John Force said he still is evaluating exactly what went wrong with his PEAK Blue Def Chevy Camaro two weekends ago at Pomona that caused him to cross the center line during qualifying, crash into J.R. Todd, and ruin both of their race cars.

But he’s certain of one thing: His age didn’t play a factor in the incident, and he isn’t planning to quit. He discredited a rumor that one or more racers approached him at the Lucas Oil Winternationals and urged him to step away from the cockpit.

 Funny Car owner-racer Terry Haddock is competing in his 323rd NHRA event at the Four-Wide Las Vegas Nationals, and he recently has started to reap some rewards for his perseverance.

After 174 DNQs and 136 first-round exits, the Temple, Texas, engine-repair shop owner has seen a turnaround. He has only 14 elimination round-wins, but three of those have come in the past 14 days as he made it into the top 10 in the standings.

“We’re just going to try to keep doing the same thing,” Haddock said at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “We've worked hard to change our program during the off-season, and we're trying to get consistent. And with consistency, we'll get a little faster.”

Final round-by-round results from the 23rd annual NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the fourth of 21 events in the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series:

Tony Stewart didn’t master the four-wide format right away, but throughout this entire first experience with the unconventional format, he has embraced it with enthusiasm.

Stewart made the 16-car Top Alcohol Dragster field on the second day of qualifying at No. 5, behind quickest qualifier Shawn Cowie, Mike Coughlin, Kim Parker, and Summer Richardson. He’ll start Sunday’s Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series action in a foursome featuring Richardson, Johnny Ahten, and McPhillips Racing teammate Jasmine Salinas.

“I’m pretty excited about it, honestly. After two days, I’ve run in all four lanes now. There wasn’t anything that caught me off-guard, necessarily,” he said. “I feel like the approach I’ve been going with every round of qualifying has been a very solid approach.”

A year ago, the first part of the season was a struggle for Pro Stock driver Matt Hartford.

Through the first five races, he won just two rounds, and his best qualifying position was eighth.

He seems to have changed his fortunes in 2023.

Cruz Pedregon raced to his second straight No. 1 qualifier, hanging on to the top spot at Saturday’s NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Brittany Force (Top Fuel) and Matt Hartford (Pro Stock) also qualified No. 1 qualifiers at the fourth of 21 races during the 2023 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season.

Pedregon’s run of 3.910-seconds at 326.71 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Snap-On Tools Dodger Charger Hellcat SRT from Friday held up, giving the two-time world champion his second No. 1 spot this season and the 64th in his career. Pedregon will race for his first win of the season on Sunday, with his opening-round quad also featuring Steven Densham, Tim Wilkerson and Bobby Bode.

If Cruz Pedregron has proved anything at the last two national events – Pomona, Calif., and Las Vegas this weekend – his team has figured out a qualifying tune-up.

Fresh off grabbing the No. 1 qualifying spot at the previous event – the Winternationals – the veteran driver is on the verge of duplicating the feat at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Pedregon clocked a 3.910-second elapsed time at 326.71 mph in Q1 Friday, which was good enough for the provisional pole at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Vegas.

“Yeah, the track was really good even with not a lot of cars running on it, but really for us, it’s been trying to back the car down,” Pedregon said. “We showed up; we had one extra month to salt or to bask in our glory from winning, dominating Pomona. And I think that we thought we were pretty cool, and so we opened the show in Gainesville, just smoking the tires.