NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Pro Stock Q3

The sun is beating on the racing surface, and hello, Alan Prusiensky! The longtime Pro Stock racer comes up to make his first pass of the weekend and lays down a long, smoky burnout. His pass is easy and he shuts off early, and he's stretched his legs a bit before he comes back in the final session to try to break in the show. Prusiensky is attending just his second race of the season, and at the start of the weekend he explained that they needed to take some time away to focus on business and future plans for their program. Daughter Natalie may be in the seat in the years ahead, but dad isn't rushing anything.

Matt Hartford, driving the GETTRX/Total Seal/Rottler entry that won here last season, is more optimistic than he's been in a long while heading into this weekend. After a strong 6.559 this session, his mood is even more bolstered.

"Jerry Haas just builds a great hot rod; it doesn't matter if it's old or new – they're all good," he said. "That wasn't bad for these conditions. She's a good ol' girl and won a lot of rounds. The car has been good. The driver hasn't been as good as he can be, but it's coming around."

Elite Motorsports driver Jeg Coughlin Jr. and his Scag Power Equipment Chevrolet Camaro made a great run this session – his 6.548 is second-best of the round and good for two bonus points. Aaron Stanfield got a point as third-best on a 6.556.

The talk of the round, though, was Dallas Glenn and the RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet Camaro. Worse conditions? What worse conditions? Glenn throws down a 6.530-second place to move right into the top spot.

"It felt sweet when I left," said Glenn. "Yesterday we just missed a couple of small things on each run. I knew it had more in it, and that one showed it really nice."

Cory Reed bumped in from the outside with a safe 6.576. That bumped Derrick Reese right out with one session remaining.

"That takes a little stress off of everybody," said Reed. "The KB Titan guys, they like to ease into it – but that was pretty borderline of easing into it to make sure we get in. I bet this next one, Rob [Downing] and Nate [VanWassenhove], and [Dave] Connolly is back today, Brian [Fleck] on the computer. Hopefully putting a little spice in her."

Pro Stock Motorcycle Q3

The 2003 Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion, Geno Scali, puts a 6.955 on the board, an improvement but still not towards the top, where he is accustomed to lingering. After the run, he explains the challenge of getting back into Pro Stock Motorcycle so many years later.

"The Vance & Hines crew, Eddie and Andrew, they do all the work on the bike so the bike is smooth and nice," said Scali." Me, I'm 30 pounds heavier than I used to be in my championship year. It's like you putting a backpack on ya, holding about 8,000 rpms, and popping that clutch. It wants to pull ya. I gotta learn to lunge with the bike a little better."

Richard Gadson and his Vance & Hines RevZilla/Mission Suzuki goes low of the round in the second-to-last pair, but teammate Gaige Herrera and Matt Smith are here to have their say. Smith's 6.802 betters Gadson's time, but Herrera's 6.743, 200.02 annihilates what anyone thought was out there.

Herrera takes over the top spot and gets three bonus points, Smith scoops up two, and Gadson gets a mark as well.

Crew chief Andrew Hines says, "That was cool to see Gaige go .74. We've been breaking in a new tire throughout Indy testing and Indy, ran it yesterday then said hey lets put our race tire on and see what it will go. It's older, lighter, track is good. We dropped a bomb on 'em right there, so we're happy about that. My advice to Gaige right there was just go and kick Matt's butt. Maybe a little more explicitly than that."

Matt Smith answers back with, "The sandbags came off that time. They haven't been tuning their stuff right the last three races and Seattle, but we'll see. We'll see what happens."

Herrera weighs in with, "I don't know about all that. We made a good lick there. Andrew stayed up late going over all the data and ended up putting our special tire on, and I think that's what helped it go fast. I feel like Matt should have picked up a little bit and he didn't. We'll see who's really sandbagging later."

Herrera gets three points, Smith gets two, Gadson gets one.

Top Fuel Q3

Three second runs were a lot harder to come by this time around, but a handful of Top Fuel teams stepped up to the plate to have bat connect with ball. The first was Doug Foley, whose 3.823 showed what was possible.

Steve Torrence and his Capco Toyota was one of the stand-outs of the session with his 3.798 that was a second consecutive good run after a troubled hit the first time out.

"It's better than smoking the tires if it goes all the way to the end; we've been doing a lot of that lately," said Torrence. "We'll get it lined out, but these Capco boys are doing a good job. Sometimes we just have to dig a little deeper and work a little harder and we'll get back to where we need to be."

Antron Brown's 3.770 in the Matco Tools Toyota was low of the round for three bonus points. Justin Ashley's 3.786 in the Scag Power Equipment dragster was good for two extra marks. Torrence grabs a point as well.

Funny Car Q3

The DHL Toyota driven by J.R. Todd didn't get a clean pass in yesterday, so they go in for a safe run. After a 3.984, 320.97, co-crew chief Todd Smith was somewhat frustrated and humble.

"I'm not happy, even with that, but we needed to go A to B," said Smith. "Our performance is terrible this weekend, but we can't do anything but put our heads down and try to get better."

Dave Richards and his Scag-backed Versatran Ford made a mostly steady 4.03 offering. After not making the field at Indy, that was meaningful.

"That's a really good run, a lot of things we've been dealing with after Indy, not qualifying. We tested. We're not giving up, but that feels really good. Funny Cars are so fun to drive. My sponsor quoted me, like a ping pong ball last week. It felt good to kind of go straight. It was definitely loose, moving around and sliding a little bit but I just needed to get to the finish line for myself and my team. A 4.03 in the heat, I'll take it."

Buddy Hull got into some big trouble out there, and things were going awry internally as he motored down the strip with a trail of fluid behind him. We are down for clean-up.

Approximately 45 minutes later, we got to get back to business. Funny Car finished up with Jack Beckman running low of the session, a 3.907, in the Peak Chevrolet.

Chad Green is second quickest in the BondCoat Ford with his 3.960, and Daniel Wilkerson makes a strong run, going 3.973 to claim an extra mark. 

Pro Stock Q4

The final session is taking place during the hottest hour of the day and of the weekend so far. Ahead of this round, the guessers and knowers projected that no one would improve. That being said, remember Q3 when Dallas Glenn pulled a 6.530 out of his pocket to rocket to the top?

This session was over in a flash, and it was Dallas Glenn and his RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet Camaro with the pole for the second time this season and first time since the Winternationals. He was the points leader coming into this race, and he's planning on keeping the lead on Sunday night at Maple Grove Raceway.

"I feel great," said Glenn, who raced to a 6.550, 209.33 in the final session. "I feel a lot better than last year when we qualified ninth. We got a lot of little points in qualifying, and I'm hitting the tree good. We have a really fast hot rod, and I think we have something for them."

Low of the round honors went to Greg Anderson and his KB Titan Racing Chevrolet Camaro for his 6.543, 210.08 – he picks up three more bonus points to go along with the three he claimed earlier in qualifying. Glenn was second-quickest of the session for two more points, and Aaron Stanfield and his JHG/Melling Performance/Janac Brothers Racing Chevrolet was third-quickest with a 6.556, 210.21.

Derrick Reese, Brandon Miller, and Alan Prusiensky are locked out of the 16-car field, and Kenny Delco is on the bump with a qualifying-best 6.585, 209.30. The top spot is a 6.530, which means there is just .055-second separating the top and bottom of the field.

Pro Stock Motorcycle Q4

The Pro Stock Motorcycle crowd was steady in the heat, with everyone making it down the track smoothly if not as efficiently as they would have liked.

The best of the round honors went to Matt Smith and his Denso Buell. He clocked a 6.840 to sweep in three more bonus points, and Gaige Herrera and the Vance & Hines RevZilla Mission Suzuki were right behind with a 6.873 that was second-best of the round. Herrera got two bonus points here, as well.

Hector Arana Jr.'s GETTRX Buell made another good run, a 6.822, that brought in another bonus point.

"This bike has been very consistent, we tried something different for Q3, had optimism that maybe it would work, but knew maybe it wouldn't. We put the setup back and it was very consistent. We have a very good package for Sunday; we just have to do good on the tree. We have a great bike."

Smith says he's focused on going at least two rounds on Sunday.

"If you lose first-round in these playoffs, you're killing yourself," he said.

Kelly Clontz did not make a run this session or last, but with 14 motorcycles on the property, she will race on Sunday.

Top Fuel Q4

The first pair of Top Fuelers results in a fairly sizable oil down towards the top end, and we are down. Drivers are out of their cars and the scrubbers are out. 

This session is turning out to be a good one, and the fans packed into the stands and stacked 10-deep along the fence are seeing their patience pay off with a series of 3.7-second runs. Antron Brown is an early top performer with his 3.755. By the end of the session, Brown is second-quickest as Justin Ashley complements his low qualifier award with a best of the round 3.753. Three more bonus points for Ashley, two for brown, and one for European FIA Top Fuel champion Ida Zetterström who goes 3.771 to improve on her previous quickest run this weekend.

Smax Smith puts up a 3.897 in this round, and that moves him into the show but to the detriment of Shawn Reed. It's heartbreak for Reed, who had cylinders out on both sides and will not make the show.

"It's disappointing but we didn't have anything December 1 of last year, Rob [Wendland] and Ryan [Elliot, co-crew chiefs] assembled this whole team in a short amount of time. I'm disappointed, but I'm out here doing this with the best of the best in the world, and I'm in the Countdown. We'll move on, and we'll figure out what went wrong and address it."

Funny Car Q4

Bob Tasca III and his Dark Horse Motorcraft Quicklane Ford Mustang were the top achiever in the final qualifying session, and his 3.873-second pass at 333.49 mph got him three bonus points to add to the stack in his quest for a first nitro Funny Car world title. Austin Prock had no problem keeping hold of the pole, and he earned his 11th of the season along with two bonus points for a 3.880 in the final qualifier. Jack Beckman and the Peak Chevrolet got a point as well for a 3.920 that was third-quickest.

Mike Smith smooshed the header pipes against the wall as he neared the top end, so there will be some work to accomplish to get ready for the first round on Sunday. He's holding down the bottom spot (No. 14).