NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Mike Castellana maintained the qualifying lead and ran the second-quickest elapsed time in NHRA Pro Mod history during Saturday action at the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series portion of the Lucas Oil NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. This weekend’s Pro Mod racing, presented by Pro Line Racing and FuelTech, is the fourth of 12 events this season.

Castellana’s 5.717-second pass at 251.81 mph in his Al-Anabi Racing ‘17 Camaro during Saturday’s qualifying sessions secured him the No. 1 qualifier. Castellana now owns four of the five quickest runs in Pro Mod racing history. During eliminations, Castellana defeated Kevin Rivenbark with a time of 5.794 at 248.98.

“It’s great. We had that incident on the first qualifying round, but my crew got the car back in top shape, and it’s like nothing ever happened,” said Castellana, who went into the sand trap on Friday. “We made a good first-round win, and we’re just looking to go rounds tomorrow.”

Todd Tutterow qualified second and went on to defeat Von Smith in the first round of eliminations. Tutterow ran a 5.801 at 246.44 in his GALOT Motorsports ‘69 Camaro.

Harry Hruska, who qualified third, defeated Bob Rahaim, and No. 4 qualifier Khalid alBalooshi bested Doug Winters.

J&A Pro Mod Series eliminations continue Sunday at approximately 12:45 p.m. at Atlanta Dragway.