Kurt Johnson set a new Pro Stock track record at the O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway to earn the No. 1 qualifying spot after Friday's action, along with Tony Schumacher and Mike Neff.
One race after reaching his first final round, Funny Car racer Neff is halfway to securing his first No. 1 qualifying berth while Schumacher maintained his first-session qualifying lead with a better-still run in the evening session. Calling the "Thunder Valley" surface "the best racetrack we've ever raced on here," Johnson broke the Pro Stock track record with a 6.687-second pass.
In a session filled with more bumping than is normally seen across the parking lot at Bristol Motor Speedway, first-session leaders Neff, whose previous best qualifying spot was a No.2 in Phoenix, and Jim Head saved the best for last by regaining the top two spots to steal the lead from Ashley Force, who had run 4.792 earlier in the session and is also looking for an initial No. 1 start in the class. Neff's John Medlen-tuned Old Spice Mustang roared to a 4.783 alongside Head's Solara, which raced to a 4.785, on the final runs of the session. Medlen's late son Eric still holds the track elapsed time record at 4.755, set in 2006.
"When I was a crew chief, these were always my favorite conditions to run in," said Neff, who won this race as crew chief for Gary Scelzi in their 2005 championship season. "You're just licking your chops and loading it up to see how fast you can get it to run.
"The [4.78 run] was a handful. They said it was smoking the tires on the launch and I was just ripping the heel back and forth to keep it straight. I knew if it made a full run it should run good, so we're really happy about that. John Medlen has done a great job all year and especially in the last two races."
Eight of the first session's 12 quickest racers got bumped out before they could run and only three, including Force, made it back in. Four-time 2008 polesitter Tim Wilkerson was another, as he raced to a 4.802 to qualifying fourth.
Del Worsham holds the 12th spot with his second-session 4.842 and will try to fend off a tough group of nine racers including Phoenix winner Jack Beckman and his teammate and former Bristol winner Gary Scelzi, who are all on the outside looking in going into Saturday.
Veteran Gary Densham walked away uninjured from a nasty fire after his Racebricks Impala lit up at 700 feet on his evening pass. As Densham surveyed the damage, John Force hobbled across the return road and somehow scrambled over the tall guardwall to check on his old pal.
Schumacher, who earlier unveiled a special "Salute the Troops" paint scheme on his world championship U.S. Army digger, temporarily relinquished his early 4.532 pole position to Dave Grubnic's second-session 4.528, regained it on the final pass down the track Friday night with a strong 4.502.
"We figured that the 4.52 would probably be bettered so there was no reason to go out and run another .53," said Schumacher, who still holds the track record at 4.477, set in 2004. "Plain and simple, we were going for that No. 1 spot and [crew chief] Alan Johnson knows how to run those numbers.
"We always run good in conditions like this, as a lot of people, do, but we can also run good in a wide variety of conditions, as well as on raceday. We've got a great crew chief and a great team."
Schumacher's heroics spoiled what was a pretty good night for Connie Kalitta, whose cars hold three of the next four spots on the qualifying sheet. Grubnic remained No. 2, a hundredths ahead of teammate Doug Kalitta - the winningest driver in event history with three triumphs - as well as class rookie Antron Brown and fellow Kalitta teammate Hillary Will.
Larry Dixon holds down the important No. 12 spot with a 4.648 in Don Prudhomme U.S. Smokeless rail.
K.J. continued to show off the superior horsepower of his ACDelco Cobalt, leading the first session with a 6.714 - almost two-hundredths quicker than his father, Warren -- but even after Greg Anderson's Summit GXP bettered that number in the evening session with a track record 6.699, Johnson had the answer in the following pair with a better-still 6.687.
"It wasn't a perfect run for me, actually," said Johnson. "Greg's got a good team and he ran that [6.699] out there, and we really didn't know what to expect. We looked at the corrected altitude and it looked like it was about a hundredth to fourteen-thousandths better, like a .70, but we made some changes to the ACDelco Cobalt and we kind of threw everything at it and it hooked up. We spun a little bit on the first run and going .68 with a 7 we can't complain about that."
W.J. slid to third place despite an improved 6.716 but his 206.57-mph trap speed in his GM Performance Parts GXP bettered the 206.48-mph track recorded he established in the day's first session. V. Gaines is slotted fourth with a 6.728. Local favorite Allen Johnson, who lives less than an hour from the track in Greeneville, Tenn. and was fourth after the first session, slipped to the 11th spot.
Cagnazzi Racing teammates Jeg Coughlin and Dave Connolly had a frustrating Friday. Coughlin's yellow Jegs Cobalt could muster just a 10th-best 6.76 in the opening session then broke just off the line in the second. Connolly, whose Charter Cobalt shook hard on his opening pass and rolled to a 25-second pass, got loose and crossed the centerline on his second try. Neither is among the top 12, which sports a cutoff of 6.747, a number that would have been fifth quickest after the opening session, and the teammates are among 16 drivers who will hope to better bubblesitter Tom Hammonds' mark.
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| Psn Driver Vehicle ET Speed 1. Mike Neff Old Spice Mustang 4.783 321.04 2. Jim Head Head Racing Solara 4.785 323.89 3. Ashley Force Castrol GTX Mustang 4.792 324.98 4. Tim Wilkerson Levi, Ray & Shoup Impala 4.802 318.24 5. Robert Hight AAA of So. Cal Mustang 4.803 311.63 6. Tony Pedregon Q Power Impala 4.821 319.67 7. John Force Castrol GTX Mustang 4.821 308.78 8. Bob Tasca III Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang 4.823 318.02 9. Ron Capps NAPA Auto Parts Charger 4.831 317.79 10. Cruz Pedregon Advance Auto Parts Impala 4.831 313.29 11. Melanie Troxel ProCare RX Charger 4.839 318.62 12. Del Worsham Checker Schuck's Kragen Impala 4.842 322.65 --------- Not Qualified --------- 13. Mike Ashley ProCare RX Charger RT 4.845 304.12 14. Bob Gilbertson Tradicion Azul Tequila Stratus 4.847 318.77 15. Jerry Toliver Rockstar Energy Drinks Charger 4.848 308.57 16. Tony Bartone Canidae Pet Food Monte Carlo 4.896 285.47 17. Jack Beckman Valvoline/MTS Charger 4.933 318.84 18. Scott Kalitta DHL Solara 4.956 308.00 19. Gary Scelzi Mopar Oakley Charger 5.001 247.16 20. Tommy Johnson Jr. Monster Energy Drink Charger 5.068 256.70 21. Gary Densham RaceBricks Impala 5.263 211.93 <
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