NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

The matchups are set for Sunday’s PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout following a spirited round of televised callouts in the Top Eliminator Club at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park.

Drivers have been earning points during qualifying for the last year to set the eight contestants for the $120,000 bonus event, which will be run concurrently with qualifying on Sunday.

To no one’s great surprise, top seed Austin Prock, the reigning world champ, picked Cruz Pedregon as his opponent, based largely on the two-time world champ’s Friday night blower explosion but also on the “Tool Wars” front, pitting his Cornwell Tools car against Pedregon’s Snap-on machine.

“We're looking for a long weekend with a chance to quadruple up with the regular season championship , the mission Challenge today and the Callout Sunday, and the race Monday. So a lot of money on the line, and we're hunting for it, but I think it's only fitting to have some ‘Tool Wars’ to start it off.”

Pedregon clearly was not surprised by Prock’s decision.

“We're the wounded animal right now, so I figured we'd probably be a duck,” he said. “But, you know, we’ve been here before. We hold our end of the ‘Tool Wars,’ hold up our end of the seal for Snap-On, who just celebrated their 105th anniversary in business.”

Prock’s teammate, Jack Beckman, then went a similar way, going for a Chevy vs. Ford matchup by calling out last year’s Callout runner-up, Bob Tasca III, pitting Beckman's John Force-tribute Camaro against Tasca's "Dark Horse" Mustang.

2022 Callout winner Ron Capps went sentimental, calling out Daniel Wilkerson, hoping to provide a little payback on Wilkerson’s crew-chiefing father, Tim, who beat Capps in the final round to win the 2021 U.S. Nationals.

“We had lane choice,” recalled Capps. “I was almost counting my first U.S. national home, and he went unbelievably quick and just knocked the wind out of our sail. So I love the Wilkinson family. He is a NAPA Auto Care Center, so I represent him, but we're going to go with Daniel.”

“I don’t know how I got dragged into the middle of this,” quipped D-Wilk. “Bit I had a feeling this was going to happen.”

With the first three callouts done, that left No. 4 Matt Hagan, a two-time callout runner-up, to face J.R. Todd, someone that no one wanted to pick despite his seventh-placed ranking after Todd’s DHL team made a strong showing last race in Brainerd. The race will pit Hagan against his former crew chief, Dickie Venables, who is now tuning for Todd.

“We're growing a lot of confidence going into this deal, but obviously J.R. is a great leaver, a great driver, and Dickie Venables, my old crew chief, I have so much respect for that guy,” said Hagan. “So that's going to be a tough matchup. I mean, we have to throw down and cut no slack. Nobody up here is cutting any slack. I's going it's going to be one of those deals where it's going to be a great show for the fans.”

“I was feeling like the kid who gets picked last in grade school,” joked Todd, while acknowledging that his team’s recent prowess scared off the top three. “I guess that's a compliment, but anybody that you have to race is tough, and especially Matt; those guys, they got their act together.”

The first round of the PlayNHRA Funny Car All-Star Callout taking place at 12:45 p.m. ET on Sunday. The driver who makes the quickest winning run in the opening round gets to select their semifinal opponent, with that round taking place at 2:15 p.m. The final round is at 4 p.m. and a special broadcast of the Callout takes place at 5 p.m. ET on FS1 on Sunday.