After being preempted due to high winds, rain and even electrical problems with the timing systems on Friday at the Summitracing.com Nationals in Las Vegas, the Top Alcohol cars came to play Saturday afternoon.
 
Taking the dominate position into Sunday’s eliminations Top Alcohol
Dragster is Grand Junction, Colorado’s Jim Whitely and his Norm Grimes
tuned Y-NOT Racing Blown Alcohol Dragster. Whitely was the class of the
field in both qualifying sessions and round one competition. The
Colorado invader posted low elapsed time in every session, and made a
statement in round one, running an event best 5.320 second elapsed
time. His run was .060 seconds better than the second quickest car, 
driven by Sunland, California’s Chris Demke.

Defending NHRA Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin Jr., had a Bond, James
Bond, moment at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas on
Saturday.

Coughlin finished qualifying, put his Jegs entry into the 8th spot, and
was immediately whisked away James Bond-style to a waiting helicopter
for a quick flight to the Grand Canyon. He was scheduled to attend a
wedding for close friends Doug Daniel and Heather Rickard, Saturday
night on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Don’t kid yourself into thinking Friday’s single Funny
Car session at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals didn’t play a huge
role in shaping Saturday’s final field, because it did.

That’s how two-time NHRA Funny Car champion and No. 1 qualifier Tony
Pedregon sees it. He’s the man to beat on Sunday with a 4.100 elapsed
time during the final day of qualifications.

Mike Edwards can’t help that he’s struck the jackpot, lately.

On Saturday afternoon at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals, Edwards clinched his third No. 1 qualifying
effort of the young 2009 season, the ninth of his career and the first
at Las Vegas.

He’s not apologizing either. Edwards is just taking in the moment
because he knows Pro Stock fate can be a fickle and cruel master of
destiny.

NHRA Announcer Bob Frey reveled in the moment and Top Fuel rookie Shawn Langdon didn’t mind the gifted microphone man stealing a bit of his thunder.

“This is something you’ve never heard any other announcer in drag racing say before,” Frey crowed over the loudspeaker.

“Shawn Langdon your No. 1 qualifier in Top Fuel.”

That’s correct. The rookie driver for Morgan Lucas Racing vaulted to
the top of a one-day Top Fuel qualifying program to lead for the first
time in his nitro career with a 3.874 elapsed time at 311.84 miles per
hour.

Rookie Shawn Langdon raced to his first No. 1 qualifying position in Top Fuel Saturday at the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals.

Langdon, a two-time Super Comp national champion in the NHRA Lucas Oil
Drag Racing Series and the 1997 NHRA Jr. Dragster national champion,
covered the race distance at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with
a performance of 3.874 seconds at 311.41 mph in his Dixie Chopper/Lucas
Oil dragster.

Langdon will face Steve Chrisman in the first round of Sunday’s 11 a.m. eliminations.

Multi-time Pro Stock champion Greg Anderson will reluctantly tell you
the most seasoned drivers suffer brain fade from time to time.

Anderson had his fading moment during Saturday afternoon’s final
qualifying session at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas, and it was so bad that even the Summit-sponsored
driver had to laugh.

“If I was smart, I’d keep quiet,” Anderson reluctantly admitted.

QUALIFYING IN THE BOOKS AT NHRA SOUTH CENTRAL DIVISION’S LUCAS OIL EVENT AT TEXAS MOTORPLEX

Qualifying is complete at Texas Motorplex’s NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing
Series event.  Eliminations were slated to begin Sunday morning,
however, due to high winds in the forecast, NHRA and track officials
chose to begin eliminations today and run as many rounds as possible in
all categories. When qualifying was done Kemmelyn Buff-Pesz of The
Woodland, Texas, remained the No. 1 qualifier in Top Alcohol Dragster
and Steve Harker, Gainesville, Ga., kept the to spot in Top Alcohol
Funny Car. 

Buff-Pesz did not improve on Friday’s 5.325-second, 274.72 mph run but
it was enough to keep her in the top slot.  Harker failed to improve on
Friday’s qualifying as well but his 5.623-second, 250.13 mph effort
still eclipsed the competition.

It was ugly.  There’s just no other way to say it, and it was no one’s
fault.  It was just one of those

Arley Langlo didn’t disappoint in terms of his exploding spectacularly, but the trail of oil he left on the track ultimately helped end the day’s racing. And not a moment too soon, either!

disastrous days at the races when just
about nothing went the way it should have.

Let’s begin with just trying to get to Las Vegas on Friday. Incoming
flights were delayed due to the high winds, and those clinging to their
seatmates as their aircraft bounced around like ping pong balls
couldn’t help but notice, if they were brave enough to look out the
window, that much of the desert floor seemed to be heading east in a
massive dust storm.  Getting from the airport to fabulous Las Vegas
Motor Speedway was another nightmare, as I-15 appears as if it’s being
rebuilt one mile at a time – every mile!

It doesn’t rain in Las Vegas.  Come on, it just doesn’t – but it
did, showering the track with enough moisture to halt the proceedings
and set the schedule back not by minutes, but by hours.  When the first
of two scheduled pro sessions began, more than a few Pro Stock drivers
tried to blow the clutches right out of their cars on the starting
line, while others fought for control as their machines came whipping
out of the shelter provided by the massive grandstands.  For those
spectators on hand – and there weren’t many of them, take our word for
it – every run was a nail biter.

In the first rounds of qualifying at the NHRA South Central division
Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at Texas Motorplex, Kimmelyn
Buff-Pesz, The Woodlands, Texas, set the pace in Top Alcohol Dragster
and Gainesville, Ga., Top Alcohol Funny Car racer Steve Harker took the
top spot in his class.

Buff-Pasz’s impressive 5.325-second, 274.72 mph pass was just enough to
get around Malcolm Wahle of Caremore, Okla.  Wahle ran 5.347 seconds at
265.90 mph to put him in the No. 2 spot.

Harker outpaced the field with a 5.623-second, 250.13 mph lap. Kebin
Kinsley, Kennedale, Texas, and Lee Callaway are in the second and third
slots after running 5.718 seconds at 255.58 mph and 5.720 seconds at
251.11 mph, respectively.