"Last night when I staged I put the motor on the chip, and the ignition or something broke up and a ball of fire blew out. We changed motors. Today, I put it on the chip, it popped again. Something activated my brain and I let the clutch pedal out. I don't know if the pop distracted me. I had a .460 light yesterday. I wasn't guessing the tree, I felt I could outrun Dale Eaton in the other lane. When I saw the red light come on I wasn't happy."

The NHRA national e.t. record broken three times in first round of eliminations, for the first time in NHRA history.

First it was Bob Panella, Jr., in his Chevy S-10, who demolished the 7.635-second national e.t. record set by Larry Kopp earlier this year, with a 7.620 pass in the first round of eliminations. Then it was Larry Kopp, while red-lighting, breaking that record with a 7.617-second pass. Not to be outdone, No. 1 qualifier Brad Jeter, in a Chevy S-10, then did one better with a 7.601-second pass. However, Jerry Haas' national speed record still holds at 176.70 mph. This was the first time in NHRA history that the national e.t. record was broken three times in one round in any pro category.

Second place John Lingenfelter (Summit Racing Equipment Chevy S-10), was defeated in the semifinals by Brad Jeter (7.656, 175.16 for Jeter; 7.744, 175.00 for Lingenfelter) and was unable to pass Kopp for the lead. Kopp holds a 10-point margin over Lingenfelter going into the final two races of the season in Dallas and Pomona.

In the final, it was Chevy S-10 vs. Chevy S-10, Brad Jeter vs. Bob Panella Jr. Panella had the slower reaction time, but had the power at the finish line to beat Jeter by three thousandths of a second (7.654/174.73 for Panella; 7.706/174.80 for Jeter), capturing his first Pro Stock Truck win this year, the inaugural season of the series.

"It's pretty much indescribable," said Panella. "We had a good day, made real consistent runs, had some close races, which is the way it's supposed to be. Fortunately, we came out on top. We are happy for the whole crew. They (NHRA) pressed us for time, gave us an hour and maybe an hour and a half between rounds, but we got the job done. I can't say enough about everyone. It's a dream come true."

Did you think you could beat Jeter?
"I knew he was going to be as good as was possible. He's always been a great driver, luckily I got lane choice. I think that made the difference. I knew he would do the job at the starting line, whoever got lane choice would win the race. I was lucky to be there."

Tell us about the run, when did you get by him?:
"I wasn't looking (at him). All I know is that I saw a black fender in the corner of my eye all the way down the track. I went down to the corner (turnoff at the end of the track), saw (announcer) Alan Reinhardt and he wanted to talk to me, and he had the microphone in his hand. Then I knew I had won. It wasn't a perfect run. It felt like the 7.6 seconds took two hours."

Had you had better runs this year?
"We made a couple of really good runs in Indy and tried to repeat it, but it took until probably today to do it. Finally, we made the runs we should have been making. We probably couldn't have gone faster than we did today."

Did you feel that by the end of the season things would get so close?
"We struggled, we had hood/air related problems. It was a learning curve for us. Personally, I never ran anything close to a Pro Stock Truck before; I've been running competition eliminator for five years. There are eight trucks that can win a race now, by the end of the year there will be more. This series has come a long way, I knew it would."

Jeter, on losing lane choice:
"We knew all day that there was a difference between the lanes and that was just something we had to face. A race like this, with a three thousandths of a second margin of victory, that's a drag race, and I don't mind losing a good drag race like that."

How did you come up to speed so quickly on your new Jenkins engine?
"We have a very good clutch program and are really on top of the game. I knew if we had good horsepower we could make use of it. There's a mid-7.50 in that Chevy S-10 right now, it's just a matter of us getting it right.

You've had really good reaction times:
"I bracket race every weekend and make 10 to 20 passes a night. That gave me four to five years of experience on a pro (Christmas) tree."