CLERMONT, Ind — The NHRA Championship Drag Racing Series conducted two more qualifying rounds on a sun filled Saturday afternoon from Indianapolis Raceway Park in preparation to set the ladders for Monday’s Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals final eliminations.
Most of the times from Friday stood, but there were a few classes that saw some shakeups up top. However, most of the bottom half of the ladders tightened up in the process making it a very interesting final day of qualifying on Sunday.
Here’s what happened.
Top Fuel
9 of the top 10 times still in this category were set on Friday night. 6 of the bottom 9 were set in Q3. Talk about a wild day that saw the gap close drastically at the bottom.
In regards to the top of the ladder, the only driver to improve was Justin Ashley in going from 3.733 ET (6th) on Friday to 3.714 ET on his final run on Saturday moving him up to 3rd.
The points leader is behind just Steve Torrence (3.708 ET) and Brittany Force (3.709 ET) heading into Sunday.
Torrence won the 2021 Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals and hopeful of a second Wally in 3 years here.
He just narrowly topped Force last night who went 3.709 ET (333.25 mph) which was good enough for P2 in her dragster. Force is the defending Top Fuel world champion halting Torrence’s four-year reign last Fall. She also has been the No. 1 qualifier here in each of the last two years too. However, she’s not won a Wally while doing so either.
The top 3 drivers in Top Fuel right now are 1-2-3 currently.
The bottom of the ladder is a tight one. A 3.863 ET isn’t good enough to be in right now. That’s Buddy Hull’s time. Lex Joon (3.858 ET) currently holds the 16th and final spot. Last year’s winner and the latest Top Fuel winner in Antron Brown is just 15th (3.856 ET). Good news too because coming to that final run, he was at 3.858 ET and would have been in 16th.
Clay Millican is on upset alert at 4.589 ET as his top time. He’s last (19th out of 19).
Tony Schumacher went from the outside looking in, to even worse at 6.382 ET on his second run to 11th with going 3.784 ET on a clutch Q3 run to give him a nice cushion heading into the final day of quals on Sunday.
Spencer Massey went from 17th to 15th on his Q2 run then bumped down to 16th, then to 17th and back up to 12th with a run of 3.795 ET.
Results Through Q3
- Torrence 3.708
- Force 3.709
- Ashley 3.714
- Kalitta 3.717
- Salinas 3.721
- Pruett 3.730
- Zizzo 3.736
- Hart 3.744
- Langdon 3.750
- Prock 3.781
- Schumacher 3.784
- Massey 3.795
- Foley 3.803
- Smith 3.822
- Brown 3.856
- Joon 3.858
- Hull 3.863
- Mercier 3.878
- Millican 4.589
Funny Car
Most of the top times in the four professional classes remained from Friday’s qualifying session that took place in cooler conditions. However, this was the lone class that saw a change on top.
Late in the day, a matchup of Robert Hight and Matt Hagan took to the strip with Hight improving from his Friday time in going from 3.886 ET to 3.853 (329.67 mph). That took him from P2 to P1 heading into the final day of quals on Sunday.
The last time out, Hight scored his 99th career final round appearance in Brainerd. The next time he gets to the starting line with a win in sight, it will move him to the century mark. Maybe that happens on Monday.
Hight has made the final round in 7 of his 17 years of trying here. 3 of those were wins with the other 4 runner-ups. One of those second-place finishes came just last year to Ron Capps. Can he get redemption on Monday afternoon?
Hight sits third in points. He had 2 wins in the first 5 races but none in the last 9.
Hagan also improved in going from 3.928 ET to 3.912 ET (323.19 mph) in going from 5th to 4th.
Bob Tasca III remained at 3.864 ET as his two runs on Saturday was 4.141 ET and 5.179 ET respectively. He’s currently second and has four green hats on the season.
Alexis DeJoria is still P3 (3.888 ET) while defending champion and reigning U.S. Nationals winner, Ron Capps (3.917 ET) stayed in fifth.
The gap tightened at the bottom with Force holding the final spot on Friday (4.862 ET) to moving up to 12th (3.989 ET). He went from 16th to 10th in Q2 but fell two spots in the third round as Tim Wilkerson (3.945 ET) and JR Todd (3.955 ET) went quicker.
Wilkerson was 14th on Friday, fell to 15th after Q2 even after improving his time, then jumped up to 8th after a larger gain.
Todd wildly enough was P8 on Friday and gained on Saturday but dropped a spot in the process.
Richards dropped the most in going from 12th to 17th after running a pair of 6’s on Saturday. Lee (4.089 ET) is the final spot.
Results Through Q3
- Hight 3.853
- Tasca III 3.864
- DeJoria 3.888
- Hagan 3.912
- Capps 3.917
- Pedregon 3.931
- Alexander 3.934
- Wilkerson 3.945
- Todd 3.955
- Green 3.974
- Creasy Jr. 3.977
- Force 3.989
- Laughlin 4.048
- Bode 4.072
- Haddock 4.079
- Lee 4.089
- Richards 4.121
- Schriefer 4.802
Pro Stock
The top 11 times stayed the same here with Friday’s times still standing.
Matt Hartford (6.659 ET, 209.23 mph) has been quick this season. He has three No. 1 qualifier awards. With his time on Friday, he’s in line for his fourth on Sunday. Hartford is eyeing his first U.S. Nationals Wally and being provisional P1 is a great start at doing so.
He bested Troy Coughlin Jr. (6.570 ET, 208.30 mph) and Aaron Stanfield (6.586 ET, 208.39 mph). Erica Enders (6.588 ET, 208.68 mph) was P4. She’s won 2 of the last 3 years here. Dallas Glenn (6.590 ET, 209.01 mph) rounded out the top five. Glenn has won 4 of the 14 races this season.
Eric Latino was the biggest mover in going from 16th to 12th. Mason McGaha is in trouble with two bad runs on Saturday at 13 ET and a 21ET. His best time is 6.979 ET on Friday.
Results Through Q3
- Hartford 6.569
- Coughlin Jr. 6.570
- Stanfield 6.586
- Enders 6.588
- Glenn 6.590
- Koretsky 6.599
- Cuadra Jr. 6.603
- Cuadra 6.604
- Caruso 6.605
- Anderson 6.622
- Kramer 6.627
- Latino 6.641
- CMcGaha 6.645
- Butner III 6.661
- Tucker 6.701
- Cuadra 6.794
- MMcGaha 6.979
Pro Stock Motorcycle
Gaige Herrera’s time on Friday (6.746 ET) was so good that despite fast passes on Saturday, they were the top times each but not good enough to top his Q1 time either.
4 of the top 5 times at the end of Day 2 were set in Q2 on Saturday afternoon. Herrera’s ET in Q2 was better than all four. His Q3 time was better than that.
Herrera has won 6 of the 8-race weekend’s so far this season and eyeing his 8th No. 1 qualifier in the 9th race of the year.
Eddie Krawiec (6.800 ET) ended up P2 with Hector Arana Jr. (6.828 ET), Matt Smith (6.877 ET) and Chase Van Sant (6.878 ET) rounding out the top five.
Krawiec and Arana Jr. were P2 and P3 on Friday too and improved their times on Saturday to remain the same. Smith and Van Sant each moved up a spot.
Steve Johnson (6.881 on Friday) dropped to sixth after not improving at all in eithe rof his two runs on Saturday.
Results Through Q3
- Herrera 6.746
- Krawiec 6.800
- Arana Jr. 6.828
- Smith 6.877
- Van Sant 6.878
- Johnson 6.881
- Evaristo 6.917
- Tornow 6.934
- ASmith 6.935
- Ingwersen 6.940
- Clontz 6.969
- Oehler 7.003
- Hall 7.027
- Bostick 7.068
- Yoder 7.114
- Reed 7.210
- Wells 7.226
- Daniels 7.324
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