The full contingent of 40 Countdown to 1 berths were clinched by the second round of the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn.

Both nitro divisions had one available position apiece and after the first round on Sunday those spots were filled.

Tony Pedregon claimed the tenth and final position in the Funny Car division after both Cruz Pedregon and Jeff Arend lost in the first round.
T-Ped was the first of the trio to exit competition when he lost to the No. 2 seed Robert Hight. The two-time series champion watched nervously as his place in the playoff was secured.

“We just didn’t have the performance in the last four or five races,” Pedregon admitted. “It was pretty nerve wracking and you think you can control your emotions. You’d like to think you’re bigger than to get emotional.

“For the Kalitta guys and my brother Cruz, you have to have the right timing. If you go back in time, we earned it. We wrecked a car, blew up a couple of bodies and I just had to slow down and be careful with the spending. That may change and I may not be the most competitive in the Countdown but it’s just that little glimmer of hope I have again.

“I don’t know that I have ever been so happy with losing first round.”

Final round-by-round results from the 29th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway, the 17th of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series:

TOP FUEL:  

Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the 29th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway, the 17th of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series -  

Top Fuel

1.  Larry Dixon, 1,639; 2.  Cory McClenathan, 1,359; 3.  Tony Schumacher, 1,346; 4.  Doug Kalitta, 1,243; 5.  Antron Brown, 1,180; 6.  Brandon Bernstein, 1,109; 7.  Shawn Langdon, 815; 8.  Morgan Lucas, 758; 9.  Steve Torrence, 704; 10.  David Grubnic, 682.

Only a persistent drizzle and a strict curfew at Hockenheimring stood between Melanie Troxel and certain victory at the 25th annual FIA Nitrolympx on Sunday.

Troxel had advanced to the Pro Mod final and was scheduled to face teammate Micke Gullqvist for the championship, but a slight rain began to fall and organizers didn't believe it would stop in time to run any more cars before the 5 p.m. curfew.

"We came a long way to race here and it's a shame the weather got in the way when we were so close to completing the event," Troxel said. "We're all disappointed about that but thrilled with the weekend as a whole."

While all the attention this past week has been on his Countdown-hopeful teammates and even crew chief Jim Oberhofer for his newly learned ballroom dancing skills, Top Fuel veteran Doug Kalitta quietly stole the show in his camp and in his class at Brainerd International Raceway.
 
Kalitta pulled off a 3.842-second pass at 305.49 mph in the Technicoat Dragster and will line up first in Sunday’s Lucas Oil Nationals against Luigi Novelli. And, he said that’s all the farther ahead he’s looking.
 
Although he locked into the Countdown several races ago, the Ann Arbor, Mich., resident said, “I’m definitely focused on this race here. We’ll just take one round at a time throughout the year and hope for the best. I feel good about tomorrow. Jim Oberhofer and Troy (Fasching) and all my guys have been working real hard at this thing. We’re hoping to do well tomorrow, hopefully win the race and build some momentum. We’re locked into the chase.”
 
After earning his second No. 1 qualifying position of the year and 30th of his career, Kalitta predicted Sunday conditions would make for some outstanding racing.

One year ago, on this same weekend, longtime nitro crew chief Dickie Venables felt the best situation for him was to take a trip to his favorite fishing hole. He’d just resigned his position as crew chief for the points leading Funny Car driver Tony Pedregon and hadn’t settled on a future plan.

For a man who had just claimed his 11th No. 1 qualifier of the season, NHRA Pro Stock racer Mike Edwards was anything but brimming with confidence.

Edwards, the defending series champion from Coweta, Ok., ran a 6.644 elapsed time at 207.45 miles per hour to edge out championship contender Allen Johnson for the top spot at the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn.

“We’re definitely not in front of the game,” Edwards cautioned. “We were just fortunate to make a real good run earlier today. I’m not the man any more, I am just trying to hold on and compete as good as I can. There’s a lot of cars out here that are faster than us right now.”

Edwards is adamant his team hasn’t been testing and as much as he regrets to admit, the competition has caught him.

Both of Jack Beckman’s grandfathers were fishermen, but “clearly that skips two generations - I just don’t have that gene,” he said. To the Funny Car driver, a pole is a body pole, a line is the starting or finish stripe, and hook refers to the grip of the racing surface. “Bait” is something he wouldn’t do to, say, fellow drag-racing instructor Roy Hill.

Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan was going on a trip in American’s northern fishing paradise - Minnesota - this past week. Beckman said, “I thought, ‘Man, that would be cool.’ ” But then he thought, “I’d kind of rather not,” followed by, “Well, I’d better.”
 
He shook off any misgivings - couldn’t disappoint his fisherman-extraordinaire boss Schumacher - and found himself in a boat with wife Jenna, three-year-old son Jason, and a handful of other adventurous souls. They included Top Fuel driver Terry McMillen, his Amalie Oil Dragster team members Jim Walczak and Cori Wickler, and ESPN cameraman Matt Ilas and pit producer Trevor Towle.
 
And Jason Beckman, using a junior-sized pole and casting his line for the first time in his life, out-fished them all.