Sat, 26 Sep 2026, 12:42 PM Top Fuel Qualifying Notes, Session #3

By Rick Green

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. - Notes from round 3 qualifying in Top Fuel at the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, Inaugural NHRA Nationals at The Rock 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: Rit Pustari No Time, Now #16; Best prior run: 8.568/73.46, Was #16
Right Lane: Clay Millican Runs 10.153/83.67, Now #14; Best prior run: 4.377/189.39, Was #14

Weather conditions: air temperature 72 degrees, relative humidity 44 percent, barometer 29.98 inches, adjusted altitude 1,667 feet, track temperature 104 degrees.

Pustari with problems on the burnout...he staged the car, but when the lights went green the car didn't move.

Millican is up in smoke right at the hit and clicked it off.

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Left Lane: Josh Hart Runs 3.744/334.32, Now #4; Best prior run: 3.833/318.92, Was #10
Right Lane: Dan Mercier Runs 3.772/328.71, Now #8; Best prior run: 6.048/101.90, Was #15

Hart with a good pass early and was skating around on the top end, but stays with it. He goes to the number four spot.

Mercier with a good pass early, it appeared to have some hot pipes on the top end. He still moves into the top half of the show.

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Left Lane: Maddi Gordon Runs 3.764/335.32, Now #8; Best prior run: 3.771/335.07, Was #7
Right Lane: Shawn Reed Runs 3.747/329.91, Now #5; Best prior run: 3.796/329.91, Was #11

Gordon is straight down the groove with her quickest pass of the weekend. She gets bumped back one spot by Reed.

Reed was dancing around on the top end , but he stayed with it to go to the number five spot.

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Left Lane: Antron Brown Runs 3.771/329.19, Now #9; Best prior run: 4.199/211.07, Was #14
Right Lane: Will Smith Runs 3.883/262.70, Now #12; Best prior run: 3.786/330.40, Was #11

Brown is straight down the groove with his quickest pass to go to the number nine spot.

Smith with a good pass early, but clicked it off early.

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Right Lane: Shawn Langdon Runs 3.732/334.08, Now #3; Best prior run: 3.775/313.37, Was #11

Langdon launched hard and kept it hooked up to go to the number three spot with his quickest pass of the weekend.

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Left Lane: Tony Schumacher Runs 6.010/110.92, Now #13; Best prior run: 3.847/324.91, Was #13
Right Lane: Billy Torrence Runs 3.745/333.83, Now #6; Best prior run: 3.754/333.58, Was #8

Schumacher started to lose traction and clicked it off.

Torrence kept it hooked up and hitting on all eight to move up the ladder two spots.

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Left Lane: Justin Ashley Runs 3.771/332.10, Now #8; Best prior run: 3.751/332.35, Was #8
Right Lane: Leah Pruett Runs 4.538/169.81, Now #4; Best prior run: 3.734/323.74, Was #4

Ashley is straight down the groove with another good pass, but will not improve.

Pruett drives into tire smoke around 330 feet and clicked it off.

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Left Lane: Doug Kalitta Runs 3.774/315.57, Now #1; Best prior run: 3.682/338.09, Was #1
Right Lane: Tony Stewart Runs 3.704/336.83, Now #2; Best prior run: 3.720/336.32, Was #2

Kalitta with a good looking pass early, but then was dropping cylinders just past half track and he clicked it off.

Stewart launched hard and kept it hooked up and hitting on all eight to make the quickest pass of the session.