NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

John Force wheeled his Peak Chevrolet Funny Car to the head of the field during Friday qualifying at the Virginia NHRA Nationals. The 16-time champion, running Herculiner colors at Virginia Motorsports Park, ran a track-record 3.899-second pass at 321.88 mph to get halfway to his first pole of the season. 

Clay Millican ran a track-record 3.749-second pass in the first qualifying session to take the lead in Top Fuel after the first day of racing at the eighth stop on the 24-race NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour. He's ahead of Las Vegas winner Mike Salinas by .005-second ahead of Saturday qualifying. There will be two more sessions beginning at 12:45 p.m. Eastern. [Tickets] 

Pro Stock made its return to the NHRA circuit and K.B. Racing did so authoritatively. Four of the five K.B.-powered cars are at the top of the field with Jason Line at the top. He made the best pass in both qualifying sessions and is in the No. 1 spot on the back of a 6.563-second lap. Line is followed by 2017 champ Bo Butner, multi-time champ Greg Anderson and Denver native Deric Kramer. 

Matt Smith found the cure for what ailed him at the previous stop on tour (Atlanta) and made the quickest run in both sessions. He's at the top of the Pro Stock Motorcycle heap with a 6.844-second hit. That's .006-second better than Eddie Krawiec, who is at the lead of the three-bike Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson contingent. 

TOP FUEL LOW QUALIFIER CLAY MILLICAN: “Mike Kloeber [crew chief] told me that was his ‘buy back’ run from Atlanta, where we lost in the first round with this same tune-up, bolt for bolt. On that run it wore one clutch disc a little too much and only ran the .77, so he wanted to prove that it was the right tune-up and that 3.74 was the validation for him.

“When I crossed the finish line I looked up at the scoreboards and thought it said 3.79, which would have been a pretty good run, but it also could have been a 3.74. I got on the radio and asked, but no one answered. Turns out it was the 3.74; it didn’t surprise Mike, but it did me.”

FUNNY CAR LOW QUALIFIER JOHN FORCE: “My crew chiefs and other crew chiefs say this is the smoothest track on the circuit, and that’s what we live for. It was still a little warm but still ran .89, so they did a good job.

“I won the first race here [in 1995] and last year I was in the final here and lost to [daughter] Courtney, with this same car and crew with Daniel Hood and Brian Corradi and that car was fast, and her car was red and my car has Herculiner on and it’s red, too. That run won’t last [for No. 1] tomorrow; the kids all know what’s out there so they’re going to shoot for that.”

PRO STOCK LOW QUALIFIER JASON LINE: “A little time off sometimes is good. For me, personally, Pomona 1 is better for me than Pomona 2. I think I get worse as the year goes on so it’s good for me to take a little time off. I’m hoping we can race three or four more and then take some more time off, but I’m afraid it doesn’t quite work that way. 

“We did get a chance to work on some things and we’re taking a little bit different approach to things and so far, so good. I don’t know (that testing) helped but it certainly didn’t hurt. Like I said, we’re trying to do things just a little bit differently and change is tough, especially when you’re old like us. But eventually you have to learn to do new things.”

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE LOW QUALIFIER MATT SMITH: “We knew we could pick up from the first pass, but the wind had really picked up and we’d gotten a bit of a head wind. Then I saw Eddie Krawiec run a 6.85 and that’s what made me think we could do it. Then I went out and ran a 6.84, so that was really good.

“We’re still working on our 60-foot times, especially since we got the weight added on us, but we’ve been testing a lot on that. We had been giving up five or six hundredths before and now we’re giving up two or three hundredths. I think we’ll be back up at the top again soon.”