Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the 26th annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, the 21st of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series -

Sunday's final results from the 26th annual Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway. The race is the 21st of 23 in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series:

In a scene reminiscent of the early Pro Modifieds, Luigi Novelli twisted the snout of his Top Fueler every which way during his final pass Saturday afternoon at the NHRA Toyo Tires Nationals in Reading, Pa. He was unable to find the speed he needed to claim one of the 16 berths in Sunday's final elimination rounds at Maple Grove Dragway.

No matter how you look at it, there is going to be a Kawasaki in the Pro Stock Motorcycle field on race day, and that is a fairly unusual sight amongst the more commonly seen V-Rods, Buells, and Suzukis. With just 16 bikes on the premises at Maple Grove Raceway, Utica, N.Y., resident Neil Jacobs is assured an invitation to the first round on Sunday.

Jacobs has drag raced in varying sanctioning bodies for three decades, but the last time he raced in NHRA competition was at this same event in 2009, where he qualified 15th and Tree'd Michael Phillips in the first round but didn't quite have enough power to follow through at the top end.

Pro Stock racer John Gaydosh and Maryland-based charitable foundation Hot Rods for Heroes formerd a partnership earlier this season that included displaying a special scheme on Gaydosh's Pontiac GTO in honor of the country's armed forces. The scheme, which came to include hundreds of signatures from the men and women serving our country, debuted at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at O'Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis.

The Gaydosh Performance GTO has raced twice this season bearing the military-themed wrap of Hot Rods for Heroes honoring the past and present members of our country's five branches of the military, and the event at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading will be the last showing. Following the event, Hot Rods for Heroes and Gaydosh Performance have agreed to end their marketing partnership to allow each organization the opportunity to pursue other endeavors.

After qualifying a disappointing 11th in Dallas as the Countdown to the Championship really began to heat up, Rodger Brogdon was determined to improve, even if the championship was a longshot.

In the first qualifying session on Friday at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, he was already showing improvement, driving his AttitudeApparelOnline.com Pistonator Pontiac Pro Stocker to a 6.565 at 209.72 mph for the provisional No. 3 spot -- a position that was good for a valuable qualifying bonus point.

Ultimately, Brogdon earned a start in Reading from the No. 5 position.

Reigning Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Hector Arana hasn't been having the kind of season he had hoped for lately, but in the final session of qualifying at the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals, the Lucas Oil Buell rider jetted to an incredibly quick and completely unexpected 6.828 at 196.16 mph. The run was good for the No. 1 position -- his fifth of the season and 14th of his career -- and it reset the Maple Grove Raceway record for e.t.

"We had been struggling," said Arana. "We started struggling at Brainerd. From then on, it just kept getting worse. I replaced just about everything, then at Dallas, on Saturday, I replaced [a couple more things]. I said, guys, after this I have replaced everything. If it's still doing it, then we have to replace one more thing, and that is the loose nut between the seat and the handlebars."

For two consecutive days the near overflow crowds at Maple Grove Raceway watched diligently in anticipation of someone setting a national record.

Several drivers got close, but it was Matt Hagan, in the final round of Funny Car qualifying, who came through the masses when he planted the DieHard Dodge Charger Funny Car not only firmly on the pole but backed up his 4.011-second pass at 311.56 mph (both track records) from Friday with a 4.046/308.99 for a provisional national record.

If Hagan can hold onto the national record through Sunday's eliminations, he will earn 20 additional points for the weekend. He will also break his own record of 4.022 seconds, which he had set earlier this year when he won in Joliet, Ill. Going into Sunday's final eliminations, following the qualifying rounds and counting the national record, Hagan holds a slim four-point lead over John Force. Only three races remain before a 2010 Funny Car championship is crowned, including tomorrow's NHRA Nationals.

For two of the four Top Fuel qualifying sessions this weekend Larry Dixon looked anything but invincible while his closest rivals, Cory McClenathan and Tony Schumacher traded the top qualifying spot.

In the final session Dixon returned to the form which has consistently carried him to the top seeded spot countless times this season, a spot from which he has yet to lose come Sunday eliminations.

“It was a great job by the team,” said Dixon, in his normal cool as a cucumber manner. “Weather conditions this weekend were pretty good where you should be able to fire some shots. We've seen it in Funny Car, we just haven't been able to see it in Top Fuel. I was glad to see us be able to do that in the last session.”

The 6.551 pass that Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson laid down on Friday held through qualifying on Saturday to keep the Mopar Dodge Avenger campaigner on the pole for the sixth time this season and the 13th time in his career.

Johnson wasn't the quickest in the third and fourth sessions, and bonus points were earned by a couple of other Countdown to the Championship contenders, but he was still the big winner at the end of the day.

"This morning was almost as good as last night, but we didn't make good runs today at all, unfortunately," said Johnson. "The air was real cool and crisp last night. Everybody picked up this morning, but we didn't, and we're a little mad at ourselves about that. But in the two runs we made today, we were solid, just not on top of it like we wanted to be."