Fri, 28 Jul 2006, 11:33 PM Funny Car Qualifying Notes, Session #2

By Darryl Jackman

SONOMA, Calif. - Notes from round 2 qualifying in Funny Car at the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series, 19th annual FRAM-Autolite 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: Cruz Pedregon Runs 4.952/290.19, Now #2; Best prior run: 7.740/109.03, Was #14

7:46 p.m. Weather conditions: air temperature 70 degrees, relative humidity 61 percent, barometer 30.05 inches, adjusted altitude 860 feet, track temperature 75 degrees.

We're down to the final Friday sessions of nitro qualifying. We open with the floppers and the conditions look pretty good. Cruz opens with a nice pass that takes him all the way to #2 behind Densham. The car appeared to nose over pretty hard and as you see the speed was way down.

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Left Lane: Phil Burkart Runs 4.833/313.51, Now #1; Best prior run: 7.663/118.30, Was #14
Right Lane: Gary Scelzi Runs 4.865/317.64, Now #2; Best prior run: 10.317/64.89, Was #17

Scelzi comes into Round 2 as the only unqualified car of the weekend. That didn't last long. Burkart takes over the top spot from Densham and Scelzi slides right in behind him in second place.

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Left Lane: Tommy Johnson Jr. Runs 4.857/314.31, Now #2; Best prior run: 7.122/131.77, Was #15
Right Lane: John Force No Time, Now #17; Best prior run: 9.855/70.51, Was #17

Now that was strange. Force breaks and coasts to a stop at the 330 cone. There was just kind of a thump and the engine just quit. He pulled over the the wall and stopped. Johnson was away first and saw none of John's problems. He goes all the way to #2 behind Burkart.

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Left Lane: Mike Ashley Runs 4.851/314.09, Now #2; Best prior run: 6.849/154.33, Was #15
Right Lane: Tony Bartone Runs 4.922/304.39, Now #6; Best prior run: 9.446/87.29, Was #16

Nice side by side qualifiers. Ashley goes from #15 to #2. Bartone was right with Ashley but made a bigger sacrifice to the aluminum gods.

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Left Lane: Scott Kalitta Runs 4.806/319.14, Now #1; No Prior Run
Right Lane: Whit Bazemore Runs 4.966/265.59, Now #9; No Prior Run

Now here's one for the books. Force isn't in after two and Scott Kalitta goes to the top of the show. The world is upside down. Bazemore moves up as well.

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Left Lane: Eric Medlen Runs 4.804/319.37, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.605/183.62, Was #16
Right Lane: Tony Pedregon Runs 4.816/319.75, Now #3; Best prior run: 5.404/205.47, Was #15

The bottom two cars in the field become the #1 and #3 cars in the show. Medlen goes from the bubble to the pole and Pedregon goes from #15 to #3. The teams are making some big moves this session.

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Left Lane: Robert Hight Runs 4.738/325.30, Now #1; Best prior run: 5.111/300.53, Was #14
Right Lane: Del Worsham Runs 4.803/323.89, Now #2; Best prior run: 5.273/265.53, Was #16

Hight runs a track record ET and we have a new leader in the clubhouse. He takes the record away from Tony Pedregon who ran 4.759 in July of 2005. He just misses Del Worsham's speed record of 325.69. Worsham cards a nice pass to the #2 position.

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Left Lane: Ron Capps Runs 4.851/314.17, Now #7; Best prior run: 4.973/298.14, Was #14
Right Lane: Tim Wilkerson Runs 4.987/314.39, Now #16; Best prior run: 5.183/274.61, Was #16

Capps picks up over a tenth and gets into the top half. Wilkerson was side by side with the Brut Charger until I saw a flash that looked like a headgasket from his racer.

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Left Lane: Gary Densham Runs 4.825/319.14, Now #6; Best prior run: 4.920/310.77, Was #11
Right Lane: Bob Gilbertson Runs 7.674/122.67, Now #15; Best prior run: 4.975/301.33, Was #15

Densham came into this session as #1 and has been pushed all the way back to #11. Gilbertson was #2 and is back to #15. Densham gets back a few spots but #1 is just out of reach for the moment. Gilbertson fired and then fell silent coasting on out to close the session. By the end of the session the track temperature is down to 75 degrees.

Timing data courtesy of CompuLink