Steve Comella will lead the Dodge Hemi Shootout field headed into Friday's elite showdown of 1968 Mopar muscle known as the Dodge Hemi Shootout, a race-within-a-race at the 2022 Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.

Comella surpassed Wednesday's leader Jim Pancake for the top spot during Thursday's two qualifying sessions, amping up his performance in consecutive sessions and ending with an 8.421, 158.80 best. Pancake ended the day second quickest with an 8.491, followed by the only other car in the 8.4-second range, James Daniels, with an 8.492.

Competition Eliminator got in two sessions, and by the end of Thursday's qualifying, the H/Econo Altered '32 Bantam of Matt Forbes had overtaken Doug Engel's Dragster atop the largest field (48 entries) assembled at an NHRA Lucas Oil Series event this year. 

Forbes heads into the final session with an 8.908, -.652 best, slightly ahead of Engels' -.638, 7.362 performance. The Factory Stock/Super Modified 2021 Challenger of A.J. Berge is third with a -.626, 7.864,

Ernie Neal remained at the top of the ladder in Super Stock qualifying. Still, he added an extra level of success in winning his 14th career NHRA Class Eliminations crown by driving his Super Stock P/Automatic entry to victory in the final round of the Automatic Transmission Combo bracket by beating the GT/CA entry of Jason DeForrest. When a class has only one entrant, instead of a bye run for a single, these cars are combined for an overall category. 

Brian Seaburg remained atop the Stock Eliminator qualifying list and, just like Neal, drove away with a class eliminations title. Seaburg's Comet beat "Captain" Jack McCarthy's laboring Chevy wagon for the U/Stock Automatic title. 

The fast bracket divisions of Top Dragster and Top Sportsman hit the track for the first time.

Thomas Bayer  (6.104) set the pace for the dragsters, while Lester Johnson's '55 Chevy was tops among the doorslammers with a 6.131.

There are 56 entries remaining in Super Gas after a brutal first round of eliminations that took out several of the usual champions. Brian Shockley's 9.901 with the best of the first round.