​Angelle Sampey keeps on battling to stay in NHRA’s Pro Stock Motorcycle world championship hunt.

Sampey, riding a Vance & Hines Suzuki, blazed to a 6.728-second elapsed time at 202.05 mph on Friday and that remained in the No. 1 qualifying position after the preliminary sessions concluded Saturday at the Texas NHRA FallNationals at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas.

Erica Enders is doing everything possible to capture her fifth NHRA Pro Stock world championship. 

The Texas native arrived at the Texas NHRA FallNationals this weekend with a 120-point lead over her Elite Motorsports teammate Aaron Stanfield.
Enders kept gradually adding to her points lead, culminating with her No. 1 qualifying spot with a 6.524-second elapsed time at 210.53 mph from Friday night.

Melanie Salemi checked off one of the three things on her team’s to-do list – qualifying No. 1 in WS Construction Pro Boost presented by P2 Contracting and Ty-Drive – Saturday night as she chases a Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) world championship. Salemi’s 3.579-second pass at 209.46 MPH from Friday night stands as the quickest pass of the Proline Racing Brian Olson Memorial World Finals presented by ProCharger so far. Next, she needs to break her own elapsed-time record and win the race to maintain her championship hopes. 

There are just some things you cannot fake in Texas. Or at least Justin Ashley couldn't pull off the New York bluff. 

Ashley drove his way to an impressive Top Fuel win at last year's Texas NHRA FallNationals and landed the ultimate prize - the Cowboy Hat. 

So where's the problem?

Nobody in the Top Fuel Countdown field has been eliminated yet, and any one of the 12 championship-eligible drivers can mix up the standings this weekend at the Texas FallNationals at Texas Motorplex, near Dallas.  

This race marks the start of the second half of the six-event Countdown, and it began Friday with the second through seventh seeds within 74 points of each other and No. 7 Doug Kalitta just 88 points behind leader Justin Ashley. 

Ashley days ago shook off his first-round loss to No. 4-ranked Mike Salinas at St. Louis, and Salinas has stopped thinking about his second-round defeat against No. 6 Josh Hart. Likewise, Antron Brown put his Round 1 stumble against Clay Millican behind him. And the whole pack – Steve Torrence, Brittany Force, Salinas, Brown, Hart, and Kalitta – have been ready for days to take advantage of four qualifying sessions and maybe one another’s mistakes to position themselves for a title run in the final two races, at Las Vegas and Pomona, Calif. 

With a victory in the first round of eliminations on Saturday as part of the 37th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals at Texas Motorplex, Kris Thorne clinched the world championship in the FuelTech NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by D-Wagon. 

Thorne went 5.857-seconds at 244.00 mph in his ProCharger-powered Camaro, rolling past Rickey Fischer in the opening round of eliminations. With a sizable points lead entering the race weekend, the first-round victory was enough to hand Thorne his first career NHRA world championship. It caps off an incredible 2022 season for Thorne, who has earned three victories through the first nine races this season. 

Austin Prock picked a good time to have a good (elapsed time).

Prock driving for John Force Racing clocked a 3.682-second elapsed time at 334.57 mph Friday night to grab the provisional No. 1 position at the Texas NHRA FallNationals.

Matt Hagan arrived at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas for the Texas NHRA FallNationals this weekend chasing points.

Hagan was third in the points standings – 103 behind leader Robert Hight – with three races left in the season, including Dallas.

Matt Hagan powered to the Funny Car track record on Friday at Texas Motorplex, taking the provisional No. 1 position for Tony Stewart Racing at the 37th annual Texas NHRA FallNationals. 

Austin Prock (Top Fuel), Erica Enders (Pro Stock) and Angelle Sampey (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the 20th event in the 2022 NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series season and the fourth of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs.