Mike Castellana and "Stevie Fast" Jackson each took turns leading the opening round of Pro Mod qualifying for the 40th annual--and final--NHRA Southernationals, but in the second-last pair down the track Friday night at Atlanta Dragway, Khalid al Balooshi tied the track ET record with a 5.71-seconds blast at 250.23 mph.

"Yeah, I feel the car hook and get down on the tires and lift the front end, so I know it's going to be good," the Dubai-based racer said.

Balooshi credited hard work away from the track on his Procharger-equipped 2019 Camaro for his team's strong showing straight out of the truck.

"We work hard," he declared. "We've been working hard for a month and we went testing twice, but let's be honest, I give big credit for the boys putting this deal together.

"We started from scratch. It's not a new car, but it's a new combination starting from different rear-end, different transmission ratios, different engine that everybody worked on and it gives us a badass combination. So Alan Johnson, Proline, M&M torque converters, PRS shocks, and especially my crew chief, Brad Personett, all my crew guys, they all work so hard to get the performance we've seen here and it all started from scratch."

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— Competition Plus (@competitionplus) December 30, 2020