Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the
29th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta
Dragway, the sixth of 24 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing
Series -

Final round-by-round results from the 29th annual Summit Racing
Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, the sixth of 24
events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series:

Johnny Gray said he crashed three or four times but just didn’t hit anything.

That’s how the Pro Stock driver described his first round loss to 
Warren Johnson in NHRA Summit Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.

Gray lost the first round match against Johnson following a brief rain delay.

The situation Gray faced was this. He and Johnson had burned out when
they were shut-off due to light sprinkles of rain. A few minutes later,
they were signaled to fire their cars and resume the race.

The NHRA did not run the track dryer on the racing surface after the
delay. Both cars were sent down the track and just as the cars reached
the last 100 feet of the quarter-mile, Gray nearly lost control of his
Dodge Stratus. Johnson’s car wiggled a bit at the finish line but not
as badly as Gray’s.

Del Worsham was the only unqualified car after the third session of
Funny Car qualifying at the NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga. He eventually made the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals on the bubble.

The Alan Johnson Racing/Al Anabi team driver entered the season with
lofty expectations because of the personnel making up the team. If he’s
been with another start-up operation, the outlook wouldn’t have been as
great.

To whom much is given, much is expected.

When Spencer Massey was named Don Prudhomme’s Top Fuel driver last November the consensus among many was the NHRA Top Fuel rookie would shine. After all, he did win an IHRA Top Fuel title in his rookie season.

The only problem is that the U.S. Smokeless dragster didn’t get the memo. Various mechanical issues kept the team at bay.

The final day of qualifications during the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals didn’t present those challenges.

Greg Anderson entered the Atlanta Dragway media center apologetic to the reporters with whom he’d spoken so confidently the night before during provisional qualifying at the NHRA Summit Southern Nationals.

“I misspoke yesterday,” Anderson said.

“I really believed that today’s conditions could match what we had
yesterday and I was dead wrong,” Anderson continued. “What we did
yesterday was obviously great but it wasn’t going to be enough to hold
onto the top spot.”

Anderson turned in a track record 6.568 on Friday evening that many
believed would hold and it did until the next session. The three-time
champion returned the next day and bettered the mark with a 6.557
elapsed time, 210.93 mph.

The excitement, speed, and California weather continued throughout
Saturday at Auto Club Dragway at Auto Club Speedway with nearly 400
racers battling it out at the JEGS NHRA Pacific SPORTSnationals
presented by K&N.  The event showcases NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing
Series competitors at the second of three SPORTSnationals events slated
for this year.

Qualifying and time trials concluded today, although there was no
change to the top qualifiers from Friday’s results. John Edwards of
Claremont, Calif., kept his ’99 Neon at the top qualifying spot in the
Comp Eliminator field.   Hot on his heels in the No. 2 spot is former
NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Comp National Champion Dean Carter of
Glendale, Ariz., who also took the Comp hardware here in 2007. Brian
McClanahan from nearby Alta Loma, Calif., kept his impressive weekend
intact by posting the No.1 qualifying position in Super Stock and will
be entering Sunday’s eliminations in the No.2 spot in Stock. Brian
Tait, of Fraizer Park, Calif., held on to the lead pole in Stock

There are times when Bob Vandergriff Jr. surprises himself. Friday at the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals presented one of those moments.

Vandergriff is at Atlanta Dragway making the first of two scheduled
appearances this season. The first run out of the box produced a 3.895
elapsed time, good enough for fourth on the provisional qualifying
grid. He later improved to a 3.878 elapsed time at 314.39 miles per
hour.

“Right out of the box it was more than we hoped for,” Vandergriff
admitted. “We were joking saying we need to run a 3.90 right out of the
box.” 

Top Fuel teammates Morgan Lucas and Shawn Langdon will both enter race
day at the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals in the top
half of the field for the fourth time in six races. This weekend’s performance marked the fifth consecutive for Langdon.

"The car has made significant improvements this weekend," said Lucas,
who was the provisional leader Friday night before settling for third
place overall.

"I'm really happy with everything we're doing right now. The car's not
set up to be too aggressive. It's just working the way we need it to
work and going down the track every time. It's really fun to drive this
thing.

GEICO Powersports and their racers Karen Stoffer and Morgan Lucas provided Nick Manning, a 17-year old from Chesapeake, VA, with an unforgettable NHRA experience at Atlanta Dragway.

Manning suffered a severe traumatic brain injury in a motocross racing accident on August 26, 2006.

Since the accident, Manning and his family met the folks from GEICO and
participated in last year's Bikes for Tykes event in Virginia
Beach.‬‪ ‬‪Manning, along with his sister Alexis, age 9, mother Marcie
Ackerman and grandmother Donna Duncan, have always been fans of NHRA
drag racing.  In fact, Duncan raced NHRA Alcohol Funny Cars in the
nineties.‬‪ ‬‪