Four-time FIA champion Urs Erbacher survived a massive engine explosion
in the first round of Sunday's eliminations at Houston Raceway Park
that destroyed his Century Asphalt Top Fuel dragster. Despite ample
engine carnage, a shredded rear tire, and the destruction of at least a
third of his rear wing, Erbacher was uninjured in the incident and
managed to get his car to a safe stop beyond the finish line.

"Thank you to Brad Hadman because he saved my life today," Erbacher
said, referring to the respected chassis builder. "We started this year
with a brand Hadman car and I hope it's not damaged too bad. At least
we know the safety components all work.

Clear skies and cool temperatures greeted fans and racers Saturday
morning at the Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge presented by
ProCare Rx at the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals in Baytown, Texas, and
all were treated to an earth-shattering day of thrilling Pro Mod action
deep in the heart of the Lone Star state. Qualifying was polarized by
an all-or-nothing result: drivers either rocketed to the stripe or
struggled to get down the quarter-mile, and eliminations were
highlighted by blistering times and side-by-side action.

Jason Line stormed to the top of the pack in the Saturday morning session during the NHRA O'Reilly Springnationals,
setting a new track record with a run of 6.554 seconds, 211.49 mph.
Line’s E.T. held up, however team mate Greg Anderson set a national
speed record. Anderson was clocked through the traps at 211.89 mph,
breaking the old mark which was held by Line.

“Somebody asked me if I was upset about him breaking my speed record,”
answered Line, adding, “but, it’s better that it’s him than somebody
else because I do help work on that car. It gives all of us a little
pride.”

The Pro Stock bikes are extremely susceptible to wind, as the air can literally push
a bike across an entire lane and into either the center line or the
wall, based on which lane the driver was running. Still, Andrew Hines
drove his new 4-valves per cylinder Harley-Davidson to the number one
spot with an impressive 6.889 at 192.55 mph during the second day of the NHRA O'Reilly Springnationals.

With just 17 Funny Car entries, the battle wasn’t so much for
the pole as it was to see who wouldn’t be making the early ride home.
Two disappointing runs in his pocket, Cruz Pedregon pulled a rabbit out
of the hat as he drove himself from 17th to first in his final
qualifying attempt.

Pedregon’s 4.075 seconds, 301.00 mph rocketed him to the top of the
charts over Del Worsham and Ashley Force Hood. Hood posted the fastest
speed at 308.78 mph.

The co-tuners on the Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster driven by Antron
Brown watched the rest of the field run, made a few minor changes and
then celebrated holding onto the top spot they had grabbed earlier in
the day.

“That last run, I looked at Brian and Mark and they just wanted to get
down the race track,” said Brown, describing his final qualifying run.
“They wanted to get a nice mild tune up for tomorrow because you never
know what tomorrow will bring. You can’t run things like low 80’s every
run. We saw the Al Anabi car light it up in front of us, so we went
back and made a few changes and ran an 87 which was really respectable.

Antron Brown took the top spot in Top Fuel on a cool day at the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park.

Cooler temperatures made for fast racing in all four categories at the
fourth event on the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing schedule.

Cruz Pedregon, Jason Line and Andrew Hines also took the provisional No. 1 positions in their respective categories.

ESPN2's coverage of qualifying from the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston may start late and be shortened due to the network's live coverage of NCAA hockey.

Because the show was only was slated for one hour, from 8-9 p.m. Eastern and ESPN2 is committed to a live soccer broadcast beginning at 9 p.m., if the show airs tonight it may be a truncated version, but ESPN2 will air the full one-hour show Sunday at 1 p.m. Eastern.

Sunday's three-hour final eliminations show will air as scheduled, from 4:30-7:30 p.m. Eastern.

Eddie Krawiec wasn’t disappointed with his
provisional qualifying run at the O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston
Raceway Park; he just knows with Saturday forecasts of cooler temps and lower
humidity 7.004 seconds is not going to be enough to stay atop the field.

That doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to stay on top. It just means he has a higher priority.

Fresh off a very promising test session at Atlanta Dragway, Kurt Johnson
powered his way to the provision pole in the Pro Stock division in his
ACDelco Chevy Cobalt, just besting Jason Line by .001 seconds.

Battling high humidity and a track that was weak in the center, Johnson is looking past Friday into Saturday.