NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

TOP FUEL Q2/MISSION CHALLENGE ROUND 1

It's still very warm, 88 degrees with a 127-degree track, but that won't stop Doug Kalitta. The reigning world champ, a five-time Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge winner already this season, advanced to yet another final round with a tidy 3.825 to 41.8 decision over reigning U.S.Nationals champ Justin Ashley. It was a big improvement over Kalitta’s Friday night 5.03.

Leah Pruett will be Kalitta’s opponent in the final round after a tire-smoking duel with Maddi Gordon, Pruett emerging with the win on a 4.08 to 4.24 count in a race that wasn’t that close thanks to Pruett’s excellent .021 reaction time.

Not a lot of Top Fuelers made the full pull, with Antron Brown’s 3.797 being the session leader, Kalitta second and Jasmine Salinas third with a 3.923 as the only three-second runners that session. Salinas is the only driver to earn bonus points in the first two sessions.

Friday qualifying leaders Shawn Langdon and Tony Stewart were among those not being able to repeat their performances with respective passes of 5.10 and 6.88.

T.J. Zizzo sits on the bump spot with a 3.934, with six drivers behind him hoping to make the field.

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FUNNY CAR Q2/MISSION CHALLENGE ROUND 1

In the opening round of the Mission Challenge, J.R. Todd and Jordan Vandergriff both puffed the tires downtrack but while Vandergriff stepped off the gas, Todd, a two-time Windy winner, expertly pedaled his way to a 5.43 to 5.42 winner

Todd will take on Austin Prock, who took down Matt Hagan on a 4.22 to 4.95, with Prock's win giving him the overall Mission Challenge season title

Those may have been the highlights of a hot and tricky session for the fuel coupes as low e.t. of the session was Ron Capps at 4.003, which is not getting us any closer to that elusive all-three-second field we’ve been dreaming on.

Chad Green looked relatively racy with a 4.050 and Paul Lee and Dylan Winefsky both clocking 4.119 passes. Lee with the better speed to earn the two bonus points and the Nitro Moose getting one.

Beckman remained in the No. 1 spot with his Friday night 3.937 but didn’t make it down the track in this session.

The bump is 4.205 with seven drivers behind her and car owner Del Worsham with three sessions remaining.

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PRO STOCK Q2/MISSION CHALLENGE ROUND 1

In an exciting first round of the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, Cody Anderson pulled off the win in one of the closest races of the event so far by six-ten thousandths of a second. Cody and his opponent, fellow young gun in the class, Chris Vang, left with identical reaction times, a .060, and then recorded identical E.T.’s at 6.668, but Cody’s speed was faster at 205.22, while Vang’s was 204.48.

“That’s real close,” Cody confessed at the top end. “I was trying my best not to look over there [at Chris Vang]. We’re having fun, and we have a hot rod. We’ll see if we can get another win light here.”

In the following pair, Greg Stanfield picked up the win on a holeshot against Greg Anderson, Cody’s father, so the first father-son race between the Andersons will have to wait.

G. Anderson, who was low of the round and moved to the provisional No. 1 position with a 6.648, and collected the points he needed to lock up the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge year-end championship in this round.

Dallas Glenn, who is 85 points behind G. Anderson, moved up on the qualifying ladder from sixth to fourth and collected an extra point to edge himself closer to the regular season championship and a chance to defend his title. 

The bump is currently 6.740, and still not qualified are Alan Prusiensky, David Vaseloff and Troy Coughlin Jr.