Under crystal blue skies and moderate temperatures the NHRA Summitracing.com Nationals continued today at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, one of the finest facilities on the POWERade Series trail. Despite the excellent weather the spectator turnout was a disappointment, as there were numerous empty seats on both sides of the track. This could be the first real indication that a stagnant economy and near-four-dollars-per-gallon gas prices are having an impact on the quarter mile sport.
 
With two runs today the “expected” hitters in Pro Stock finally stepped up and made the field, leaving only those unfortunately accustomed to DNQ status occupying the sixteenth through twenty-third positions. Larry Morgan’s personal struggles continued, while all of his customer cars save Vinnie Deceglie made the show. Jeg Coughlin, Jr. had to abort his first run today after someone on the crew forgot to install the rearend cap back in the pits, with Jeggie oiling the track on his burnout, resulting in a lengthy clean-up. It would be far from the first such delay of the day, and from the comments overheard from the spectators, they were less than pleased with the quality of the show they witnessed. Greg Anderson. Who was on the outside looking in when the day began, finally locked up the ninth slot. Under crystal blue skies and moderate temperatures the NHRA Summitracing.com Nationals continued today at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, one of the finest facilities on the POWERade Series trail. Despite the excellent weather the spectator turnout was a disappointment, as there were numerous empty seats on both sides of the track. This could be the first real indication that a stagnant economy and near-four-dollars-per-gallon gas prices are having an impact on the quarter mile sport.
 
With two runs today the “expected” hitters in Pro Stock finally stepped up and made the field, leaving only those unfortunately accustomed to DNQ status occupying the sixteenth through twenty-third positions. Larry Morgan’s personal struggles continued, while all of his customer cars save Vinnie Deceglie made the show. Jeg Coughlin, Jr. had to abort his first run today after someone on the crew forgot to install the rearend cap back in the pits, with Jeggie oiling the track on his burnout, resulting in a lengthy clean-up. It would be far from the first such delay of the day, and from the comments overheard from the spectators, they were less than pleased with the quality of the show they witnessed. Greg Anderson. Who was on the outside looking in when the day began, finally locked up the ninth slot.
 
There were only 18 cars trying to make the Top Fuel field, and when the tire smoke cleared (there seemed to be more tire smokers than hooked up runs – but maybe that’s just our jaundiced view of things) the surprise DNQ was Alan Bradshaw, who could only muster a 6.379. It’s not as if the bump was ultra-tough. It only took a 5.107 to make the show. This rather soft bump was probably the result of a combination of factors, which certainly included track preparation – a subject the competitors are becoming ever more vocal about. Trust us on this, you have not heard the last on this subject.
 
Alan Johnson continues to be the tuning master. Although Tony Schumacher didn’t improve on yesterday’s 4.510, he ran extremely well and easily held on to the Number 1 position. Of the five cars than ran four-fifties yesterday the most impressive of the bunch was probably Morgan Lucas, who has not had the greatest season to date. One wonders if Las Vegas is going to be the turning point for the young driver of the Lucas Oil dragster. We shall see on the morrow!
 
As of last night John Force was 15th in Funny Car, meaning he had no guarantee of being part of Sunday’s eliminations when this day began, but come on, you knew he and tuners Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly would get the big Ford in the show, and that’s exactly what they – wait a minute. They didn’t! Force could only muster a best of 5.020 – and the bump was a 4.997 by Jack Beckman. Also destined for “no-racing-today-only-autographs” status tomorrow are Jerry Tolliver, Terry Haddock and Tony Bartone – who had another disastrous outing in Jim Dunn’s Canidaie All Natural Pet Foods Chevrolet, coming past the finish line on fire in his last attempt. Okay, it wasn’t a major conflagration, but as you can see in the photo, it was on fire! Scott Kalitta also DNQ’d, but since he rarely signs autographs anyway…oh, never mind.
 
The run of the day was clearly Robert Hight’s 4.849 – which took away the Number 1 spot from Tim Wilkerson, shoving him down to second, and Bob Tasca III down to third. Melanie Troxel hung on to make the field, as did the other “usual suspects.” Champion Tony Pedregon’s one-off paint scheme from The Palms Hotel & Casino looked good going by in 4.914 seconds, but expect the car to be back in Quaker State trim at the next outing.
 
As we wrote yesterday about today, tomorrow’s going to be an interesting day because the tuners are still going to be fighting a very tricky race track, the temperature’s supposed to be in the high 80s and a plague of locusts is expected right after the National Anthem. Okay, we made up that last part, but look, if you’re looking for straight, staid and boring copy, better look elsewhere. We’re al trying to have a little fun here, and we hope you are too!