All month long, our racing guru David Scoggan is blogging LIVE from Lucas Oil Raceway! Check back here regularly for a dose of Dave’s wit and whimsy.
A stellar evening of professional qualifying Friday night at Lucas Oil Raceway was highlighted by the final pass of the night, as Brittany Force and Steve Torrence ran the two quickest times of the event. Force paced the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals Top Fuel field with her 3.670/327.27 shot, while Torrence was right beside with his 3.688/323.81 run. Billy Torrence (3.715), Leah Pritchett (3.726), and Antron Brown (3.729) round out the top five as 14 cars are in the 3-second zone with four more sessions available.
Don Schumacher Racing and Connie Kalitta’s team took the four top spots in Funny Car with Jack Beckman scoring the provisional pole with his 3.875/328.46 run in the Infinite Hero Dodge from Schumacher’s camp and teammate Ron Capps landing in second with a 3.882/327.66 in DSR’s Napa Dodge. Defending USN champ and current World Champion J.R. Todd placed third at 3.883/331.20 with his DHL Toyota and Kalitta stablemate Shawn Langdon was right behind at 3.887/330.63. Robert Hight sits fifth at 3.896, but scored top speed at 331.94 MPH.
Jason Line leads Pro Stock with his 6.570/209.62 effort in his Summit Camaro, Andrew Hines (6.864/194.63) topped Pro Stock Motorcycle on his Harley FXDR, and Rickie Smith leads Pro Mod in his nitrous-assisted Camaro with a 5.746/251.95 clocking.
Qualifying is set to resume Saturday at 1:15, with actual track activity commencing at 8:00 AM as Stock Eliminator’s 128-car field begins Round One of racing.
