Excellent Dallas weather helps qualifying times
Written by Sheila Scarborough · September 19, 2008
After sweltering through drought and hurricanes, it’s quite pleasant to be somewhere in Texas that is enjoying beautiful, slightly crisp fall weather.
Here at the Texas Motorplex (the second all-concrete track in a row after last week’s inaugural Carolinas Nationals) the temps have been in the low-mid 80s and humidity is only about 45%, with a cloudless sky. Partly as a result, some track records were set and points leads reshuffled in the first day of qualifying at the O’Reilly Super Start Batteries NHRA Fall Nationals.
In Top Fuel, Larry Dixon out of Don “Snake” Prudhomme’s organization is holding the low qualifier position; he took advantage of a tire-smoking Tony Schumacher to run a 3.820 ET at 310.70 mph. Joe Hartley is on the bump.
“Too bad we don’t run the races on Friday night; we’ve obviously got that part down,” said Dixon. “That was a great run for us, and obviously Donnie [Bender] and Todd [Smith] are making the right calls on the tune-up. The next step would be to not smoke the tires on race day.
“We’ve had so many changes this year with the cars being heavier, a new tire, and now 1,000 foot, so it’s a learning experience with every run, and comparing our guys to [other crew chiefs like] Alan Johnson or Tom Richards, they don’t have as much experience, so I think they’re doing a phenomenal job.”
In Funny Car, we had ample evidence of class competitiveness as two different sets of cars in the second round ran identical elapsed times — Ashley Force and Del Worsham, plus Jack Beckman and Tim Wilkerson. Robert Hight (who DNQ’d here last year) ended up as provisional pole winner with a 4.063 ET at 301.81 mph. Jerry Toliver is on the bump.
“That was an unbelievable run,” said Hight. “It was perfectly straight and ran 267 mph at [660 feet]; it was flying. It’s really huge to out-qualify the rest of the drivers in the Countdown, which we also did in Charlotte; as tight as Funny Car is, those extra qualifying points hopefully will get us to the championship.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better day with two good runs, but even though it’s a year later and everything is different, coming back here still brings back those bad memories, even though we did win here in 2006. We also won Indy that year, as we did this year, so maybe everything is lining up.”
Pro Stock’s Jeg Coughlin set a low ET track record at 6.631 seconds, with 207.56 mph speed, so he’s the provisional low qualifier in that class, with Larry Morgan on the bump. Coughlin, the defending POWERade champion, won this event in 2002 and has been to the final-round three times at the Texas Motorplex.
“We thought we could run mid to low 6.62,” Coughlin said. “We left a little bit on the table. We’ve looked at the data and have determined that we could have been more aggressive. By any means, we’re not disappointed. Our trend lately is to run stronger as the weekend progressed. To start off the weekend on top is fantastic. Going into Saturday that gives us confidence to be more aggressive with it and keep it up front.”
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Eddie Krawiec now holds the track record for low ET (6.970) and top speed (191.65) and he’s hoping to hold onto the pole through tomorrow. Angie McBride is on the bump.
“That second session was a little screwy,” said Krawiec. “A lot of people anticipate better air when it gets darker and cooler out, but if you monitored the weather station, you’d see that although the air was getting better, a lot of the other things that really make it good air were coming up, counter-reacting on itself. It wasn’t as good as everyone thought.
“I’m just going out there trying to make consistent laps, whether the No. 1 qualifier comes or not. Of course, we’d like to have those eight points,” added Krawiec. “We’d like to carry forward the momentum from our Charlotte runner-up, because it’s a pretty good points battle right now.”
Qualifying continues tomorrow (Saturday, September 20) with Sportsman class runs at 8 am and Pro Stock Motorcycle at 11:15 am, US Central time.
Top Fuel Standings After Two Qualifying Rounds
1. Larry Dixon U.S. Smokeless Tobacco Dragste 3.820 310.70
2. Brandon Bernstein Budweiser/Lucas Oil Dragster 3.842 315.19
3. Hillary Will KB Racing LLC Dragster 3.849 314.97
4. Bob Vandergriff UPS Dragster 3.861 312.64
5. Cory McClenathan Fram Dragster 3.866 313.00
6. J.R. Todd Lucas Oil Dragster 3.874 307.72
7. Steve Torrence Vis-Viva Dragster 3.874 306.26
8. Tony Schumacher U.S. Army Dragster 3.880 310.98
9. Rod Fuller Caterpillar Dragster 3.896 308.50
10. Antron Brown Matco Dragster 3.897 309.06
11. Spencer Massey Bexar Waste Dragster 3.902 307.23
12. Joe Hartley Hartley Racing Dragster 3.903 299.93
--------- Not Qualified ---------
13. Doug Herbert Snap-On Tools Dragster 3.931 295.92
14. David Grubnic DHL Dragster 3.946 306.95
15. Clay Millican Nitrofish Dragster 3.949 302.89
16. Morgan Lucas Lucas Oil Speedway Dragster 3.950 301.20
17. Doug Kalitta MAC Tools Dragster 3.961 309.06
18. Tim Boychuk Tim Hortons Dragster 4.086 285.59
Funny Car After Two Qualifying Rounds
1. Robert Hight AAA of So. Cal Mustang 4.063 301.81
2. Ashley Force Castrol GTX Mustang 4.092 304.46
3. Del Worsham CSK Impala 4.092 303.03
4. Melanie Troxel ProCare RX Charger 4.096 304.67
5. Jack Beckman Valvoline/MTS Charger 4.099 300.00
6. Tim Wilkerson Levi, Ray & Shoup Impala 4.099 299.66
7. John Force Castrol GTX Mustang 4.109 301.33
8. Tony Pedregon Q Horsepower Impala 4.110 300.20
9. Jeff Arend DHL Solara 4.113 303.71
10. Cruz Pedregon Advance Auto Parts Solara 4.120 299.00
11. Ron Capps NAPA Auto Parts Charger 4.123 299.73
12. Jerry Toliver Rockstar Energy Drinks Charger 4.126 300.13
--------- Not Qualified ---------
13. Gary Scelzi Mopar Oakley Charger 4.189 293.60
14. Bob Tasca III Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang 4.200 291.70
15. Gary Densham RaceBricks Impala 4.216 290.57
16. Jim Head Head Racing Solara 4.222 284.51
17. Mike Neff Old Spice Mustang 4.263 280.89
18. Tommy Johnson Jr. Monster Energy Drink Charger 4.885 163.02
19. Tony Bartone Canidae Pet Food Monte Carlo 7.260 86.64
Pro Stock After Two Qualifying Rounds
1. Jeg Coughlin Jegs.com Cobalt 6.631@ 207.56
2. Jason Line Summit Racing Equipment GXP 6.632 207.91
3. Greg Anderson Summit Racing Equipment GXP 6.638 208.07
4. Allen Johnson Mopar/J & J Racing Stratus 6.638 207.11
5. Dave Connolly Charter Communications Cobalt 6.640 207.46
6. Rickie Jones Quarter Max Stratus 6.642 207.30
7. Kurt Johnson AC Delco Cobalt 6.646 207.72
8. Mike Edwards Young Life/Penhall GXP 6.646 206.95
9. V. Gaines Kendall Oil Stratus 6.653 206.42
10. Warren Johnson GM Performance Parts GXP 6.655 208.26&
11. Johnny Gray Stratus 6.658 206.26
12. Larry Morgan Lucas Oil Stratus 6.661 206.48
--------- Not Qualified ---------
13. Justin Humphreys RaceRedi Motorsports GXP 6.661 206.64
14. John Nobile Nobile Racing Stratus 6.666 206.42
15. Greg Stanfield Attitude Apparel GXP 6.666 206.13
16. Jim Yates Wiley X Eye Wear GXP 6.669 206.57
17. Ron Krisher Valvoline Cobalt 6.688 206.57
18. Richie Stevens Nitrofish GXP 6.690 206.29
19. Mark Buehring Cobalt 6.798 201.76
20. Lamar Swindoll Jr A&L Sandblasting GTO DQ
@ = Track ET Record
& = Track Speed Record
Pro Stock Motorcycle After Two Qualifying Rounds
1. Eddie Krawiec Screamin' Eagle/Vance & Hines 6.970@ 191.65&
2. Andrew Hines Screamin' Eagle/Vance & Hines 6.985 190.94
3. Chris Rivas Drag Specialties/S&S/G2 Buell 6.990 188.81
4. Chip Ellis Schumacher Electric Suzuki 7.004 189.79
5. Hector Arana Lucas Oil Buell 7.008 190.16
6. Matt Smith NitroFish/Torco Buell 7.044 188.07
7. Angelle Sampey Rush Racing Products Buell 7.053 187.36
8. Craig Treble Albrecht's Fast Track Suzuki 7.055 189.50
9. Matt Guidera Rocklin Motorsports Buell 7.059 188.60
10. Joe DeSantis Javelina H-D & Green H-D Suzuk 7.067 189.87
11. Karen Stoffer Geico Suzuki 7.088 190.86
12. Angie McBride Indicom Electric Buell 7.109 186.82
--------- Not Qualified ---------
13. Michael Phillips Phillips Racing Suzuki 7.113 189.20
14. Junior Pippin Stone Mtn & Granite Mtn HD Bue 7.128 186.54
15. Steve Johnson Snap-On Tools Suzuki 7.135 183.17
16. Peggy Llewellyn Rocklin Motorsports Buell 7.163 186.10
17. Mike Berry MB Precision Machining Suzuki 7.179 181.13
18. David Hope R&J Racing Buell 7.184 182.21
19. Redell Harris Master P/Laron Laundry Buell 7.441 173.90
@ = Track ET Record
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