Sat, 16 Aug 2014, 19:43 PM Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Final Session

By Larry Sullivan

BRAINERD, Minn. - Notes from final, round 4 qualifying in Funny Car at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series, 33rd annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals listing lane, driver name, elapsed time/top speed this round, position in order following run, best prior elapsed time/speed, and position in order prior to run:

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Left Lane: Dale Creasy Jr. Runs 9.718/80.83, Now #18; Best prior run: 11.913/45.76, Was #18
Right Lane: Brian Stewart Runs 6.119/129.01, Now #17; Best prior run: 5.850/176.77, Was #17

4:57 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 82 degrees, relative humidity 66 percent, barometer 28.55 inches, adjusted altitude 4,031 feet.

Bob Bode is on the bump spot at 5.427.

These two are the two outside the field and after these runs they are still on the outside. Creasy's car launched, started to get up ion the tires, then aooeared to lose power. Stewart launched, shook, and he backpedaled, partially regaining traction, but he shut it downaround half track.

Both drivers had runs yesterday that were quicker than today's bump time, but those times were wiped out when the top twelve were determined at the end of the day.

The other sixteen will now make runs to determine their dancing partners for round one tomorrow.

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Left Lane: Jeff Arend Runs 4.243/278.00, Now #14; Best prior run: 4.419/231.56, Was #14
Right Lane: Bob Bode Runs 5.003/150.72, Now #16; Best prior run: 5.427/135.13, Was #16

Both drivers improved, both stayed right where they were in the order.

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Left Lane: Del Worsham Runs 4.111/307.44, Now #5; Best prior run: 4.193/304.53, Was #12
Right Lane: Chad Head Runs 4.215/301.33, Now #14; Best prior run: 4.597/217.14, Was #15

Worsham stepped way up on the ;ladder with A nice, clean run. Head also improved, but only moved up one spot and stayed in the bottom half of the field.

Del Worsham's incremental times: 60ft-0.913 sec., 330ft-2.345, 660ft-3.320/264.75 mph.
Chad Head's incremental times: 60ft-0.914 sec., 330ft-2.370, 660ft-3.400/252.80 mph.

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Left Lane: Tommy Johnson Jr. Runs 4.078/309.27, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.170/300.86, Was #12
Right Lane: Alexis DeJoria Runs 4.082/306.12, Now #2; Best prior run: 4.198/301.74, Was #13

Now it's sprinkling. Meanwhile, they are playing a slow-motion mayhem video on the big screen while we wait it out. It's not raining hard and the radar looks like it will pass through quickly.

5:20 p.m. - It's still sprinkling, hard enough that the cars sitting in the staging lanes have been sent back to the pits to wait it out.

6:18 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 81 degrees, relative humidity 67 percent, barometer 28.56 inches, adjusted altitude 3,962 feet, track temperature 96 degrees.

Sun's out and the track should be much much tighter after the washdown and cloud cover and cooldown.

Yup, they thundered down the track and into the top two spots on the ladder (for now).

Tommy Johnson Jr.'s incremental times: 60ft-0.901 sec., 330ft-2.319, 660ft-3.290/264.49 mph.
Alexis DeJoria's incremental times: 60ft-0.911 sec., 330ft-2.317, 660ft-3.288/264.65 mph.

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Left Lane: Ron Capps Runs 4.064/314.17, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.162/306.46, Was #13
Right Lane: Tim Wilkerson Runs 4.154/302.89, Now #13; Best prior run: 4.157/304.53, Was #12

This situation should make these final runs spectacular! Yes for Capps, no for Wilkerson. Infact, Capps leapfrogged over Wilkerson and the rest of the field and he's now #1. Wilkerson also improved, but only a couple thousandths, and he lost a spot because of Capps' big move.

Ron Capps' incremental times: 60ft-0.890 sec., 330ft-2.313, 660ft-3.285/266.90 mph.
Tim Wilkerson's incremental times: 60ft-0.915 sec., 330ft-2.344, 660ft-3.345/258.52 mph.

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Left Lane: Jack Beckman Runs 4.115/309.70, Now #9; Best prior run: 4.154/303.37, Was #12
Right Lane: Bob Tasca III Runs 4.157/303.09, Now #12; Best prior run: 4.151/305.70, Was #11

Two more strong runs, but Beckman did not improve enough to get out the bottom half of the field and Tasca failed to improve.

Jack Beckman's incremental times: 60ft-0.905 sec., 330ft-2.340, 660ft-3.324/262.23 mph.
Bob Tasca III's incremental times: 60ft-0.919 sec., 330ft-2.362, 660ft-3.355/261.07 mph.

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Left Lane: Matt Hagan Runs 4.068/311.99, Now #2; Best prior run: 4.138/308.21, Was #11
Right Lane: Courtney Force Runs 9.018/58.02, Now #11; Best prior run: 4.138/310.27, Was #10

Force launched, shook and slowed. Hagan made a stout run, putting DSR cars in the top three spots, coming up four thousandths short of Capps' time.

Matt Hagan's incremental times: 60ft-0.890 sec., 330ft-2.320, 660ft-3.286/267.22 mph.

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Left Lane: Robert Hight Runs 4.081/307.37, Now #5; Best prior run: 4.085/313.29, Was #5
Right Lane: John Force Runs 4.060/315.27, Now #1; Best prior run: 4.099/311.77, Was #7

Tony Pedregon is not in the lanes and has fallen to eighth, but he's not in danger of losing first-round lane choice.

Two more stout runs, Force going to #1, Hight staying #5.

Robert Hight's incremental times: 60ft-0.896 sec., 330ft-2.317, 660ft-3.291/264.96 mph.
John Force's incremental times: 60ft-0.910 sec., 330ft-2.328, 660ft-3.287/269.62 mph.

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Right Lane: Cruz Pedregon Runs 4.102/292.84, Now #7; Best prior run: 4.093/308.21, Was #7

Cruz Pegregon will close out qualifying on a solo pass since Tony chose to skip this session. In fact, he skipped both sessions today and that's a big savings for a team on a tight budget.

Cruz made a hard charge, but was running slightly behind the pace of the two Force cars just ahead of him and then had an early shutoff.

Cruz Pedregon's incremental times: 60ft-0.898 sec., 330ft-2.318, 660ft-3.295/263.00 mph.

That's it for today, the next pair of cars will be Top Fuel at 11 a.m. tomorrow.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink



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