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With an early 10:30 a.m. start,  the teams seem excited to run in the cooler conditions after two days of midafternoon heat. There's a spotty chance of sprinkles, but hey, it's the Northwest, where rain is a way of life. The guy on the news last night promised, "It'll be nothing to ruin your day," and I'm holding him to that. It actually sprinkled lightly on the pre-race ceremony but stopped after a few minutes of people casting angry eyes at the sky. As we prepare to fire up for round one of Top Fuel, it's about 70 degrees and there's a solid cloud cover after two days of bright, blue skies, making things even more comfortable for now but it's supposed to warm up in the afternoon.

TOP FUEL E1

Save for Friday night, these may be the best conditions of the weekend for the nitro cars. It's a matchup of two guys with opposite experiences at the last race in Norwalk: Antron Brown, who won the race, and Josh Hart, who had a rare DNQ. Hart leaves first and goes quicker, winning a tight 3.742 to 3.745 race. It's a big loss for Brown, who's fourth in points,

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Local hero Shawn Reed, whose team has been fighting top-end blower boost issues all year that have been costing him tight races, squares off with Clay Millican, who's also had a tough year, giving up 60 points on oildown penalties, including here yesterday when a piston was holed, spewing oil out of the headers and all over the track. This time, Millican is clean and dry and blasts to a 3.713 at 334 mph.

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A huge run of races coming up for Brittany Force, who is 10th in points and, after missing Norwalk, won't make the Countdown unless she does it on points. She's off to a good start but the engine goes silent 400 feet into the pass and Tony Schumacher, who expertly pedaled shortly off the line, moves to round two with a pedestrian 3.98.

Seattle will always be a memorable event for Schumacher and the JCM team, which earned its first win at this event in 2022 shortly after announcing the formation of the team. With five Seattle victories (2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2022), Schumacher is the winningest Top Fuel driver at the facility among active competitors (tied with Joe Amato).

if Josh Hart reaches the final round, Force will fall out of the Top 10.

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Doug Kalitta resets both ends of the track record on a sizzling 3.670 pass at 337.41 mph to dispatch Billy Torrence's 3.706, which would have won any of the previous races.

"There's no question that the car is running like mad; Alan and the guys have the car running good and the track conditions are great," said Kalitta.

Kalitta's stablemate, Shawn Langdon, recovers from a shaky qualifying effort and joins him in round two with a 3.74 victory over Justin Ashley, whom he's beaten all three times they've raced this season.

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With a bye run awaiting the winner, Steve Torrence takes on underdog Ron Smith and does as expected, racing to a 3.74 victory that moves him past Antron Brown and into fourth place in the standings.

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Jasmine Salinas adds a second round win in her rookie Top Fuel campaign, both of which have come over Tony Stewart. Salinas' red rail was wagging the tail pretty hard, but she held on for a 3.77 win after 'Smoke's" dragster goes silent early.

Stewart is his usual philosophic self later: "I didn't sign up for this because it was easy. I signed up because it's difficult. It's just a matter of time, but it's frustrating in the process to go through it. It's happened in every form of motorsports I've been a part of, so it's not supposed to be easy. If it was easy, there'd be 3,000 of these things rolling up here every week."

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Second-round Top Fuel pairings (lane choice first): Steve Torrence vs. bye; Doug Kalitta vs. Jasmine Salinas; Josh Hart vs. Shawn Langdon; Clay Millican vs. Tony Schumacher

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FUNNY CAR E1

Low qualifier Austin Prock has a bye run and doesn't waste it, matching his qualifying best of 3.838 at top speed of the meet, 331.85. He'll face the winner of the Cruz Pedregon-Daniel Wilkerson tilt later in the round.

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Jeff Diehl races to a career-best 3.95 but wastes it on a super-early red-light (-.123) and Paul Lee ripsto a stout 3.918. It's a big 20 points for Lee who's 11th in points and trying to earn a spot in the Countdown based solely on points after skipping the Epping event earlier this year. He's chasing Blake Alexander, who is a round or two ahead of him.

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 J.R. Todd makes a strong early run but the car shuts off early to just 297 mph. Fortunately for them, Buddy Hull — still looking for the first win light of his nitro car — gets loose and steps off at half-track.

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A wild race between Ron Capps and Gary Densham begins with a pedalfest and ends with the engine in Capps' NAPA Toyota exploding and shedding the body. Capps drives the heck out of a wild, bouncing ride, but slaps the right-side guardwall, then coasts across the centerline and noses into the other wall. Densham gets the win light, his first in seven years.

"I know Guido [crew chief Dean Antonelli] was trying to throw down pretty good, and it just shook, shook them loose," said Capps. "I pedaled it and I couldn't get it going. I could hear Gary over there and I knew he was a little bit in trouble, but then he started going out my window and I was just trying to get it going again, nothing crazy.  As I rolled in that last pedal, the explosion and concussion and the body's gone and then I'm seeing these trees around the track. It's not a good thing in a Funny Car, then I was just hanging on.

"I don't think I've ever had an accident like that in my career that bad, so I was just hanging on and trying not to hit hard. After I hit the right wall, it just went left and I knew I was going to go head-on into the other wall, so I just braced for it."

As the clean-up begins, the expected light showers arrive, and if it's going to do it, this was a good time.

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About an hour later, ready for the resumption of round one, with Bob Tasca III needing a round win to keep pace with points leader Prock, but he's got a tough draw in Chad Green, who has lane choice, Tasca's Ford didn't run in the threes over four qualifying runs but you can bet he has one dialed in now.

Boy, did he. After Green's car shuts down, Tasca's Mustang gallops to a 3.88 at 338.51, a new track speed record and the 10th fastest run in Funny Car history.

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The Funny Car Round From Hell continues as Dave Richards loses traction immediately and hooks a hard right across the centerline and into the opposite-lane wall. Fortunately, it all happened behind Matt Hagan, who makes his first three-second pass of the weekend with a 3.89. We're down for some guardwall repair.

"It just happened so fast," said Richards. "I hit the gas and I could tell it was starting to spin the tire and as soon as I let off I was pointing straight right and just yanking the back left and there was nothing I could do."

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Blake Alexander is trying to fend off Paul Lee for 10th place and gets it done in an unconventional fashion. Alexander has to pedal immediately after a late .125 leave and it seems like his day is over, then Alexis DeJoria's Toyota inexplicably shuts down when she went to pedal. Alexander coasts to an important 6.25, 134-mph win. he'll surrender lane choice in round two to Densham.

With losses by DeJoria and Green, a win in round two would carry Alexander all the way to the eighth spot in points.

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And the sprinkles are back, so we're down again for that. And now I can actually classify the wet stuff as "rain." Seattle, amirite? Where's that weatherman I talked about earlier?

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Fifty minutes later, we're back, and a first round that's already 2 1/2 hours in duration continues with Daniel Wilkerson taking on Curz Pedregon. Pedregon's year-long struggles seem to evaporate with a 3.89 victory over D-Wilk's 3.91. As good as that run was, he won't have lane choice against Prock.

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Second-round Funny Car pairings (lane choice first): Austin Prock vs. Cruz Pedregon; Bob Tasca III vs. J.R. Todd; Gary Densham vs. Blake Alexander; Matt Hagan vs. Paul Lee

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PRO STOCK E1

Former Pro Stock Motorcycle ace Cory Reed has just 20 laps -- 16 in testing and four here in qualifying -- of experience in a Pro Stock car and uses every bit of it to save the car after it makes a hard move to the centerline at the top end with a healthy lead on defending event champ Troy Coughlin Jr. Reed has to lift and Coughlin scoots by for the win.

And it's sprinkling again ... and the Pro Stockers and Pro Stock Motorcycles have been ordered back to the pits. Never a great sign.

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Twenty minutes later, the Pro Stockers are back in the staging lanes to resume one of the longest first rounds in recent memory. With nitro complete and just one pair of Pro Stockers in the books, we're already at (checks watch) three hours and  15 minutes. the sun is out for the first time today, so the track will start heating up before long.

A little Elite on Elite action as Jeg Coughlin Jr. faces off with Jerry Don Tucker. Coughlin is in fifth place in points and so far behind No. 4 and so far ahead of No. 6 that he'll exit the event in the same place no matter what happens. And what happens is Jeg for the win with a 6.53.

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The McGaha family's great weekend continues as father Chris wins on a massive holeshot, 6.560 to 6.523, over Deric Kramer, taking the win light by just .0004-second. The family could have had a father-son battle in round two, but two pairs later son Mason turns the Tree red against Kenny Delco.

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Matt Hartford pulls off a huge upset, beating Aaron Stanfield, yesterday's Mission Challenge champ and winner of the last two events on the tour, with a strong 6.522, which is low e.t. of the round so far.

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And it's another holeshot and another low e.t. of the round, but from two different cars as local hero Dallas Glenn straps a gatejob on the boss and wins by .006-second, 6.528 to Greg Anderson's 6.514.

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Sienna Wildgust, in her debut with Team Elite, qualified just No. 15 and is running the quickest qualified car in the KB/Titan team in Eric Latino, who tasks the win with a 6.54.

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Low qualifier and reigning world champ Erica Enders, who has her eyes set on a milestone 50th career win this weekend, goes off against Delco's teammate, Val Smeland and his new Mustang. He's off the line first but E.E. powers to a 6.52 to set up a second-round date with Troy Coughlin Jr., a rematch of their 2022 final here which went to T.J. by just .001-second.

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Second-round Pro Stock pairings (lane choice first): Erica Enders vs. Troy Coughlin Jr.; Matt Hartford vs. Dallas Glenn; Jeg Coughlin Jr. vs. Eric Latino; Chris McGaha vs. Kenny Delco

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PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE E1

Jianna Evaristo steals the track speed record from Matt Smith Racing teammate Angie Smith with a run of 201.52 mph on a 6.73 pass to upset Steve Johnson, and, one pair later, Angie's day gets worse as her Denso Buell appears to bog against teammate John Hall, who advances with a 6.86.

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Richard Gadson takes the first of the two RezVilla Suzukis to round two, riding around Chris Bostick's bike for a 6.74 win, further embellishing this hopes for the Rookie of the Year honors.

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Evaristo's record doesn't last long as team leader Matt Smith rips off a stunning 6.709 at 202.64 against Hector Arana Jr. to grab both ends of the mark and earn lane choice against Gadson. The fourth MSR Buell follows Smith to the line with rookie Brandon Litten, but the new ride has to lift early as hits two timing blocks, allowing Chase Van Sant an easy win,

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Gaige Herrera wins his 44th straight round of competition as Eiji Kawakami did the only thing he could do, which was to push the Tree, but he pushes too hard and fouls with a -.015 reaction time. Herrera runs just 6.74 and will cede lane choice to Evaristo.

For the record, the first round took three hours and 37 minutes to complete.

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Second-round Pro Stock Motorcycle pairings (lane choice first): Jianna Evaristo vs. Gaige Herrera; Chase Van Sant vs. John Hall; Matt Hines vs. Richard Gadson

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TOP FUEL E2

After a quick round of Top Alcohol Dragster, we're back to the Pro cars, with Shawn Langdon squaring off with Josh Hart, and it's Langdon all the way with a 3.72, Langdon's quickest pass of the meet. Langdon now sits second behind his teammate, Doug Kalita in the championship points following Justin Ashley's first-round exit. Hart stays 11th in points, much to Brittany Force's relief.

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It's a solo for Steve-o (it rhymes) as Torrence lines up for his second-round bye due to the 14-car field. He'll be shooting for lane choice against either Doug Kalitta or Jasmine Salinas, and throws down the gauntlet with a 3.709.

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Clay Millican is up to seventh place after reaching the semifinals over Tony Schumacher, whose mount loses traction a few hundred feet into the run, If Millican makes the final, he'll climb past Schumacher and into sixth.

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After breaking the track record in round one with a 3.67, Doug Kalitta slows a half-tenth to a 3.72, which will give Steve Torrence lane choice,

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Semifinal Top Fuel pairings (lane choice first): Steve Torrence; Shawn Langdon vs. Clay Millican

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FUNNY CAR E2

The top four points earners all reached round two, and here's a battle between No. 2, Bob Tasca III, and No. 4, J.R. Todd, and it's a huge win for Todd with a 3.86, his best run of the meet in the DHL Toyota. He's now just 22 points behind Tasca. 

The news gets even better for the former world champ as Austin Prock's victory over Cruz Pedregon nets him just a 3.88, meaning that Todd will have semifinal lane choice.

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Paul Lee's greatest day of the season continues as reigning world champ Matt Hagan slows early against his 3.92. It's Lee's first semifinal of the season and will put him into the Mission Challenge in Sonoma. With both Tasca and Hagan out now, Prock's points lead will continue to grow.

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With Lee nibbling at their heels for the No. 10 spot in the points, it's a must-win for Blake Alexander and Jim Head while for veteran Gary Densham, it's just another run in his storied flopper career. For a while, it looks like Alexander's day is over as Densham jumps out to a sizeable lead before his car goes silent at 600 feet and Alexander scoots by for the 4.07 win.

The battle for 10th place will come to a head next round when Lee and Alexander face off.

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Semifinal Funny Car pairings (lane choice first): J.R. Todd vs. Austin Prock; Paul Lee vs. Blake Alexander

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PRO STOCK E2

Chris McGaha, who only had one round win to his credit this season, makes his first semifinal of the year and his first since the 2021 Dallas event by taking down Kenny Delco.

McGaha will surrender semifinal lane choice to Jeg Coughlin Jr., who powered to a 56.53 to eliminate Eic Latino.

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Points leader Dallas Glenn pads that advantage with a holeshot in front of the hometown faithful, beating Matt Hartford on a 6.593 to 6.563 holeshot.

Erica Enders, with a chance to pass Greg Anderson for second place, is .011 on the Tree, but teammate Troy Coughlin Jr. drives around her for his sixth straight round win as the defending event champ wins, 6.539 to 6.569.

Glenn's lead over Anderson is now 108 points.

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Semifinal Pro  Stock pairings (lane choice first): Troy Coughlin Jr. vs. Dallas Glenn; Jeg Coughlin Jr. vs. Chris McGaha

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PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE E2

Chase Van Sant is back in the semifinals for the first time since Chicago, where he was runner-up behind Gaige Herrera, running 6.74 to beat John Hall.

Gaige Herrera gets his 45th straight round win (and, with a semifinal bye coming, his 46th) but he does it with his left hand instead of his right, dropping the clutch ahead of Jianna Evaristo to win on a holeshot, 6.737 to 6.704.

Evaristo, the last person to beat Herrera in points competition (last year in Reading) loses despite a career-best and track-record speed of 203.95, which ties for the sixth fastest in class history.

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Matt Smith will take on Van Sant in the semifinals after driving around Richard Gadson's holeshot with a 6.735.

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Semifinal Pro Stock Motorcycle pairings (lane choice first): Gaige Herrera vs. bye; Matt Smith vs. Chase Van Sant

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TOP FUEL SEMIFINALS

Shawn Langdon reaches his fourth final of the season on a holeshot over Clay Millican by just .002-second, 3.771 to 3.737. It will be Langdon's 45th career final round, WIll he face his teammate, Doug Kalitta, or four-time world chap Steve Torrence?

No! Steve Torrence runs 3.736 to defeat Doug Kalitta and get the chance to win the event for the second straight year and end his 20-race win drought. It's Torrence's 90th Top Fuel final.

Regardless, Kalitta will still leave here the points leader with Langdon either 100 (win) or 120 (runner-up) points back. if Torrence wins the final, he'll be in third place, otherwise in fourth.

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FUNNY CAR SEMIFINALS

Paul Lee and Blake Alexander both need to finish in the Top 10 in points to make the Countdown as both missed an event earlier this year, ruling them out of the "perfect attendance" pass to the playoffs. Alexander's lead over Lee for 10th place is 29 points, or just over a round, so this one really matters to both.

And it's Lee, who reaches his first career Funny Car final. Lee has three previous national event wins in Top Alcohol Funny Car, all of which came during a tremendous 2004 season, so it's been 20 years since he raised a Wally.

Standing in Lee's way will be points leader Austin Prock, who earns lane choice with a 3.88 to 3.92 win over J.R. Todd.
Prock's lead over Bob Tasca III and Matt Hagan (tied) is already 236 points and could grow by 20 if he wins the final.

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PRO STOCK SEMIFINALS

It hasn't been .00 reaction times that spawned his nickname "Double-Oh Dallas," but Dallas Glenn is in the final round after three straight holeshot wins after beating defending event champ Troy Coughlin Jr., 6.556 to 6.552. Glenn grew up just one exit down Highway 18 from Pacific Raceways, so you have to know a win here would be huge.

Jeg Coughlin Jr. runs 6.537 to beat Chris McGaha and earn final-round lane choice. His Elite Motorsports team has won the last four national events (Troy Coughlin in Epping, Jeg Coughlin in Bristol, and the last two, in Richmond and Norwalk, by Aaron Stanfield).

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PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE SEMIFINALS

Gaige Herrera turns on his 46th straight win light on a solo pass and will have to wait to see who stands in the way of what would be his 12th straight national event win. Herrera's 6.781 is his slowest run of the day -- problem or head game?

Everyone expected it to be Matt Smith, but Smith's Denso Buell won't fire, so Chase Van Sant gets a free pass to his second final of the year. He was runner-up behind Herrera in Chicago and will surrender lane choice to Herrera as he tries to stop the RevZilla freight train.

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HISTORY IN THE MAKING?

There have been 99 different female winners in NHRA national event competition, and two female racers have the chance to become the milestone 100th winner. Maddi Gordon will take on Brian Hough in the Top Alcohol Funny Car final while Kaee Jo Bootsma will square off with Ed Olpin.

Because the schedule has been juggled throughout the day by crashes and rain, we're not sure which final will run first and which of the two gets the first chance to make history.

And it's Gordon, daughter of recently retired three-time world champion Doug Gordon, to claim the historic number, a countdown that began nearly 60 years ago when Shirley Shahan won in Stock eliminator at the 1966 Winternationals in Pomona, Calif.