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ELIMINATION ROUNDS RECAPS

TOP FUEL ROUND 1 (11:18 a.m.): Terry Haddock pulled off a stunning upset, taking down Shawn Langdon in the first round after the Global Electronic Technology dragster shut off halfway down the track. Haddock’s 4.171-second pass beat 4.393 and booked him a spot against Tony Schumacher in the second round. This is Haddock’s first round win since May of 2010. Leah Pritchett (3.797) and Clay Millican (3.798) had the two best runs of the round and will meet in the next round, while Doug Kalitta and Antron Brown will face off in a rematch of Chicago’s first round. 

Second-round pairings (lane choice first): Leah Pritchett vs. Clay Millican; Tony Schumacher vs. Terry Haddock; Doug Kalitta vs. Antron Brown; Steve Torrence vs. Brittany Force

FUNNY CAR ROUND 1 (11:45 a.m.): For the second straight event, Jim Campbell took out a heavy hitter in round one, driving Jim Dunn’s 7-Eleven entry to an upset victory over No. 1 qualifier Courtney Force. Matt Hagan, who struggled mightily in qualifying and ranked just 15th, found some Mopar mojo and upset Courtney’s dad, John Force, the No. 2 qualifier. Low e.t. of the round went to Jack Beckman, who ran 4.027 against Alexis DeJoria.

Second-round pairings (lane choice first): J.R. Todd vs. Jim Campbell; Tommy Johnson Jr. vs. Jonnie Lindberg; Matt Hagan vs. Cruz Pedregon; Jack Beckman vs. Robert Hight

PRO STOCK ROUND 1 (11:18 a.m.): If you like holeshot wins, you’ve got to like the first round of Pro Stock. Both Bo Butner and Jason Line, neither of whom are known for getting it done with their left foot, won thanks to their excellent reaction times. They took down Allen Johnson and Tanner Gray to advance to the second round, while Drew Skillman’s consistent march through the field continued. He has a bye run in the next round, which means his round-win streak will extend to at least six. It’ll be an all Summit Racing matchup between Line and Greg Anderson to see who gets a chance to end that streak. 

Second-round pairings (lane choice first): Drew Skillman vs. Bye; Jason Line vs. Greg Anderson; Erica Enders vs. Chris McGaha; Vincent Nobile vs. Bo Butner

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE ROUND 1 (12:15 p.m.): Low qualifier Eddie Krawiec lowered the boom on the bike field with a track-record 7.158, two-hundredths quicker than his qualifying pass, to defeat local runner David Hope. Krawiec’s Harley Street Rod teammate, Andrew Hines, also found the teens with a 7.197 as did no. 2 qualifier Hector Arana Jr., who clocked a 7.198.

Second-round pairings (lane choice first): Eddie Krawiec vs. Joey Gladstone; Scotty Pollacheck vs. L.E. Tonglet; Hector Arana Jr. vs. Jerry Savoie; Andrew Hines vs. Matt Smith

TOP FUEL ROUND 2 (12:52 p.m.): Antron Brown got past Doug Kalitta for the second time in as many races, setting up a matchup with Brittany Force in the semifinals. His 3.796-second pass was the quickest of the second round, a session that featured all three Don Schumacher Racing dragsters advancing. That means one side of the bracket will feature an all-DSR battle as Leah Pritchett and Tony Schumacher will face off after Schumacher knocked out Terry Haddock and Pritchett dealt with Clay Millican in a rematch of the Bristol final.

Semifinal pairings (lane choice first): Tony Schumacher vs. Leah Pritchett; Antron Brown vs. Brittany Force

FUNNY CAR ROUND 2 (1 p.m.): Cruz Pedregon solidified his tenuous grip on the all-important No. 10 position in points by defeating Matt Hagan with a solid 4.053. Jim Campbell, who sits just a few points behind him in 11th, kept his hopes alive by defeating J.R. Todd to reach his second semifinal of the season. Although Matt Hagan lost Pedregon, his first-round victory locked him into the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

Semifinal pairings (lane choice first): Tommy Johnson Jr. vs. Jim Campbell; Cruz Pedregon vs. Robert Hight

PRO STOCK ROUND 2 (1:12 p.m.): Drew Skillman got back into the happy place he found during qualifying, running the 6.925 he ran twice during the tune-up sessions. Oh, and that third practice run? He ran a 6.924. That’s the kind of consistency Skillman has been looking for. That was the best run of the second round by a bunch, and it came in a bye run, setting up a meeting with defending champion Jason Line in the semi’s. Line beat teammate Greg Anderson, while Erica Enders set up a matchup with Bo Butner thanks to a red light from Chris McGaha. 

Semifinal pairings (lane choice first): Drew Skillman vs. Jason Line; Bo Butner vs. Erica Enders

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE ROUND 2 (1:20 p.m.): A pair of holeshots decided one half of the semifinal ladder as Matt Smith’s 7.240 trounced Andrew Hines’ much-better 7.195 and reigning series champ Jerry Savoie took down Hector Arana on a 7.192 to 7.185 score. Scotty Pollacheck also ran 7.19 to beat points leader L.E. Tonglet but Eddie Krawiec had the best number of the round, 7.181, in defeating Joey Gladstone.

Semifinal pairings (lane choice first): Eddie Krawiec vs. Scotty Pollacheck; Jerry Savoie vs. Matt Smith

TOP FUEL SEMIFINALS (2:02 p.m.): How about a little baby holeshot to get back to the finals for the first time since Bristol for Leah Pritchett? That’s what it took to get past Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher, and the pilot of the Papa John’s Pizza dragster will need to beat another teammate, Antron Brown, to get her first Wally since beating Steve Torrence in Houston (race No. 5 of the season). Brown is back in the final for the second race in a row, and the sixth time this season. He’s 2-4 in final rounds this season, a record he’d like to improve on, while Pritchett is 3-1. Brown is 4-3 against Pritchett this season., but Pritchett will have lane choice in the final.

FUNNY CAR SEMIFINALS (2:10 p.m.): Robert Hight reached his third final of the season as he continues to look for his first win and a spot in the Traxxas Nitro Shootout, defeating Cruz Pedregon on a 4.06 to 4.08 count. Hight will surrender lane choice to Tommy Johnson Jr., who powered to a 3.98 to beat Jim Campbell. It’s Johnson’s first Funny Car final at this event after having previously been runner-up at this event in Super Gas, Alcohol Funny Car, and Top Fuel.

PRO STOCK SEMIFINALS (2:19 p.m.): Bo Butner seems to be getting the hang of the new body on his 2016 chassis. He ran nearly an identical elapsed time in the semi’s (6.948) as he ran in the second round (6.947) to beat a red lighting Erica Enders. That booked him a spot in the final round against Drew Skillman, who beat Jason Line with a 6.952 pass. It’s a rematch of the Chicago semi’s, which went the way of Skillman en route to his first win of the season. So, Butner enters the final with a little bit of revenge on his mind, while Skillman looks to become the first back-to-back Pro Stock winner of the season.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE SEMIFINALS (2:25 p.m.): Eddie Krawiec will have the chance to deliver a first victory for the new Harley-Davidson Street Rod machine when he takes on Matt Smith, who will be seeking the first win for the Polaris Victory Magnum brand. Krawiec, who won earlier this year in Gainesville on his old V-Rod entry, has lane choice based on his 7.19 in besting Scotty Pollacheck while Smith ran 7.220 in defeating Jerry Savoie.

LUCAS OIL SERIES RESULTS: Dan Fletcher, who collected his milestone 100th NHRA national event victory two weeks ago in Chicago, got quickly started on his second hundred by driving his SS/IA Camaro to victory in Super Stock. Fletcher was deadly on the line with a .002 reaction time, then took the win, the 101st of his amazing career, with an 11.12 on his 11.09 dial in while Jenkins broke out by .002second with a 10.298. 

As happened in Chicago, Fletcher will be joined in the winner’s circle by the sport’s other major superstar, David Rampy, who followed his 95th win in Chicago with No. 96 here by defeating Jessie Oman in the Comp final Rampy also reached the semifinals of Super Stock before falling to Jenkins.

Other Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series winners at the event:

Stock
Kevin Helms def. Scott Wells

Super Comp
Kris Whitfield def. Gary Wamboldt

Super Gas
Bradley Johnson def. Morgan Minor

Super Street
Troy Grant def. John Bianco

Top Dragster
Brad Basgall def. Jason Covington

Top Sportsman
Randy Cruickshank def. Brad Preuss

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE FINAL: Eddie Krawiec, near lane, ran low e.t. of the meet, 7.145, to collect his fourth Mile-High Nationals title and the 38th victory of his career, but the race was over before it really started as Matt Smith red-lighted by .007-second. The win is the first for the new Harley-Davidson Street Rod bikes.

PRO STOCK FINAL (3:41 p.m.): Go ahead and cash out your betting slip if you had Drew Skillman, near lane, as the first back-to-back winner in Pro Stock this season. After running the table in Chicago two weeks ago, the young driver extended his round-win streak to eight by beating Bo Butner for the second event in a row. Skillman ran the low elapsed time of the event (6.916), betting his previous low by .009 second. The win will help Skillman hop into seventh place over Vincent Nobile, while Butner’s grip on first place remains firmly in place.

FUNNY CAR FINAL: Robert Hight, near lane, scored his first win of the season and, in the process, qualified for the Traxxas Nitro Shootout. The win for Hight was the 38th of his career and the second this season for John Force Racing to break up the Don Schumacher Racing monopoly. Hight’s Auto Club Camaro ripped to a 3.99 to secure the win over Tommy Johnson Jr., who slowed to a 4.09.

TOP FUEL FINAL (3:41 p.m.): After three-straight losses in final rounds, Antron Brown, far lane, grabbed his third Wally of the season against Don Schumacher Racing teammate Leah Pritchett. His margin of victory was .036 second, giving Pritchett her second final-round loss of the season. The final round appearance will help both drivers in their hunt of points leader Steve Torrence. Brown grabbed the lead at the tree and extended his lead incrementally all the way down the track, beating Pritchett to the strip with a better elapsed time (3.792 to 3.816).

Event recap: Hight gets first victory of season; Brown, Skillman, Krawiec win in Denver

FEATURES

Saturday’s night final nitro qualifying session provided a lot of raised eyebrows but also a lot of raised front ends as Tony Schumacher, Tim Wilkerson, and John Force all launched into sizeable mid-track wheelstands. For Schumacher and Wilkerson, their landings were so hard that both reported damage to their racecars, and both were forced overnight to switch to their backup cars.

"The front and came up and I stayed in as long as I could,” said Schumacher. “You start to get a little uncomfortable because it's not coming down. You think you can just squeeze off of it and sit back, I could feel it hitting the skid pad on the bottom.”

Crew chief Mike Green took the initial blame, insisting that he hadn’t done a good enough with the aero balance, but the problem seemed even more profound in Funny Car.

NHRA on FOX analyst and former Funny Car racer Tony Pedregon explained, “We have an extremely good racetrack. Funny Cars produces about 2000 pounds of downforce right on the nose and there's really no adjustment. They're more wing on the back of the car and they don't have any adjustments. With more wing in the back it’s wanting to lift the front-end. As soon as air gets underneath that, there is really no bringing it back.”

Explained Wilkerson right after the run, "I tried to make it go a little faster, but we're missing some downforce here, and it got away from me. I didn't get it shut off soon enough. I got the front end too high in the air, and it bent the front end when it came back down. It's wounded; the A-arm is bent. The spare car is coming out, the one we last ran at Norwalk. Right now, I'm just aggravated with myself for not lifting sooner. It's too late to say you're sorry now, though. We'll be all right, and the back-up car is okay. I'm just aggravated."

The team had to pull its spare chassis (right) out of the trailer and spent the evening working oin transferring everything from the damaged car to the backup.

Despite his giant wheelstand, Force reported no damage to the chassis of his Peak Camaro.

“I shortened the burnout, and I should’ve had plenty of fuel to bring the whole front end down, and it just got light out there,” he explained. “But, boy, it was truckin’, and I like that kind of race car. I knew it would be on fire, wheelstand or win, whatever comes first.

“It doesn’t look like it dented the car; it will be okay. I set her down soft. She came up, came back down and didn’t bounce on me.”

Oh, how the tables have turned.

While it’s not exactly been a 180-degree turnaround, the days of Antron Brown continually beating good buddy Steve Torrence are over. Entering this season, Brown owned a stunningly one-sided 22-1 record against the Texan, but they’ve split their four latest matchups, including Torrence’s final-round victories over the reigning world champ in Englishtown and, two weeks ago, in Chicago, where Torrence won by just .005-second.

“I hope things are turning our way a little bit,” Torrence said of the rivalry.  “All I know is that we bring out the best in each other.  I know he’s made me a better driver.  I had to get better just to beat him every now and then.”

Denver offers a good chance for Torrence to continue the hot streak that has carried him to the top of the points standings. He won the event in 2015 and has qualified no worse than fourth in his last four Mile-High appearances with No. 1 starts in 2013 and 2016. He had low e.t. of raceday in 2014 and 2015 and twice in three years he has posted top speed of the meet.

“Three years ago, Richard [Hogan, crew chief] figured out the high-altitude tune-up,” said Torrence, who won the event in 2010. “We know what it takes to do well up there and that gives you a lot of confidence. Of course, you still have to go do it, but it helps when you’ve been there before.”

NHRA drag racing is filled with incredible families, from the Kalittas to the Schumachers to the Forces to the Coughlins to … well, you get the idea. Troy Coughlin Jr. is already an accomplished Sportsman racer and is looking to take the next step in his career by becoming a great Top Fuel Dragster pilot. 

His rookie season has had its ups and downs so far, and he’s currently in 10th place with five races to go until the Countdown to the Championship begins. While Coughlin Jr. seeks to get the hang of a class that’s wildly different than any other he’s raced in to this point, he’s also trying to live up to a name that carries a lot of cache around the drag racing community. 

“Look at what I have to live up to, look at my dad,” said Coughlin Jr. “(In my family) it’s not pressure, it’s fun. It’s an honor to be a part of it. The pressure comes from outside the ropes. Nobody in my family has gone through this in this way. So, it’s a whole new front.”

The rookie admits the team has taken a bit of a beating so far, but says it’s been good for them to struggle. The adversity hasn’t gotten to Coughlin Jr., who takes the same pragmatic approach to racing a Top Fuel Dragster as he has to every level of racing he’s competed in prior.

“It’s not deterred me at all,” said Coughlin Jr. “On paper, it’s… you can read the not so pleasant numbers. Coming into Pomona I had only nine runs, but Pomona was a decent race for me. Not even statistically, but just getting down the race track.”

Coughlin Jr. treats coming from a famous racing family with similar pragmaticism and excitement. When discussing adjusting his expectations for reaction times when switching classes, he talked about his earlier memories of messing around with Jeg Coughlin Jr.’s Pro Stock simulator. 

“I have a simulator at home, just like he did,” he said. “I was 12 years old at his house one year, staying with little Jeggy (Jeg Coughlin III). I was in the simulator. When the shift light came on, if it was triple zero you were perfect. He eventually came in there and asked, ‘are you done in that thing?’ That’s what I was gonna do though, I wanted to be a Pro Stock driver.”

Troy ended up becoming the first Coughlin to race Top Fuel since his grandfather, Jeg Coughlin the first. That’s a relatively new wrinkle to the Coughlin legacy, but his racing excellence up to this point is anything but. The Coughlins have Wallys in 10 different classes, but have yet to bring one home in Top Fuel (Jeg Coughlin Sr. runnered up three times in his career). No pressure, Troy.

It’s been 20 years since Shawn Langdon captured his NHRA Summit Racing Jr. Drag Racing League national title in Denver. There’d be no better way to celebrate than to get his first win since joining Kalitta Motorsports.

“(I’m) looking forward to get going on the Western Swing,” said Langdon. “Kalitta always runs strong at Denver. I have some great memories there.”

Langdon captured that Jr. Dragster title back in 1997 and went on to win Super Comp championships in the Lucas Oil series in 2007 and 2008. He became the only racer to win a title in all three series when he took home a Top Fuel title in 2013.

He’s still looking for his first win with Kalitta, but recent performance might make him a dark horse at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals. His average elapsed time in qualifying (3.825) is the third highest in the class, behind only Steve Torrence (3.8) and Tony Schumacher (3.784). All three of those pilots had four clean runs. The only drivers to do so include Clay Millican, who averaged a 3.856, and Bob Vandergriff (3.885).

Langdon qualified No. 5 and will face Terry Haddock in the first round. If he grabs the win light, he’ll face the winner of the Tony Schumacher-Steve Chrisman pairing.

Tommy Johnson Jr. has an interesting history when it comes to the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals. having competed at the event in four different classes.

The Ottumwa, Iowa, native made his first national event final-round appearance at this event, in Super Gas in 1984, where he lost to Chad Langdon, father of current Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon. He reached his first career final round in Alcohol Funny Car at this event in 1987, where he lost to Pat Austin. He reached his first Top Fuel at this event as well, in 1991, where he lost to Joe Amato. (His first Funny Car final was in Topeka in 1999.)

For all those successes in Denver, he’s never reached the winner’s circle.

J.R. Todd isn’t new to drag racing; look no further than this weekend’s Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals where the Funny Car rookie returns to the site of his first-ever Top Fuel victory. He picked up that Wally against Tony Schumacher way back in 2006. 

“It is good to be going back to a track where I’ve had past success,” said Todd. “The Kalitta’s always seem to run well there too. We want to kick off the Western Swing with some good runs in qualifying and round wins on Sunday in the DHL Toyota.”

He went on to win the Auto Club Road to the Future award in that rookie season, and finished the Western Swing with a pair of event wins against Schumacher. Todd raced exclusively in Top Fuel before making the switch to the flopper class, taking the helm of the DHL Toyota this season. 

The pilot of the Funny Car formerly driven by Scott Kalitta currently sits in ninth place. He earned his first round win in five races, his seventh of the season, by beating Courtney Force in the first round in Chicago. Those round wins are critical at this time of the season as the chase for a spot in the Countdown for the Championship heats up. 

Todd and Kalitta Motorsports teammate Alexis DeJoria switched up their tune-up during the Eastern Swing (the four-race period that ran from Epping to Norwalk) in order to improve performance. For Todd’s sake, hopefully that first-round win in Chicago is a sign of good things to come.

If the first two rounds of the Fallen Patriots Route 66 NHRA Nationals represented the John Force Racing version of Empire Strikes Back, perhaps Sunday of the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals will be JFR’s Return of the Jedi. After all four cars from the JFR camp bowed out in the first or second round in Chicago two weeks ago, John Force gave a speech to the entire team.

Think of it as the plan hatched by Luke Skywalker to break Han Solo out of Jabba the Hutt’s Palace in … okay, okay. You get the idea. Listen, after a really, really bad Sunday two weeks ago, all three John Force Racing Funny Cars are in the top three entering this Sunday. Brittany Force is qualified No. 6. 

That’s no guarantee for round wins, of course, but that must be a big-time confidence boost for a team that sorely needed one after a tough event in the Windy City. Maybe all they needed was a change in altitude. Nobody has more Funny Car wins in Denver than John Force, and he won in the Mile-High City a year ago in an all-Force final.

Now Courtney Force holds both ends of the Funny Car track record, while sister Brittany kept the speed record she set in Top Fuel a year ago. Add Robert Hight to the equation, who continues to look like he’s on the verge of breaking out.

The earliest Courtney can meet John or Hight is in the final, while either of the men in JFR can battle in the semi’s. That would suit the Funny Car drivers just fine. Meanwhile, Brittany is set to take on Terry McMillen for the third-time head-to-head this season. She’s 3-0 in those meetings, and hopes to make it 4-0 today.

Once again, Jim Campbell proved to be Courtney Force’s kryptonite. With his upset victory, 4.26 to 4.27, over her in the first stanza today, the driver of the Jim Dunn Racing/7-Eleven Dodge pushed his record against her to 3-2 this season, with all three wins coming in the first round. Two weeks ago in Chicago, Campbell upset her teammate, Robert Hight, in round one, meaning that three of his four round wins this season have come against John Force Racing drivers. 

It’s quite a comeback for Campbell, who was 0-3 against Courtney last year and whose mount has struggled at this event.

“I’ve been up here since 1967,” said team owner and tuner Jim Dunn, who sat out two of four qualifying sessions. “It always blows up everything I’ve got, so I just saved it for that round.”

Campbell advanced past J.R. Todd in round two  to reach his second semifinal of the of the year, and with the short turnaround due to live TV and possible bad weather coming, the Dunn team might have had trouble making the semifinal call.

Enter Tim Wilkerson, who generously sent two of his crewmembers over to assist.

"I'm so proud of those guys over there,” Wilkerson explained. “I know [Jim Campbell] is behind me in points and he can catch me and pass me, but God bless those guys, they needed some help. To be in the semis, that's great for their team. I think they'd do the same for me. That's part of the reason I'm so proud to be part of the NHRA family."

Erica Enders will begin Sunday looking for her first win at the Mile-Highs, but coming off a runner-up at the tour’s last stop in Chicago and a No. 2 qualifying berth this weekend – matching her starting spot at this race last year -- she certainly seems to have the hot rod to do it.

"Denver has been a pretty good place for us, even though we haven't won here, we always do pretty well,” she said. “Last year our best race of the season came at Bandimere so despite the fact it's hard to tune here because it's unlike any other place we go, my guys know how to make all the right adjustments.”

Enders and team entered the event after a refreshing team vacation – 26 people in all -- at Grand Cayman, followed by a test session at Osage Casino Tulsa Raceway Park.

"We have a really fast hot rod here and we are going into race day No. 2 on the ladder so I'm super pleased with our performance so far," Enders said. "We have certainly worked really hard at getting this car ready, especially with some extra testing last week in Tulsa before heading out on this three-race Western Swing, so I think we'll be a tough out.

Her slowest run of the weekend was a 6.97 in Saturday qualifying, where she missed the shift points a tad.

"That last qualifying session is totally on me as a driver,” she admitted. “It's so different up here on the mountain as far as everything is concerned, how the car feels, how it drives and when your shift points come, and I just made a rookie mistake that run and messed up in low gear. No biggie, we'll put it behind us and get ready for eliminations."

Although he’s yet to reach the winner’s circle, Jeg Coughlin is feeling confident that better days – and a strong Countdown – are ahead for the bright yellow JEGS Camaro.

“We need to firm up our foundation and find a sweet spot with the car, the engine and the tune-up we can ride into the playoffs," Coughlin said. "You definitely start to look at these last few races before the Countdown as super important in our journey towards challenging for another Mello Yello championship.
 
"We've had a great first half. Our number of round wins and rankings in the points are much improved from last season. We've shifted through a lot of race day setups and engine combinations with this Chevy Camaro and overall, the Elite team has really shined. We just need to hone in on what will work best for us down the stretch."
 
Currently fourth in points, Coughlin's season has been highlighted by runner-ups in Houston and Topeka and No. 1 qualifying efforts in Houston, Charlotte and Bristol.

The Kramer Racing team came to Bandimere Speedway with a packed pit, fielding four cars under their American Ethanol sponsorship. In addition to Deric Kramer’s strong-running, tour regular Pro Stocker, they added a second Pro Stocker with Richie Stevens Jr. (who subbed for Kramer earlier this year in Houston) as well as an FS/AA '17 Camaro that Kramer ran in Stock and the A/DA dragster campaigned by family patriarch David in Comp.

Kramer’s time in the COPO was short as he exited in round one of Stock, and while dad qualified impressively in Comp, running .78 under the index to qualify No. 3, he, too, was sent to the trailer after Saturday’s first round. Kramer qualified No. 12 in Pro Stock, but fell in round one to Vincent Nobile while Stevens lost to low qualifier Drew Skillman.

The team did not go home empty-handed, though, as the Kramers' Hemi-powered dragster was picked as the meet's Best Engineered vehicle.

The husband and wife Pro Stock Motorcycle duo of Matt and Angie Smith met on the starting line for the 12th time in the opening round today, and for the ninth time, hubby knew best.

The couple have been racing one another since before they were married and she was known as Angie McBride, and faced off for the first time at the Auto Club NHRA Finals in 2007, where Matt won.

Three years later at the Finals, Angie beat Matt for the first time, and also beat him in an historic final round in Epping in 2014 for her first career win. Her other victory against him came in Gainesville in 2015.

The Smiths also raced in the first round of this event last year, with Matt again prevailing.


With his parents, Jim and Annie Whiteley, not in contention this weekend – Pro Mod and the alcohol classes are not in action at the event this year – Cory Reed is carrying the family honor into battle to defend the home turf with teammate Angelle Sampey and their Team Liberty/PSE mounts.

“I consider Bandimere Speedway my home track,” said Reed, who lives in nearby Grand Junction. “I look forward to coming t this ace because my friends and family come out to watch us race and that makes this race special for me. I feel like our pits are more relaxed when my family is around. I love the track and coming back to my home state is always cool.”

Although he’s a Colorado native and well acclimated to the thin-air climes, the same cannot be said for teammate Sampey.

“The oxygen is so much lower than what I’m used to,” Sampey admitted. “I get a little light-headed here and a lot of times I get headaches, so I try my best to stay hydrated and not get into too much of a rush before my runs. Before we run, I take a minute to relax and because then it’s such a mental game that if you’re not really focused on what you’re doing, you can mess it up. Qualifying is so important these days and it’s important to keep focus and I need as much mental clarity as I can get up there.

“I’ve also been a little early on some of my shifts,” she admitted. “The altitude here changes everything so much. You have to wait longer to shift, and when you’ve done this for 20-something years and you know when it’s time to shift and you come here and it’s not time to shift yet, it’s harder.”

Saturday’s Pro Stock Motorcycle qualifying set the pairings for the Mickey Thompson Tires Pro Bike Battle, which will be held next weekend at the Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals. Although the eight drivers who will take part in the race-within-a-race were already set, Eddie Krawiec was able to hold onto the No. 1 spot in Bike Battle points, which are accumulated over the course of a calendar year based on qualifying position.

Krawiec entered the event with a sizeable 120-point advantage in the standings and only an unlikely DNQ would stop him from being the top seed, and his No. 1 qualifying berth Saturday did nothing but increase that lead.

Krawiec, runner-up last year, will take on Chip Ellis in round one Defending event champ Andrew Hines will face Matt Smith, L.E. Tonglet will take on Angelle Sampey, and Jerry Savoie will square off with Hector Arana Jr.

The Pro Bike Battle will take place in conjunction with Saturday qualifying. Introductions are slated for 12:40 p.m. Round one will begin at 1 p.m., the second round is scheduled for 3 p.m., and the final take place at 4:50 p.m.

Getting ready for racing at altitude requires a lot of preparation, but a little bit of luck doesn’t hurt. Hector Arana Jr. came into the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals confident based on previous performance, and a pile of notes from last year’s race in Denver, but it’s always a bit of a mystery how that’ll work the first time the bike goes down the track.

It worked just fine for Arana Jr., who ripped off a 7.191-second run. He improved on that with a 7.197 pass in his second run, and did even better with a 7.179 in his final run, just .001 second away from the track record. That set Arana Jr. up as the No. 2 qualifier; not too shabby. 

"We're really excited," Arana said. "If it hadn't rained and we could have made both runs (Friday) or even if they had added a make-up round earlier today we would have run even better yet. We'll take being second for now. I'd much rather be No. 1 on race day than in qualifying.”

The Lucas Oil Racing bike has been on fire lately, reaching two of the last three finals only to come up short to LE Tonglet. That’s a familiar feeling in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. Tonglet has won four of the six trophies this season and is undefeated in final rounds. Arana Jr. is right behind him, though, and seems to have a very good Denver tune-up. 

"We only race at altitude once a year so we were happy to start off right away with a combination that ran well right out of the trailer," Arana said. "Denver always is a challenge for tuning the bike. You just have to sneak up on it and tweak things. You can't make big changes or you'll get yourself in trouble. No one has a normal, everyday tune-up for the mountain.”

Arana is paired against Steve Johnson for the first time this season. Arana Jr. has advanced past the first round in every race since the second contest of the season and has reached at least the semifinals in each of the last three races.

PHOTOS

The SealMaster Track Walk kicked off raceday with Mopar Pro Stock star Allen Johnson leading the way as fans got a chance to stroll down the actual racing surface at Bandimere Speedway.

Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader L.E. Tonglet became the first rider to clinch a spot in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

Pro Stock's Drew Skillman was introduced as the Pro Stock low qualifier for the first time since 2015.

Top Fuel newcomer Greg Carrillo, who qualified in his class debut, enjoyed his first pre-race introduction.

The thrill of victory: Pro Stock Motorcycle winner Eddie Krawiec celebrates.

The agony of defeat: A dejected Matt Smith collects his thoughts after his final-round red-light.

Drew Skillman remained red-hot with his second straight Pro Stock win.

Funny Car champ Robert Hight received a congratulatory hug from his daughter, Autumn.

Antron Brown was overcome with emotion after collecting the Top Fuel victory.

Event winners, from left, Eddie Krawiec, Drew Skillman, Robert Hight, and Antron Brown.

PREVIEW

Below are the final ladders and first-round pairings for Sunday's first round of eliminations: