EVENT RESULTS EVENT NOTEBOOK POINTS AFTER EVENT ROUND-BY-ROUND RESULTS SPORTSMAN RESULTS

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SUNDAY NOTEBOOK

KALITTA GRABS SOME OF TOP FUEL SPOTLIGHT WITH BROWN - Top Fuel’s Doug Kalitta got the “little Wally” Sunday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after Antron Brown earned the “big Wally” at the Toyota NHRA Nationals.

After squeezing into the final round with a five ten-thousandth-of-a-second margin of victory over the newly crowned two-time champion Brown in their semifinal, Kalitta was able to hold off three-time champion Larry Dixon in the final round.

Kalitta used – and used up – his new Wrench for the Cure Mac Tools Dragster that crew chief Jim Oberhofer had lugged out of the hauler only Saturday morning. With a fire raging on his rolling 207.59-mph car after a blower explosion near the end of the 1,000-foot course knocked the injector completely askew, Kalitta won in 4.239 seconds.

Dixon, who had his own traction troubles earlier in the C&J Energy Services Dragster and rolled to an 8.110-second, 73.95-mph end of his weekend. The happy news for Dixon, who had hoped to give Bob Vandergriff Racing its first triumph of the year, was that he improved from fifth place to third in the standings. That will mean a little more money in the BVR coffers if he can hold on that spot in the final order after the AAA Finals at Pomona, Calif., in two weeks.

Kalitta’s 38th career victory, third this season in four finals, and second at Las Vegas lifted him from 10th place to sixth.

In the winners circle, he joined Robert Hight (Funny Car), Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle), and Erica Enders, who clinched her second consecutive Pro Stock championship.

“It was a good day for us. It was quite a day,” Kalitta said. “At the start of the day, we were hoping we could pull off a win. Once we got past Antron, I was feeling real good for the final.

“It was kind of a surprise to have that thing smoke the tires out there. I thought for sure Larry would go blowing by me. It was a lucky win for us, really, but we’ll take it. It’s Vegas and anything can happen,” he said. “It’s been awhile since we’ve won here.”

For Kalitta, the weekend represented more than a victory for his frustrated team, who hadn’t gotten to work beyond the second round since the July race at Norwalk, Ohio. He regarded it as a victory for the NHRA in general.

“It’s just a testament to NHRA and everything that’s going on with it: a lot of excitement, seeing this many fans here. The sport is alive, I think, for sure,” Kalitta said. “It showed it with the amount of people here. I’m real excited about the FOX TV thing for next year, as well. I think there’s a lot of exciting things going on in the sport, and I’m just happy to be part of it.”

What wasn’t so much fun for him was what happened after he added Norwalk to his winning venues this year. (He won at Houston in the spring.) That Norwalk race produced his previous victory, but since then he had compiled only five round-wins. Oberhofer and assistant crew chief Troy Fasching searched and searched for what might be the problem. They tested the day after the Dallas race and thought they had fixed the problem. However, the haunted car acted up again on this Halloween weekend, and a fed-up Oberhofer put it in the hauler and pulled out on that had had better luck, when Kalitta went on a class-leading tear last year.

It worked, giving the team more confidence for Saturday qualifying and Sunday eliminations.

“It’s good we got a win with it, especially here in Vegas,” Kalitta said.

“After Norwalk – we were real strong up until then - then we went through a period [where] we struggled. It’s drag racing,” Kalitta said with a shrug. “Hopefully we learned quite a few things to not have that happen again. I don’t know if it’s as easy as dragging another car out of the trailer. It’s usually not that easy.”

He said the key is “just having a consistent car. I think my guys are the best group out there. Troy Fasching does an incredible job with all the guys, and Jim [Oberhofer] overseeing all the things he oversees for Kalitta Motorsports and keeping a close eye on what’s going on with my car.

“You never can tell if you can come out the box and win after struggling. So it’s a real testament to how hard those guys work,” Kalitta said.

“It was kind of frustration through Friday. We could run a good run every once in awhile, but we just couldn’t consistently come across something. So Jim and the guys made the decision and hopefully we learn from this [experience] so we don’t screw this one up again. Our other car had a lot of runs on it.”

Brown, who earned his second series title in four years, said, “This one here is so much better than the first, because the competition now is quadruple-more times tough. I lost the race to Doug Kalitta by five ten-thousandths of a second – probably the closest race all year long – not a thousandth but five ten-thousandths of a second. That’s just a remarkable race. That’s how competitive this class has gotten. That’s what makes this thing so big, so worth it, when you go out there and win a championship like our team has.”

Brown said, “I didn’t let the emotions get the best of me. I stayed focused on what we needed to do on that starting line and what we needed to do with that race car. I didn’t want to mess up one [bit]. We could have gone out there and lost that round. Then we’d leave the door wide open for Pomona. You could go out there and you still have a chance of not qualifying. Anything can happen. We didn’t qualify at Pomona one year. If that happens and Tony goes out there and sets a record because the conditions would be cool and crisp, things could happen. All of our crew guys, nobody had a smile on their faces, thinking that it was all over. We just went to work. You know you have a seasoned, professional, championship-contending team is when they stay that focused and do what we need to do.”         

But against Kalitta, Brown said he got greedy.

“The track has been phenomenal all day. We were greedy. When you get greedy, see what happens? We wanted to have that Toyota [Nationals] Wally next to that big Wally. But hey, we’ll take the big one any day. We feel really, really blessed to do it here.” Susan Wade

HIGHT MOVES INTO 4TH ALL-TIME ON FUNNY CAR WIN LIST WITH VEGAS VICTORY - Robert Hight moved into fourth on the all-time Funny Car win list and collected his second victory of the year during an upset-filled Sunday at the 15th annual Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Speedway.

Already out of the championship picture entering the second-to-last race of the 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, Hight and his John Force Racing teammates put together one of the their most consistent weekends of the year as all three Funny Cars qualified well and Hight pulled off the upset over championship contender Tommy Johnson Jr. in the Vegas final.

“This has been a good weekend. We made a lot of good runs. When you say that this is our second win of the year, it is pretty depressing actually,” Hight said. “We expect better than that. We have been working hard all year and it is starting to come together.”

Hight defeated Johnson in the final with his best pass of the day, blasting through the beams with a 3.955-second pass at 323.97 mph to move the driver of the Auto Club Chevrolet Camaro Funny Car all alone into fourth on the Funny Car win list, passing Don Prudhomme and Cruz Pedregon. Johnson, third in the championship standings, had a better light, but went up in smoke before the 60-foot mark and finished with an 8.279 at 85.02 mph.

“This class is tough. We ran 4.03 in the first round and that wasn’t a good run. We weren’t happy with that and had we been racing Paul Lee with Del Worsham’s dad’s car, we would have been done first round,” Hight said. “After that, we ran three-second runs and we were right where we needed to be. In the final, we had a tough matchup with Tommy Johnson, the number one qualifier, but luckily it went our way.

“We love it here in Vegas. John (Force) beat me here in the spring and that has bugged me all year. It is good to be back in the winner’s circle.”

Hight added wins over Chad Head, Del Worsham and Gary Densham on his way to the final.

While out of the championship hunt, Hight’s victory over Worsham in the second round and Ron Capps’ victory over Jack Beckman in the same round, kept the Funny Car championship up for grabs entering the season finale at Pomona in a little under two weeks. Worsham currently has a 38-point lead over Beckman with one race remaining.

“First off, it is really a bummer to not be in the points chase this late in the year. We are not used to that and it drives you,” Hight said. “You want to be there. You lie awake at night thinking why we aren’t there. It makes you dig deep so that we are not in the same position next year.

“Del Worsham is a good friend of mine I am pulling for him to win the championship. But Auto Club pays me to win races. Luckily, we got the job done today.”

While Hight’s season has largely been forgettable, he took comfort in knowing that the team can still surprise people as he moved further into elite air among the best the Funny Car class has ever produced.

“10 years later and I still can’t believe I get to do this,” Hight said. “My first runs I ever made in a Funny Car were right here at this race track. But to have my name up there it just shows the kind of team John Force has put together.

“And that includes Jimmy Prock, a lot of those wins came from him. Mike Neff, Austin Coil, Bernie Fedderly, not many guys can say that they have had that group of crew chiefs. I am pretty proud and very lucky.”

With his 36th career Funny Car victory, Hight moved from ninth up to sixth in the Countdown to the Championship standings with one race remaining. And if he has it his way, Hight hopes that the momentum from Las Vegas will turn into a lauchpad into next season.

“We are going to test a few things tomorrow. We are trying to get quicker and faster all of the time and, with any luck, we can learn some things and we can roll into Pomona, be number one qualifier and win again,” Hight said. “That is really what we are trying to do, go out on a high note.” Larry Crum

ENDERS CLINCHES SECOND CHAMPIONSHIP WITH DOMINATING DISPLAY AT LAS VEGAS - Shirley Muldowney. Angelle Sampey. And now, Eric Enders.

The Mount Rushmore of female racers with the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series officially inducted a new member into its hallowed halls on Sunday as Enders went from in the conversation to a full-fledged member with the securing of her second-career Pro Stock world championship at the 15th annual Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

In a season that has seen the 32-year-old dominate the Pro Stock ranks like few before her, Enders actually used the advice of the legendary Muldowney herself to help guide her to the historic feat.

“I am very thankful to Shirley and Angelle for paving the way for girls like Alexis, and the Forces and myself. I am still a huge fan of both of those women. They are legends of our sport,” Enders said. “To be able to share a world championship title with those two incredible women is a huge honor.

“In fact, I talked to Shirley just last week driving home from Dallas. The advice she offers is priceless. She always seems to say the right things when I need them most.”

Enders clinched her second-consecutive Pro Stock championship Sunday in Las Vegas in absolutely dominating fashion. Enders was quickest in every session throughout the weekend and she extended her Las Vegas winning streak to 22-consecutive rounds won with her fourth-straight Vegas victory and ninth overall win in 2015 with a near-perfect performance against Bo Butner.

Enders had a perfect .000 light and ran a 6.595-second pass at 208.97 mph in the final, easily taking the win over Butner’s 6.610 at 209.33 mph.

“This has just been an incredible day. I am kind of speechless about it. Vegas has always been great to me and we were able to continue our trend here with 22 consecutive round wins,” Enders said. “Coming into this weekend, everybody is talking about the championship and what we have to do. People are crunching points and my crew chiefs and I are like, ‘we don’t want to think about any of that.’ So we quit talking about it and turned our focus to one round at a time.

“Our goal coming in was to make it to 22 and we did just that. It is an incredible feat to accomplish. The streak that we have here is incredible and I am so excited to be part of such a tremendous group at Elite Motorsports.”

Enders had a nearly flawless weekend en route to her ninth win of the season and 21st of her career, besting Butner, Drew Skillman, Shane Gray and Deric Kramer on race day. None, however, were able to come close to unseating the reigning champion as Enders produced runs of 6.595, 6.598, 6.596 and 6.585 on Sunday.

Butner had wins over V. Gaines, Chris McGaha and Vincent Nobile to reach his first career final round.

But the real excitement came in the second round when Vincent Nobile defeated Greg Anderson, allowing Enders to lock-up the championship before the semifinals.

“It was a long day. A stressful day. But after watching my teammate Vincent beat Greg second round, I got excited because I knew what was about to happen,” Enders said. “I thought in my head, we have to win this round. I fire the car, pull in the water box and all of my guys are jumping around, clapping and doing everything but backflips while I am just trying to get my composure.

“It was definitely interesting up there after that to get the win. I knew it was going to be a tough race against Bo. He is really hungry for his first win. But to be able to cap the second championship off with a race win here in Vegas is crazy.”

With her second career championship coming during a historic year, one that has included nine wins, 11 finals and six top qualifier awards, Enders couldn’t help but reflect on the long and winding road that she has endured to reach this moment.

“It is hard to put into words because it is an entire lifetime of experiences. I have been driving for 23 years now, 11 in Pro Stock. To go through all of those valleys, there were a number of peaks, but the peaks really didn’t start happening until I joined Elite Motorsports, was definitely a gut check,” Enders said. “You have to truly be passionate about this. I am on the road 300 days a year along with the rest of these guys and it is tough. It is tough to be away from your family and friends, but to share the same passion with a group of guys like I do, you just have to dig deep and those bad times will make the good times worth it.

“I work on sponsorship during the week and I can’t tell you how many times I would put my head down on my desk and cry and question why I am even doing this. It is so hard. I get 9 million nos, but someone is bound to say yes. I was blessed to have a father who instilled that never quit attitude in me.

“When it gets tough, you just have to dig deep. I just carried the dream along with a group of supportive people. Now, finally, I feel like I am home.”

Even with the championship locked up, Enders feels she is by no means done. With the final race of the year coming up in less than two weeks in Pomona, Enders still has another chance to add to her gaudy totals in 2015.

“With nine wins on the season, it is an incredible year. But we are by no means done,” Enders said. “We have one final race out there. I know we will go in there with a sigh of relief that we have clinched the championship, but it starts over next week to us. I have a really fast hot rod right now and I am driving well. We want to make it 10 on the year and I think we can do it.

“The sky's the limit with this group of people.” Larry Crum

HINES DOES ULTIMATE DAMAGE CONTROL AS BIKE SHOWDOWN SHIFTS TO POMONA - Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader Andrew Hines said with the surging Jerry Savoie keeping pressure on him all day Sunday at the Toyota NHRA Nationals – all throughout the event, actually – all he was doing was damage control.

Savoie swept to the No. 1 qualifying spot and earned nine bonus points to Hines’ five, and despite some unattractive reaction times, matched Hines round win for round win Sunday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. With LE Tonglet taking out No. 2 Eddie Krawiec in the second round, Savoie was able to leapfrog Krawiec in the standings and was bearing down on Hines.  

That left Hines sweating it out until the final round, which would determine whether Hines would enter the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season finale at Pomona, Calif., leading Savoie either by 46 points or a mere six.

“We’ve just been running neck and neck all weekend long. He had the pace on us. We were able to get some qualifying points and minimize the damage there,” Hines said.

Ultimately, Hines did as much damage control as he could – with Savoie’s help.

They met in the final round, and Savoie had a red-light start on his White Alligator Racing Suzuki. Hines rode his Vance & Hines Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson to a winning 6.920-second elapsed time at 193.05 mph on the quarter-mile.

It was Hines’ 42nd overall victory. It breaks the tie with Angelle Sampey and makes him second only to Dave Schultz’s 45 on the class’ all-time list.

“That is a big day,” Hines said, “but the biggest thing is that final round battle with one and two in points. It could have gone his way just as easily as it went mine. He had one bad motorcycle all day long. That what I felt like all day long, just like [doing] damage control. He was going to march his way through eliminations, and luckily I was good enough to turn on a few win lights and got the motorcycle running consistent. And it helped out huge.”

Savoie eliminated Fred Camarena, Steve Johnson, and LE Tonglet to reach his fifth final round of the season and his 10th overall.

On the other hand, Hines registered outstanding reaction times and plowed to the final round past Jim Underdahl, Scotty Pollacheck, and Hector Arana.

“That final round, from the stands it looked pressure-packed, but man, I was feeling so comfortable all day long,” Hines said.

“Being in this position last year, with Eddie going out second round and trying to capitalize on those points. I was ready to throw my lungs up on the starting line last year before the final. This year was nothing like that,” he said. “I had all the confidence in the world, and I knew I had to give a good race. The team was able to figure out how to make the motorcycle go five-hundredths quicker in the final. It really didn’t matter, but it could have paid dividends if he had come up green on the other side of the tree.”

He said he knew right away that Savoie had red-lit, handing him his third Countdown victory and his fifth at The Strip.

“I saw it as soon as I popped the clutch,” Hines said, and I said, ‘Hey, that’s 46 points instead of six.’ I’m counting points, believe me. It’s what I do. I try to keep track of what’s going on everywhere, not just in our class. I like all the classes. I’m a fan of drag racing. And have been for my entire life.”

Hines said he’ll simply go to Pomona and see how everything shakes out: “We’re going to see how it comes down. My Harley’s running good. We learned something there that last round. We got a lot closer in performance to that alligator bike, and I can take it into Pomona and throw some steam into it.”

Because Vance & Hines supplies the power for Savoie’s bike, building and servicing the engines for this unique client-rival, the showdown might seem a bit awkward. But Hines said he separates the business side of Vance & Hines from the racing side.

“The way we look at it right now is we’re happy as a company. To be able to put out the horsepower and see these guy use it, that’s what we’ve been waiting for, as far as that side of the business, for so long. Jerry and Tim [Savoie’s crew chief, Tim Kulungian] are doing a great job, getting every ounce of power out of that four-cylinder.”

But when Hines has to race Savoie or react to the consequences of the so-called “alligator bike,” Hines said all he can think about is “that guy’s got a frickin’ awesome motorcycle. It’s tough. You know what you supplied them, and they’re making the best of it. He got the best of Eddie at Dallas, but we were able to turn the tables here a little bit. What could have been in Dallas if my chain hadn’t come off at Dallas, who knows? He was 110 points back there and crept up to 30. Wish that hadn’t have happened. But we made sure it didn’t come off this weekend, for sure.”

He knows, though, that he can’t be too sure of what might happen at Pomona.

Hines congratulated Top Fuel’s Antron Brown and Pro Stock’s Erica Enders for clinching their series championships Sunday and hinted that he wishes he could have done so, too, even at the expense of suspense that the Countdown is supposed to bring.

Hines joined Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel), Robert Hight (Funny Car), and Enders in the winners circle.

Savoie recorded his second runner-up finish here in three years. Susan Wade

SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - BROWN, ENDERS HAVE CHANCE TO CLINCH TITLES; THEY JOIN JOHNSON, SAVOIE AS NO. 1 QUALIFIERS; BECKMAN REMINISCES AND CHEERS FOR HAGAN; WILKERSON ASTOUNDED THAT A 3-SECOND RUN GETS HIM 10TH PLACE; JFR TEAM BUOYED; BROTHERS SQUARE OFF IN PRO STOCK ROUND 1  

TOP FUEL

BROWN HAS CHANCE TO CLINCH TITLE - Antron Brown has a chance to secure his second Top Fuel series championship Sunday if he can go one round farther than second-place Tony Schumacher.

And Brown is trying to strike a balance between focusing on the immediate task and the big picture.

"We're controlling our destiny by the way our Matco Tools / Toyota dragster is running," Brown, who will take a 142-point lead into Sunday’s eliminations, said after qualifying No. 1 with a 3.722-second elapsed time at 326.95 mph. He needs a 151-point advantage by the end of the race.

"We didn't come in here like we have a big points lead,” he said. “We're attacking it with everything we have like it's the first race in the Countdown. We know clinching our second world championship won't be easy. We're just trying to give it everything we have on every run. Now we just want to get past the first round tomorrow."

Brown said, “We've just been pushing every run. That's been our game plan. We haven't changed the formula. We're just continuing to do the things we've been doing at all the races this year.

"We were very consistent all day, this whole weekend, and we just want to take that into tomorrow. And our focus tomorrow is that first round,” he said, anticipating his race against Jenna Haddock. Brown said her car’s No. 16 showing isn’t indicative of the progress she is making or what the car’s capability might be. “They’re obviously onto something. We have to go out there and be flawless. Tomorrow is where all the big points are earned.”

He said, “We just want to go out there and do what we do and get past that first round. And, if we get through that first round, we'll worry about the second round. We'll just keep on worrying about the process that we know we've been having some great success with."

As for Schumacher, Brown said he wishes he “could race him in the first round and get it over with. I never want to root against him. I want to race against him.”

TOO HARD ON HIMSELF - Jim Oberhofer, Doug Kalitta’s crew chief and vice-president of Kalitta Motorsports, said he “tried everything under the sun” to make the Wrenching for a Cure Mac Tools Dragster run better this weekend. But he hauled out a new car overnight Friday, with encouragement from team owner Connie Kalitta and pals Frank Bradley and Pat Galvin.

Kalitta ended up qualifying in the bottom of the field, at No. 13, and Oberhofer still was kind of beating himself up. With a nod to the Halloween festivities, Oberhofer quipped about himself, “I don’t need a donkey mask to look like a jackass out here.”

Oberhofer is no donkey, and Doug Kalitta is hoping the new rail will put the kick back into his performance Sunday when he meets No. 4 Steve Torrence in the first round.

LOTS OF NEWS FOR STRINGER – Top Fuel team owner Doug Stringer’s wallet is $1,000 lighter because the Parts Plus / Great Clips Dragster fireball early in driver Clay Millican’s fourth attempt Saturday oiled the track. But Millican is in the field at No. 11 and will meet No. 6 Shawn Langdon to start his Sunday. And he’s hoping he can go a round or two farther than when he was here in the spring.

Last weekend Stringer marked a second year since the passing of close friend, racer Jason Leffler. His Wayne County Speedway in Southern Illinois hosted the Jason Leffler Memorial Auction and Midget-Car Race to raise money for Jason’s son, Charlie Dean. It drew about 3,000 people. Among them was Millican, who came out to cheer on fellow Great Clips Racing drivers Daryn Pittman and Darren Hagen.

Millican and Stringer have discussed the notion of Millican racing along with them next time around.

“Clay and I have talked a little about him trying his hand at the Leffler race sometime in the future. It’s a lot different racing a midget car on an eighth-mile oval dirt track versus a Top Fuel dragster on the drag strip,” Stringer said. “So we would have to find time in his schedule for him to do a couple runs before jumping into Leffler. This year the talent level of the drivers who came out to the track, and the racing fans that filled our stands was phenomenal. I never expected this race to grow as rapidly as it has over the last three years. In three years to be considered a destination race for fans is an incredible feat. I know we’ll be back at it again next year, and who knows? You may catch Clay Millican on the track instead of in the stands.”

PRITCHETT HAS SCARE – Leah Pritchett and her Dote Racing “Black Magic” Dragster spun a little last-minute wizardry to break into the field of 16. She took until last Saturday to claim a spot on the grid, and she did it despite what she called “a slight glitch with the car” in her final qualifying chance.

She did it with a 3.916-second, 312.57-mph pass.

With her 15th-place start, she’ll meet No. 2 Larry Dixon in the first round Sunday.

“Hey, Larry has been running well, but the first round of action is always a crapshoot with the new conditions,” she said. “And we want to make that ‘Black Magic’ car shine Sunday. I have been racing long enough to know that anything can happen on race day.”  

However, Pritchett said, “We were living on the scarier side for our whole Dote team Saturday. We had a slight glitch with the car in the Q4, but we made it down the track and notched a spot in the field. It was a huge group effort. Our Dote team, led by Doug Kuch and Rob Flynn, have been working hard to get the ‘Black Magic’ car back in a solid position. We’ll work on it some more and be ready for the first round on Sunday.”

MORE TOP FUEL PAIRINGS – Brittany Force and Dave Connolly will line up against each other, and so will Richie Crampton and Troy Buff. Other match-ups pair JR Todd and Tony Schumacher and Billy Torrence and Noah Stutz. Missing the grid were Terry McMillen and Chris Karamesines.
 

FUNNY CAR
 

JOHNSON STAYS NO. 1 – Tommy Johnson Jr. said he had made only one three-second run before the August race at Brainerd, Minn. “Now we’re slinging ‘em out like they’re going out of style,” he said.

But his track-record 3.931-second elapsed time from Friday stood up through two qualifying sessions Saturday. And that, Johnson said, was a surprise to him.  

“I thought for sure it was going to get beat. Nobody ever did. It was surprising,” the Make-A-Wish Dodge driver said.

“We were stepping on it. We were trying to run better,” Johnson said. He said the engine was dropping cylinders, spoiling what he said he thought could have been a 3.90- or 3.91-second E.T.

"The level of our performance has really picked up," he said. "We've closed the gap in performance and maintained our consistency as well, and I'm really proud of this Make-A-Wish team. They've done a great job, and John [rookie crew chief Collins] has made some bold changes. It's been great, and I look to finish this year strong.
 
"There really isn't any pressure," Johnson said. "You look at it, and know you want to hold onto your position and improve if you can. There is an outside chance that we could win this championship, but we have the mindset that we're just going to have fun and enjoy this. We have a great car, a great team, and we can win the race. The best we could do is get two more wins before the year is over, so that's what we're trying for.”

Bob Bode, his Round 1 opponent, stands in his way Sunday morning.

BECKMAN REMINISCES – Unlike top qualifier Tommy Johnson Jr., top contender Jack Beckman is feeling the pressure as he tries to overtake points leader Del Worsham and close a 38-point gap. However, Beckman has paused to marvel at just how far his career has come and how it has taken unexpected twists.

In 2005, he drove his first nitro car, Dexter Tuttle’s Top Fuel dragster with funding by Rodger and Karen Comstock – at Las Vegas.

"I had aspirations of driving a Top Fuel dragster and being able to mix it up with the upper echelon in the Top Fuel ranks," Beckman said. "Little did I know then that my destiny would be in a Funny Car and not a Top Fuel dragster, that I'd be driving for Don Schumacher a year later.

"Back then, I was a thirtysomething guy, and now I'm a dad twice and a husband once. I get a paycheck to do what I love, and back then I was a drag racing instructor. Now I'm here 10 years later with 22 NHRA Wally trophies, three shootout victories, and the 2012 Funny Car world championship with the chance to win another."  

With faith in his consortium of crew chiefs – Jimmy Prock, John Medlen, and Chris Cunningham – Beckman said, "I'm really confident. This is one of those Saturday nights when the crew chief digs into data. You just pore through the notes and you figure out what you think the track is going to be like for first round tomorrow. If it does everything right, you know how much the track typically changes, how you can massage the tune-up and get it down there on the second run. So it's about coming out with a big number for first round and turning the win light on."

He’ll test the preparation Sunday morning when he faces Tony Pedregon, who’s eager to leave the Funny Car cockpit for the broadcast booth by making an impact. Beckman has lane choice as the No. 4 qualifier; Pedregon is starting from the No. 13 berth.

HAGAN PLUGGING AWAY – Matt Hagan, the reigning Funny Car champion and No. 5-ranked racer today, is ready to take on first-round foe Del Worsham, the points leader who needs every round in this and the next that he can get if he’s to add a Funny Car championship to the one he earned in Top Fuel.

Hagan, a cattle farmer from Southwestern Virginia, cleared his mind by spending time at home NOT worrying whether he’ll seize his opportunity to move up to as high as third in the standings by year’s end. He’s 159 points behind leader Del Worsham but only 12 points, less than one round of eliminations, out of third place. And he has teammate Jack Beckman also hoping he defeats Worsham.

"It's such a monster match-up,” Beckman said of the Hagan-Worsham duel. “You've got a Toyota against a Dodge Charger. There's a lot more diehard Mopar fans out here, and that gives us an instant fan base.” However, he conceded that Worsham's team “is running fantastic.”

Being at home for awhile, even with a bustling fall schedule, helped prepare Hagan for Sunday.

"There's no place like home," he said. "It's a good way to unwind and not think about the pressures of the sport and everything that's going on right now. I just focus on my cattle, my farm, and my family, and that's enough to keep me busy and my mind off of racing.”

Besides, he said, “It's definitely a busy time of year for me. I've got a lot of cows right now, trying to get everything ready for winter and racing Mother Nature to get it all done on time before these last couple of races."

The two-time champion switched gears easily and qualified his Mopar/Rocky Boots Dodge in 11th place. Worsham is sixth.

"There's no doubt that we've had an outstanding year and we'd certainly like to end it as strong as we started it. The Countdown is so tough, and you have to have six strong races. And with the competition this year, it's just really hard to do that,” Hagan said. “We're certainly not giving up until the end and there's no reason we can't go out and win these last two races and have a strong finish in points."

THE MATCHES – Courtney Force won’t have to start race day against her father, like she did at Dallas in the most recent event. She drew Paul Lee. This is the third time Force has raced Lee in eliminations. They are 1-1 against each other. Ironically, they have only raced each other at this event in the past (2012 and 2014). This is the second straight year they have met in the first round at the Toyota Nationals.

Courtney Force kept a tight grip on the No. 2 position in her Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro. She did it in personal-best style, at 3.933 seconds, 325.77 mph. The time lasted through two qualifying sessions Saturday.

“We definitely stepped it up this weekend,” she said. “That was a career-best for me and it was definitely exciting. I’m excited for my entire team [minus the newly departed Ron Douglas] to be able to jump up and qualify in a high position. We’re just looking forward to tomorrow. We have a little boost of confidence. We definitely pushed hard on Q4, and the car wasn’t happy. It wasn’t going for it. We were trying to run better than the 3.933 that we already had.”

In 2013, Courtney Force qualified No. 2 at both the spring and fall events here.  She went to the final both times. In four years, she never has started lower than No. 6 at this venue until the spring race this year (where she was 13th and lost in Round 1).

“Hopefully we can keep the ball rolling tomorrow,” added Force.

John Force, the No. 8 qualifier, must face Alexis DeJoria. He started strong but smoked the tires in the last three of four tries. But that didn’t dampen his spirit. He simply attributed it to experimentation and an aggressive attitude with the championship on the line.

“I always believe we can win. It is a long shot, but we still have a shot,” the 16-time champion said. “That is the attitude you have to have if you want to win races and championships. Our cars have been running good numbers. I smoked the tires twice, but we are trying to run hard. I ran 3.98 and four-flat. If you don’t push these race cars you won’t know what they can do. We are starting to get more information for these last two races.”

He said, “I am excited because of all the work we have done to get into this championship chase, and it is still out there. I never give up thinking that. All the progress we have made this season has me the most excited.”

Robert Hight will run against the racer whose seat he took when he debuted in 2005, and Jack Beckman will line up against soon-to-be-TV-analyst Tony Pedregon. Ron Capps will square off against Cruz Pedregon, and Chad Head will meet Tim Wilkerson.

Hight said, “I am excited we all qualified really well and we could get three of these Chevrolet Camaros to the semifinals. We made three really good runs in this Auto Club Camaro, and we were just aggressive on that last run. We are No. 3 going into race day, and the key for us is to just race the track and go rounds. We can help out John Force with some round wins and help him stay in championship contention.”

RUNS A THREE, STARTS 10TH – Tim Wilkerson hardly could believe he would run a sub-four-second pass and start as low as 10th in the order. But that’s a sign of the times in the class these days, he said.

His 3.99-second elapsed time, especially remarkable in a Mustang he said is the heaviest in the field, only netted him the No. 10 starting spot, facing Chad Head in the opening round of eliminations.

"How's that for crazy, in a crazy year?" Wilkerson said. "Coming into this season, our career best was a 4.01, and I thought that was as nearly flawless a run as we'd ever made. Now, we're running 3.99s and aren't even close to the top half of the field. It's just nuts how far the whole class has pushed itself this season. We'll go out there tomorrow in conditions we haven't seen since we got here, and we'll roll the dice just like the other 15 teams on the ladder will. We'll just do the best we can."

PUTTING LESSONS TO USE – Debuting driver Brandon Welch was one of six not to qualify for the Funny Car field. He joined John Bojec, Terry Haddock, John Hale, Jeff Arend, and Tim Gibbons.

But this qualifying procedure has been giving Welch the opportunity to follow the scientific reasoning of grandfather and crew chief Chuck Beal.

“I worked at a company called General Atomics for many, many years,” Beal said. “They make the Predator now. [That’s the MQ-1B Predator, the U.S. Air Force’s armed, medium-altitude, long-endurance, remotely piloted aircraft that’s used primarily for intelligence gathering but is also used for surveillance, reconnaissance, close air support, combat search and rescue, among other tasks, as well as combat.] They make electromagnetic launch systems for the Navy, for aircraft carriers. I was always on the R&D side, the nuclear side. My specialty is non-destructive testing. That’s where you x-ray stuff and use ultrasonic examination. I’m really familiar with just about any material’s characteristics. I’m a registered professional engineer. There’s not too many of us left.”

He said, “We’ve come up with a lot of ideas, and we’ve worked through ’em. All of the experience that I had at General Atomics played into my racing, and all my racing experience definitely played into my logic and outlook and the way I worked at General Atomics.”

One of Beal’s favorite authors is Richard Feynman, who won a Nobel Prize for Thermodynamics. “He said what makes a good engineer or scientist is that he uses three things to go forward: doubt, uncertainty, and ignorance. Being ignorant doesn’t mean you’re stupid. It just means you don’t know.”

He gave his grandson a racing example.

“You see a car go down the racetrack and it blows up, blows the body off. Wow – what happened? At that point you’re ignorant. You go down and pick up the car and side is blown out of the motor and you go, ‘It pitched a rod out of it.’ You take it back to the pits, but you’re still ignorant of what the basic problem was. Then you start taking it apart and you look at it and you see the gear drive’s busted on it. So you ask, ‘Did it break the gear drive and the cam stopped and blew it up, or did a rod break?’ So you’re still have doubt that’s a solution. Once you totally figure it out – ‘We got it down to the key broke on the crankshaft and the hub turned and that caused the gear drive to stop an that’s what blew it up.’ Once you get all that figured out, you’re still uncertain: ‘Was that really what caused it? Or was I screwed up on the tune-up?’ That’s really the way you have to look at it in drag racing,” he said.

Said Welch, “What I take from that is what makes a good crew chief, and a scientist, I guess, is the desire to ask that last question: Was that really it, or could there be other things? Let’s look at the entire ecosystem of what happened and see if there’s a greater problem.”

They’ll have lots of investigating to do before the 2015 series finale at Pomona, for Welch experienced a serious engine concussion and fire on his final qualifying chance Saturday. He hit two timing cones, so his time was disqualified. So officially he was 19th out of 22 entrants.
 

PRO STOCK
 

NOTHING DERAILING ENDERS – Warmer temperatures and a warmer track, a slight stumble in her carburetor that was distracting her at the Christmas tree, and a flood of questions about the championship that she doesn’t want to talk about right now . . . Nothing could keep points leader Erica Enders from holding onto her sixth top-qualifying position of the season.

She said she was “able to fine-tune some things” Saturday but leaned on her Friday track-record 6.559-second, 210.28-mph effort to post her second No. 1 start at Las Vegas and the 18th of her career.

“I’m confident going into tomorrow,” she said. “Tomorrow’s going to take consistency. Every round is tough. I know better than anybody you can go from hero to zero.”

Enders will race Deric Kramer in the opening round of Pro Stock race-day action.

She is poised to clinch her second consecutive NHRA Pro Stock title. She needs to leave Las Vegas 151 points ahead of Greg Anderson, her closest rival. But she said once again she would rather not talk about what’s looming ahead of her.

“My goal is to not think about the championship, although everybody asks me about the championship,” Enders said. “It’s tough when people keep wanting to talk about it. I want to focus on doing my job.”

She has done that all too well, her opponents would say.

Her good friend Allen Johnson said during early Saturday qualifying, “She’s making us all look silly.”

BROTHER VS. BROTHER – Jonathan Gray said after winning at Dallas two weeks ago, “The whole goal was to win the last three races of the season."

If he is to achieve that, he’ll have to knock out older brother Shane Gray. They’ll meet in the opening round Sunday, with Jonathan yielding lane choice to Shane by four-thousandths of a second. Shane Gray ran a 6.601-second elapsed time to Jonathan’s 6.605.

Had Shane run a faster speed, he might not have had to face his brother in eliminations. Shane Gray and Vincent Nobile clocked identical E.T.s – 6.601 seconds – but Nobile’s 209.56-mph speed topped Gray’s 208.81. So Nobile earned the No. 7 slot in the order.

Before he knew he would be facing his brother, Jonathan Gray said, “It all goes back to my driving. I went to Dallas with my mind made up that I was going to get back to driving how I knew I could. I did that, and we made it to the final round. I expect for that to continue [here]. That's what we're shooting for, anyway."

Saturday night he said, "This has not been a good weekend for us so far. Las Vegas has always been an obstacle for us – the air, the weather. The racetrack is good, but we have struggled here, and it is definitely disappointing to have to race your teammate in the first round. But it is what it is, and we got ourselves into this position. Now we just have to do the best we can."
 
Shane Gray has been in the top half of the field regularly.

"We've had power, and that's been great," he said. "Gray Motorsports has really worked hard this year to keep not just my car and Jonathan's car on the quick side of things, but also to keep our engine customers happy while we prepare for fuel injection next year. Larry Morgan has qualified well and won twice, and Alex Laughlin is off to a great start in his Gas Monkey Garage Camaro. I think all of our engine customers have run career best numbers this year, if I'm not mistaken. So we're pretty happy overall.”

But he has his personal goals, too – which happens to be the same as his brother’s: “It would be nice to end the year with a couple of wins for our guys back at the shop and for the team out here on the road."
 
Jonathan said, "My goal is to finish better than I did last year." He was seventh. He’s eighth now.

ON THE OUTSIDE – Joey Grose missed his chance to race in Sunday eliminations by four-thousandths of a second, and Alan Prusiensky’s 6.727-second elapsed time brought up the rear of the 18-car bunch. Deric Kramer landed on the bump spot at 6.678 in his Dodge Dart – and that E.T. was only one-thousandth of a second slower than No. 15 qualifier Matt Hartford, who drew No. 2 qualifier and No. 2-ranked racer Greg Anderson.

MORE PAIRINGS – Bo Butner will meet V Gaines, Jason Line will go against Kenny Delco, and Drew Skillman will line up against Alex Laughlin. Other pairings pit Vincent Nobile and Allen Johnson, and Chris McGaha and Larry Morgan.

TOP ROOKIE? – Voting for the Auto Club of Southern California’s Road to the Future Award, which honors the NHRA’s rookie of the year, has been under way all week by a panel of media members.

And Elite Motorsports driver Drew Skillman’s public-relations team has made a strong case for their consideration.

Skillman, who drives the Ray Skillman Chevrolet in the Pro Stock class, is the only rookie to win in 2015. He beat teammate and points leader Erica Enders at St. Louis He has advanced to four final rounds, three more than every other rookie combined. He has qualified No. 1 three times and is the only rookie to qualify No. 1. Skillman has 23 elimination round-wins, more than twice the amount of the next-most-successful rookie. He’s the only rookie to qualify for the Countdown to the Championship.

The Road to the Future Award honoree will be announced during the 2015 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Awards Ceremony Monday, Nov. 16, at Hollywood's Ray Dolby Ballroom.

Last year’s recipient was Richie Crampton, a five-time winner this season. He joined some of the biggest names in the sport as winners of the prestigious award, including Robert Hight, Jason Line, Antron Brown, Jeg Coughlin Jr., Mike Edwards, and Larry Dixon.

"That would be a huge honor," Skillman said. "A lot of great drivers have won that, and I'd like to be a part of it. I think we've proved time and time again that we have the car and the success, and I'm a decent enough driver that I think we have a good shot at it."

VEGAS = BRUTON = GOOD LUCK FOR MORGAN – If anyone played a word-association game with FireAde Camaro owner-driver Larry Morgan would hear an unusual response to “Las Vegas.” Morgan’s answer would be “Bruton Smith.”

Smith is the founder of Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

"I wish I had his money to gamble with. How's that?" Morgan said. "When I think of Las Vegas, I think of gambling and I think of guys with money, and that would be Bruton."

He said he appreciates Smith and his staff: “It's phenomenal the way that guy and his team do stuff. I'm glad in my time that I was blessed enough to be around the guy.”

TEASING – After Chris McGaha qualified sixth, for his best showing all weekend, he said competitor Larry Morgan needled him. “He told me it’s about time I got my head out of my you-know-what,” McGaha said. His response: “I’ll pull my nose out so I can breathe.” So McGaha is ready to tackle his first-round opponent in eliminations, who happens to be the No. 11 starter . . . Larry Morgan.
 

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE
 

SAVOIE WILL LEAD FIELD – Dallas winner Jerry Savoie remained the No. 1 qualifier, completing a sweep of all four sessions this weekend to earn his third top spot of the season, fourth of his career, and first at Las Vegas.

As he turned his thoughts to Sunday’s Round 1 opponent Fred Camarena, Savoie credited crew chief Tim Kulungian, who has taken off just seven days off all year.

“Tim’s smart. He’s a numbers guy. He’s strictly about calculations. It’s all working.”

And he knows his recent success annoys some of the class regulars.

“Some of the guys out there, 30 or 40 percent of the Pro Stock Bike pits, are whining like a bunch of babies,” Savoie said. “And it really aggravates me, because my heart is into this. I take it personally. You can buy everything on my motorcycle. Come out and have some fun. It’s a wonderful class. Everyone can try it.”

The Cut Off, La., owner-rider of White Alligator Racing hasn’t changed his outlook about the championship challenge to Harley-Davidson racers Andrew Hines and Eddie Krawiec, the Nos. 1- and 2-ranked performers. Whatever happens happens, he has said.

“I’m proud to be here, proud for my team, proud for my family. If I get in the No. 1 spot, it’s all good. If I don’t get in the No. 1 spot and don’t win the championship, it’s been a great year, man,” Savoie said.

He said after his performance at Dallas, “I knew we would be good but we didn’t know how good. We have the potential for some of these guys to step up and be right with us [on race day]. Tomorrow will tell the story of how close it really is.”

He has no rivalry with the Vance & Hines duo, who happen to build and service his engines. “They’re solid like a rock. Without Vance & Hines and Harley-Davidson, this class wouldn’t be here. They keep this class going. Trying to overcome them, he said, is matter of “just get out here and do what you’re doing and may the best man win.”

In case it might sound like he’s blasé about a title, Savoie emphasized, “I don’t come out here to be second best. I come out here to win.”

WELL, THAT STINKS – Just before Steve Johnson wheeled his Race The Vote Suzuki to the staging lanes for Saturday’s first qualifying session, a pungent odor wafted into his pit. The source was clear: the “Honey Bucket” truck, the septic-tank-cleaning vehicle, parked just feet away, directly in front of his pit.

“Who in their right mind would bring a dookie truck into the pits in the middle of a race where people pay $50 a ticket?! This is what my customers get to look at,” an irritated Johnson said.

MUCH SWEETER – Steve Johnson is racing this weekend for two worthy causes. On his bike is the logo for Hawaii media entrepreneur Tracy Arakaki’s “Race The Vote: I Race - I Vote - I Want A Racetrack” initiative on the Hawaiian island Oahu. The other program Johnson is supporting is Thank A Military Man (T.A.M.M.).

Hawaii Raceway Park, Hawaii’s first dragstrip, opened July 4, 1964, and closed April 1, 2006. With land at premium prices, the familiar grumble of racetrack opponents, and the slowly grinding wheels of political progress, replacing Hawaii Raceway Park has been a challenging task. But Arakaki and his PunishUM Motorsports Foundation will be launching a series of public-service announcements aimed at Hawaii state legislators. Johnson; Hawaii native and former racer Todd Okuhara, director of racing at Don Schumacher Racing; and veteran Funny Car racer Ron Capps will deliver the messages that will run from January to May, when the legislature is in session.

Tracy Arakaki, a former racing rival of Okuhara’s who produces and hosts a PunishUM Motorsports TV program on Honolulu station KFVE, said his aim is to pressure local politicians to grant his organization a lease to build and operate a new dragstrip on a piece of state-owned land. “We have the support already, and we can run with it in weeks,” he said.

In a separate effort, TAMM’s mission is to “honor our heroes by simply thanking” servicemen and servicewomen and helping give them “resources to positive connections as they navigate life's demands.”

Posted on Johnson’s hauler is this note: “Please let us know if you are an individual actively serving or have served in our nation’s military. We want to simply gift and thank you, no strings attached. We are Thank A Military Man (TAMM), are privately funded, and inspired [by] and exist to thank our American heroes for their service to this greatest nation on the planet!”

Meanwhile, Johnson qualified No. 8 and will face Chip Ellis, the No. 9 qualifier, in the first round of eliminations.

MISSING THE CUT – Watching from the sidelines Sunday will be Joe DeSantis, Angie Smith, Redell Harris, Eddie Reed, Kalle Lyren, Robert Karlsson, Katie Sullivan, Luke Crowley, Rhett Lougheed, Melissa Surber, Lance Bonham, and Cory Reed.

MATCH-UPS – Among the first-round match-ups in Sunday eliminations are Eddie Krawiec and Shawn Gann, LE Tonglet and Hector Arana Jr., Andrew Hines and Jim Underdahl, Scotty Pollacheck and Matt Smith, Michael Ray and Mike Berry, and Karen Stoffer and Hector Arana.

FRIDAY - TOP FUEL TEAM OWNER HURT; BROWN ROCKS TO JOIN JOHNSON JR., ENDERS, SAVOIE ATOP EARLY LEADERBOARDS; RECORDS FALL; DOUGLAS LEAVES JFR; WELCH MAKES DEBUT; FORCE STILL SWINGING AND SO IS PRO STOCK’S ANDERSON

TOP FUEL

PATON HURT IN STARTING-LINE MISHAP – Top Fuel team owner Barry Paton was transported to a Las Vegas hospital Friday afternoon, injured while driver Tim Boychuk was staging the dragster during the first qualifying session.

Paton was walking toward the left-lane staging beams when he was struck by the left rear tire of the Paton Racing / Boychuk Ventures Dragster and knocked to the pavement. He struck his head on the track surface.

NHRA emergency medical personnel attended to Paton at the scene.

Paton was helped to an ambulance and taken to Medical University Center of Southern Nevada for a precautionary CAT scan, according to Terry Blount, NHRA vice-president of public relations and communications.

Later in the day, Competition Plus learned that Paton, of Paris, Ontario, Canada, has a possible broken nose and might lose a tooth. He also suffered various cuts and bruises.   

Paton fielded the car two weeks ago at Dallas with Shawn Reed at the wheel. The team has planned to race at the season finale at Pomona, Calif., as well.

 

LOOKING IN BOTH DIRECTIONS – Richie Crampton, the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ most recent Top Fuel winner and winner of the most recent national event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, said he has a larger cheering section when he races on the West Coast. But this year it comes with a catch.

"Having these final two races on the West Coast is an added bonus for me, because we tend to get more Aussies over for holiday and they always cheer for us,” Crampton said. He’s an Adelaide, Australia, native who became a naturalized American. “If we can pry them away from the Rugby World Cup final, we'll show them a good time at a great racetrack."

Australia’s Wallabies will face New Zealand’s All Blacks in the showdown Saturday. That’s when Crampton will be finding out who he’ll face in the first round of Sunday’s eliminations. He has the Lucas Oil Dragster in the provisional sixth position in the order overnight (3.774, 308.35).

He said it was “hard to think that we could go into a race weekend with more confidence. Aaron [crew chief Brooks] had the Lucas Oil dragster on a rail at the Vegas spring race, and I'm sure he'll be diving into his little black book to see how to set the car up this time through. Plus, we've got some good data from Dallas. It's certainly been a great week back at the shop coming off that big win in Dallas. It may be the end of a long season, but the boys have definitely had a jump in their steps and smiles on their faces.”

Crampton has the distinction of being perfect in five final-round appearances this season (and seven overall), but he’s focused on improving his No. 3 ranking in the standings. He entered the weekend 71 points behind No. 2 Tony Schumacher and 203 off Antron Brown’s pace.

Not only does Crampton need a successful weekend to close in on them, but he also needs to hold off a knot of drivers pursuing him. Brittany Force lurks four points back, Larry Dixon is 34 behind him, and Steve Torrence is within 48 points of him. Shawn Langdon, Friday’s early leader, is 66 points behind Crampton, Dave Connolly 83, JR Todd 89 and Doug Kalitta 97.

Said Crampton, "The season isn't over yet, and the way we look at it is there are two more chances to win. It'll be a fight to the end. We want to finish strong and post the highest finish possible for Lucas Oil and Toyota. It would be great to carry the feeling we've had this last week throughout the off-season, so the guys are focused on winning Vegas and Pomona.

"Whenever you give Aaron and this crew four chances at a racetrack in a given day, I really like our chances," he said. "Obviously, that's proven out with our 7-0 mark everyone is talking about, but I also think the work these guys put in behind the scenes to give me a perfect race car every round is a big factor, as well. I'm over the moon with this season. It's all just a 'pinch me' kind of feeling."

FOCUS: WHAT YOU CAN DO - Steve Torrence arrived here in sixth place, with no chance to make a run at the Top Fuel title at this point. He’s 251 points behind leader Antron Brown, but he’s pragmatic.

“The goal every year is to win the championship,” Torrence said.  “That never changes.  The thing is, you can’t have a mental letdown as a driver or a team late in the season when you’re faced with the fact that it’s not going to happen. Only one driver is going to win [the $500,000 championship], and unless he’s abducted by aliens, this year it looks like it’s going to be Antron [Brown].”

So what can Torrence do? “If you can’t win (the championship), you have to focus on what you can do,” he said.  “We have a good chance to finish higher than last year, maybe as high as third. Plus you want to close out on a high note so you have something to build on.”

Then, as Halloween approaches, he said, “We may have a trick or two for ‘em [his rivals].” Referring to performance consultant Alan Johnson and crew chief Richard Hogan, Torrence said, “A.J. and Hogan have been scheming, so we’ll see.”

Dad Billy Torrence, who declared his crew “a great part-time team, the best in the country,” closed Friday in the No. 3 position, with Steve Torrence fourth. That was a leap of 12 positions for the dad, a two-spot improvement for the son.

Provisional No. 1 qualifier Antron Brown remarked of Billy Torrence, “Pop comes from Texas, with guns ablazin’.”

LANGDON GOING FOR IT – Shawn Langdon is seventh in the standings, but he hasn’t been shy.

“There's eight round-wins left to get, and we want them all," the driver of the Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher/Sandvik Coromant Dragster said. "The points standings are tight, and if we have a couple of good races there's no reason we can't be right there in the top three with our DSR teammates."

Langdon showed he wasn’t kidding, rocketing to the top of the order in his first chance Friday with a 3.788-second pass, the only one of that session. He whittled two-hundredths of a second from his early E.T., but he was fifth at 3.768. However, his 332.67-mph blast in the evening session was a track record. (Ironically, it shattered the November 2014 mark from Spencer Massey, the driver who started the year racing this car for DSR.)  

He’s 66 points out of third place, driving for Don Schumacher Racing during the Countdown after his sponsor-abandoned Alan Johnson Racing sidelined the Toyota/Knuckle Sandwich Dragster until funding is back in place. His DSR colleagues, Antron Brown and Tony Schumacher, are first and second, respectively.

The 2013 Top Fuel champion, joined DSR on loan from Alan Johnson Racing for the Countdown, and he said he wants to pay back DSR with a victory: "I'm four races in here at DSR and I'd really like to celebrate in the winner's circle with everyone over here before the season's end," he said. "I'm extremely grateful to Don and Alan for working out a deal to allow to me compete the rest of this season. There's nothing I would like more than to get a Wally during this time. It would be really special to me."

FORCE OVERCOMES DRAMA – John Force Racing spokesmen have told Competition Plus they are unable legally to discuss details of the highway accident near Kansas City that damaged Brittany Force’s hauler this week as it was en route to Las Vegas. But Brittany Force shook off the incident and went out Friday to nail down a spot in the top 12 in qualifying for the Toyota Nationals. She slipped below the line in the day’s final session and will have to start Saturday with no time.

(Joining her Friday in missing the top 12 were Leah Pritchett, JR Todd, Terry McMillen, Jenna Haddock, and Chris Karamesines.)

She’s fourth in the standings, just four points out of third place (where she was before the previous race, at Dallas, when winner Richie Crampton passed her).

“We are basically tied with the driver in third place, and we are about 100 points out of second and another 100 from first place. If a couple of those guys go out early and we go some rounds on Sunday who knows what could happen over these last two races?” she said.  I am just fired up to be out here with Monster Energy and all our sponsors,” said Force.

“There are two races left, and we need to continue to be consistent,” she said.

Force has raced three different classes at The Strip at Las Vegas. She began her career in Super Comp before stepping up to Top Alcohol Dragster. It was here she made her first pass in a Top Fuel dragster.

 “I remember I was in A-Fuel and my dad just asked me to try to make a few runs in the Top Fuel dragster. Once I hit the throttle I was hooked. I think he knew that and kind of tricked me into getting into Top Fuel, but I love it. The guys and gals have been really helpful the last two and half seasons. Two of the guys that have probably helped the most are Antron [Brown] and Tony [Schumacher],” she said.

Ironically, those are the two racers Force needs to pass if she wants to be the only female besides Shirley Muldowney to earn a Top Fuel series championship.

“So many women have raced Top Fuel, and to be mentioned with them is pretty amazing. I just try and go out and learn something every run. We had a tough race in Dallas because I made a mistake. This team really supported me after that and they told me we lose together and we win together. That meant a lot and really has me focused coming into Las Vegas,” Force said.

FUNNY CAR

RECORD FALLS – When Matt Hagan arrived at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, he owned the Funny Car track elapsed-time record at 3.983 seconds from last November. By the end of Friday’s first qualifying session, three of his competitors (including one of his Don Schumacher Racing associates) had run quicker.

Tommy Johnson Jr., in the DSR-owned, Terry Chandler-funded Make-A-Wish Dodge, won the tug-o-war in 3.967 seconds. He lowered that to 3.931 seconds in holding onto the provisional top-qualifying position.

In the first session Friday, John Force slid into the No. 2 spot in the tentative lineup right behind him at 3.980. Robert Hight, the first to eclipse Hagan’s mark at 3.893, settled into third place in Q1. Hight also had the Funny Car session’s fastest time at 322.81 mph.

In the night session, the track speed record fell, as Courtney Force ran slightly faster than her 325.37 mph from March 2014 at 325.77. It came on a wild ride.

“I had to shut it off really quick (after the finish). I couldn’t get my parachutes out until I got the car straightened out and get the car over to the right a little bit,” Force said. “I’m really happy to get this Traxxas Camaro running a 3.93. Thanks to everyone on the crew and all the brain trust. We’re really excited. There are still a lot of good cars out there but we’re excited to get our Traxxas car down there and run a number like that. It was good.”

DOUGLAS LEAVES JFR – Competition Plus has confirmed that Ron Douglas, who was near completion of his fourth season as crew chief for Courtney Force’s team, has left John Force Racing. The group of crew chiefs for the four teams (a/k/a “the brain trust”), a JFR spokesman said, is tuning the car. Douglas also helped Dean “Guido” Antonelli guide Ashley Force Hood to her on-track successes, including back-to-back U.S. Nationals victories. Before joining JFR, Douglas worked for Don Schumacher Racing, Doug Herbert, and Cruz Pedregon.

NOT COMFORTABLE YET – Funny Car leader Del Worsham has claimed three victories in the past four races in the DHL Toyota Camry. Still, the Kalitta Motorsports driver said, “Our lead is not comfortable. The DHL Toyota team has done an incredible job staying focused and running like we are in 10th in points, not first. We will continue to follow that mindset and let the chips fall where they are supposed to.”

Worsham is 38 points in front of No. 2 Jack Beckman heading into this event.

Worsham has one of Team Kalitta’s two victories in the last three events at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was his lone 2014 victory, as he brought out the brand-new Toyota Camry body at the Toyota-sponsored race. That feat made Worsham the first driver in NHRA history to claim Wally trophies in NHRA’s top two classes at this venue.

He’ll open Saturday qualifying in seventh place.

MOVIN’ ON UP? – Clutch problems bit Tim Wilkerson at the most recent race, at Dallas, dropping the Levi, Ray, & Shoup Mustang owner-driver-tuner from eighth place to 10th in the Funny Car standings. The positive news is that he’s just a single point behind ninth-place Robert Hight, six points behind new No. 8 Cruz Pedregon, 11 points behind No. 7 Alexis DeJoria, and 69 points behind No. 6 John Force. Besides, with the Countdown format, Wilkerson can't finish any lower than 10th.

"We were disappointed to go out in the first round at the last race, in Dallas, but we're still so tightly bunched up in the standings that one good day could make a big difference," Wilkerson said. "We have two races left, and theoretically we could still finish as high as sixth. So there's all sorts of motivation for finishing strong. We're planning on putting everything we have on the table, and we'll take our best shot.”

Part of the motivation is financial. "There's bonus money at stake here, and the higher we can finish, the bigger the check is,” he said. “There's pride at stake, too, and I know my guys all want to finish as high as possible. The bottom line is we're professionals, and Dick Levi and the rest of our sponsors want to see us put our best possible effort on the track. They want us to win, and that's what we'll try to do. If we win rounds, good things will happen. It's pretty simple, really."

Qualifying will be the tough part.

Wilkerson said he was “a little surprised to see 22 Funny Cars entered for this weekend.” He said, “When you have that many teams entered, it forces everyone to be on top of their game because you know you can't just limp your way in. It keeps everybody honest."

He took the No. 7 spot in the first qualifying session Friday but backslid to No. 10 in the night session.

Like everyone, Wilkerson said he likes to control his own destiny “and you don't need this guy to beat that guy or that team to lose to this team. We lost our way a little with the clutch [at Dallas] and didn't give ourselves much of a chance to get that [first] round [against DeJoria], but I'd take a pairing with any of these other teams we're bunched up with. Let's get it on, head to head, and see who wins.”

SEMIFINALS OR BETTER – Alexis DeJoria, driver of the Patrón XO Café Incendio Toyota Camry for Kalitta Motorsports, has advanced to the semifinals or better in four of the last five Las Vegas events. She earned her second career victory in last season’s spring event here.

“Vegas has been one of the best tracks for us, performance-wise,” DeJoria said. And she wanted to do her best to ensure that would still be true.

“On Monday, after the race in Ennis [Texas], our team tested and had very promising results,” she said. “And we feel that our performance can and will continue to improve. It’s our manufacturer’s sponsored race as well as the city where the Patron Spirits Company is headquartered. All eyes are on us this weekend to bring home the hardware.”

If good karma counts for anything . . . DeJoria has arranged again for the “Mammovan” from the Nevada Health Centers to be on-site for the Free Mammograms for the Fans program. Female fans can get a free mammogram regardless of insurance status, courtesy of Alexis DeJoria Racing. The van opened at 9:30 a.m. Friday and will do so again Saturday to serve the female NHRA fans.

She finished the first session in eighth place in the order and closed the day as the tentative No. 6 starter.

ARE WE THERE YET, GRANDPA? – For a couple of years Chuck Beal’s car sat idle, while Don Prudhomme tried to get Brandon Welch’s career up and running. After Prudhomme found no luck on the marketing-partner front, the NHRA introduced new chassis specs in response to Scott Kalitta’s fatal accident at Englishtown, N.J. So those physical changes and financial price tag delayed the program even more.

Welch, Beal’s grandson, said he spent three more years completing his licensing runs, between 30 and 40 of them. Sometimes it was three runs in a weekend “because that’s all we could muster,” he said. Some came in June at Bakersfield, when temperatures were a scorching 100-degrees-plus.

Beal, team owner and crew chief for the AutoAnything Chevrolet, marveled at his crew members. “I’ve got two guys who have hung with me through all of this big adventure. They never gave up, and we had a lot of setbacks. We went to test and one of the guys went into A-fib [atrial fibulation, abnormal heart rhythm]. So we took him to the hospital. We never made a run [that trip to Famoso Raceway]. We took care of business at the hospital. That’s the kind of setbacks that we have. It has taken us nine years.”

Said Welch, “You think, ‘Nine years?!’ I’m almost ashamed of it, but the whole time we were working on something. We never turned our backs to this goal. And to be here finally is really surreal.”

The La Mesa, Calif., driver wound up 18th in the lineup early Friday in the ’08 Chevy Monte Carlo (22.092 seconds). He wasn’t last, though. Bringing up the rear of the 21-car field were seasoned racers Gary Densham, Jeff Arend, and Bob Bode, who hit timing cones and saw their times disqualified. Welch improved to 5.398 seconds, 141.43 mph, not yet exactly the results he had hoped for. He’ll have two more chances Saturday to crack into the field of 16 and will start with a clean slate.

Driving the car might seem like a piece of cake for Welch after all the exhaustive business and marketing end of their responsibilities.

“Just to give you some perspective of what’s going to be going on in my head . . . The last time I drove the car was right about the end of June. In May, we thought we had completed my sixth and final licensing run. It turns out one of the runs didn’t count, for whatever reason, according to the Competition Department. So we took the car out to Bakersfield in late June, pulled it out of the box. I actually had a business meeting earlier that morning, on a Saturday, drove out to Bakersfield, got in the car, hit the gas, drove it A to B, and we packed it up. So we made one run in June, and the next time I stage the car is going to be in front of – who knows? – 20,000 people. The way they set it up is a newly licensed driver has a single and it’s the first pair of the first qualifying session. It’s like, ‘All right – here goes nothin.’ ”

With a laugh, he said, “We’re going to be No.1 qualifier for at least a run.”

The debuting driver said, “Driving the car doesn’t give you a lot of time to be nervous. I actually wrote out how many steps that are taken before you hit the gas. There are actually 32 steps to go through in staging a nitro Funny Car and through the burnout and back-up. They’re steps I have to take in the car, and that’s very advantageous to me. It doesn’t allow you to be nervous, because you have to focus on the task at hand inside the car. Thankfully, there’s not time when you stage the car to think, ‘Holy crap! What am I about to do?’ All of a sudden the ambers flash and you have to hit the gas. Then it’s all over in about four seconds.”

Welch laughed and said, “What’s funny about driving the car is I’ll get in the tow car at the end of the run and it’ll take me 10 minutes to describe to Chuck what happened, point by point, all the way down the track.”             

STILL SWINGING – John Force defeated teammate Robert Hight in the final round here in the spring race, and the team owner said that was a key victory. He said it proved a point to new sponsors, Peak Antifreeze and Coolant and Lucas Oil, along with faithful ones Auto Club, Traxxas, and Mac Tools.

“That win showed the new partners and the old ones that I have the guts to keep doing this,” Force said. “Auto Club and Traxxas and Mac Tools stood by me [when Ford and Castrol ditched him] and then we brought on Peak Antifreeze, Lucas Oil, and Chevrolet. I have a young group of guys, and we pulled together. We have been working every race on getting better, and it showed that day in Las Vegas.”

Since then, he won the New England Nationals at Epping, N.H., and was runner-up at the Kansas Nationals and the Mopar Mile High Nationals. This weekend, in the EiKO Chevrolet Camaro that showcases another of sponsor Old World Industries, the No. 6 driver said, I still believe in my heart I have a chance” to win a 17th crown.

“Coming into the Countdown, we were confident and I had a young group of guys,” he said. “Some of them have not been in a championship hunt before, and we are hanging in there. I am proud of how well this team has pulled together and how well Jon Schaffer, my new crew chief, has been a good leader.”

He has a 224-point deficit to make up. If he wins the event, he could earn 100 or more points, but he will need some opponents to stumble Sunday.

“I have a lot of work to do if I am going to catch the leaders, but I had a lot of work to do after my crash in Dallas. I put in the time and had the determination to get healthy and get back in a race car. We took a big hit from some sponsors leaving, but we built this company back up to where we are pretty good financially – not back to where we want to be but I am in the championship conversation and I want to keep going after it. Until they give that big trophy to someone else I feel like I can win it,” Force said.

He started off well, No. 2 in the lineup, then dropped to a certainly respectable No. 5.

WANTS STRONG FINISH – The clock is ticking. (Never mind that Sunday morning officially is the time to turn the clocks back – Chris “Warrior” Kullberg, car chief for Cruz Pedregon’s Snap-on Toyota, said “We must take advantage of every opportunity this weekend.” He said, “This team knows how to handle the pressure, and we have the experience to produce results late in the game.”

Owner-driver Pedregon said he has had “a safe, productive season with a lot of good runs.” But the No. 8-ranked competitor is wants one that ends with at least one victory in the final two events and leaves his program on the upswing.

“We know that a win will give us a boost in points and make a difference in how we finish the season in the standings. We’ve finished in the top 10 every year since 2010, and we want to end on a high note for 2015,” he said. “As a team, we have been very committed, and a strong finish in Las Vegas is within sight because we have the car, tools, and people to get the job done.”

Together they secured a spot in the top 12 so they don’t have to start from scratch Saturday. With Courtney Force vaulting 13 places to No. 2, Chad Head moving up 10 spots to No. 4, and Gary Densham improving eight spots to No. 11, Pedregon slipped from the top 12. He’s 13th overnight, his 4.109-second Friday-best-pass was just a few ticks slower than Paul Lee’s 4.080.

ACE LOOKING TO TRUMP CONTENDERS – Paul Lee / McLeod Racing and Worsham Racing are back together this weekend, after teaming for the Keystone Nationals at Reading, Pa., earlier this month. “Team Worsham has really improved the performance of the car recently, and we hope to go some rounds to take out a countdown contender or a few on Sunday,” Lee, McLeod Racing president said. His opponents never know – Lee, also a professional poker player, might have an ace up his sleeve.

Something worked for him in the first qualifying session. Lee scored the tentative No. 9 spot with a 4.080-second, 310.91-mph performance. He ended the day in the desirable top 12, at No. 12.

One thing Lee does have is another partner on the promotional side. Both McLeod Racing and Summit Racing are tagged “Dealers of the Race.” To mark this first time that McLeod and Summit have joined forces in the NHRA, customers will have a 10-percent discount on McLeod Racing Products through Summit Racing throughout the weekend.

NEW CHANCES SATURDAY – Besides Cruz Pedregon, those having to start over Saturday with no times are Ron Caps, John Bojec, John Hale, Tim Gibbons, Terry Haddock, Brandon Welch, Tony Pedregon, Jeff Arend, and Bob Bode.   

SURFER BEACHED – Jeff “The Surfer Dude” Diehl withdrew from this weekend’s Toyota Nationals. Citing added costs because of NHRA technical mandates, coupled with funding that either fell through or is delayed, his wife, Leeza Diehl, posted the news on the Jeff Diehl Racing Facebook page. The post read, “JDR has had to pull out and will not be running this race. Due to the new mandated manifold purchase and other costs, we just can’t pull it for this one. Funding didn’t come [through] for this race as hoped for, so it’s not in the financial cards this weekend. We will see you all at Pomona in a couple [of] weeks.”

PRO STOCK

‘NOT BACKING DOWN’ – Erica Enders, who has a 154-point advantage over closest challenger Greg Anderson, can clinch her second straight Pro Stock series championship this weekend. It’s quite a different scenario from her last-pass-of-the-year, head-to-head match-up with Jason Line last fall.

“Last year was do-or-die every round when we came to Vegas. I aged 10 years at Pomona. This time we have a little cushion in the points, but we know we're not done racing,” Enders said. “There is work to be done, and these guys are super hungry to get another championship.

Even with three Las Vegas victories in a row, a 52-14 race-day record, and eight event triumphs (two in the Countdown) that make her this season’s most successful winner in all pro categories, she said, "We've definitely got our work cut out for us. By no means is it over yet. It's our goal to do the best we can, qualify in the best position we can, and win the race. Vegas has been great to us in the past, and we've got an 18 consecutive round-win streak going on now. We can't control what the other guys do. We can control what we do. But we're not backing down.

"I'm treating this race like all the other ones; I want to do my very best to put this Elite Motorsports Camaro in the winner's circle," Enders said. "We have an awesome team with the best mechanics, engine builders, and crew chiefs in the world and we have a lot of confidence. To change the way we've been racing at this point would be crazy."

She didn't and didn’t need to Friday. Enders came close to resetting her own year-old track records in taking command of qualifying with a 6.579-second pass at 209.10 mph. She had a .015-second advantage over closest challenger Drew Skillman, her Elite Motorsports teammate.

In the evening session, Enders maintained her provisional lead as she did break her records. She’s No. 1 overnight at 6.559, 210.28, in pursuit of her sixth No. 1 start of the season.

“I’m excited. I’m cautiously optimistic,” she said. “We have to leave here 151 [points] up to make it mathematically impossible for Greg to win. By no means is it over. I know just what Greg Anderson and those KB guys are capable of. I also know what my guys are capable of. But starting off Friday night with the pole doesn’t hurt.”

Enders has shown she’ll be fierce on the racetrack but not stressed-out, she indicated: "God has a plan for us, and it takes a lot of stress off my shoulders, knowing that my destiny has already been set. I just need to do what I can behind the wheel and then let God handle the rest."

Enders said her confidence comes not just from her achievements but largely from those who enable her to make them happen. Team owner Richard Freeman, crew chiefs Rick Jones and Rickie Jones, and the rest of the crew get the credit.

"We enjoy our success together,” she said. “It's pretty amazing as a new team what we've been able to accomplish the past two years. Having said that, it's short-lived because you go from one race to the next, and you can go from hero to zero really quickly. We enjoy it while it happens, and as the next race approaches, we start with a clean slate and go in with a mindset that anything can happen. Richard

has organized a great team, and we have the best equipment and the best people. Most importantly, we have fun together, and that's a big reason why we are as successful as we are on the racetrack.

"They never cease to amaze me,” Enders said of the team. “When the pressure is on, they show up. It makes my job as a driver a lot more fun and a little bit less stressful because I know I'm going to have a car underneath me and all I've got to do is drive it down the racetrack. It’s not as simple as it sounds, but I've got the best crew chiefs in the business. I talk about them all the time, but their loyalty, never-quit attitude, passion, and support never wavers. It's nice to have a group that I can count on and take their word and their performance to the bank. I couldn’t possibly love them any more.

"What we're most proud of is the more pressure of a situation we're in, the better we do,” Enders said. “We rise to the occasion together, and it's pretty awesome. If you remove yourself from the situation and step back and look at what we've been able to accomplish together in the crazy situations that we've been able to do it, we rise to the top. I’m so thankful to be with a team that's capable of that."

WILL FEEL-GOOD TRACK HALT HOLESHOT LOSSES? - Greg Anderson has exited each race since Indianapolis (in other words, the U.S. Nationals and every race in the Countdown) on a holeshot. That’s at least 100 points he had an excellent chance to gain, which would have sliced the No. 2-ranked racer’s deficit to just 54 points.

And don’t think that doesn’t bug Anderson.   

"I've spent a lot of time on the reaction time trainer lately,” he said, “and we've been going over notes, trying to dissect and diagnose the problem. We will win again. I have used all of the possible time that we've had since the last race to focus on fixing this. Hopefully we've cracked the case and can get back to where we need to be at this critical point in the season. Our Summit Racing Camaro is very fast. We just need to put it all together."

The four-time series champion knows the odds surely are tipped in leader Erica Enders’ favor, but he also knows anything can happen.

"We cannot give up," Anderson said. "Until it's over, it's not over, and crazier things have happened. You have to keep fighting. You have to keep digging. We're going [in]to Las Vegas with guns blazing and we'll try as hard as we can to put ourselves in the best position possible before the last race of the year."
 
The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is the home track for KB Racing team owners Ken and Judy Black, and it’s where Anderson has won seven times in nine final round appearances. His most recent victory here, in 2010, gave him the second most victories at Las Vegas by any professional competitor. (Top Fuel racer Tony Schumacher has eight.)

"This is a feel-good racetrack for us,” he said as he seeks his fifth victory of the season. " We aren't complaining or feeling bad [coming] to this race. We love it, and we know we can race well [here]. If we're going to have a chance, it's certainly going to be at this racetrack."

He took a step in the right direction Friday by qualifying a provisional third.

SIMPLE STRATEGY – Jason Line, whose quest for a third championship got off to a terrific start with a Winternationals victory at Pomona, Calif. But he lost his lead at Atlanta and never regained it, and he has slipped out of contention with two final races remaining. He’s seventh in the standings but is aiming for another top-five finish to keep his streak alive. "I've never finished outside the top 5 since I began racing Pro Stock, and I'd certainly like to continue that. My teammate, Greg Anderson, is still in the running for the championship, and this year isn't over yet. Our KB Racing team still has a good chance of finishing the year well, and I just have to go try to do the best job I can to win for Team Summit.”

The Camaro driver, a five-time Las Vegas finalist and 2008 fall-race winner, said, "The plan of attack for Las Vegas is simple. I just have to do better than I have in the last few races."

He’s No. 4 so far, with two more qualifying sessions to improve.

CLOSE RACING – The Nos. 4-11 racers in the provisional lineup are within .019 of a second of each other.

No. 4 Jason Line clocked a 6.600-second pass, Shane Gray was on Line’s heels by a thousandth of a second, and Vincent Nobile and Bo Butner were a mere three-thousandths of a second behind. In that bunch also are Jonathan Gray (6.605), Allen Johnson (6.607), Larry Morgan (6.611), Alex Laughlin (6.619).    

BACK TO SQUARE ONE – Starting with no official times Saturday will be V Gaines, Kenny Delco, Deric Kramer, Joey Grose, Matt Hartford, and Alan Prusiensky. Chris McGaha drew the top-12 line at 6.625 seconds in his Harlow Sammons Chevrolet Camaro.  

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

KEEPING IT REAL – Handling alligators every day and surviving the perhaps trickier world of marketing them has helped Jerry Savoie keep racing for a Pro Stock Motorcycle championship in perspective. Savoie, the class’ most recent winner (at Dallas), simply isn’t going to get worked up about whether he can take a bite out of the Vance & Hines team’s command of the standings. Savoie is third, 31 points out of the lead. Whether he earns his fourth victory this weekend or takes a bold leap toward his first series title, he said he’s content.

 “I do care about the championship,” the White Alligator Racing owner-rider said. “If we go out there and do our job, we have a chance to win. If other people do their job better than us, they’re going to win. Am I worried about it? No, not really. People put themselves under so much excruciating pressure during times like this, and that’s not me. Whatever happens, happens.

“Here’s the main deal . . . In February, I’m going to be 57. To come out and do this is amazing, and I am so thankful to be in the position I’m in,” Savoie said. “Whatever happens from here on out is icing on the cake. I don’t have any pressure to come out and win. I’m blessed, the team works really hard, and we’re just having fun. If you can have fun, that’s what it is all about.”

After taking the provisional No. 1 spot with a 6.876-second, 194.21-mph run, both class bests, Savoie said this weekend’s “mindset was taking it round by round.” He continued to say that he isn’t going to focus on the championship: “Your mind gets cluttered, and you try to push yourself to more limits. God has blessed us, and I can’t think Him enough.”

He said of Pro Stock Motorcycle racing, “This is not stressful at all. This is fun. I have a whole family out here, whether it be blood family or the racing family.”  He said sometimes when he spends 14 hours a day, flying helicopters in search of alligator nests in his regular job, alligator farming can be stressful.

But Friday night, Savoie had no real worries.

TRICK OR TREATING FOR ANSWERS – Hector Arana has been scratching his head under that trademark Panama hat.

"We've got the power. I know we've got the power. I don't know what happened, but we have lost the tune-up a little bit. We're behind some, and we're having some issues with the 60-foot times. That's killing us,” he said. His Lucas Oil Buell and the one he tunes for son Hector Arana Jr., he said, “is not responding. It's not just one - it's both bikes. We're not getting the 60-foot that we're used to. We've got plenty of notes, and we try to go through those notes and duplicate it, but things are not repeating. It's not giving us the info that we need."

The bikes have given him plenty of frights at the shop in Milltown, Ind. But he considers the Pro Stock Motorcycle class’ fun-loving tradition of dressing up a real treat this Halloween weekend. “To dress up and see the kids and all that, that puts a smile on my face. I act like a kid," he said. “It’s a cool event. It's a great facility, and you have everything around that you could possibly want.”

What he really wants is some answers about what will make his bike right again, like it was at Atlanta this spring, when he won and was as high in the standings as third place. He’s eighth entering this race. Arana reached the final round at St. Louis but lost to son Hector Jr. But he hasn't qualified in the top half of the field at the past two races and has won only one round in that stretch.

"We have to look at it differently now," Arana said. "We need to do something off the charts to see what happens. All I've been thinking about is what to do: Thinking about the clutch, thinking about the motor, thinking about what it needs. I need to do something so it can go fast. Then we'll be back on top."

He landed the No. 7 spot in the tentative lineup Friday.

First Hector Arana Jr.’s clutch lever wacked out on him in the first round of eliminations at Dallas, although he won when opponent Mike Berry’s engine suddenly shut down on him. Then the replacement clutch lever worked all too well, and the Lucas Oil Buell racer red-lit in Round 2.  Now, Arana Jr. said, "The bike's back to reacting how it's supposed to react. It's almost like you've got to start all over again. You've got to adjust the clutch to slow the bike down because you shouldn't slow yourself down. Your clutch tune-up changes a little bit because of how the clutch is coming in. Now we've got that fixed, and hopefully in four runs we can get it dialed in and get back on top."

If his luck from his last visit to Las Vegas continues, he should be all right.

"I was able to go out there early. I brought $500 with me, and I was there for a week,” he said. “My brother and some friends came out, and we had a good time. I was able to play the whole weekend, pay for my food and everything with that $500, and I left with $600. It was pretty cool."

How cool this trip turns out to be for the fourth-place rider depends on whether he can close that 81-point gap between himself and leader Andrew Hines. At least the Halloween weekend will bring some fun for him, he said.

He had some fun Friday, securing one of the top 12 spots – No. 9, at 6.976 seconds, 192.74 mph.

STARTING FROM SCRATCH – A long list of bike racers will have no times from Friday to build on. The gigantic field of 29, easily the largest this year, surpassed the 22 total at Gainesville and 20 at Indianapolis. Starting over with no elapsed times will be Mike Berry, Steve Johnson, Jim Underdahl, Cory Reed, Angie Smith, Fred Camarena, Melissa Surber, Robert Karlsson, Eddie Reed, Kallie Lyren, Katie Sullivan, Redell Harris, Rhett Lougheed, Brian Pretzel, Lance Bonham, Luke Crowley, and Joe DeSantis.