NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

PRO STOCK Q1

Well, here it is, 9:50 a.m., and we're ready for Pro Stock. It's certainly the earliest that anyone can remember hitting the track for qualifying, but after the thermometer hit triple digits here around noon yesterday en route to a high of 108, the advanced schedule is a good idea for fans and drivers alike.

The thought, not just in Pro Stock but in the notro ranks, too, is that Q1 today and Q3 tomorrow morning are the runs that will set the fields, while Q2 and Q4 will be all about getting a Sunday setup for later rounds should they make it that far.

As the first pair fired up, 20 minutes later than scheduled, it was 83 degrees under a clear, cloudless sky. It's expected to be mid-90s when we run Q2. But, as they say,  at least it's a dry heat, right? The air temp won't be as big of a deal as the track temp, which started at a reasonable 110 but likely will skyrocket by Q2.

As expected, the Pro Stock ran their normal times, with Greg Anderson pacing the field with a 6.552, just a few ticks ahead of Greg Stanfield's 6.558 in a true KB Titan vs. Elite battle. 

Jeg Coughlin Jr. ranked third with a 6.562, with Gatornationals winner, points leader, and hometown favorite Matt Hartford in fourth at 6.568.

Chris Vang was a surprise in fifth at 6.572  with Dallas Glenn (6.573), Gatornationals low qualifier Cody Coughlin (6.575), and Eric Latino (6.580) rounding out the top eight. Kenny Delco is on the 16-car bump at 6.618. Twenty teams are trying to qualify.

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FUNNY CAR Q1

Track temp was up to 115 and air temp to 90 before the floppers made their first runs. Incoming thoughts were that anything in the 4.0s would be satisfactory, and quite a few met or exceeded those hopes.

Spencer Hyde managed a meandering Head Inc., entry to a strong 3.979, which is just what team owner and tuner Jim Head had dialed up. "I always like it when it does what I wanted it to do," said Head, who runner-upped here in 1986, back when the event was run in the fall.

Jack Beckman ran 3.982 for the best run in the left lane that seemed to draw cars towards the wall past halftrack while Matt Hagan's right-lane 3.998 got the final bonus point. 

Jordan Vandergriff, Gatornationals champ Chad Green, defending event champ Paul Lee, Jason Rupert, Dave Richards, Alexis DeJoria, and Cruz Pedregon all ran in the 4.0s.

Arizona's own Dylan Winefsky bettered his previous best run of 4.224 with a 4.216, but at just 272 mph as his Nitro Moose Dodge appeared to shuck the blower belt at the top end.

World champ Austin Prock, who surprisingly failed to qualify in Gainesville in his first outing for Tasca Racing, again didn't get to halftrack before losing traction, though he smartly pedaled the red and white Motorcraft Ford to a 4.452, important with 17 cars on the grounds. His best in Gainesville was a 4.836. Blake Alexander's 4.653 is on the bump.

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TOP FUEL Q1

Fourteen of the 15 Top Fuel cars didn't make it down the track under full power, and the one that did was red-hot rookie Maddi Gordon, who powered the Rob Flynn-tuned Carlyle Tools machine to a 3.844.

"I'm stoked and pumped up," enthused the perennially stoked and pumped up third-generation driver. "Our boys put in the work in the heat. Thanks to all the fans for coming out here. That was pretty dang cool, don't you think?"

The long-awaited (well, it's only been one race) matchup between Tony Stewart and wife Leah Pruett took place, and she left on him (.084 to .094) and outran him 4.14 to 4.19. Her 4.14 was the third-best run of the frame with Billy Torrence's 4.12 between the two female favorites.

Jaren Mott, a former Top Alcohol Dragster and jet-car pilot who made his first runs in competition in a Jr. Dragster right here at Firebird Motorsports Park, made his Top Fuel debut in the car owned by three-time Top Fuel world champ Larry Dixon. Mott, who licensed in four passes in pre-season testing in Gainesville, made a planned early shut-off run of 4.17 to get another lap under his safety belts. Despite there being just 15 Top Fuelers on the grounds and a guaranteed spot in the field, the team will run all four sessions to give him as much seat time as possible.

Two-time defending event champ Shawn Langdon never made it off the starting line due to an apparent throttle linkage disconnect.

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PRO STOCK Q2

Under super-heated conditions (98 air/131 track), the Pro Stock field as a whole fell off four- to five-hundredths, which was never more evident than Q1 leader Greg Anderson, whose best-of-session 6.602 would have been the 16th best run of Q1.

"We thought awfully hard about what to do and took what we learned in Gainesville to prepare for today," said Anderson. "It's oppressive heat, but we're tough."

World champ Dallas Glenn was not far behind with a 6.605, and Gainesville winner Matt Hartford made it a KB Titan-powered sweep of the top three with a 6.607.

Three Elite Performance drivers — Greg Stanfield, Troy Coughlin Jr., and Jeg Coughlin Jr. — made up the next three in the session. The bump spot did not change, with veteran Kenny Delco holding down the final spot at 6.618.

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NITRO TUNING FOR HEAT 101

As the Funny Cars take the stage, it's 100 degrees of air temperature, and the track is already a toasty 140 degrees. The last two years in Richmond, we've seen a high track temp of 145, so we're pretty close to those rare conditions.

Speaking to four-time Top Fuel world champ tuner Bobby Lagana Jr., this morning and asking how to navigate these kinds of conditions, he admitted, "You just gotta get creative. If you back [the power] down enough, it'll go, but it's hard to get yourself to do it, right?" he said. "Basically, you have to use all of your tuning tools: blower overdrive, compression, ignition timing, and a nitro percentage. Just take a bunch away from each one. You have to back off your clutch application, and that's where it gets dicey. It's hard to convince yourself that you can run the clutch that slow, but it won't wreck the clutch out of it, and the car will go down the track because the power is so pulled back. There's a balance there.”

FUNNY CAR Q2

J.R. Todd was pretty much the only driver to improve, and his 4.103 was the best of the session with a run that would have only been 11th best in Q1.

Q1 leader Spencer Hyde ran 4.148 and will finish the day as the provisional No. 1 qualifier. Alexis DeJoria, who went to the semi's in Gainesville, also looked good with a 4.15 in the heat.

In Gainesville, it was Austin Prock going from the high to the low, and this weekend, it's Ron Capps, the low qualifier in Gainesville, who is feeling those blues so far as his NAPA Auto Parts Toyota is the lone car outside the field with a 5.239 best against Daniel Wilkerson's 4.602 bump.

Prock's weekend didn't get much better as, for the sixth straight time this season, the Tasca Ford broke loose downtrack again and, this time, ultimately crossed the centerline past the finish line. Fortunately, he was on a solo after Dylan Winefsky shut off on the starting line with a broken throttle linkage. Prock is in the 14th spot.

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TOP FUEL Q2

After a rocky first session in which only one car made it to 1,000 feet under full power, the Top Fuel class got better in Q2, though there were still a lot of aborted passes. Shawn Langdon, who broke on the line in Q1, was , of course, one of them and made the best run of the session with a 3.927.

Only Antron Brown (3.985) and Leah Pruett (3.997) also broke into the threes; for Pruett, it's the second straight session with the third-best run, showing some great ability from crew chief Neal Strausbaugh on the Rayce Rudeen Foundation entry, colors that her husband, Tony Stewart, carried to his first career Top Fuel win last year in Las Vegas.

Maddi Gordon remained atop the field with her Q1 pass of 3.844, bringing the rookie driver halfway to her first career pole position in the new Ron Capps Motorsports/Carlyle Tools entry.