Just four weeks after Chris Rini scored his long-awaited first victory in Switzer Dynamics Pro Nitrous, the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA) veteran raced his way to the winner’s circle yet again Saturday night at the Summit Racing Equipment Northern Nationals presented by Penske Racing Shocks. Racing at Maple Grove Raceway, Rini squared off against three-time world champion Jim Halsey in the final round, running a 3.73-second pass at 202 MPH to get the win. 

Past NHRA Funny Car champion J.R. Todd was disqualified at the Menard's NHRA Nationals in Topeka, Kansas, following a first-round race against Alexis DeJoria when his Funny car failed a random tech inspection.

Sources indicated the DQ was because a header angle didn't fit a template established following the rule limiting header angles.

It's been a good weekend to be Jim Epler.

Epler, who recorded the first 300 mile per hour run behind a Funny In Topeka in 1993, climbed behind the wheel of a fuel Funny Car before qualifying on Saturday at the Menards NHRA Nationals.

Just like the mural on the front wing of Justin Ashley's Phillips Connect, the opportunity to warm up defending Funny Car champion Ron Capps NAPA Auto Parts Funny Car came as a total surprise. 

Bob Tasca III called his second straight No. 1 NHRA Funny Car start a “glimmer of dominance.” 

In molten conditions at Topeka’s Heartland Motorsports Park, Tasca continued his hot streak Saturday. And it has melted any frustration, any angst about over-trying and under-performing, any pressure from his promise to deliver championships if Ford reinvested in drag racing.

The air temperature was 98 degrees, the track temperature 136 degrees Saturday at the Menards NHRA Nationals at Topeka. 

That’s about what the conditions were all weekend at Seattle for the previous race two weeks ago, when Greg Anderson was top qualifier in the Pro Stock class. 

​When he took the early lead in Pro Stock Motorcycle qualifying Friday at the Menards Nationals at Topeka, Joey Gladstone said he and his Precision Service Equipment Suzuki team “seem to have a recipe that’s working.” 

They do, and it simmered all day Saturday in the triple-digit heat. Ultimately, it served him the first No. 1 qualifying position of his career – in the first race since he earned his career-first victory at Sonoma, Calif. 

Jim Epler was taken aback. 

As the Top Fuel dragster driven by Justin Ashley rolled out of the Phillips Connect hauler, the former Funny Car standout could only put his hands on his face, both in shock and emotion. Splashed across the front wing of the dragster was a mural commemorating Epler’s grand achievement in drag racing -- the first 300-mile-per-hour Funny Car driver, recorded on October 3, 1993, in Topeka, Kan. 

Ironically, Ashley wasn’t even born. 

​​​Moments after Mike Salinas stole the Top Fuel show Friday at the Menards NHRA Nationals, sloughing off the hot, muggy Topeka conditions as though he and his Pep Boys Dragster tune-up never noticed, crew chief Rob Flynn said he had wondered before the run, “Did we do enough here?”

Whatever he did, it was more than enough.

Last year’s Dallas Glenn, meet this year’s, Dallas Glenn. He’s a more street-smart, seat-of-the-pants-savvy driver than the rookie who won last year’s event with a “trip-zip” reaction time in the final round. 

“We’re in a different car now,” Glenn said. “It’s a whole different feel for the year. I feel a lot more confident in the car. I can just get in and do my thing. I feel a lot better about that. This car is, I won’t say it’s frustrating me a little bit, but it’s definitely been a little bit tougher to kind of find my sweet spot and a little bit tougher to stay there, which I don’t know if that’s me or the car. 

“Being that it’s the second year and I’m coming into all this stuff with a little bit more experience. It almost feels like I’m a little bit more relaxed all the time I’m up there. So I kind of have to hype myself up a little bit more when it’s time to really get on it. So that’s something I’m kind of just getting used to, but I’m still having an absolute blast out here.”