The final fields are set for Monday's final eliminations at the 56th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis with Larry Dixon, Matt Hagan, Mike Edwards, Andrew Hines leading their fields into Labor Day battle.
Three days and five sessions of qualifying have rewritten the track record book as both ends of the track standards in all four Full Throttle classes have been broken. In Top Fuel, Tony Schumacher's 3.816 has been bettered by several, topped by Dixon's 3.776, and Antron Brown's 319.22 speed mark was felled multiple times, but best by Schumacher's 324.83. Tony Pedregon's incoming Funny Car mark of 4.073 was shattered by Matt Hagan's 4.039, and Ashley Force Hood's 309.84 has been upped to 312.86 by her dad, John Force. Edwards' 6.581 was broken by four drivers, including his own leading 6.579 while Edwards' 209.01 speed mark was eclipsed by Allen Johnson's 210.28. Hines' 6.815 national-record blast is one of many runs to better Matt Smith's old mark of 6.918 and Hines upped his own sped mark from 193.85 to 196.76.
Larry Dixon
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Dixon's Friday field-leading pass, which is actually .001-second quicker than the national record, was never challenged Sunday, so the veteran earned his fifth No. 1 of the year and the 46th of his career. Dixon, who has three wins in six U.S. Nationals final-round appearances, has won all five of the races this season in which he was the No. 1 qualifier, making him a perfect 20-0 in eliminations when the Al-Anabi dragster sits on the pole.
“The championship is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but the champion will be determined in two months; the only thing we can decide tomorrow is who wins Indy,” said Dixon. “A lot has been made of Tony [Schumacher] and myself, and they put us on the cover of Drag Illustrated. I think someone ought to put Cory Mac on there, too. Maybe it gave that team a chip on their shoulder, because they’re running strong.
“I’m not looking past Bruce Litton in the first round tomorrow, to be honest. He has a good car, and we have to be on our game. I can literally see Bruce’s backyard from my backyard. We live one block away from each other in the same subdivision.”
Two-time Indy winner Cory McClenathan remained second with his 3.784, which led Friday's qualifying, while his teammate, eight-time Indy champ Schumacher rests in third with a 3.790. Brandon Bernstein occupies the No. 4 spot with a 3.802.
The top eight is rounded out by Antron Brown (3.808), David Grubnic (3.823). Doug Kalitta (3.824), and Steve Torrence (3.830).
Local resident Bruce Litton ended up on the bump spot at 4.19 and will face off with neighbor Dixon in round one.
Matt Hagan
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Hagan, low qualifier two events ago in Denver, earned his second pole of the year and the fourth of his career with the DieHard Dodge with his track-record 4.039. This is just Hagan's third time competing at the U.S. Nationals, but he's qualified all three times.
“It feels great to come out here and qualify No. 1,” said Hagan, who qualified No. 16 here in 2008 and just No. 15 last year. “I remember back when I was racing the IHRA and we’d come over here and qualify 16 and that would feel like we won the race. To go from that and in two years qualify No. 1 here is a huge step in the right direction for my career and for our whole program out here. I owe it all to Tommy DeLago. This guy, he gets smarter every day. I just don’t know how he puts it all together up there, but he does.
“The track’s been great. We owe a lot to the track being great and being able to run those kind of numbers out here. The weather just kind of worked out in our favor. It was warmer today, and that plays into tomorrow. It’s supposed to be warmer tomorrow if the weather man’s right, which who knows.”
Hagan's Don Schumacher Racing teammate, Ron Capps, who has yet to win the U.S. Nationals in his great career, is the No. 2 qualifier with his NAPA Auto Parts Dodge at 4.049, while world champ Robert Hight is third with a 4.055 in the Auto Club Ford. Hight has cut nine points off of boss John Force's incoming points lead in qualifying alone. Cruz Pedregon's Snap-on Toyota is the No. 4 car after charting a 4.057.
Four-time Indy champ Force, who hasn’t won the U.S. Nationals since 2002 and even missed the fields in 2007 and 2008, is looking good in the No. 5 spot with a 4.058 and he's followed in the top eight by daughter Force Hood (4.059), Jack Beckman (4.076), and Bob Tasca III (4.086).
Tony Pedregon qualified on the bump but needed a last-ditch 4.151 to do it; he'll face off against Hagan in the first round.
Mike Edwards
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Edwards, the playoffs' top seed, showed how he earned that position by finishing atop the pack when it counted, running a 6.579 for the No. 1 spot, his 12th of the season. Edwards picked up eight bonus points to second-place Allen Johnson's seven, and by outqualifying him by one spot, gained just two points on his incoming 30-point lead over the Dodge driver.
"There’s a lot of fast cars that are bunched up together [at the top of the qualifying order], and I feel that we were very fortunate that Allen Johnson had to run in the first pair this morning," said Edwards. "If it hadn’t been for that, you probably would have been talking to him instead of me as the No. 1 qualifier.
"There is more pressure because this is the first race of the Countdown. It’s hard to get there for your first championship [as Edwards did in 2009] and it’s even more difficult to defend it. I’m trying to take some of the pressure off of myself by talking with my wife a lot. You just try to have fun. Bob Glidden came over this morning and told me to just 'quit thinking and do it.' "
Johnson's Mopar Dodge clocked a 6.580 to be right on Edwards' heels, and the rest of the sheets read like a copying machine gone berserk. Jason Line and Jeg Coughlin Jr. also ran 6.580 for spots No. 3 and 4, with A.J. earning the highest spot based on his better speed, 210.28 to Line's 209.95 and Coughlin's 209.39.
There also are matching 6.584s for the Nos. 5 and 6 spots, with V. Gaines getting the higher seed on his 209.56 speed to Greg Stanfield's 209.14. Ron Krisher's new Pontiac has the No. 7 spot at 6.586 (and had the final session's best pass at 6.594), and Johnny Gray rounds out the top eight at 6.590.
Glidden failed in his bid to qualify for the field in Jim Cunningham's Mustang but was cheered roundly by the fans and his fellow competitiors. His 6.703 best was the No. 24 time. Opined Edwards, "I think that having Bob here for this race was the biggest thing that has happened for Pro Stock this weekend. I think he is Pro Stock. I don’t care if he’s in a Ford, Volkswagen, or whatever, he’s the King. I call this track [where Glidden has won nine times] 'his house.' "
Andrew Hines
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If there was any doubt about Hines' ability to capture his first U.S. Nationals crown this year, the Screamin' Eagle/Vance & Hines Harley Davidson rider may have erased it with his Saturday performance as he was quickest in both runs, capped by his 6.836, 196.76 (top speed) in the last session, which is the sport's second quickest pass. Hines picked up the maximum 15 qualifying bonus points – to Hector Arana's three – which, with the difference in regular qualifying points (eight to five) means he already has added 15 points to his incoming 30-point lead over Arana, not counting the 20 points he'll earn if his 6.81 remains the national record.
"I don’t know if I got 15 points in the whole Countdown last year," joked Hines. "It's great to take every point on the table because it came down to a couple of 'little points' last year for Eddie [Krawiec, teammate]. I love this track. We live just two miles from the track and our shop is two miles the other direction, so we've tested a lot here in the past. I've probably made more passes here than any other Pro Stock Motorcycle rider. I probably make 60 or 70 runs a year out here so I know how to get down the track.
"Our team has done a good job of experimenting on tune-ups to figure out what works in what air and we have it pretty nailed down right now. Like we did in Brainerd, we're letting the weather come to us. It's going to be hotter tomorrow and our engine is turning a little more rpm at the finish line than we like, so the hotter weather will take a couple of hundred rpm off of that so that it will be optimal crossing the finish line. This is definitely the best chance in my career to win the U.S. Nationals."
LE Tonglet, who a week ago didn’t even know if he'd be competing in Indy after blowing up his engine in Brainerd, is No. 2 with a staggering 6.849, tying Karen Stoffer's incoming national record pass, meaning that the three quickest runs in class history have been recorded here. Hines' teammate, Eddie Krawiec, is qualified third on the other Vance & Hines V-Rod with a 6.867 while Arana's sits fourth at 6.87.
Michael Phillips raced into the No. 5 spot with a 6.919, and 2006 Indy champ Matt Smith is qualified No. 6 with a 6.938. Chip Ellis sits in the No. 7 spot with a 6.939, and former two-time Indy winner Steve Johnson is eighth at 6.946. Thirteen riders qualified in the sixes.
Wesley Wells qualified on the bump with a last-session 7.054, which is short of the record 7.025 bump set earlier this year in Charlotte. He'll face Hines in round one.
David Hope became the first of the Countdown championship contenders to DNQ in the playoffs after posting a 7.054 that was identical to Wells' pass, but Wells' superior speed, 191.24 to 186.95, earned Wells the final position.
Raymond Commisso upset top qualifier Mike Janis during the first round of eliminations in the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Series portion of the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil.
Commisso used a near-perfect .003 reaction time and powered his ’68 Camaro to a 6.048-second run at 240.72 mph to hold off Janis, who trailed with a 6.118 at 219.36 in his 2010 Ford Mustang.
In other first round action, series points leader Von Smith was upset by Ed Hoover in a very close race, while No. 2 qualifier Brad Personett defeated Rick Stivers.
Second round pairings are Commisso vs. Rickie Smith; Joe Baker vs. Danny Rowe; Personett vs. Kenny Lang; and Dave Pierce vs. Hoover.
Related stories:
Friday: Opening-day Indy leads go to McClenathan, Hight, Edwards, Hines
Saturday: Dixon, Hagan, Coughlin, Hines lead Saturday Indy fields