After failing to take advantage of superb conditions during qualifying on Friday, the current NHRA Pro Stock point

Roger Richards

leader, Hector Arana, wasn’t about to let the sun set Saturday without taking his shot at the class elapsed time record, and the 20 points that accompanies it.

Arana took his cut and laid down the quickest run in the history of the class with a 6.851 on his first pass of the day. The No. 1 qualifying effort held through the final session on Saturday for his sixth No. 1 of 2009 and seventh of his career.

“We really wanted to set the record,” said Arana, lamenting his inability to produce the one-percent back-up in the final qualifying session. “My gut instinct was to drop the two-step even more than we did. We had to make sure we could leave the starting line to set the ET record. Tomorrow we have another opportunity but we have to focus on winning races.”

Larry Dixon admittedly hasn’t been much of a point counter; that is, until this season's Countdown to 1 started. In qualifying at the NHRA Midsouth Nationals, Dixon led all four sessions and picked up an extra 12 points to show for his dominance.

“We’ll take them,” said Dixon, who meets Memphis hometown racer Clay Millican in the first round. “We need them. You have to scrap for every point you get.”

Because of his dominance in the first two days of the event, Dixon knocked off 11 of the 27 point edge Tony Schumacher held over him heading into the event. Schumacher gained one point from having the third quickest time in Friday’s evening session.

Robert Hight was a little more nervous than usual for a person who had qualified No. 1 for the third consecutive race.

Roger Richards

And the source of his anxiety is having to race the slowest of the 16 qualifiers in Sunday’s eliminations at the NHRA Midsouth Nationals in Memphis, Tenn. Hight meets the Justin Schriefer in the first round of eliminations. Schriefer is driving a Funny Car owned by Dale Creasy.

“There won’t be any easy rounds out there,” Hight said, as he mentioned the number of Countdown participants meeting in the first round. “Tomorrow provides great conditions for Jimmy Prock and that can be both good and bad.

Many Pro Stock drivers agree that the landscape of NHRA Pro Stock will be different in 2010, how much it differs from this season remains to be seen.

At least four of the teams qualified at this weekend’s NHRA Midsouth Nationals are uncertain about their future in 2010. Mike Edwards is one of them.

First-round pairings for professional eliminations Sunday for the 22nd annual O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals presented by Pennzoil at Memphis Motorsports Park, the 21st of 24 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.  Pairings based on results in qualifying, which ended Saturday. DNQs listed below pairings.

Day two is in the books at the season’s final Northeast divisional race hosted at Atco Raceway. The NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event is presented by P.C. Richard & Son and Franklin Trailers, where drivers are battling it out for last minute points leading to divisional and national championships. Due to rain, the first event at Atco in June was postponed until this weekend with a majority of the winners being crowned Saturday. Top Alcohol classes from June’s event will be contested tomorrow among the scheduled category eliminations.

Grabbing the Comp Eliminator title was current divisional points leader Frank Aragona Jr. of Freehold, N.J.  This marks his second win of the season and extends the lead over Vinny Barone in the No.2 spot.  Dan Fletcher out of Churchville, N.Y., last years National Champion in Comp, was able to drive his ’69 Camaro into the Stock Eliminator winner’s circle. The Pacific division competitor is awarded his first Stock divisional Wally of the year.

The downside to have team cars qualified for the NHRA Countdown to 1 playoffs is the potential for them to meet in

Roger Richards

the first round of eliminations. Two teams will have a pair of drivers face off in the first round of eliminations at the NHRA Midsouth Nationals.

Top Fuel teammates Morgan Lucas and Shawn Langdon will square off for the first time ever while Bob Tasca III meets Tim Wilkerson in Funny Car.

"Shawn and me have been friends for a long time, all the way back to our school days, and we used to dream about driving Top Fuel dragsters. Now we're living our dreams together," said Lucas. "I've already made an executive decision -- we're going to go up there and race heads-up, may the best man win. We owe that to the fans and we owe it to our sponsors.

Tim Wilkerson’s son Daniel is racing for the second time this season. Earlier in the season, the second-generation racer qualified  in Topeka where he met up with his father's teammate, Bob Tasca III, in the first round.

The team admitted that Daniel let Tasca leave first and take the win light in order to, “stay out of potential trouble, out of the way of the championship hunt, and out of any drama.”

That was the thought-process nearly five months ago before anyone gave a second thought to the Countdown to 1. That was also four months before a controversial semi-final race where it was alleged that John Force manipulated the outcome of the match to allow teammate Robert Hight to clinch the final berth in the playoffs.

Top Fuel driver Larry Dixon took advantage of NHRA’s new qualifying bonus point system and earned the maximum 12 points for the second consecutive race during two days of qualifying at the O’Reilly NHRA Mid-South Nationals presented by Pennzoil.

Robert Hight, Mike Edwards and Hector Arana also claimed No. 1 qualifying positions in their categories leading into Sunday’s 11 a.m. eliminations at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event, which will be televised on ESPN2 HD and ESPN2 (7-10 p.m. ET).The race is the third of six events in the Countdown to 1, NHRA’s championship playoffs.

Great weather and eager competition allowed previous track records to fall in the two days of qualifying at Memphis Motorsports Park. Dixon, Antron Brown, Hight, Edwards and Greg Anderson all set new track records at Memphis Motorsports Park during qualifying.

In Top Fuel, Al-Anabi Racing’s Dixon earned his seventh No. 1 of the season, 38th of his career and third consecutive in the playoffs, with his 3.810 at 318.99 mph performance. Per the new rule, the top three qualifiers in each pro category earn 3, 2, and 1 points respectively during each qualifying session. Dixon led all four sessions of qualifying earning him the maximum of 12 points.

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