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ELIMINATION ROUND RECAPS

Doug Kalitta

TOP FUEL ROUND ONE (11:25 a.m.): It wasn’t enough for Doug Kalitta to be the No. 1 qualifier after four qualifying rounds, so he went ahead and put together the best run in the first round of eliminations, too. His 3.749 pass took down Troy Buff and he’ll face Tony Schumacher (and get lane choice) in the second round. All three Don Schumacher Racing dragsters are on that half of the bracket as Leah Pritchett (3.760) and Antron Brown (3.768) do battle in the other pair. Terry McMillen beat Shawn Langdon on a holeshot (by .07 second) in a huge round-win as the hunt for the Countdown continues. 

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

FUNNY CAR ROUND ONE (11:50 a.m.): It was a great round for the pair of John Force Racing cars that made the field as Robert Hight (3.913) and John Force (3.93) pulled out the best two runs of the round. Less ideal is that the teammates (or is it coworkers) are on the same side of the bracket; but they don’t need to worry about that until they get to the semi’s. To do that, Hight needs to get past Alexis DeJoria and John Force needs to beat protégé Bob Tasca. Tasca beat Force earlier this year, so that’s a matchup to keep a close eye on. 

Second-round pairings (lane choice listed first): Matt Hagan vs. Jack Beckman; Tommy Johnson Jr. vs. Ron Capps; Robert Hight vs. Alexis DeJoria; John Force vs. Bob Tasca.

PRO STOCK ROUND ONE (12:08 p.m.): Red-lights decided a couple of key match-ups in the first round of Pro Stock with two-time world champ Erica Enders and Indy winner Chris McGaha departing via foul starts. McGaha, returning from a four-race layoff, fouled against Allen Johnson’s Dodge while Enders left too soon by four-thousandths against Elite teammate Vincent Nobile. The other big upset came when Drew Skillman shut off early, sending John Gaydosh into the second round. All three of the KB team drivers advanced as did Tanner Gray and Jeg Coughlin Jr. Gray was the quickest driver of the round with a 6.558, the best run of the event thus far.

Second-round pairings (lane choice listed first): Greg Anderson vs. Allen Johnson; Tanner Gray vs. Jason Line; Jeg Coughlin Jr. vs. John Gaydosh; Bo Butner vs. Vincent Nobile.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE E1 (1:21 p.m.): For the fifth-straight time, Matt Smith had the quickest bike with a 6.849 in his round one win over Joe DeSantis. Every other rider in the top half of the field advanced with the exception of Chip Ellis, who lost on a small holeshot to Steve Johnson’s Suzuki. One of the best races of the round was rookie Joey Gladstone’s 6.880 to 6.915 win against three-time world champ Eddie Krawiec. Hector Arana Jr. also avoided an upset when he overcame a Karen Stoffer holeshot to win by a 6.867 to 6.924 margin.

Second-round pairings (lane choice listed first): Joey Gladstone vs. Scotty Pollacheck; Le Tonget vs. Steve Johnson; Hector Arana Jr. vs. Andrew Hines; Matt Smith vs. Mike Berry

TOP FUEL ROUND TWO (1:30 p.m.): Doug Kalitta continued his romp through the Top Fuel ranks as his 3.782-second pass was the best of the second elimination round; his reward his lane choice against Leah Pritchett in the semi’s after she took down teammate Antron Brown. Terry McMillen couldn’t quite leg out a win against Brittany Force despite an early lead in his Amalie dragster, so the driver of the Monster Energy car will face off against points leader Steve Torrence on the other side of the skinny-car bracket. 

Semifinal matchups (lane choice listed first): Doug Kalitta vs. Leah Pritchett; Steve Torrence vs. Brittany Force.

FUNNY CAR ROUND TWO: (1:40 p.m.): The best run of the second round helped Tommy Johnson Jr. defeat points leader Ron Capps and set up an all Don Schumacher Racing semifinals between the Make-A-Wish car and Jack Beckman. However, the biggest upset came when Bob Tasca took down John Force for the second time this season. Tasca can take that a step further and beat a second John Force Racing car by defeating Robert Hight in the semi’s. Hey, there’s nothing the Tascas love more than beating Camaros.

Semifinal matchups (lane choice listed first): Tommy Johnson Jr. vs. Jack Beckman; Robert Hight vs. Bob Tasca.

PRO STOCK E2 (1:43 p.m.): John Gaydosh will race in the semifinals for the first time in his career as a Pro Stock driver after quarterfinal opponent Jeg Coughlin Jr., shook the tires and shut off. Gaydosh, who is racing following the recent death of longtime friend and mentor Brad Wallace, is surrounded by the three KB Racing team drivers; Bo Butner, Greg Anderson, and Jason Line, who make up the semifinal round. Line made the quickest pass of the round with a 6.585 in his win over Tanner Gray. Line also cut a perfect .000 reaction time in the quarterfinals.

Semifinal matchups (lane choice first): Bo Butner vs. John Gaydosh; Jason Line vs. Greg Anderson.

Matt Smith

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE (1:54 p.m.): Three of the top five qualifiers remain alive in the semifinals of Pro Stock Motorcycle after Matt Smith, LE Tonglet, Hector Arana Jr., and Scotty Pollacheck made the final four. Tonglet, seeking his third win of the season, made the best run with a 6.823 in his win over Steve Johnson while Arana Jr. scored a big win when he trailered Andrew Hines’ Harley with a 6.846. Pollacheck was .001-second slower than teammate Joey Gladstone, 6.905 to 6.904, but made up the difference on a holeshot.

Semifinal matchups (lane choice first): LE Tonglet vs. Hector Arana Jr.; Matt Smith vs. Scotty Pollacheck

TOP FUEL SEMIFINALS (3:10 p.m.): Doug Kalitta and Steve Torrence will go dancing in the final round, but this time Kalitta won’t have lane choice. Torrence posted his best run of race day (3.751), and while Kalitta was no slouch (3.768), it wasn’t good enough to tell Torrence where to line up his dragster. Kalitta is the only Top Fuel pilot in the top five who hasn’t taken a Wally home with him this season; he’s got a chance to change that at what’s effectively a home race for him this weekend. For Torrence, it’s his sixth final in 12 races. He’d like nothing more than to win his fourth race is six tries.

Robert Hight

FUNNY CAR SEMIFINALS (3:15 p.m.): Robert Hight has a chance to break up the Don Schumacher Racing monopoly on the Funny Car class. To do it, he’ll have to beat Jack Beckman who is in his third-straight final. “Fast Jack” won his first Wally of the season in Englishtown, fell to Ron Capps a week ago and entered Norwalk in third place in the Funny Car standings. He made it to the final round with only one run in the 3-second range, while Hight has averaged 3.934-second runs on Sunday. 

PRO STOCK SEMIFNALS (3:18 p.m.): The latest all-KB Racing team Pro Stock final will feature points leader Bo Butner and four-time world champion Greg Anderson. Butner reached his fifth final round of the season after stopping surprise semifinalist John Gaydosh with a 6.606. Anderson joined Butner in the final after defeating fellow Summit driver Jason Line in the semi’s. Line took himself out with a foul start and Anderson earned lane choice by five-thousandths with a 6.599. Anderson is looking for his fourth win in Norwalk.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE SEMIFINALS (3:22 p.m.): The top two qualifiers in Pro Stock Motorcycle will race for the Wally when Matt Smith takes on LE Tonglet in a battle of former world champs. Smith, the Norwalk champ in 2010 and 2013, made it to the final by beating Scotty Pollacheck, 6.872 to 6.969. Smith highlighted the run with a perfect .000 reaction time, the third one registered during Sunday’s professional eliminations. Tonglet earned lane choice for the final by  riding his Suzuki to a 6.831 in his win over Hector Arana Jr., who was close with a 6.863. Tonglet has already won a pair of events this season in Charlotte and Atlanta.

PRO MOD FINAL (4:10 p.m.):  Shane Molinari became the latest winner in the J&A Service Pro Mod Series following a win against Troy Coughlin in an all-turbocharged final round. Molinari, who added noted turbocharger expert Brad Personett as his crew chief this season, drove to a 5.779, 257.09 for his first win in the series after Coughlin’s JEGS Corvette made a move towards the centerline, forcing the two-time champ to abort his run.

LUCAS OIL SPORTSMAN FINALS: For just the second time in the history of the National Hot Rod Association, a pair of drivers doubled-up at a national event. Nick Folk won the Super Stock and Super Comp titles while Jeff Strickland claimed wins in Stock and Top Dragster presented by Racing RVs.com. Both Strickland and Folk are reigning NHRA national champions. The only other time two drivers doubled came at the 2015 JEGS SPORTSnationals in Columbus when Jeg Coughlin Jr. won in Stock and Top Dragster and Todd Frantz won in Comp and Super Stock. Here is a full list of Lucas Oil Series champions and finalists from the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER: Jackie Fricke def. Chris Demke
TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR: Andy Bohl def. Chris Foster
COMP: Bruno Massel def. Larry Morgan
SUPER STOCK: Nick Folk def. Zack Running
STOCK: Jeff Strickland def. Jim Boburka
SUPER COMP: Nick Folk def. Tony Helms
SUPER GAS: Rob Kropfeld def. Trevor Larson
TOP DRAGSTER: Jeff Strickland def. Kathy Fisher
TOP SPORTSMAN: Jeffrey Barker def. Ricky Adkins
SAM TECH FACTORY STOCK: Chuck Watson def. Kevin Skinner

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE FINAL (4:29 p.m.): With his team owner Jerry Savoie watching at home from Louisiana, Nitro Fish rider LE Tonget won for the third time in six races when he overpowered low qualifier Matt Smith in the final, 6.824 to 6.882. Tonglet, now a dominating 13-4 in national event finals, is also 13-2 in elimination rounds this season and leaves Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park as the Mello Yello Series points leader. Coming off a DNQ in Englishtown, Smith made major strides forward with his Polaris Magnum bike. The two-time champion has now been to 43 final rounds in his career and has 18 wins.

PRO STOCK FINAL (4:33 p.m.): With the fourth perfect .000 light of the day, Bo Butner won the Pro Stock final on a holeshot against KB Racing teammate Greg Anderson, 6.601 to 6.581. The final margin of victory at the finish line was just .001-second. Butner, in his 11th Pro Stock final, is now a three-time winner, all of them coming this season. Butner was also the winner in Houston and Atlanta and is the points leader thanks to his five final round finishes. Anderson, appearing in the final for the 144th time, just missed his 89th career win as a driver. He’s been to six final rounds this season.

FUNNY CAR FINAL (4:35 p.m.): Jack Beckman picked up an explosive victory, his second of the season, as Robert Hight failed to get down the get race track. Beckman’s 4.073-second pass featured a blow up halfway through the run, but that didn’t keep “Fast Jack” from earning his third Wally in Norwalk. That was more than enough to defeat Hight’s 6.673 in Beckman’s third-straight final round. Beckman turned on four win lights without pulling off a run in the 3-second range.

TOP FUEL FINAL (4:45 p.m.): An incredibly close final went the way of Steve Torrence thanks to a holeshot. Torrence beat Doug Kalitta off the line by .011-second for a .002-second margin of victory. That makes four Wally’s on the season for the Capco Contractor driver in six final-round appearances and is a heartbreaking defeat for Kalitta in what’s essentially a home race. That won’t matter to Torrence, who tightens his grip on first place over Leah Pritchett and Antron Brown. 

FEATURES

Scott Palmer is trying to qualify for the Countdown to the Championship as an independent driver in a very competitive Top Fuel class. He’s piloting a consistent dragster right now and took another step towards that goal by reaching the second round at the Thunder Valley NHRA Nationals a week ago; but he nearly made it to the semi’s before turning on the red light against Leah Pritchett. Now he’s trying to put that behind him.

“I did not worry about reaction times yesterday because I just wanted to not screw up, I just wanted to put that out of my mind,” said Palmer with a laugh. “Somebody told me, ‘hey man you left (Bristol) in ninth place!’ and all I was thinking is I could have left in eighth place. We would have passed Coughlin Jr. People were saying I was nervous and I was not nervous. I don’t get nervous.”

Naturally Palmer heard about it from just about everybody, including legendary driver Frank Manzo. The Magnificent Manzo stopped by Palmer’s pit to give a friendly word to the driver of the Cat Spot Kitty Litter car. 

“He pulls up here and he says, ‘hey, you, giant killer, you sure showed them last week didn’t ya? Low e.t. of the second round,’” said Palmer. “Then he looks at me and says, ‘you screwed that up, didn’t ya?’”

Palmer worked with Manzo on Khalid Al Balooshi’s Pro Mod car and has been close friends with the legendary driver. He says working with Manzo has been a huge help with the Top Fuel program. Palmer references not making any “wasted runs” no matter the class. 

The idea, according to Manzo, is that if the crew isn’t 100 percent confident the car is ready to go when pulling the car up to the line, don’t send it down the track. Palmer says since working with Manzo and following this advice, his program has improved dramatically. That’s shown in the results as the team has consistently run in the 3.8-second range all season. 

Now, qualified No. 6 and facing Clay Millican in the first round, Palmer will try to go rounds on Sunday. That won’t be easy; but, if it’s any consolation, the rest of his competition for the Countdown doesn’t have it much easier. Shawn Langdon battles Terry McMillen and Troy Coughlin Jr. takes on Steve Torrence in the first round.

Palmer fell to NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals winner Clay Millican after failing to get down the track. That's a missed opportunity to add on to his lead over McMillen and Langdon as the Countdown approaches.

After a big-time explosion in Epping, it took a few races for Terry McMillen and the Amalie team to get things back the way they were. While the damage looked a whole lot worse than it ended up being, McMillen said finding the right tune up again took some time; that made the past two races particularly challenging.

“Everything is like a fingerprint, so when you have an a-blower and an intake manifold, and then you have to put a new one on, it’s totally different,” said McMillen before his vital first-round win against Countdown competitor Shawn Langdon. “All of a sudden (the car) wants to drop this hole where it never wanted to drop this hole before, so it’s just kind of finding that balance again. Unfortunately, without testing, you kind of have to test during the races.”

Three of McMillen’s four qualifying runs were in the 3-second range, a welcome reprieve for the “Extermigator” after inconsistency plagued the team in Englishtown and Bristol. That showed in the first round against Langdon. The 11th place driver beat McMillen in elapsed time (3.787 to 3.806) but McMillen’s reaction time (.036 to .062) got the job done.

That’s a huge win, as McMillen entered Norwalk with a 101-point lead and seven races remaining until the Countdown begins. For Langdon, it’s another missed opportunity. He lost to Scott Palmer, another driver he’s fighting for a Countdown spot, in the first round in Bristol. Troy Coughlin Jr., who’s currently in eighth place, fell to Steve Torrence in the first round, and will slip to ninth behind McMillen. 

There’s still plenty of time to go, but things are heating up in the playoff race.

Steve Torrence won in Englishtown to capture his third Wally this season and move into first place in points. The Texan’s dragster, tuned by Bobby Lagana, has been remarkably consistent all weekend long on a track that has seen a variety of conditions. In six runs, Torrence has averaged an e.t. of 3.916 seconds and run in the 3-second range in all but one run. 

That’s the sort of consistency that helps you go rounds on race day. He’ll race Brittany Force in the semifinals; his third-straight appearance in the penultimate round. Torrence has reached the semifinals in seven of the last eight races and the final round in five of 11 races (not counting Norwalk, of course; let’s not get ahead of ourselves).

In 30 elimination round runs this season entering Norwalk, Torrence averages an elapsed time of 3.951. That’s including a 7-second run where the car was shut off early. Throw that puppy out and it drops his average to a more reasonable 3.844; by now, you’re probably getting a handle on why Torrence, Lagana and the rest of the CAPCO boys have been so darn good this season: they don’t mess up very often on Sunday. 

Of those 30 runs, only six clock in at 4 seconds or slower. So much of drag racing is focused on how fast you run, but given the number of tire-smoking, pedal fasts we see on Sundays it can be valuable to just get down the track on a regular basis. Torrence does that with the added benefit of having a high-performance dragster. 

Now let’s see if he can do that to the tune of a pair of win lights. The first one has to come against a very competitive dragster.

UPDATE: Steve-O made it six finals in 12 races with a win light against Force. Now let's see if he can make it four Wally's in six tries. 

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Matt Hagan and crew chief Dickie Venables teamed up to set another Funny Car elapsed time record. Wait, don’t stop me, because I have more stuff to write. Barring someone snatching this record from them during today’s elimination session, this will make seven track records in Hagan’s possession. Let’s run through them.

He started the season on the right foot (get it) by taking the Pomona track record with a 3.822 pass. The previous record was set by Jack Beckman (3.825). The next record he took was his own, but he had to steal it back from Robert Hight in Topeka; and that was the national record. That pass was a blistering 3.802 seconds. Then comes this weekend’s potential record in Norwalk, a 3.865 pass to take down Del Worsham’s 3.875. 

The rest of his records were set in 2016 and are still vulnerable to either be beaten by another driver or bettered by Hulk Hagan. They came in Chicago (3.882), Brainerd (3.882), St. Louis (3.883) and Indy (3.853). Given the kind of runs the team has thrown down in qualifying when the conditions are right, it’s safe to say the rest of the records on tour are vulnerable. 

It’s easy to look at Hagan’s collection of records as a direct contrast to teammate Ron Capps and his crew chief Rahn Tobler, who practice a more measured approach to qualifying. While Capps has a big lead and five wins this season, Hagan (who sits in second place) knows how to work that balance, too. 

“You’re looking at what Capps and those guys are doing and they’re just not beating themselves,” said Hagan. “They’re not really running that fast. You look at they’re qualifying and I don’t think they’re qualifying that great, but they’re just going down the race track and on Sunday that’s what you have to do. I think it’s easy sometimes to want to be aggressive and want to go and put a butt whooping on somebody. But I think sometimes you have to just count on your driver. I think I’m a pretty good leaver and I can get one or two on the tree and try to go down the race track and turn a one light on.”

That’s worked out so far for Hagan. He’s picked up three Wally’s this season and will race Jeff Diehl in the first round today.

Courtney Force

Courtney Force missed the cut for the first time in her career after posting qualifying times of 7.293, 13.803, 4.627 and 5.201. None of those managed to beat Jeff Diehl’s bump time of 4.561, keeping Force on the sidelines on Sunday after grabbing the green hat five times this season. 

“I guess it was a great run for my team, not having any DNQs until this weekend,” Force said. “We’re bummed out. Obviously, we expected better out of our car. We even just tried to get any sort of decent run down there, but we’ve really struggled with the track and the bumps in the lanes here for some reason.

“But it’s our own fault for not getting it figured out and not getting it in the field. I tried to pedal it down there in the last run, but it wasn’t good enough to get the car in the field. We’re going to have to turn our focus to Chicago and cheer on our teammates to a win tomorrow.”

That takes away an opportunity from Force to make up ground on teammate Robert Hight. She entered Norwalk just three points away from Hight, and coming off back-to-back races in Norwalk as a semifinalist. The Advance Auto Parts driver, currently in fifth place, gets two weeks to work with her team to figure out what went wrong before rebounding in Chicago. 

With the Countdown to the Championship just seven races away (including today’s race), it’s just about time to start peeking at the standings. You can bet the drivers are already doing it (yes, even the ones that swear they’re not doing it), and that made some of the matchups in the first round all the more interesting. 

Alexis DeJoria vs. Del Worsham is always a great matchup because of the history. Worsham used to work with DeJoria as a crew chief, but given the standings, it takes on new meaning this year. The driver of the Tequila Patron car (DeJoria) is chasing Worsham in the standings this season and took down her former coworker in the first round as Worsham failed to get down the track. 

“Yeah, we’re starting to get things turned around and we’ve been getting a lot of help from Jim Oberhofer,” said co-crew chief Nicky DeLago after the round win. 

That seems to be the case after DeJoria put down a 3.972-second run in the first round in decent, but not spectacular, conditions. That was the fifth-best run of the round, which bodes well as DeJoria badly needs to go rounds this deep into the season. She was 87 points and three places behind 11th place Worsham entering Norwalk; a run like this helps. 

You know what else helps? Going at least a round deeper than everyone else you’re chasing. Jonnie Lindberg, J.R. Todd, Cruz Pedregon and Jim Campbell all took first-round losses on Sunday. So yeah, that’s a big win for DeJoria who now has two round victories to her name since her brief midseason hiatus.

Allen Johnson doesn’t enjoy qualifying in the bottom half of the field, but it’s not the worst thing ever when he realizes he’s just .035-second behind the low qualifier. As most NHRA fans know, Johnson got off to a slow start this season, but he’s managed to make major gains in his program lately, winning a pair of rounds in Topeka and Englishtown.

Johnson qualified No. 9 in Englishtown with his Marathon Petroleum Dodge after a 6.619 elapsed time, the exact same number as round one opponent Chris McGaha. Johnson lost the position, and lane choice by .077-mph.

“I’ve said this the last few races but we really do have a good car right now,” Johnson said. “It’s just two or three thousandths moves you four or five positions. The cars making perfect runs are in the top five and you got six more grouped together within three thousandths so I think this will be a driver’s race, for sure.”

Johnson’s first round match was indeed decided by driving after McGaha fouled by .012-second. Johnson ran a respectable 6.627, which further bolstered his optimism.

Jason Line

The Gray Motorsports and KB Racing teams are practically next-door neighbors in the Mooresville, N.C. area so it’s not a surprise to see or hear them engage in few verbal barbs now that the NHRA tour has hit mid-season and the battle to secure Countdown spots is looming. After defeating Alan Prusiensky’s Dodge, reigning world champ Jason Line fired the first shot at rookie Tanner Gray, his round two opponent.

“That little punk; he is tough,” said Line. “He’s a good boy. We’re going to have a great race. Both cars are even. Whoever gets the clutch out on time; hopefully every once in a while the old guy can still get it done.”

It didn’t take long for young Tanner Gray to return fire after he set low elapsed time of the round following his win over Kenny Delco.

“It’s just these old guys trying to trash talk,” Gray said. “That’s the best he’s got. I just think I did a better job overall. We’ll see what we’ve got. We’ll put him [Jason] on the trailer and then go beat Greg [Anderson] in the semi’s.”

John Gaydosh

From knee surgery to broken engines, nothing has been able to dampen the spirit of hard-charging independent John Gaydosh when it comes to racing in Pro Stock. However, Gaydosh’s mettle was tested this week following the unexpected passing of his longtime friend and mentor Brad “Pops” Wallace. For all the adversity, Gaydosh never seriously considered missing the Norwalk event because he know’s Wallace would have wanted him to be there. On Saturday, the Pypes Performance team was honored with the Edelbrock Never Rest Performer of the Race award and on Sunday, Gaydosh collected another round win after Drew Skillman slowed.

“This is awesome,” said Gaydosh. “I have to say thanks to Shane [Gray] for letting us be here. Brad, we miss you thank you for this. Now, I’m going to go out and try to win some more.”

UPDATE: Gaydosh earned a spot in the semifinals for the first time in his career after Jeg Coughlin Jr. shook the tires against him in the quarterfinals.

“I can’t be more excited than this," Gaydosh said. "Thanks Brad, for everything you’ve ever done for me to keep me out here racing."

With a perfect .000 light and the second-best run of the round, there wasn’t much chance of Jeg Coughlin Jr. losing his first-round battle against last week’s winner, Alex Laughlin. Coughlin, who defeated Laughlin with a 6.567, is looking for his first Pro Stock win in more than three years, and it seems like he’s bound to get it sooner rather than later.

“I let the clutch out and I knew I murdered the Tree,” said Coughlin. “I had a great race car there. It had the front end up trucking and pulled second gear and was flying down through there. The crosswind hit me about 600-700 feet and moved me over towards the wall but it was a good run overall.”

The five-time Pro Stock champ is also looking for his first win at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park. Coughlin has previously won national events at 24 different venues, including non-traditional locations like No Problem Raceway Park in Belle Rose, La., and Auto Club Dragway at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif.,

After qualifying No. 13, his lowest starting spot since he was No. 16 at the 2013 Chicago race, Eddie Krawiec and the Vance & Hines crew weren’t afraid to make major changes to their new Street Rod before the first round.

“Nothing is the same except basically the chassis, the body, and the rider,” said Krawiec. “We changed a lot of things last night. We just went back to a set-up that we knew would work. Now, hopefully it does work.”

Krawiec’s teammate, Andrew Hines, noted yesterday that while the new Street Rod body has a much different aerodynamic profile than the team’s former V-Rod bikes, that’s not the issue. Hines said that the new chassis has given the bikes more traction, so the challenge has been to find a set-up that allows the bike to generate the wheel-speed it needs to be competitive.

“We make plenty of power. We know that,” said Krawiec. “We just have to find a way to manage it better. These bikes are new and that will come in time. Hopefully sooner, rather than later.”

Krawiec’s reward for qualifying in the bottom half of the field was a first-round race against rookie of the year contender, Joey Gladstone. Even though Krawiec ran a competitive 6.915, it wasn’t enough to hold off Gladstone’s 6.880.

After an extremely frustrating 2016 season that included six DNQs and a first round loss in seven events, Mike Berry turned on his first win light since the 2015 Las Vegas race when he stopped Team Liberty’s Cory Reed in the first round. As someone who still builds his own engines and tunes his bike, Berry was happy to qualify in the top half of the field and he was thrilled to post a competitive 6.950 pass that he used to defeat Reed’s 6.991 in the first round.

“It’s funny how quickly things can change in this sport,” Berry said. “It also looks like our motor program is coming around. It’s about time. We’ve struggled but we never gave up. We keep trying new things and some of them work and some of them don’t You work hard and then you get frustrated and just when you’re about ready to throw your hands up and give up, this sport throws you a bone and you dive back in and start working again.”

Scotty Pollacheck

Now that Clay Millican has his first NHRA Top Fuel Wally on his mantle, Scotty Pollacheck might well have inherited the dubious title of the sport’s most overdue pro racer. Pollacheck has been to five final rounds in his career, but has yet to turn on the win light in any of them. After a disastrous 2016 season, Pollacheck gave some serious through to either hanging up his leathers or at least taking some time off, but he got an opportunity to join Greg Underdahl and Gary Stoffer’s team after Jimmy Underdahl decided to take a year of, and that turned out to be too good true.

Pollacheck has won at least one round at every race so far this season and he came into Norwalk ranked No. 5 in the Mello Yello standings. Throughout his career, the former Sportsman Motorcycle champion has been known for his strong reaction times but that’s been a bit of an issue at times this season.

“I’ve been struggling with the lights, but this is a step in the right direction,” said Pollacheck, following his holeshot win over teammate Joey Gladstone in the quarterfinals. “Joey has a good bike. We both ran the same. We’ve been struggling but we’re out here playing with the big boys, trying to get it done. After what we went through last year, anything is a bonus.”

PHOTOS

PREVIEW

Here are the brackets and first-round pairings for all four pro classes: