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QUALIFYING ROUND RESULTS

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE Q1 (5:42 p.m.): Eddie Krawiec made the quickest pass in Bandimere Speedway history with a 7.132-second hit. That outshone the fastest run of the session by Hector Arana Jr., who made a 7.155, 188.23 mph run (third fastest and fourth quickest in Bandimere history) to be No. 2 in the qualifying order. Matt Smith also made a fine run (7.158) to earn a bonus point, while Krawiec’s teammate and tuner Andrew Hines ran a 7.168. Karen Stoffer is holding down the bump spot with a 7.59 and will hope to turn things around as things cool down in the evening session. 

PRO STOCK Q1 (6:01 p.m.): A couple of K.B. Racing-fielded Chevy Camaros topped the Pro Stock field, and yes, Greg Anderson ended the first session No. 1 yet again. His 6.933-second hit put him a couple hundredths ahead of Deric Kramer and earned him three bonus points. Vincent Nobile threw down a 6.965 to score him a single point, while Drew Skillman (6.977) and Matt Hartford (6.987) rounded out the top five. Tanner Gray and Joey Grose both shook the tires early and wound up on the bottom of the table. Eight racers made runs in the 6-second range with Jeg Coughlin Jr. holding down the quick half of the field with a 6.994-second hit. 

FUNNY CAR Q1 (6:50 p.m.): Stop us if you’ve heard this before this season, but Courtney Force and her Advance Auto Parts Camaro leads the field. She’s already been the No. 1 qualifier at eight of 13 events this season and leads here after one session with the only three-second Funny Car pass, a early-shutoff 3.995 at just 281 mph. Ron Capps is second with a 4.007 and John Force made it a Capps sandwich with a 4.065 for the no. 3 spot. The session was highlighted by a pair of incidents with Todd Simpson ending up in the sand after a parachute failure and Cruz Pedregon destroying his brand-new Camry body with a monstrous explosion.

TOP FUEL Q1 (7:10 p.m.): Crew chief Dave Grubnic may be from Down Under by the showed he knows the way up top to, conquering the mountain by tuning Clay Millican to a 3.814 that was more than a tenth and a half quicker than the next best qualifier, Leah Pritchett, who ran 3.970 in her new-look Mopar 1320 ride. Norwalk winner Blake Alexander picked up the session’s final bonus point with a 3.996, the round’s only other three-second Top Fuel pass.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE (7:57 p.m.): Andrew Hines didn’t unseat teammate Eddie Krawiec from the No. 1 spot, but he was able to make a big move to pull right behind him with a 7.146-second pass and earn three bonus points in the process. The Harley-Davidson riders are currently first and second in the Pro Stock Motorcycle standings and on the qualifying sheet, so they’ll get to run last when the bikes return Saturday afternoon. Krawiec and Hector Arana Jr. made the second and third best runs of the session to earn the rest of the bonus points to continue what has the making of a fine weekend for the Arana family. Both Arana and his father are qualified in the top five and Matt Smith is sandwiched between them in the No. 4 spot. 

PRO STOCK Q2 (8:17 p.m.): Home state racer Deric Kramer scooped up the three bonus points from K.B. Racing teammate Greg Anderson by making a 6.935-second pass in a session where nearly everyone made big improvements. Nearly everyone. Anderson did not improve on his pass but will still enter the second day of action as the No. 1 qualifier as he’s bunched up with Kramer and No. 3 qualifier Alex Laughlin (6.937) – the three of whom are separated by just .004 second. Joey Grose spun the tires yet again in the second session and sits in the No. 15 spot. There are 16 cars on the property but Alan Prusiensky has yet to make a lap.

FUNNY CAR Q2 (8:45 p.m.): It was all John Force Racing, all the time with a 1-2-3 sweep of the best runs of the evening session. Robert Hight made the event’s second three-second pass with a 3.986 to temporarily steal the spot from his teammate, Courtney Force, but she quickly jumped back in front on him a few pairs later with a 3.966 to reclaim the top spot. Team boss John Force, as he did in the first session, had the round’s third-best pass, a 4.007. Force’s pass matched Ron Capps’ identical pass from Q1 but at a faster speed to hold the No. 3 spot heading into Saturday.

TOP FUEL Q2 (9:30 p.m.): Leah Pritchett, the low qualifier two weeks ago in Epping, is halfway to her second straight pole position after rocketing her Dodge 1320 dragster to a 3.806 that robbed points leader Steve Torrence of the No. 1 spot he’d claimed earlier in the session with a 3.813. Clay Millican stayed third with his Q1 3.814. Mike Salinas the session’s third-best pass behind Pritchett and Torrence with a 3.865.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE FRIDAY LOW QUALIFIER EDDIE KRAWIEC: "I’m a racer so there’s always a little bit more in the run. I could make a perfect run and I’d be telling you how bad it was. You know, I said earlier that I expect to make it to the 60-foot mark in the 1.07s and so I’m very happy that we ran a 1.074. We’re getting a handle on what we need to do clutch-wise. 

"The track was very tight that session, obviously with it being very dark and gloomy. So, we now know what proper changes we need to make going Q4 tomorrow. You know, this run right here was kind of a learning run for us. We said that we weren’t going to change anything on the motorcycle and that we just wanted to go back out there and see how it would react and I think that was a good plan. That gave us an idea of where we stood and where our current setup is."

PRO STOCK FRIDAY LOW QUALIFIER GREG ANDERSON: "This is the best I've run here on a Friday in 10 or 15 years. It seems like every year we come here and we're behind the eight ball and then we try to climb out by the time we get to Sunday. So, we're way ahead of schedule this weekend and that's a great feeling. We have a solid foundation and very fast cars and I think we can make them better. 

"It's a big challenge for a driver because you're constantly hitting the chip that we have at the top and bottom of every gear change. We come up on those so quickly here because we put so much gear ratio into these cars when we're up at altitude because of the lack of air and the lack of oxygen. It's a neat challenge and you don't think about it when you're at sea level. I wouldn't say it's easy, but it's fun."

FUNNY CAR FRIDAY LOW QUALIFIER COURTNEY FORCE: “Epping didn’t go the way we wanted to go with an early exit first round and struggling in qualifying but then to come here to Denver and kick off the Western Swing it feels  great to have two solid passes down the racetrack and picking up six bonus points.

“We didn’t even get a full pull in Q1; it started to spin down there and I got out of it but still managed to run a 3.99 which I think was very impressive. I was looking forward to Q2 because I knew we could improve on that if we could make a full pull and we did with a 3.96. We had a small hiccup down there; it kind of exploded on me right in the lights but we were still able to get the e.t. we were looking for.”

TOP FUEL FRIDAY LOW QUALIFIER LEAH PRITCHETT: “This is a huge weekend for us; you might as well put it right up there with the U.S. Nationals for all of Schumacher Racing, Mopar, and all of the big wigs in the house today. From the moment we got here to Bandimere and kicking it off at the [Mopar Big Block Party] and the fans, this vibe is like no other.

“The crew did an awesome job in Q1; we dropped a hole [cylinder] bit from there we just picked at it and felt real confident. They made last-minute changes and went for it. That run felt amazing. I knew we had all eight [cylinders] lit all the way. That’s what this team is all about, what I love about Todd [Okuhara] and Joe [Barlam], that when it’s time they can put it down and they’re not afraid.”

Friday recap: Pritchett, C. Force, Anderson, Krawiec secure Friday poles at Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals

FEATURES

If you’ve never been to Bandimere Speedway, or to any high-altitude location, you can’t appreciate the toll it can take on the body, especially of the “flatlanders” who comprise most of the Mello Yello fields. Just ask teammate Antron Brown and Tony Schumacher.
 
“Denver is different than any other place we race,” said Brown, a three-time event winner. “You’re a mile high, so the air is thin and there’s not much oxygen. The temperatures will go up during the day and that makes some difficult conditions for the racecars to make good power and run hard there. It’s the same thing for all the crew members and the human body. It’s definitely a test of conditioning and going out there and making it happen. The trick in going to Denver is that you have to be mentally strong, emotionally tough and use all of your physical strength to make it happen when you don’t think you have anything left in the tank.”

Their engines face the same hurdles, according to Schumacher.

“When you’re at sea level, like Gainesville, there’s more air,” he explained. “You walk outside and you can just flat breathe. You don’t get tired as easily. It’s the same thing with the car. In Denver, you’re starving the engine for fuel, and you can’t add as much fuel. What it takes to go fast is, the more nitromethane you can stuff into the motor, the faster you can go. The more air you have, the more nitro you can put to it. The blowers we have, which are basically like an air compressor sitting on top of the engine, they can only work so hard. They can only spin so fast. We’re not spinning them slower because we’re in a place like Gainesville, we’re trying to make more power and go faster. What happens in Denver is, you get up high in the mountains and your car’s having a hard time breathing. You’re having hard time breathing and so is your car, so your car’s just going to run slower. All the cars are equal as far as that goes. We’re all starving for air, and the air’s the same in both the right lane and the left lane. It takes a good crew chief and a good driver to figure it out. The right combination for the right moments.”

“We change almost everything on the car before we go to Denver because Denver is just a way different setup with how we run the car,” added Brown, “We put stuff that we’ve been running off to the side, then we’ll swap it back after Denver. You go to Denver like you’re playing craps. You just roll those dice and hope they come out right so you stumble onto a good combination that’s going to work.”

Former Funny Car world champion crew chief Tommy DeLago is back at the track with wrenches in hand for the first time since he was released from Kalitta Motorsports following the NHRA Southern Nationals in May. DeLago, left, has joined veteran tuner Glenn Mikres, center, to wrench on the Santiago’s/TA Truck Service Top Fueler of Greg Carrillo, right.

It’s just Carrillo’s second event of the season, but his first, way back in February, was a memorable one as he not only won the first round of his brief Top Fuel career, upsetting Tony Schumacher in round one, but also made his first semifinal appearance after knocking off another former world champ, Antron Brown, in the second round.

DeLago, who has attended a few races since Atlanta “just to keep my face out there” has been playing Mr. Mom to his kids two kids, ages nine and 11, and was eager to answer Carrillo’s call for assistance.

“Greg has most of the same parts that I’ve used, so other than it being a dragster instead of a Funny Car, I think most of my knowledge applies,” said DeLago, who previously worked on a dragster alongside Mike Green on the Gwynn Racing/N.Y. Yankees dragster in 2003 when Andrew Cowin was driving it. “I think the new track prep is going to help guys like Greg; I actually think a 4-flat Funny Car tune-up for these dragsters would be perfect right now when it gets hot out.

“Glenn and I have been talking about everything and his biggest challenge has been getting the car to run on all eight cylinders, even at sea level, so I’m not sure it was the smartest idea for me coming here to try to help them at one of the hardest tracks on the tour,” he added with a grin. “It could be anything, from too much fuel to a bad part. We’ll know more after we make our first run.”

For the record, DeLago says that he accepted his dismissal from the Kalitta team after six seasons – “it was just business; I know it was hard for the old man [Connie Kalitta] to do it” – and he bears no hard feelings. “It’s a shame because Nicky [Boninfante, who remained with the Golbal Electronics team] and I had always wanted to work together and win a championship together, and I thought we had a real chance to do that with [Shawn] Langdon, who’s a bad-ass driver," said DeLago. 

“But life goes on. I’m back, at least for one race. If not, I’ll just go back to grocery shopping and cooking.”

Veteran Nostalgia drag racer Jim Maroney, right, made his “big show” debut two weeks ago in Epping, qualifying for an event where he just hoped to blend in and not look out of place, but now with that behind him, he and car owner Terry Haddock, whose cars he’s been backing for the last year through his American Flowtech company, will hope to get after it this weekend and, hopefully, through the balance of the Western Swing.

“We only made one qualifying run [in Epping] because we knew there were only 16 cars and we’re on a budget, but we did OK for ourselves,” he said. “We had [Tony] Schumacher [in the first round] and I just wanted to go up and make a good, clean run. I want everything to go smooth and give anyone any reason to complain about us. I just didn’t want to be That Guy. I left on him and we had better numbers until it smoked the tires, but those [rear] tires had 15 runs on them, so I just bought brand-new tires for this race.”

Maroney, who licensed in Haddock’s dragster after the Norwalk event, is a second-generation drag racer. His father, Jack, ran the Blind Faith Fuel Altereds and Funny Cars in the late-1970s and early-1980s. His son followed him into the sport, also racing altereds and, most recently, the Candies & Hughes tribute Nostalgia Funny Car, but he always dreamed about Top Fuel.

“I’ve been dreaming about this my entire life, from when I was a little kid building Legos and racing them down the hallway,” he said. “My company, which does construction engineering [HVAC, plumbing, electrical], is strong enough now that I can try this, and I’m 50 and not getting any younger, so this was a chance to do it.”

He’s used to speed from all of his nostalgia wheelwork, but nothing prepares you for a full-on Top Fuel ride.

“The launch isn’t much more than the nostalgia car but at 300 feet when the clutch comes in, it’s like, ‘Holy [crap], here we go. We’re going for a ride,’ “ he said.

Jack Beckman has been coming to Bandimere Speedway a lot longer than he’s been racing. He first visited the mile-high track in 1984, as an 18-year-old airman while serving in the U.S. Air Force, so he’s got a long history with the fabled facility,

"I'm going to go out on a limb and call Denver 'the most unique race on the tour,” he said. “Some would argue that the four-wide races are, but we now have two of those. We only have one race in conditions over a mile above sea level, and it's an entirely different type of challenge. For a crew chief, just getting the car to idle, much less run properly, is challenging. The race track has cooling coils underneath it for the first 300-feet. No other facility on our tour has that. 

“As a driver, you almost have to blank out the sound. The car sounds terrible relative to any sea-level race track. The parachutes don't work the same and just catching your breath once you get strapped in is sometimes quite a challenge. To me, it's also my favorite of all the races on the tour.

With three wins in the last 10 outings here, it’s not surprising. He won here just three years ago, as well as in 2012 and 2007 the MTS/Mail From Home entry. The 2007 win was just his second in the class, having won the fall Las Vegas event the previous season.

It’s not much been Tim Wilkerson’s year -- from a blown engine and an oildown penalty in eliminations in the opening race of the season to bent framerails to inexplicable dropped cylinders, tire shake, and smoke, and, the weirdest of them all, a roof hatch that blew off after the burnout in Chicago that upset the whole aerodynamics of the Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby pilot -- the veteran Illini has had it rough.

A runner-up in Epping two weeks ago gave Wilk his highlight of the season and has him cautiously excited for the Western Swing.

. "As bad as things have been, it's good to sneak up on your problems and put them behind you,” he said. “I pleaded on TV for the guy with the Tim Wilkerson doll that was sticking pins in it to make that go away, and he gave me a break. I appreciate that whoever you are.”

“Of course, you come here and you have to change our tune-up completely. I look at it more like you just have to survive this place.”

One thing Wilkerson is expecting not to battle is a midtrack wheelstand like the one he had here on his final qualifying run last year that so severely damaged the chassis that he and his crew had to pull an all-nighter to prepare their backup car.

“[Assistant crew chief Richard] Hartman was all worried about that coming I this year but with the way the track prep is being done I don’t think that’s a worry. Last year there was traction; this year there’s not. If they spray it like they’ve been spraying it all year, this will be not running here five years ago, where a 4.25 will be a damn good run in the heat. You might see a three in the night if someone hits it just right, but not in the heat.”

“Frankenstein” has gone back to the show-car circuit; make room for “El Chicano.”

Cruz Pedregon has been giving his racecar bodies Spanish nicknames for years -- most recently he’s hade “El Jefe” (the boss), “El Guapo” (the handsome one), and “El Chingon” (the badass), but a recent rash of fires and body explosions forced him to push “Frankenstein” (two halves of previously injured bodies married together) into duty, but now retired in favor of “El Chicano.”

"We're excited to continue the team's tradition of naming our Funny Car bodies, and we'll be introducing 'El Chicano' this weekend and its new Snap-on Franchise 'Own It' paint scheme," said Pedregon. "The body name is one that reflects my heritage as a Mexican American.”

The body is the first of the new-generation Camrys the team has run, and it’s a good 30 pounds lighter than “Frankenstein.” Crew chief Aaron Brooks and the Snap-on crew spent the morning four-corner scaling and weighing the car for its debut.

The new body comes just in time for a final push for the Countdown playoffs. Pedregon currently sits on the outside, in 11th place, 14 points behind Bob Tasca III but only eight points ahead of 12th-ranked Tim Wilkerson.

Update: The brand-new body lasted less than one full run as a massive engine explosion several hundred feet into his first qualifying pass shattered the body into thousands of pieces. Pedregon was not injured in the blast, but obviously will have to go to a back-up body to continue qualifying.

The team also has another new DSR chassis underway that they hope to get after the Western Swing, but other than some test passes probably won’t force it into action any time soon.

Jason Line doesn’t have a win this season, nor does he own a Wally with the Mile-High NHRA Nationals emblazoned on it. He thinks he can turn that around this weekend thanks both to a bevvy of information from Bandimere Speedway and a little bit of testing the former Pro Stock champion did prior to the 2018 edition of the Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals. 

“I tested some things last weekend and they were absolutely backwards,” said Line. “You know how if you try one thing and it’s totally wrong you may as well turn around and go the other way, right? That’s what my wife tells me. So, I’m helpful we’ll be better.”

While his teammate, second-place racer Greg Anderson, leads the Pro Stock pack at nearly every incremental, Line has struggled through the first 330 feet of the race track. He’s not quite below average, but the blue Summit Chevy also isn’t up to snuff. At least, not yet. The numbers all the Pro Stockers throw on the board in Denver will be slow, naturally, but Line thinks he’s got something in the tank for the field.

“I should have won here several times, I’ve definitely blown some opportunities,” said Line. “We definitely love coming here, the Bandimere family does a super job running this facility. I’m going to try to start where I finished last year (runner-up finish) instead of where I started.”

“You make your own luck,” said Chris McGaha of his unconventional win at the NHRA New England Nationals two weeks ago. He managed to put together a solid race car, but he also benefited from a pair of red lights to earn his second Wally of the season. But once the Texan left the race car, it seemed like his good luck ran out. 

“From breaking a motor on the dyno to a truck breaking down on me, it was a long week and a half,” he said. “I needed at least another week before coming out here. The motor just broke a rod, not really sure what happened.” 

McGaha will now give the motor he ran to start the New England Nationals another shot. That didn’t bear much fruit in Epping, but McGaha thinks he’s made progress with it after another run on the dyno. 

“We have to make it go because it’s the future of our program,” he said. “We just want it to run as fast as the others. It ought to run maybe a hundredth slower than my best motor. If it doesn’t look like it’s competitive we’ll pull it out.”

The Texan has plenty of spares in the trailer for both the Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals and the rest of the Western Swing. That includes the motor he won his first race of the season with (the NHRA Arizona Nationals). He toasted that motor way back at the Southern NHRA Nationals Powered by Mello Yello in Atlanta. 

“I’ve broke a lot of stuff this year,” McGaha said with a laugh. “You make a lot of runs, that’s what happens.”

That’s a good problem to have.

Jeg Coughlin Jr. will kick off the Western Swing by running two cars at the Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals. “The Natural” plans to participate in both Pro Stock, as per usual, and Stock in his Dodge Challenger DragPak. He has one win in Stock (2015, Columbus) and is hunting his second double-up this weekend.  

“There are a lot of good things going on right now," Coughlin said. "And racing two cars throughout the Western Swing is part of the excitement. Both cars are running great and I'm looking forward to busy times ahead.”

"The Pro Stock car has been strong and really the entire Elite program has been extremely competitive. It's been a thrill ride, for sure, with an Elite driver in the final of nine races in a row. We're definitely making a statement. And even though I haven't driven the Dodge since 2015, a few friends of mine have raced it and it's been extremely fast and reliable. I like our chances in both cars."

His Elite Performance teammate Erica Enders used an experimental motor in engine and the team was very happy with the results. While Coughlin won’t stray from the usual “Denver setup” while on the mountain, expect to see the yellow and black Camaro try out the experimental motor later on during the Swing. 

“Erica's leading the points, which is great, but we're in seventh and that's a little bit uncomfortable,” said Coughlin. “We need to win as many rounds as possible on the Swing to shore up our spot."

The Harley-Davidson contingent owns the last four Pro Stock Motorcycle Wallys from Bandimere Speedway and five of the last six, but defending champion Eddie Krawiec captured the last one. The reigning Pro Stock Motorcycle champ gives a lot of credit to tuners Andrew and Matt Hines for the continuous Harley-Davidson success on the mountain at one of the trickiest tracks on the circuit. 

“It’s a unique one where you have to have all your ducks in a row and have a good baseline to tune off of and I think we do,” said Krawiec. “The last two years we’ve come up here with new engine programs, but we have to make sure we’re still doing the same thing. We always tweak on it a little bit because we’re only running here once, and we don’t think it’s worth it to come test up here.”

Krawiec and Hines were still running their new-look Street Rods at this time a year ago. The riders eventually switched to a modified version of those Street Rods ahead of the Countdown to the Championship, a move that propelled Krawiec to a championship. He returns to the Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals with a redesigned Street Rod that resembles the bike he won that championship on.

“I’d like to say what we have is going to be better but I can’t guarantee it,” he said. “It’s going to be a hot one this year, so you’ll have to be good on your tune up that’s for sure. We’ve always given up a lot to the 60 foot mark here. What I mean by a lot is that we’re going 1.08, 1.07s occasionally when the other guys are going… heck, Greg Underdahl has gone 1.04 up here. But 1.05s and 1.06s are common up here. That’s a lot of time to give up when you’re up here.”

Krawiec averages 1.078 to the 60-foot mark, which is behind the 1.073 class average. That’s well behind the 1.06s and 1.05s the quick riders in the class average. The Harley-Davidson Street Rods often make up that time in the back half of the track, but that’s tougher to do in the thin air of Denver. 

“The unique thing with up here is that any screw up is exaggerated up here because the air is so much thinner. So, we’ll have to see. I’m confident in the motorcycle.”

Cory Reed enters his home race 19 points out of a Countdown to the Championship spot. That’s well within striking distance with four races remaining for Pro Stock Motorcycle riders to earn points, and the 2016 Auto Club Road to the Future award winner feels confident after a recent test session. 

“I’m still looking to grab my first Pro Stock Motorcycle win of my career and if I could get it done at Bandimere Speedway, that’d be awesome,” Reed said. “We tested a bunch of stuff at Norwalk after the race and I think we found things that will hurt some feelings. My reaction times haven’t been where I expect them to be lately and we switched up some stuff to change that.”

Reed averages a .0395-second reaction time, fourth-best in the two-wheel category. He’s only a hundredth behind his pal Joey Gladstone, who leads the category with a .0294 average light – still, he’s hoping to step it up in that area to get him closer to his first win. It would mean even more to him to lift his first Wally close to home. 

“Bandimere Speedway is special to me because I’ve been coming to this racetrack since my dad bracket raced back in the day and I’ve been here so many times racing Jr. Dragsters and with my parent’s Top Alcohol cars too,” said Reed. “My parent’s [Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Annie Whiteley and Pro Mod racer Jim Whiteley] don’t compete at this race so it’s nice to have them come hang out with us. I always seem to do better when they’re out at the races with me.” 

The Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals marks the final event for riders to qualify for the Mickey Thompson Tires Pro Bike Battle that will take place next weekend in Sonoma. Pro Stock Motorcycle riders earn the right to compete in the eight-bike duel based on their qualifying efforts since the previous year’s Battle.

Entering the Denver event, seven of the eight spots have been claimed, with Eddie Krawiec, Andrew Hines, Hector Arana Jr., Jerry Savoie, Scotty Pollacheck, L.E. Tonglet, and Matt Smith locking down their spots last month in Norwalk.

The battle for the eighth and final spot is between Smith’s wife, Angie, who sits No. 8, and 2017 rookie of the year nominee Joey Gladstone, who is 120 points behind her in ninth. With a maximum of 175 points available to the No. 1 qualifier and a minimum of 85 to the No. 16 qualifier, the math is pretty simple. The only way for Gladstone to bump her from the Battle program is for her to fail to qualify in Denver and for him to qualify eighth or higher. If she qualifies, she’s in regardless of what Gladstone does.

The chances of her not qualifying seem pretty slim. She's riding a 23-race qualifying streak that stretches back to her last DNQ in Dallas in late 2016.

PHOTOS

The race weekend kicked off with the traditional Mopar Big Block Party in nearby Golden, Colo., which became a haven for Mopar lovers and NHRA fans.

Mopar drivers, including recent New England Nationals champ Matt Hagan and his DSR teammates, signed autographs for the fans.

Mopars are everywhere at this event, including in the staging lanes for Sportsman qualifying.

Dodge nitro stars Leah Pritchett, near lane, and Matt Hagan squared off in a match race in new Demon Challengers, which went to Pritchett at the top end.

Hagan debuted the new new Hellcat Dodge Charger Funny Car body, which features a number of  innovations.

Pritchett, meanwhile, is bannering Mopar's "angry bee" of the new Scat Pack 1320 Dodge Challenger street-strip car that was unveiled Thursday.

Cruz Pedregon started his first qualifying run with a new Toyota Camry body and finished with a roadster after a massive blower explosion.

Larry Larson , far lane, drove his turbocharged Chevy S-10 to victory in the Mile-High No Prep Shootout, defeating Kevin Dowling, whose procharged 540-cid Chevelle came to the starting line broken and was not able to make the run.

Terry McMillen's Friday-night pass didn't go as expected as the Amalie Motor Oil driver suffered this supercharger backfire just off the starting line.

Bandimere fans saw even more fire as three jet dragsters closed the evening.

PREVIEW

The Western Swing begins at one of the most beautiful stops on the Mello Yello NHRA Drag Racing Series tour: Bandimere Speedway. The Dodge Mile-High NHRA Nationals is the first of three-straight races West of the Mississippi and is by far the toughest for tuners who must battle the high elevation all weekend. And this weekend the heat will pose another threat to those looking to get maximum horsepower out of their machines. 

That hasn’t been much of a problem this year for Steve Torrence and the Capco Contractors team tuned by Richard Hogan and Bobby Lagana. The points leader in Top Fuel earned his fifth win of the season at the NHRA New England Nationals and looks poised to enter the Countdown to the Championship with the points lead – just like he did a season ago. Torrence owns a 190-point lead over second-place racer Tony Schumacher, which looks like a comfortable lead with five races to go before points reset. 

Courtney Force’s 155-point lead over Matt Hagan isn’t quite as comfortable, especially since Hagan has won the last two races on tour. Hagan might be peaking at the right time, but he hasn’t had much success at Bandimere the past two seasons. He is debuting a brand-new Dodge Hellcat Funny Car body this weekend, the first from the manufacturer in five years. Whether that gives him a performance advantage remains to be seen – but it certainly has the team excited entering the event. 

Pro Stock remains extremely tight, but Erica Enders holds a slight lead over Greg Anderson entering the 14th race on tour. The two-time champ runnered up in Epping, but her one win this season and consistent long days has her on top of the points for the first time this year. Enders has never won in Denver, but with longtime Bandimere Speedway champion Allen Johnson (a great friend of Enders) retired, perhaps it’s time for a new racer to steal the mantle of King (or Queen) on the Mountain. 

The two-wheel class returns to competition after taking an event off with the Harley-Davidson duo at the top of the standings. Eddie Krawiec holds a five-point lead over his teammate, Andrew Hines, and a 75-point lead over LE Tonglet. Krawiec has three wins this season a year after taking home the Pro Stock Motorcycle championship and is the defending champion on the mountain. This is a track the Harley-Davidson team has dominated at over the years and they’ll be looking to continue the stretch this year.