Both have lane choice.Ĭapps and Hight could meet in the semifinals where a victory by Capps and then a win in the final round would make Capps a back-to-back champion, the first in the class in 20 years. Unlike the Top Fuel battle, the Funny Car championship race will move into at least the second round as Ron Capps beat Jeff Arend and points leader Robert Hight took down Chad Green.Ĭapps will take on Wilkersonin round two while Hight will face off against Bob Tasca III. The Cruzer made another strong run in round one, a 3.862 to defeat Jason Rupert. Only two other drivers - Bob Tasca III and Tim Wilkerson - were in the threes on all four qualifying runs. It’s been quite an event for Cruz Pedregon, who in qualifying ran better than his incoming previous career best of 3.861 with four straight 3.84s: 3.840, 3.840, 3.849, 3.847, and 3.841. The title battle is now down to Robert Hight and Ron Capps. The wild, upset-filled first round continued in Funny Car where Matt Hagan smoked the tires a few hundred feet out against Steven Densham, and then got sideways, surrendering the round and his hopes of another championship. Top Fuel second-round pairings (lane choice first): Brittany Force vs. The Top Fuel championship battle, which was expected to last week into the day, ended with round one as Justin Ashey smoked the tires early and fell to Antron Brown, locking Brittany Force into her second world championship. It was the first career round win in Top Fuel for August, who drove Top Alcohol Funny Car from 1995-2010 before coming to Top Fuel and scored a national event win in the class in Las Vegas in 2006 and licensing in Top Fuel in 2009.Īugust, who was the 1993 NHRA Division 7 champion in Super Eliminator (precursor to Top Dragster), will take on Antron Brown in round two, The upsets continued to Top Fuel as Ron August took down outgoing world champ Steve Torrence with a 3.903. Salinas' loss was emotional for both he and the driver who beat him, Krista Baldwin, who is driving a car with a throwback paint scheme to the car that her late father, Bobby, used to run in the 1990s and with her father's former crew chief, Scott Graham, tuning, One pair after Force's solid run, Mike Salinas, who also stayed in the right lane, smoked the tires and was eliminated from the championship battle, leaving just Justin Ashley and Force. For Torrence’s it’s the end of a dominant monopoly of the class that spanned the last four seasons. She still has a chance to put the Tony Stewart Racing/Dodge Power Brokers team into the Top 10 and could face Millican in the semifinals.Īfter seeing both Alex Laughlin and Doug Kalitta smoke the tires in front of them in the right lane, crew chief David Grubnic didn’t flinch and kept Brittany Force in the late lane, and was rewarded with a 3.70 victory over Steve Chrisman.įorce’s victory eliminated both Antron Brown and Steve Torrence from the championship hunt. Laughlin’s Havoline dragster smoked the tires early, Pruett further downtrack, and both exploded blowers, Pruett in spectacular fashion, but Pruett got the win light and passed Schumacher for 11th place. Leah Pruett, who had one of her best qualifying efforts of the season, escaped to round two after a wild battle with Alex Laughlin. ![]() Millican came into the round in 10th with a 41-point lead, then beat tire-smoking Schumacher to pretty much solidify his finish in the Top 10.įor Schumacher, who will finish12th, it’s the first time that the eight-time world champ has finished outside the Top 10 after a full campaign since 1999, a span of 21 seasons (discounting 2021, when he did not compete). The first-round battle between Clay Millican and Tony Schumacher may have seemed inconsequential in light of the fie-way championship battle of which neither are a part, but the duo were battling for other prestige, for the final spot in the Top10 in points.
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