Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals event notebook
Sunday, June 28, 2009
News and notes from Sunday at the 3rd annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals from Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk. Compiled by the NHRA.com and National DRAGSTER staffs.
SUNDAY (Previous days: Friday I Saturday)
Last update: 6:05 p.m. Eastern (Click to latest item)
It's race day (9:15 a.m.): Welcome to the fourth and final day of the 3rd annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals. Skies are cloudy and overcast this morning, but previous days' forecasts that had threatened rain throughout Sunday have disappeared. This is the Midwest, after all.
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Today's forecast calls for partly cloudy weather all day, which surely will help the Pro cars find traction on what has been a bit of a tricky surface so far. The cloud cover should tighten up the grip. That's the good news; the bad news is that it makes partly moot all of the hot-track data the teams have gathered in the past few days.
We're about 45 minutes from the start of pre-race ceremonies, and last-minute adjustments are going on in the pits. We ran into Kurt Johnson's crew at breakfast this morning, and they report that they fixed the damage to the nose of his Cobalt with a carbon-fiber patch, which was hurt during a freak pileup in the turnoff area yesterday afternoon. This photo is from an interesting gallery posted on K.J.'s Facebook page. Similar repairs were going on in Rickie Jones' pit area.
Setting up (9:45 a.m.): NHRA officials have wheeled the pre-race stage into place. We're just a few minutes from driver introductions.
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Pre-race (10:45 a.m.): It was sprinkling lightly throughout pre-race ceremonies, and the assembled drivers were casting wary eyes at the ever-changing skies. If you believe the forecasts, this cloudy stuff should burn off by early afternoon, but the first round should be quick and interesting.
Track owner Bill Bader Jr., showcasing the family-type management that exemplifies the Bader philosophy, was out mingling with the fans who were front row at the stage, thanking them for coming out and promising them a great day of racing.
Special awards were also given. The two-car Moser Engineering Super Comp team of Rob Moser and Tim Irwin won the Best Appearing Car award. The Best Appearing Crew Wally went to the Top Alcohol Funny Car team of John Bojec. Best Engineered went to the air-ride Super Comp dragster of Rickie Adkins, who also snared that same honor at SMP's Lucas Oil Series event last month.
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Uh-oh ... rain (10:55 a.m.): Shows what the forecasters know. Just as pre-race is concluding, the skies open up with a genuine rain shower. The fans are heading for the cover beneath the grandstands, and, obviously, the start of the first round will be delayed. Irony: The U2 song "Beautiful Day" is playing on the track PA.
Drying begins (11:15 a.m.): The rain was heavy but thankfully short-lived. The NHRA Safety Safari presented by AAA is already on the track beginning the drying process. Brooms are brooming, jets are jetting, etc. No projected start time yet, but the little weather event is reported to have been the lone threat we're facing all day, and the sky already is beginning to lighten.
Here comes the sun (11:25 a.m.): Yes, it's our friend, Mr. Sun, making a late but welcome appearance. This surely will speed the drying process.
Getting close (12:05 p.m.): The crew chiefs are walking the track as drying nears its conclusion. Still sunny.
The first Top Fuel cars have pulled into the staging lanes. Clay Millican and Doug Kalitta will be the first pair. No surprise there as they are the Nos. 8 and 9 qualifiers.
The pre-rain schedule had called for us to run the first round of the Pros, then round two of the alky classes, then right back into the Pros. We'll assume for now that the same schedule is in place but subject to change.
The sun has gone behind a series of fast-moving but pretty much nonthreatening-appearing clouds. We're getting close (12:17).
We have nitro! (12:30): Following the invocation, the national anthem (complete with bombs bursting in air), the flag-carrying Jason Peters skydive landing, and the attack helicopter flyover, we have nitro, as Kalitta and Millican fire 'em up. Round one of Top fuel is under way.
Top Fuel round one (1:15 p.m.): We started with a pair of "upsets" as the lower-qualified cars of Millican and Tony Schumacher advanced. We're down for oil by Morgan Lucas, who fireballed his ride in losing to Schumacher.
After a 10-minute cleanup, we're back to racing. Cory Mac adds to the upsets by beating No. 4 qualifier Rod Fuller, then we're down for oil again from Pat Dakin after his loss to Spencer Massey. A short cleanup, only five minutes, and the rest of the round is clean and dry (except for the raw fuel from tons of dropped cylinders, that is).
In all, four of the eight winners were from the bottom half of the field.
Second-round pairings, lane choice in bold: Larry Dixon vs. Millican; McClenathan vs Antron Brown; Massey vs. Schumacher; Troy Buff vs. Brandon Bernstein.
Funny Car round one (1:40 p.m.): Ashley Force Hood beats Del Worsham despite a rapidly disintegrating blower belt that barely holds on through the lights. Judging by the images on ACDelco Vision, it's mere threads by the time she shuts 'er down. She's the first of four John Force Racing drivers to advance to round two; Mike Neff has low e.t. of the quartet (and all the cars) at 4.250, though Force ran 4.26 and Force Hood and Robert Hight identical 4.279s; talk about a consistent team. With a large contigent of Ford execs on hand, Bob Tasca III makes it five Fords in the next frame. There will be two Mustangs in the semi's as well thanks to the ladder pairings.
During this morning's rain delay, Bob Frey dropped an interesting bit of trivia on us: There has never, in the history of NHRA Funny Car racing, been a perfect eliminator ladder, one in which the top eight qualifiers all advanced to round two, the top four then moved into the semi's, the top two reached the final, and the No. 1 qualifier won. It's happened numerous times in the other three Pro classes, but never in Funny Car, and won't here after Jim Head's upset of No. 3 qualifier Tony Pedregon.
Second-round pairings, lane choice in bold: Neff vs. Tasca; Ron Capps vs. Force Hood; Hight vs. Force; Head vs. Jack Beckman.
Pro Stock round one (2 p.m.): Greg Stanfield drops an H bomb on K.J., scoring a holeshot win, 6.74 to 6.73, and Ron Krisher does likewise to birthday boy Dave Beckley, 6.73 to 6.71. W.J. adds to the holeshot count, winning by .003-second after he and Rodger Brogdon run identical 6.726s. Three races, three holeshot wins.
Jeg Coughlin, winner of yesterday's K&N Horsepower Challenge, beats Rickie Jones with a 6.69 and moves one round closer to a $25,000 double-up bonus he can earn by winning all four rounds today. He'll have to do it the hard way, without lane choice next round as opponent Mike Edwards had low for the round at 6.659.
Second-round pairings, lane choice in bold: Greg Anderson vs. Stanfield; Edwards vs. Coughlin; Allen Johnson vs. Krisher; Jason Line vs. W. Johnson.
Pro Stock Motorcycle round one (2:15 p.m.): Hector "the Hammer" Arana, the defending champ, gets nailed by a red-light, advancing Angie McBride. She'll have lane choice against Shawn Gann in round two. Eddie Krawiec has low e.t of the round at 7.034.
Second-round pairings, lane choice in bold: Andrew Hines vs. Doug Horne; Matt Guidera vs. Matt Smith; McBride vs. Gann; Krawiec vs. Karen Stoffer.
Round two of Pros begins (2:50 p.m.): After a quick second round of alcohol cars -- highlighted by Michael Manners' outstanding 5.201 blast in TAD, the quickest run of the season -- we're ready for round two of Top Fuel.
Top Fuel round two (3 p.m.): Brandon Bernstein gets away with one as Troy Buff lights the tires at the hit; B-Squared breaks traction farther downtrack and barely stays in his lane to trip the win light. "The Sarge" lights 'em up the same way in the other lane to advance Spencer Massey, who will have lane choice against Bernstein.
Larry Dixon defeats Clay Millican in a fashion similar to Bernstein and will give up lane choice to Antron Brown, whose 3.983 beat Cory McClenathan.
Funny Car round two (3:15 p.m.): In a battle for first place in the points, Ashley Force Hood and Ron Capps both get loose at half-track and battle their mounts to the win stripe, Capps coasting the last couple of hundred feet after banging the blower and AFH's entry slip-sliding like a sprint car to win by a car length. She won back her points lead but lost lane choice to Bob Tasca III, who outdueled low qualifier Mike Neff in another smoky battle, 4.49 to 4.99.
On the other side of the ladder, Jim Head is up in smoke at the green in the right lane, then backfires the blower, which automatically deploys the parachute. He coasts to a stop before the finish line. Jack Beckman loses traction at half-track and was beatable with a 4.82. John Force beats teammate Robert Hight and puts a third Ford in the semi's, where he will have lane choice against Beckman's Dodge.
Pro Stock round two (3:25 p.m.): Similar to his loss yesterday in the K&N Horsepower Challenge, Allen Johnson basketballs the tires and loses to Ron Krisher, who slips and slides his Valvoline machine to a 6.95 win. Krisher blames a brand-new set of tires for his looseness and says they'll be better next round. They'd better be because Jason Line will have lane choice against him after edging Warren Johnson, 6.702 to 6.708.
On the top side of the ladder, Mr. Stanfield wins the battle of Gregs with Mr. Anderson courtesy of Mr. Holeshot, 6.742 to 6.705. Then, in a battle between the top two points runners, No. 2 takes out the front-runner, who shakes and spins heavily to defeat and kisses goodbye his hopes of the $25,000 double-up bucks. Edwards will have lane choice against Stanfield with a devilishly good 6.666.
Pro Stock Motorcycle round two (3:35 p.m.): Angie McBride advances to the semifinals for the second time this season, but all eyes are on Shawn Gann in the other lane, who visits the sand trap for the third time this season. He's OK, the bike looks relatively undamaged, but Gann is more puzzled than hurt after saying they've changed brake pads after every run this weekend. Unfortunately for the future Mrs. Matt Smith, husband-to-be Matt won’t join her in the final four after red-lighting away a 7.05 to Matt Guidera, an especially frustrating turn because Guidera had to shut off early with valvetrain problems to a 7.79.
Harley heroes Andrew Hines and Eddie Krawiec advance to the semi's on opposite sides of the ladder and will have lane choice, respectively, against Guidera and McBride, after passes of 6.993 and 7.013.
We're going to run some door cars, then back into alcohol semifinals.
Prepping for the Pros (4:05 p.m.): The Pros are returning to the staging lanes and should be up at about 4:20 after the Safety Safari preps the track.
Pro Stock semifinals (4:25 p.m.): We're running the cars ahead of the bikes to afford Matt Guidera more time to change the engine in his Buell; it's a grace NHRA is willing to give him due to the short turnaround time of this rain-delayed day.
Jason Line makes the event sponsor proud by putting his Pontiac into the final with a 6.69 to 6.73 defeat of Ron Krisher and will have lane choice against Mike Edwards, who races into his fifth straight final round with a 6.70 defeat of Greg Stanfield.
Pro Stock Motorcycle semifinals (4:30 p.m.): Eddie Krawiec will make it to his fifth straight final as he beats Angie McBride with a 7.06. He'll race teammate Andrew Hines, who will have lane choice with a 7.03 solo pass after Guidera is a no-show.
Top Fuel semifinals (4:40 p.m.): Brandon Bernstein reaches the final round of this event for the second straight year, outpedaling Spencer Massey on the top end to win with a 4.17. Larry Dixon will get lane choice with a 4.11 after pedaling his way through top-end smoke after Antron Brown lost traction at 300 feet and banged the blower.
Dixon will be going for his second straight victory and third in the last four; Bernstein will be looking for his first win since the 2007 Brainerd event.
Funny Car semifinals (4:45 p.m.): Bob Tasca III duels with Ashley Force Hood in a top-end smoky race; BT3 gets the nod, 4.43 to 4.48. That ends the Force team's hopes of an all-family final, and the hopes for an all-Ford final end when John Force gets loose at the top end and flirts with the wall, allowing Jack Beckman's Dodge to get by with a 4.32 that will earn him lane choice.
Final rounds (6:05 p.m.): Here we go ... ready to hand out some Wallys!
Pro Stock Motorcycle: Andrew Hines is .005 away from the Tree and never looks back en route to beating teammate Eddie Krawiec, 7.02 to 7.03. It's Hines' second win here in the last three years and the 16th of his career.
Pro Stock: Jason Line makes the track and event sponsor proud by powering his Summit Pontiac to a solid 6.66 to 6.74 victory against Mike Edwards. It's his third win of the season and 18th of his career.
Funny Car: Jack Beckman goes .001 on the Tree – probably not what he had in mind – but it matters little after Bob Tasca III goes up in smoke early. The win is Beckman's eighth and comes on his 43rd birthday.
Top Fuel: Larry Dixon wins his second straight and 47th overall title when Brandon Bernstein goes up in smoke. Dixon moves into second place in the standings while Bernstein suffers his eighth straight final-round loss.
SATURDAY
Big day on tap (10:15 a.m.): Welcome to day three of the 3rd annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, and it's going to be a busy one. Right now, we're finishing alcohol qualifying, with the dragsters up first followed by the floppers.
After that, we'll launch into pre-race festivities for the K&N Horsepower Challenge Pro Stock event that later today will award the winner a cool $50 grand. The first round of Challenge eliminations is scheduled for noon; the first two rounds of the Challenge will also serve as the qualifying passes for those involved.
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K&N Challenge preview (11:05 a.m.): Today's 25th annual K&N Horsepower Challenge will feature a field of eight Challenge veterans including five former winners, all gunning for the $50,000 top prize and the wonderful custom trophy pictured at right.
Kurt Johnson, who has won the Challenge a record four times (1994, 1998, 2003, 2007) has been in every Challenge field since 1994. His father, Warren, a three-time Challenge winner, holds the record for most appearances in the special event, 23, though his record is not a consecutive one as he failed to make the elite eight twice in that span, in 2005 and 2007.
Jeg Coughlin, who won the event back to back – the only driver to ever accomplish the feat – in 1999 and 2000, is making his eighth start in the Challenge, and Greg Anderson (winner in 2004 and 2006), Mike Edwards (two-time runner-up, 1997 and 2002), and defending event champ Allen Johnson are making their sixth appearances.
Jason Line, a two-time runner-up (2005 and 2006) is making his fifth consecutive start; Ron Krisher also is making his fifth Challenge start.
K&N Horsepower Challenge round one (12:15 p.m.): Almost high noon, and the eight quickest Pro Stock gunslingers have at it. The first two pairings are head-scratchers as K.J. hooks hard right in the right lane and has to lift against Jason Line, and then Allen Johnson, who put both lights on straight away against Jeg Coughlin, breaks 'em loose in the left lane. The final two races are to the wire, with Mike Edwards beating Warren Johnson, 6.65 to 6.72, and Greg Anderson running low e.t. with a 6.644 to best Ron Krisher and move to the top of the qualifying sheets.
Anderson and Line will face off in the semi's, assuring a Summit car in the final; Anderson has lane choice. Edwards will get to pick his lane when he faces Coughlin.
The rest of the Pro Stock cars will now get their third qualifying shots.
Pro Stock session three (12:30 p.m.): Greg Anderson's first-round pass in the Challenge counts toward qualifying and boosts him from third to the No. 1 spot. Neither Allen Johnson nor Mike Edwards could improve on their Friday times. The bump is 6.72, held by Dave Northrop, with one session to go.
Pro Stock Motorcycle session three (12:40 p.m.): Michael Phillips puts down one of the best runs of the early part of the round, tiptoeing down the centerline to a 7.086 with maximum right body lean to keep his Suzuki from crossing while never lifting. A veteran job by a veteran rider.
Phillips' run ends up being the sixth-quickest pass of the round behind the 7.004 of Andrew Hines, the 7.025 of Eddie Krawiec, the 7.035 of Hector Arnana, Karen Stoffer's 7.07, and Steve Johnson's 7.082. Hines' pass moved him past teammate Krawiec into the No. 2 position behind Matt Guidera. Wesley Wells is on the bump at 7.209.
The Safety Safari begins prepping the track for the fuel cars while the nitro crew chiefs walk the lanes looking for last-second clues in their treasure hunt for performance.
Top Fuel session three (1:30 p.m.): Larry Dixon again shows 'em who's boss with the only three-second clocking of the session, a 3.977 at just 289 mph. Clay Millican has the next-best pass, a 4.007 that's not better than his Friday 3.957. The field remains largely unchanged other than the rounding out of the 16-car roster. A lot of cars lost traction 300 feet into their runs.
Among those not making a full pull were Tony Schumacher, whose U.S. Army car is ranked just 10th. He has not qualified in the bottom half of the field this year; his last bottom-half effort was last year in Charlotte, where he placed ninth.
Funny Car session three (2 p.m.): Justin Schriefer takes out the 660-foot timers with the Creasy Family Camaro, which is one of the few "highlights" of a round in which Mike Neff's 4.25 is low for the round as many cars battle tire smoke at the 300-foot mark on a hot track. Cruz Pedregon is on the bump at a leisurely 5.47.
K&N Horsepower Challenge semi's is up next after track grooming.
K&N Horsepower Challenge semi's (2:10 p.m.): Mike Edwards, wary of Jeg Coughlin's starting-line prowess, begins to engage him in a waiting game before thinking better of it and lighting the first bulb. Coughlin follows, then Edwards puts on his second light. Coughlin is nearly timed out before he stages, then he tattoos Edwards off the line and wins on a holeshot, 6.709 to 6.673, taking the stripe by .007-second.
Greg Anderson beats Jason Line by .002-second with a 6.65 and will have lane choice against Coughlin in the $50,000-to-win final.
Pro Stock qualifying session four (2:30 p.m.): Ron Krisher is the biggest surprise on the DNQ sheet as he can't crack Dave Northrop's incoming 6.722 bump. Ryan Ondrejko then bumps Northrop with a 6.719 and holds off the last three other nonqualified cars to make the field. His reward is a date with the low qualifier, Greg Anderson, tomorrow.
There was a bit of a fender bender in the shutdown area when Rodger Brogdon's parachute grabbed Rickie Jones' wheelie bar as the two cars turned off the track. Jones then rear-ended Kurt Johnson's stopped car, and K.J.'s wheelie bar punched a hole in the lower right portion of Jones' front spoiler. K.J.'s car then nosed into his own golf cart.
Greg Anderson remained atop the field for his third pole of the season.
Pro Stock Motorcycle qualifying session four (2:45 p.m.): No. 14 qualfiier Mike Berry's Buell improved from a 7.17 to a 7.15 and still ended up on the bump with a 7.154 after Jim Underdahl ran a career-best 7.136 and Craig Treble went around both of them with a 7.10 in a final session filled with improvements.
There hadn't been a six-second pass until late in the final session when Eddie Krawiec wowed everyone with a 6.97 only to be trumped by his Harley teammate, Andrew Hines, who ran 6.944 in the next pair. Hector Arana then drove a wedge between the two Harleys with a 6.963 to score the No. 2 spot.
Hines' run is a track record (old mark, 6.965, Matt Smith, 2007); Arana also broke the track record as his 192.63 is three-hundredths of a mile per hour faster than Treble's 2007 mark.
We're on hold for nitro track prep. After that, it's the final fuel sessions and the $50,000-to-win K&N Horsepower Challenge final.
Top Fuel qualifying session four (3:40 p.m.): Troy Buff went from outside the field to in with a hero run of 4.059 on his last chance to bump gutty independent Scott Palmer's TigerFlow Systems dragster. Palmer is a no-show this round, so Steve Chrisman will sit on the bump with his 4.163, registered on the only pass of four that made it farther than 60 feet without tire smoke.
There was a lot of midtrack tire smoke, starting even before the transition to the new asphalt, and a number of cars had to abort their runs. Cory McClenathan had the round's best e.t., a 4.037. Buff was second-quickest with a 4.059.
Tony Schumacher's smoky 6.220 will leave him with his first bottom-half berth of the season, a 10th-best position. He'll surrender lane choice tomorrow.
K&N Horsepower Challenge final (3:50 p.m.): It's a bit of a staging duel, with Greg Anderson relenting at each turn. Jeg Coughlin again pushes the envelope on being timed out by starter Rick Stewart, but once he's in and the Tree turns green, it's over early. "Jeggie" leaves first by four-hun, but it mattered little as Anderson shook hard and gave up the chase. It's Coughlin's third big payday in the event's 25-year history.
Funny Car qualifying session four (4:20 p.m.): The drama of final qualifying is over early as Justin Schriefer, the only driver outside the field, pulls off to the side, losing his chance to bump the world champ, Cruz Pedregon. Pedregon helps himself anyway with an improved 4.39, which left Tim Wilkerson on the final bump spot with a 4.48.
Now it's all about seeing if anyone can knock Mike Neff's 4.190 off the pole …
… and the answer is "no." Ashley Force Hood's 4.299 is low for the round.
Field trip (5 p.m.): Top Alcohol Funny Car racer Jeff Burnett had a parachute failure after losing his first-round race but brought his car to a safe stop in the runout area in an incident similar to the one experienced last year by Von Smith. The Norwalk track has a wide-open field at the end of its sand trap that allowed Burnett to bring his car to a safe sliding stop with little more than a clod of mud covering the front spoiler of his Mustang.
That's a wrap (5:25 p.m.): With the conclusion of Top Alcohol Funny Car, day three is in the books. Join us here tomorrow for final eliminations!
FRIDAY
Ready to rumble (9:05 a.m.): Welcome to day two of the 3rd annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals. After a full day of Sportsman action yesterday that concluded with an impressive thunder and lightning show, Friday dawns sunny, and it's already 77 degrees, on its way to a projected high of 82 and nary a raindrop in the forecast.
It's a late start today for the Full Throttle Pros. The alky cars take to the track at 2 p.m. followed by the Pros at 3:30 for the first of their four qualifying sessions. Today's second session begins at 6:30. FYI, Norwalk is in the Eastern time zone, so set your alarms accordingly.
The big test today, of course, will be to see how the fuel cars negotiate the back half of the SMP track after fresh asphalt was laid just five days ago. Track staff and the vaunted NHRA Safety Safari have been treating and preparing it since, and yesterday's Sportsman action put down some much-needed extra rubber.
Follow along: Low qualifiers after each Pro session can be found on NHRA's Twitter page, http://twitter.com/NHRA. You can sign up to have these text-message-sized reports sent directly to your mobile device or read them online. Reports are posted minutes after each session is complete.
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Line to drive Anderson’s 2008 car (1 p.m.): In a move intended to improve the chances for the Summit Racing Pro Stock team at the 3rd annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, Jason Line will be driving the candy apple red ’08 Pontiac GXP used by teammate Greg Anderson last year.
“We’ve won two races with my car earlier this year, but over the last few weeks, it just wasn’t responding the way we wanted it to," he said. "So we made the decision to switch to the car Greg ran last year. It’s a proven piece that we feel gives us the best chance to win."
The decision follows Line’s only first-round losses of the year, in Chicago and Englishtown. At both of those events, Line also qualified in the bottom half of the field for the only times this year.
In another step to prepare for this weekend’s race, Line and Anderson made the trip to Martin, Mich., where they each made test 18 runs in 95-degree temperatures.
“We wanted to duplicate the expected warm-weather conditions that we expect this week at Norwalk, and we believe that we learned a lot from those efforts. What we did is very similar to pre-race testing in Denver to get acclimated to the high-altitude conditions. And, of course, that’s where we’ll be headed after this weekend to get ready for the NHRA national event scheduled there in two weeks.”
Alky thunder (2:15 p.m.): The Top Alcohol Funny Cars hit the track right on schedule at 2 p.m., and starting-line traction seems to be eluding many of them. The real test will come when hitters Frank Manzo and Tony Bartone come up later in the session. Terry Munroe just took out the centerline blocks at 1,000 feet, so we're down for a quick fix.
Well, well, lookee here ... Manzo and Bartone side by side. What a treat.
Manzo basketballs the tires in the right lane and shuts down -- a real rarity -- while Bartone zooms to a 5.73.
Pros are up (3:35 p.m.): After some starting-line inspection by the crews for the Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle teams, the first two bikes pull in the SMP water box.
Pro Stock Motorcycle session one (3:55 p.m.): The Harleys look good out of the box, with reigning world champ Eddie Krawiec atop the pack with a 7.058 and teammate Andrew Hines third with a 7.091, sandwiched around recent Chicago champ Matt Guidera's 7.072.
We're dragging the track with rubber between the two Pro Stock classes. The nitro crew chiefs also are taking a gander at the starting line to plan their last-second adjustments.
Pro Stock session one (4:30 p.m.): No surprise here as perennial low qualifier Mike Edwards again fronts the pack despite a run that he described as "soft" down low. Edwards' 6.679 is just a tick ahead of Jason Line's 6.680, validating the team's decision to switch cars. Allen Johnson is third with a 6.712.
Just an observation: Great crowd for a Friday! Don't they work Fridays here in Ohio? Both main grandstands are mostly filled.
Funny Car session one (5:15 p.m.): Lots of tire smoke here, but most of it before the cars hit the transition to the new asphalt, so we can't really say it's that more than just a hot racetrack. Bob Tasca III is in the top spot with a 4.34.
Top Fuel session one (5:40 p.m.): Larry Dixon has the only three-second run of the session and the top spot in Top Fuel with a 3.976. Antron Brown is No. 2 at 4.011, and Shawn Langdon is third at 4.028.
We're going to run another session of alcohol cars, then right back into the Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Pro Stock Motorcycle session two (7:05 p.m.): Matt Guidera squeezes ahead of Eddie Krawiec for the top spot with a 7.001 as all of the top riders improve. Eddie K. is second at 7.013, just ahead of Andrew Hines' 7.015. Almost every rider improved on their first-session time. Craig Treble was an exception as his Suzuki broke behind the line.
Pro Stock session two (7:25 p.m.): It was very nearly a perfect session for Summit teammates Jason Line and Greg Anderson at the Summit event at the Summit-sponsored track when they ran near-identical passes to take the top spots ... that was until the final pair, when Allen Johnson (6.649) and Mike Edwards (6.655) bumped them from 1-2 to 3-4.
Track prepping begins for the nitro cars.
Funny Car session two (8:15 p.m.): Mike Neff moved to the top spot and leads the quartet of Force cars in the top seven with a 4.190. Robert Hight is second at 4.214, just ahead of Tony Pedregon's 4.217.
Top Fuel session two (9:15 p.m.): Halfway through the day's final session, we've already had three new leaders. Doug Kalitta was first at 3.954 before Brandon Bernstein took the lead with a 3.939. Rod Fuller and the Michigan Cat fueler quickly took that lead with a 3.929. We're down for oil from Joe Hartley, with more cars still to come.
Wow, this is a really long oildown ...
After almost 20 minutes, the hits keep on coming as Spencer Massey rips to No. 1 with a 3.908; four cars left. Larry Dixon regains the top spot he held midway through the day, pounding out a 3.88 in the Al-Anabi car for the No. 1 spot.
The day concludes with a Bader family tradition: a wonderful fireworks show.