Championship Drag Racing

O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals
Memphis, Tenn.
(Aug. 20-22)

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Brandon Bernstein Budweiser Lucas Oil Top Fueler

Reports: Sunday Pre-race

Memphis, pre-race: The Budweiser/Lucas Oil Top Fuel team held their ground against the NHRA POWERade Top Fuel championship leader and gained a round on second place, despite a quarterfinals defeat at the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals.

In a very competitive field, Brandon Bernstein qualified fifth at Memphis Motorsports Park with a 4.583-second elapsed time at 320.51 mph.

Bernstein won the opening round of eliminations with a 4.763/300.26 to defeat a tire-smoking Cory McClenathan, 4.913/286.56.

The quarterfinals were a match between Bernstein and Scott Kalitta. It was a close duel down the track between the two rivals, but it was Kalitta first to the stripe with a 4.703/308.35 to Bernstein's 4.731/305.42.

"With the hot weather today, the track conditions were really tricky," said Bernstein. "The team is working hard and we're all pouring our heart and soul into this effort. On that run we were just a tick off, but that's all it took.

"We're headed to Indy to test for a couple of days to prepare for the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals Sept. 3-6."

Bernstein maintains his third place standing in the championship chase, now 36 points out of second, and 177 points out of the lead with six races remaining

Memphis, pre-race: Budweiser/Lucas Oil Top Fuel pilot Brandon Bernstein will be making his first professional pass down the Memphis Motorsports Park quarter-mile August 20 in the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals.

Brandon raced at this track in 2001, driving a Top Alcohol Dragster in the sportsman series in preparation for his jump to the 6500-horsepower Top Fuel cars following his father's retirement in 2002.

Though this is Bernstein's sophomore season in the Top Fuel category, he was injured May 18, 2003 in a racing accident in Englishtown, N.J., that sidelined him for the remainder of the year. His father, six-time NHRA champion Kenny, finished last season for him while he was recovering from his injuries.

Now completely recovered and in the middle of a vicious championship battle, Brandon is still a contender, but the Budweiser/Lucas Oil team needs to make a late-season rally as they proved they are capable of doing when they won four of the final five events last year with Kenny at the wheel.

"It's even more complicated than one would think," said Brandon. "It's hard enough to keep going rounds with so many cars in the field running so strong, but now we're trying to get used to a new tire compound, a new 85-percent nitro mixture, constrained wing angles that limit downforce, and hot, humid racing conditions. Even though this race is structured to run predominantly in the late hours, it's going to be very hot for at least the first rounds of qualifying each day and the first couple of rounds of eliminations Sunday.

"For the past several years, this race has been run in mid-September in cooler conditions. This year, the crew chiefs can throw out that data and start over, especially with the new rules.

"We're fortunate to have Tim Richards as crew chief, and Tim has a lot of experience to draw from. He adapts quickly to new conditions, but there are a couple of other crew chiefs out there that are long in experience as well."

Bernstein has won three events this season, finished runner-up once and has been the No. 1 qualifier four times.

"This is an enviable record," said Bernstein, "but we still need to keep the heat turned up and win some more events to get that $400,000 POWERade championship pay day."