NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Greg Anderson earned his first pole position since July of 2018 at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals. The Pro Stock racer took his Summit Racing Chevrolet to the top of the field in the final qualifying session with a 6.571-second pass at 210.54 mph at the ninth of 24 events on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and sixth of 18 on the Pro Stock schedule. 

Mike Salinas (Top Fuel), Robert Hight (Funny Car) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) captured poles in their respective classes. Race day is set to begin at 11 a.m. Central Time at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois. 

Anderson is seeking his first victory since July of 2018 when he won the Dodge NHRA Mile-High Nationals. The former Pro Stock world champion passed K.B. Racing teammate Jason Line to get the top spot at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals. Fellow K.B. Racing teammate Bo Butner has won four of the past five events in 2019. 

Hight earned his sixth No. 1 qualifier of the season in the final qualifying session with a 3.88-second pass at 334.24 mph. He had not run in the 3s all weekend, but the Jimmy Prock-tuned Auto Club Chevy Camaro Funny Car made a terrific pass after a rain delay to leap to the top of the field. The former champion duo is hunting its fourth win of the season and its first since Houston. 

Funny Car No. 1 qualifier Robert Hight: "It's pretty awesome. It shows you have a great team and that everyone around you is doing their jobs. I call that a perfect storm what we were doing today. If we didn't go up there to run later today we wouldn't have been able to get out of the top half. I usually wouldn't call that weather today a good thing, but today it was because we move up the ladder and then tomorrow that weather is going to work out in our favor because of cooler conditions. If we have four more of those tomorrow that's going to turn into a yellow hat."

Salinas qualified in the top spot with a 3.693 at 328.3 mph. He won his first national event from pole position in Las Vegas at the Denso Spark Plugs NHRA Four-Wide Nationals. That was his first national event win and came in his first year with tuner Alan Johnson on board in full capacity. The San Jose, Calif. native now has four pole positions in his career and three in nine events in 2019. 
 

Top Fuel No. 1 qualifier Mike Salinas: "I'm doing the same thing I was doing last year, the only difference is the people behind me. They're the ones making all of this possible. I'm just the guy in the seat. I'm trying to do everything that they're telling me to do and we're having a great time doing it. It's been kind of surreal. We went through a lot of different things to get here -- we had a lot of great people before, but this is just a different level right now. I thought we were racing before, but we weren't racing. We're racing now. I'm just happy they let me back in the car every time."

Krawiec secured his second No. 1 qualifier of the season and qualified in the top two for the third-straight race. The 2017 Pro Stock Motorcycle champion went to the top of the field with a 6.801-second pass at 198.79 mph. He will race No. 16 qualifier Michael Ray, who is making his 2019 debut on tour. Krawiec is looking for his first win of the season after earning a pair of runner ups. 

Pro Stock low qualifier Greg Anderson: “I’ve got 103 that’s a huge number? I though I was in the 80s. That’s pretty impressive. I didn’t realize I’d passed Bob Glidden. Anytime you can pass Bob Glidden that’s pretty darn cool. This racetrack, I’ve always loved coming here. I brag about how great the surface it. It’s one of those tracks that you can apply all the power. The starting line is the best starting line we race on all year long. I don’t know why I’ve struggled to win here. It’s been a tough one to crack.

“Tonight’s session was a perfect run inside the car. You don’t have those very often. You’re going down the racetrack and you’re almost clapping. I had to sweat out one more pair with Jason [Line] and Matt Hartford. I thought for sure I was going to lose it by a thousandth but I didn’t. We got another green hat which is great. Now, I need to find a way to change colors of this baby. I need a yellow [winner’s] hat. It’s been a while.”

Pro Stock Motorcycle low qualifier Eddie Krawiec: “I think the only one ahead of me is Angelle [Sampey] and she’s my teammate now. I have a great crew behind me. It’s not me that’s doing this. I just get to ride the motorcycle. It’s just fun to come out here and have a good bike going into race day. This last session, it’s a little tricky. It’s kind of weird to say the track is too good but it’s so good here in Chicago this track was very tight and we weren’t able to build the proper wheel speed that we want.

Tomorrow, we’ll be somewhere between Q3 and Q4 so we’ll go back and make all the proper changes and be ready for race day. Andrew [Hines, teammate] has had a great season. He and I will sit down and go over data and put good tune-ups in the bikes. I’m just coming out to make good clean laps down the track because that’s what it will take. There’s a good 8-10 bikes out here that have a legitimate shot of winning.”