When reigning NHRA Rookie of the Year recipient Dallas Glenn rolled to the water box for the burnout in his race against T.J. Coughlin; there was no indication he had much of a chance of keeping his car running, much less winning the first round.

“I go to fire it up for the first run, E1, and it backfires, and then it’s not wanting to start,” said Glenn. “It’s not wanting to idle. I roll it up there. I’m trying to keep it running, and I forget to go to third [gear] for my burnout, and I do a first, second, third burn out. So it’s like hardly any burnout. 

“Then once I backed up, I just had to like, calm down, forget everything that happened. Just go up and do a normal run, and it made a real nice run.”

Not only did Glenn score the improbable round win, he also ran his quickest run of the weekend, a 6.478, 210.05.

Glenn maintained a cool hand, living in the high 6.4-second range with the slowest run of the day, a 6.506. Glenn turned up the wick in the final round with a 6.486, 210.21 to beat KB Racing teammate Kyle Koretsky.

The Pro Stock division yielded the quickest runs in the history of the EFI era, led by Aaron Stanfield’s 6.468, 211.66. Not bad for a class that only got one shot at the track.

“When you only get one qualifying run, everybody’s kind of like, they don’t really want to really go for it because you don’t have any backup or anything,” Glenn explained. “So, we didn’t necessarily make a bad run on our first qualifying run, but we were definitely conservative. But it was really a good thing that we did get that run. They were talking about how it was getting cold real quick, and we were all nervous about it, especially because the track had all the rubber come up, and they had to put all the rubber back down from all the rain. 

“But you got to hand it to the Safety Safari; they did a phenomenal job,” Glenn said. “I never had a problem with the track. It felt great to me all weekend. We go up there, and getting that run really helped us because we got some stuff on the car that we’re still trying to work out, and getting that run was really important. So going into race day, I felt pretty good. I knew I had a tough competitor and knew I was the first pair, so they usually back down for the first pair a little bit again. But other than a little bit of drama first round, it was pretty much a great run.” 

Glenn knew what to expect from Koretsky, considering the two met 11 times in 18 races last season. 

“I knew he was going to be tough,” Glenn admitted. “We were only a few thousandths apart. He was good on the tree all day.”

The setting sun played havoc on many of the racers, including Glenn.

“The sun was directly into the bulbs of the tree,” Glenn said. “I’m sitting there while they’re doing the wheelie bars, and I’m like, ‘I do not know how I’m going to do this because I can see that tree, and it looks like it’s already lit up.”

“When I went in, I almost anticipated it, and I felt like I almost went red, and it was .41 on the tree. I was glad I didn’t go red. The car made just an absolute, beautiful run; it felt amazing. I go to the finish line, and I don’t know if I won or not because the sun is in those bulbs too. 

“So I’m not sure; it was looking really close. It looks like both lights are on. So I just had to wait for them to wave me to which side I was going to be on.”

Glenn believes his team is hitting its stride at the right time.

“The car is working fantastic right now,” Glenn said. “It feels good. I’m in a different car this year, and everybody was questioning, ‘Well, why’d you get a different car? You’re doing so good.”

“I’m just telling them, ‘just wait. Once we get this thing figured out, it’s going to be a handful.” 

“I think we’re finally getting to that point. I can’t wait for the rest of the season already.”