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QUALIFYING SESSION RECAPS

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE Q2 (4:19 p.m.): How about a little bit of déjà vu? Eddie Krawiec ran the exact same elapsed time he threw down in the only qualifying session Pro Stock Motorcycle ran on Friday (7.178) to stay atop the heap with one session to go. Hector Arana Jr. ran the second-best pass of the session (7.197), while LE Tonglet’s 7.198 pass moved him up to the No. 3 slot with one run to go. Andie Rawlings and Angie Smith are on the outside of the 18-bike field, while Lance Bonham holds the bump spot with a 7.477-second pass.

PRO STOCK Q2 (4:35 p.m.): Drew Skillman hung onto the No. 1 spot by running the exact same elapsed time (6.925) he posted in the only qualifying session Pro Stock ran on Friday night. Erica Enders improved on her time (6.93), as did Greg Anderson (6.945) to round out the top three of the session and the field entering the final qualifying run. Deric Kramer (7.013), Alan Prusiensky (7.024), and Richie Stevens (7.079) sit at the bottom of the 14-car field, while Tanner Gray moved up from the bottom of the heap to No. 11 with a 6.988-second pass.

TOP FUEL Q3 (5:14 p.m.): The top of the field didn’t change much in the third qualifying session, but Tony Schumacher put together the best pass of the run with a 3.784. There are now five drivers with elapsed times in the 3.7-second range, including a pair who ran their's in the third session (Antron Brown with a 3.793 and Clay Millican with a 3.795). Steve Torrence had the second-best of the third session, while Brown grabbed the solo bonus point. Troy Coughlin Jr. went all kinds of sideways right off the hit, but managed to wrestle control of his dragster and shut it off. He sits at the bottom of the 16-car field with one session to go. 

FUNNY CAR Q3 (5:35 p.m.): After a session filled with 4-second passes (and slower), Courtney Force ripped a 3.94 from seemingly out of nowhere. That didn’t improve on her track-record 3.889, but it’s still impressive, and .027 second better than the second-best run of the session, a 4.021 from Cruz Pedregon. Jonnie Lindberg’s 4.026 rounded out the top three of the third session, giving him the single bonus point. Seemingly right on cue, Ron Capps is in the No. 8 spot through three sessions and would race Don Schumacher Racing teammate Jack Beckman in the first round if it began right now. Thankfully for both racers, it doesn’t. 

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE Q3 (6:35 p.m.): Eddie Krawiec held onto the No. 1 spot with his 7.178 from the second session, but it wasn’t for the lack of trying as a number of riders took shots at unseating him from the top position. Hector Arana Jr. came closest with a 7.179, falling just a thousandth short, with Matt Smith just a few ticks behind at 7.183 and Scotty Pollacheck and points leader L.E. Tonglet both running 7.187 and Andrew Hines, recovering from a malfunctioned two-step the round before, clocked a 7.193.

First-round pairings: Eddie Krawiec vs. David Hope; Hector Arana Jr. vs. Steve Johnson; Matt Smith vs. Angie Smith; Scotty Pollacheck vs. Melissa Surber; LE Tonglet vs. Mike Berry; Andrew Hines vs. Angelle Sampey; Jerry Savoie vs. Cory Reed; Joey Gladstone vs. Karen Stoffer.

PRO STOCK Q3 (6:54 p.m.): Nobody could knock Drew Skillman from his perch atop the Pro Stock field as the driver bettered his time by .001 second to 6.924 while grabbing pole for the first time since Dallas in 2015. Vincent Nobile had the second-best time of the session (6.939) and is the No. 3 qualifier in Pro Stock, while teammate Erica Enders is No. 2 heading into Sunday. A handful of tough customers find themselves at the bottom of the field, including Bo Butner (9th), Jeg Coughlin Jr. (10th), and Tanner Gray (11th).

First-round pairings: Drew Skillman vs. Richie Stevens; Erica Enders vs. Alan Prusiensky; Vincent Nobile vs. Deric Kramer; Greg Anderson vs. Tanner Gray; Jason Line vs. Jeg Coughlin Jr.; Allen Jonson vs. Bo Butner; Matt Hartford vs. Chris McGaha.

TOP FUEL Q4 (7:20 p.m.): Leah Pritchett, while sporting the 80th anniversary decals of Mopar, shattered the Bandimere Speedway track record set by Doug Kalitta fewer than 24 hours ago with a blistering 3.733-second run. That bumped Kalitta down to No. 2 in the qualifying order and booked Pritchett a meeting with Troy Coughlin Jr. in the first round tomorrow. Coughlin Jr. didn’t make a run in the fourth qualifying session after a wild ride in the third session left debris all over the first 300 feet of the track. Steve Torrence (3.776) and Shawn Langdon (3.781) rounded out the top three of the fourth session to grab the other qualifying bonus points. 

First-round pairings: Leah Pritchett vs. Troy Coughlin Jr.; Doug Kalitta vs. Greg Carrillo; Steve Torrence vs. Rob Passey; Tony Schumacher vs. Steve Chrisman; Shawn Langdon vs. Terry Haddock; Brittany Force vs. Terry McMillen; Antron Brown vs. Scott Palmer; Clay Millican vs. Bob Vandergriff.

Tony Schumacher’s Army dragster launched into a mid-track wheelstand in Q4 and landed heavily, leading the eight-time season champ to think the car might not be repairable for Sunday’s first round. (animated gif)

“I wanted to stay in it because it was on such a good run but you have to use common sense,” he said. “I’m sure that car is bent because it landed so hard and flat-spotted the wheelie bar. I’m sure we’re going to have to bring out the back-up car. I know that Mike [Green] and the U.S. Army guys will bring out the back-car and I have 100 percent confidence it will go down the racetrack tomorrow.”

FUNNY CAR Q4 (7:37 p.m.): The John Force Racing blockade stayed intact, while Courtney Force grabbed her sixth pole of the season thanks to her 3.889-second run from her first qualifying session on Friday night. JFR teammate Robert Hight had the best run of the session (3.905) and holds the No.3 qualifying spot, while her father John sits No. 2. Jonnie Lindberg’s 3.946 pass was the second-best run of the final session and slid him into the No. 4 qualifying position, while defending champion Ron Capps posted a 3.965 to qualify fifth. 

First-round pairings: Courtney Force vs. Jim Campbell; John Force vs. Matt Hagan; Robert Hight vs. Todd Simpson; Jonnie Lindberg vs. Jeff Diehl; Ron Capps vs. Tommy Johnson Jr.; Jack Beckman vs. Alexis DeJoria; Cruz Pedregon vs. Del Worsham; J.R. Todd vs. Tim Wilkerson. 

FEATURES

Starting-line temperatures are a key ingredient to any car’s run – which is why NHRA posts current track temperature on an LED board just behind the starting line for all teams to see – and during the summer months it’s not unusual to see track temperatures at more than 130 degrees, when everyone is at the mercy of Mother Nature.

Well, everyone except the racers at Bandimere Speedway, where in 2007 track management took it into their hands to gain a measure of control over soaring temperatures by installing a first-of-its-kind in-track cooling system.

The cooling system is beneath the concrete launch pad and circulates chilled water from a pair of 12,000-gallon underground tanks through over 15,000 foot of embedded Uponor PEX tubing in the launch pad. The cooling system circulates 110 gallons of water per minute, removing just over one million Btuh per hour. 

The cooled area is 345 feet long (40 feet behind the starting line to 305 past the start). Temperature probes in the concrete, as well as surface reading, show temperature reductions between 10-25 degrees.

The track system is designed to act like a radiant-heat system in reverse. Rather that supplying heat, its job is to send chilled water into a network of tubing to draw heat out of the concrete slab, wicking away heat faster than the sun supplies it.

Doug Kalitta’s low qualifying run in Friday night’s second session was a 180-degree turnaround from his first attempt, which ended before it even began when the starter malfunctioned.

“The first thing that went through my mind was that you have to least stage the car to qualify,” Kalitta joked. “Hats off to my guys, to go from not even making the first run to ripping off a good one. They bounced back from adversity and really came out strong in that session.”

The Kalitta teams has had remarkable success at Bandimere Speedway over the years. Team patriarch Connie Kalitta won the race back to back in 1984-85 and his son, Scott, did the same 10 years later (‘1994-’95) and added a third title in 2004. Doug won the race in 2010 and J.R. Todd won it for the team in 2014.

“This track has been so good to so to the Kalitta family for years, and I hope to carry that tradition on as we continue this weekend,” said Doug. “I’m just glad that what happened in Q1 didn’t happen to us Sunday morning.”

Top Fuel veteran Bob Vandergriff Jr. is back into action after being idle since his hometown Atlanta race. The multi-time national event champ, who went from driver to car owner and now back again, is competing in just his third race of the season and will probably run at least that many over the balance of the season.

“We’ll run Indy, Dallas, probably Las Vegas; it all depends on how the business part of it goes,” said Vandergriff, who is enjoying a business-development partnership with Valvoline. The AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals in Dallas holds special meaning to Vandergriff, who scored his first career win there in 2013 after a dozen runner-ups.

At Vandergriff’s side is tuner Mike Guger, who was responsible for the first 3.7-second pass ever recorded at Bandimere Speedway, with driver Larry Dixon in a Vandergriff-owned dragster in 2015.

Also on hand this weekend is Jordan Vandergriff, his 22-year-old nephew, who is currently going through a multi-year program at the Frank Hawley Drag Racing School, which will include runs in an Alcohol Dragster. Jordan is the son of Vandergriff’s older brother, Kevin, who is the Vice President and Director of Operations at the West Coast unit for Hedman Hedders, which has been owned by the Vandergriff family since 1979. Jordan’s other uncle, Chris, also competed in Top Fuel in 2002-03 and today runs the company’s Husler Race Hedders divison in Alpharetta, Ga. 

The plan is to put Jordan first into an A/Fuel Dragster for a season to learn the ropes with a Top Fuel ride a definite future possibility.

When it arrived at Bandimere Speedway, the name on the side of the cockpit still carried the name of Blake Alexander, who drove the car in its two most recent outings – in Englishtown and Chicago – but the hot seat in the Worsham Racing Top Fueler is again occupied by Steve Chrisman, who wheeled the car, which was formerly campaigned by Morgan Lucas Racing, into the field at all five events at which he competed earlier this season before Alexander brought financial support from Pronto Auto Service Center to the ride for two races (and will return in the car later this season).

Chrisman, the son of drag racing pioneer Jack Chrisman and the owner of Chrisman Driveline Components, ran his own Top Fuel car for more than a dozen years before parking it two years ago. Before that he competed in both nitro and Alcohol Funny Cars.

The team sat out Friday’s qualifying sessions as the team worked to repair a broken rear end (not a Chrisman unit, he quickly pointed out) suffered by Alexander in round two in Chicago after Alexander had earned the car’s first round-win of the season, besting Tony Schumacher in an upset in round one.

“The car wants to run,” said Chrisman. “You can’t really see it in the numbers we run because a lot of times I’m shutting off to save parts, but it’s a good car. I’m not going to outrun Antron Brown if he’s going 3.70, but I’m there and ready to pounce if someone makes a mistake against us.”

Even though Chrisman and the Worshams are both based in Southern California, he still hasn’t decided whether he will compete next week in Sonoma, Calif. Job number one is always to keep the car financially stable – which they can do by qualifying, which is assured in Denver with just 16 cars on hand – but Sonoma already has a full field entered.

“We’ll see how it goes here and what Del [Worsham] wants to do before we decide on Sonoma,” he said. “There’s already 16 cars there, which means we’d have to outrun at least one car – we’ve done that a number of times – but this car’s future is pretty much run to run, not race to race.”

Auto Club Road to the Future Rookie of the Year candidate Troy Coughlin Jr. hasn’t let a challenging start to his Top Fuel career get to him. In fact, the former Super Comp and Pro Mod driver relishes the tricky road he has traveled this season. 

“It’s tons different, and that’s what I like about it,” said Coughlin Jr., who says he’s made about 30-35 runs in a Top Fuel car, and about 12 full runs. 

All of those runs, whether they end in tire smoke or win lights, end up in Coughlin Jr.’s notepad. He logs what went well, what didn’t go well, and how he felt during the run. That’s something he started doing during his Sportsman days, and he’s continued to do it as he transitions into the professional ranks. 

Transitioning into a Top Fuel cockpit has proved tougher than Coughlin Jr. anticipated; not that the rookie is complaining. One area he’s starting to feel more comfortable is behind the wheel. Literally. 

“The steering wheel in my Super Comp car is stiffer, and (the wheel in the Top Fuel car) was like butter, it’s like all you’d have to do is sneeze,” he said. “So, what we did was tighten the steering wheel, so it’s making it harder for me to over-drive it.”

Having a better grip on the wheel should help Coughlin Jr. keep the car in the groove, which has been a problem for the rookie this season. That, in turn, will help him get more full runs. More full runs completed means more experience, and more experience can only be a good thing. 

Coughlin Jr. has four round wins this season, three of which came in the first five races. His most recent victory came in Epping, and the rookie has slipped into 10th place in the Top Fuel standings.

One of the drivers he’s battling for a spot in the Countdown to the Championship is Kalitta Motorsports teammate Shawn Langdon, who currently sits in 11th. Coughlin Jr. said the addition of Langdon, another driver with Sportsman experience, has helped his progression as a driver. 

“That’s been a helpful thing, he came from where I came from so we can relate more,” said Coughlin Jr. “He’s had a lot of really good driving advice, but nobody can really teach you how to drive, but you kind of have to learn it yourself. You can hear things, and you can ask questions, but you have to go apply it.”

One of the lessons the driver learned came early. When facing off against Terry McMillen in Las Vegas, Coughlin Jr.’s fourth race as a Top Fuel pilot, both cars went up in smoke early. McMillen smoked first, but Coughlin Jr. hit the chutes at about 300 feet. 

“He comes back around me and wins,” he said. “That’s a major error on my part, and I heard about it.”

Those are the tough lessons rookies learn in a difficult class, but Coughlin Jr. is committed to learning them. He’s currently qualified in the No. 13 position after two sessions.

Robert Hight came painfully close to getting his first win in Norwalk, reaching the final before a clutch malfunction cost him against Jack Beckman. After grabbing the pole for the second time this season in Chicago a week later, he lost much earlier.

Jim Campbell grabbed the upset win as Hight went up in smoke after 300 feet. That lack of Sunday success hasn’t gotten to the John Force Racing driver. 

“We’re going to get some wins here,” Hight said ahead of the Western Swing. “They’re coming.”

The numbers back that sentiment up. Hight had the best car on the property in Norwalk before his clutch malfunction. He consistently ran in the 3-second range when just about everyone else in the Funny Car field was hitting low 4-second elapsed times. Then a little bad luck cost him a shot at his first Wally of the season.

Still, given how well his car is running, there’s plenty of reason for Hight to be optimistic this weekend.

“I’m excited about going to Denver,” Hight said. “It’s high altitude, and I’ve won there a few times. (Crew chief) Jimmy (Prock) loves that place. It’s the start of three in a row and my favorite time of the year. I’m from the West Coast, so a lot of friends and family will be at all three races. We’re going to go into Denver and hit it hard.”

After winning four races in a row earlier this year, Ron Capps and the NAPA team certainly know that it’s possible to run off a string of victories, and they’d surely likely to win the next three to earn their first Western Swing sweep.

"Every driver will tell you they want to sweep the Western Swing once in their career," he said, but it’s only happened once in Funny Car, at that was 23 years ago when John Force pulled off the feat in 1994.
 
"The conditions are so diverse on the Swing: high altitude and hot in Denver, sea level at Sonoma and then up to Seattle with all those trees that produce so much oxygen," said Capps, who has a win (2009) and two runner-ups (1998, 2007) in Denver. 

After a three-month hiatus, independent driver Todd Simpson returns to the NHRA circuit with a group of family and friends to take a crack at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals. He qualified in the No. 15 spot in Houston before losing to Ron Capps in the first round. 

Not much changed for Simpson and his father, four-decade racing veteran Dickie, between that loss to Capps at the NHRA Springnationals and now. He didn’t get down the track in three attempts in Houston and, obviously, hopes to correct that at Bandimere Speedway, a track he previously set a personal best at. His current career best (4.224) was set in Houston in 2016.

But he knows he can get down the track in the Mile-High city. That bit of confidence is something to grab onto for a racer who knows he’s up against it when he pulls his Funny Car out of the trailer against the likes of Don Schumacher Racing. 

“We’ve just got what we’ve got,” said Simpson. “We ain’t got nothing new. It’s good stuff, it’s just the stuff they were running, three, four, five years ago and we’re still trying to figure out how to make it run good.”

Simpson, whose team will experiment with the new "all-in-one" valve at this event, plans to run in Dallas, what’s effectively a home race for Texas native, to complete his usual three-race season. If there’s a silver lining to go with his light schedule, it’s that his chassis is light on runs. Simpsons figures it has well under 100 runs on it (somewhere around 60) over the past five years and he's also taken possession this year of a new Dodge Charger body from DSR (ex-Matt Hagan body).

“I have never had a gameplan, I just kinda go with it and see what happens,” said the as-usual relaxed, relaxed Drew Skillman after taking home the provisional No. 1 qualifier spot on Friday night. He’s only run one qualifying session, but coming off his first win of the season two weeks earlier, momentum seems to be on Skillman’s side.

A lot of preparation went into that first win; so too was much labor poured into Skillman’s first qualifying session. The team underwent two days of testing at Bandimere Speedway ahead of the Mopar Mile-Hight NHRA Nationals, and, so far, that decision has borne fruit.

“We all worked really hard for two days and changed a lot on the car,” said Skillman. “We’ve done a lot to the car and it obviously showed.”

It was a strange qualifying session for Skillman, who performed his burnout only to be called back off the starting line because of rain. Both he and Vincent Nobile were then moved to the back of the qualifying session when rain stopped to allow their clutches to cool. 

“We made two full burnouts, backed up, stopped, I mean for that car, I was shocked it went that fast for as bad as the clutch was; it was hot,” said Skillman. “So, we made a good run and I think we’re really going to show our cards (this weekend), too. The team’s been great, the car’s been great, I think we’re gonna win this thing.”

Even with the renewed confidence that came with winning his first race of the season, Skillman knows he has work to do in the driver’s seat. Most notably: consistency when it comes to hitting his shift points.

“If you’re a consistent driver, it’s way easier for the tuner to tune to you,” said Skillman. “That’s definitely one of my biggest downfalls. Half the time, I’m just way quicker to react to the 1-2 (shift points) than I am to the 2-3, so that’s harder on the tuner and the Racepak won’t handle that. So, it’s just dealing with that as we go.”

Given the parity in Pro Stock this year, Greg Anderson’s sweep of the Western Swing back in 2004 seems even more impressive. This time last year, the category had only two winners (Anderson and teammate Jason Line) before Allen Johnson took home the Wally from Denver. What a difference a year makes. 

There have been nine different winners this season, and while both Anderson and Line have picked up wins this season, the prospect of winning three-straight races is daunting. Yes, even for a driver with a resume as impressive as Anderson. 

"It is very difficult to do, and so far this year, nobody has been able to reel off two in a row in Pro Stock, let alone three,” said the driver of the red Summit Chevrolet. “It's a bigger challenge this year than ever before, but that would make it even cooler yet if you could pull it off. You can't sweep the Swing if you don't win the first one, though, so right now we're focused on Denver. We have to figure out how to win that race, and that's something we haven't been able to do for a few years.”

He's won Denver twice (2008, 2004) and brought home a pair of Wallys this season (Englishtown, Phoenix). That’s one fewer than the winningest driver this season (Bo Butner, who also races out of KB Racing), so if anyone can pull it off this season, it’s Anderson, right?
 

"These three races are more of a marathon than anything,” said Anderson. “It's so far from home that you better have depth when you leave, and you better hope you don't hurt anything. You need to make it through these three with all of your equipment in good, working order. You better cross all your T's and dot all your I's before you leave the shop. 

“This is a real, real challenge, but we always want the biggest challenge they can give us. This is one we look forward to because you're going to have three very different racetracks to figure out with no room for mistakes."

None of the KB Racing cars tested in Denver before the race, but after the first day of racing both Anderson and Line are in the top five of the qualifying order.

Pro Stock points leader Bo Butner has a “new” car at this event, and it might seem like a bad idea to change horses in the middle of the stream, but the move was necessary for Butner to be able to run the current-model Camaro body. The car he has been driving was one of Greg Anderson’s 2016 rides outfitted with the 2016 body.

Putting a newer body on the car is not as simple as just undoing some Dzus fasteners and popping on the new panels; it required an extensive re-do of the rear of the chassis, so the work was performed on the car that Butner drove last year. All work was done in-house at the team’s North Carolina shop and took a few months to complete.
 

Eddie Krawiec’s 7.17 blast took the No. 1 spot Friday night in Pro Stock Motorcycle, finally showing the promise of his team’s new Harley-Davidson Street Rod package, but the veteran rider and former world champ said his team left a lot on the table and know that better runs are out there for he and teammate Andrew Hines.

“We definitely left some out there in 60-foot [performance],” he admitted of his 1.085-second clocking. “We really underestimated the track. The unique thing about racing here on the mountain is that usually there’s more track than we have power, so we struggle to get the clutch setup right. There were some guys who went out there and ran 1.05s, so being 1.08-1.09 is definitely not where you want to be, but we know where we need to go.”

The new Street Rods debuted four events ago in Englishtown. Hines has just one round win in the previous three races and Krawiec, who has qualified no better than 10th, has just three.

“We’ve been struggling since we debuted these bikes,” he said. “Andrew and Matt Hines and all the guys at the shop have been busting their butts to make sure we have the best stuff. The chassis we had been running was the same since the V-Rods debuted 15 years ago and the design of this chassis is a lot different, so figuring out how to adjust the tuning and clutch is a learning process.

“With the old chassis, we were always tuning for the next run; with this new chassis we’ve been having to tune off the last run instead of looking ahead, but after a good test session last week in Indy hopefully we’ve turned the corner on that this weekend. That’s all part of the reason we debuted these bikes in Englishtown, so that by the time we get to the Countdown everything will be figured out. Once you hit Indy it’s game on, and you’d better be ready.”
 

There will be another Matt Smith Racing Polaris Victory Magnum at next weekend’s Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals as Smith is preparing an entry for good friend Chip Ellis, who is qualified to compete in the Mickey Thompson Tires Pro Bike Battle but is without a ride after team owner Junior Pippin, who is battling cancer, suspended his racing operations after the Chicago event.

“I told him, ‘Look, I’ve got another bike at the shop – it’s only carbon-fiber right now – but you can ride it in Sonoma.’ He earned his spot and deserves to be able to ride in the Battle,” said Smith, who also is part of the eight-bike field.

After four frustrating DNQs earlier this season, James Surber has parked his Buell to concentrate on the team’s primary entry, driven by his daughter, Melissa, which also has struggled this season, her second full year on the tour. Two of her four DNQs came when her dad was trying to tune both bikes, so it made sense for them to concentrate on one, and she’s qualified at both events since her dad parked his ride after the Englishtown race.

“I finally got a hot motor for my bike, but it weighs 20 pounds more than my other one, so we had problems qualifying it,” said James. “7.30s aren’t going to cut it. I’ve got another engine under way that I’ll have out later, but right now I’m going to concentrate on Sonoma, which is my hometrack. I’d like to qualify both of our bikes because it would be the first time that a father and a daughter have qualified together in Pro Stock motorcycle. But right now my primary focus is Melissa’s bike.”

PHOTOS

Funny Car star Courtney Force is always the focus of autograph seekers young and old.

Mopar's NHRA stars, including Matt Hagan, Ron Capps, Tommy Johnson Jr., Leah Pritchett, and Jim Campbell signed autographs for fans at the Mopar display.

Mopar's imrpressive Dodge Demon simulator has been a popular attraction with fans who can buckle into full-sclae replicas of the  hot new car for a simulated race down the dragstrip.

With its scenic mountain backdrop, Bandimere Speedway is a popular fan destination, and the packed pits  (above)  and grandstands (below) are testament to that.

"Fast Jack" Beckman and NHRA's Alan Reinhart taught some fuel-racing basics to fans during the popular Nitro School session in the pits.

NHRA Mello Yello stars Bo Butner, J.R. Todd, Cory Reed, Jonnie Lindberg, and Steve Torrence took part in the traditional Mello Yello autograph session for fans.

Matt Hagan and Leah Pritchett swapped cars for round two of the Demon match race, abut the result was still the same with Pritchett, far lane, eking out the win.

Saturday concluded with the traditional staging lane party, where cars were on display as fans mingled in the afterglow of a great day of racing.

PREVIEW

A rain-shortened first day of qualifying ended with new track records in the Nitro classes, while the most recent winner in Pro Stock, Drew Skillman, grabbed the provisional No. 1 qualifying spot. Meanwhile, Harley-Davidson rider Eddie Krawiec regained a bit of his mojo by snagging pole after the first session of qualifying. Both Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle got only one qualifying run, while both Nitro classes made two runs.

Doug Kalitta’s car couldn’t make the call for the first qualifying session of Top Fuel, but he and crew chief Jim Oberhofer made up for it in a big way in the second session. The Mac Tools dragster unleashed a track record elapsed time of 3.767 seconds to go to the top of the heap. If he holds on, it will be Kalitta’s second No. 1 qualifier of the season and second in three races. 

Steve Torrence and Tony Schumacher rounded out the top three, while both Brittany Force and Shawn Langdon also notched 3.7-second runs. Only 14 of the 16 cars on property recorded runs on the first day of competition, but there’s another day of evening qualifying to come today. 

In Funny Car, Courtney Force did one better than Kalitta by setting both ends of the track record (3.889 at 328.3). That’s becoming old hat to the Advance Auto Part driver, who has made a habit of resetting track records and grabbing poles everywhere she goes. She already has five No. 1 qualifiers under her belt this season, but she’s itching to do damage on Sunday. 

That’s a sentiment shared by the rest of the Funny Car field, of course. 12 of the 13 Wallys handed out this season have gone to four drivers; six of them have gone to Ron Capps. The lone Wally to go to a non-DSR driver went to Courtney’s father, John Force. He won this race last year in an-all Force final. If the first day of qualifying is any indicator, we might get another one. Courtney, John (3.899) and Robert Hight (3.973) make up the top three after day one. 

Testing seems to have paid off for Skillman, who came out early to get some extra data at Bandimere Speedway ahead of the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals. His 6.925 pass is .019 ahead of No. 2 qualifier Erica Enders, who he beat in the Chicago final two weeks ago. It’s also .033 ahead of Greg Anderson and .034 past Jason Line, neither of whom came out to test before the oxygen-starved contest. 

Allen “King of the Mountain” Johnson got his race started with a 6.959 time at a slower speed than Jason Line, putting him at the No. 5 spot. Bo Butner, sporting a new car and using a 2016 chassis, sits in the No. 8 spot with a 6.981. Tanner Gray is currently at the bottom of the field after one run as he shoved the clutch back in quickly after the run began. 

If there’s one thing the Pro Stock Motorcycle field didn’t want to hear before the Countdown to the Championship started, it’s this: the Harley-Davidson tandem of Vance and Hines might be back. Okay, so it’s a little too early to say that, but Eddie Krawiec’s 7.178-second run to snag the provisional pole probably had a few hearts in throats. 

Hector Arana Jr., currently the No. 2 qualifier, continues to impress, while Jerry Savoie, Matt Smith and Andrew Hines round out the top five. LE Tonglet, who has won four out of six races in the bike class this season, sits No. 6. Angelle Sampey currently holds the bump spot with a 10.283-second pass. That won’t hold … probably.