Upon the conclusion of the first round of qualifying from today’s NHRA
Carolinas Nationals, NHRA announced the fields for the four-lane,
four-wide exhibition run.  It will mark the first time in NHRA history,
modern Top Fuel dragsters and Funny Cars will race four lanes, four
wide, unleashing a powerful assault of 28,000 horsepower on spectacular
zMAX Dragway.

The conspiracy theorists are already plotting what will happen if No. 1 qualifier Cruz Pedregon and
his brother Tony Pedregon meet in the semi-finals of Sunday’s final
eliminations for the NHRA Carolinas Nationals in Concord, NC.

If the match materializes, bet on a Pedregon.

“If we can get to the semi-finals that will be a good problem to have,”
said the defending Funny Car world champion, Cruz Pedregon. “In this
day and age, if you can get past the first two rounds you know you’ve
arrived. The best bet is to get a couple or rounds under your belt and
then go from there. Tony will be a tough customer for tomorrow.”

Motorcraft and Ford’s growing national network of Quick Lane Tire &
Auto Centers announced Saturday they have extended their sponsorship of
Bob Tasca III and Tasca Racing’s Shelby Mustang Nitro Funny Car.

For the past two years, Ford Customer Service Division (FCSD) brands –
Motorcraft and Quick Lane – have been the primary sponsors of the
Tasca’s Shelby Mustang in the NHRA Full Throttle Racing Series.   This
multi-year extension ensures the two primary brands will remain on the
car for years to come.
                      
“We are proud to extend our relationship with Bob Tasca and everyone at
Tasca Racing,” said Ken Czubay, Vice President, Ford U.S. Marketing,
Sales and Service. “Our sponsorship with the Motorcraft and Quick Lane
Shelby Mustang fits with our business plan and performance of solid
products and results.

After several successful runs with their in-house chassis by Cory
McClenathan, Don Schumacher Racing talked like they would cloak another
in-house chassis in ARMY colors for defending Top Fuel champion Tony
Schumacher at the NHRA Carolinas Nationals in Concord, N.C.

Qualifying in the top spot is nothing new for veteran Top Fuel driver Larry Dixon but the system in which
he does it has changed. Seeded second in the Countdown to 1, Dixon
admits the NHRA’s new bonus points have changed his view on qualifying.

“I would say before I wouldn’t really care whether I qualified first or
third but now being first in a session means you get those three bonus
points,” Dixon said, “It’s putting more precedence on the pole now than
before.”

If hindsight is 20/20 then Hector Arana can see clearly now.

Arana, who captured his sixth No. 1 qualifying effort of the season
during the NHRA Carolinas Nationals in Concord, NC, is second guessing
his decision to test new parts during the final two sessions of
qualifying.

He missed the combination on both of the Saturday runs, shaking the
tires in the first run and breaking the transmission on the second,
managing a 7.06 elapsed time, far below Friday’s 6.965.

Throughout the regular season in the Full Throttle Pro Stock championship battle, Mike Edwards was faced
with very few opportunities to make up ground on rival Jeg Coughlin Jr.
Now that the NHRA offers bonus points in qualifying, Edwards’ strength,
he’s making the most of the opportunity.

In addition to snagging six points over Coughlin in standard
qualifying, he gained an additional ten points on the strength of being
the quickest in three of the four qualifying sessions. The one session
that he didn’t pace, he was third, for one additional point.

First-round pairings for professional eliminations Sunday for the
Second annual NHRA Carolinas Nationals at zMax Dragway @ Concord, the
19th of 24 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. 
Pairings based on results in qualifying, which ended Saturday. DNQs
listed below pairings.

Eric Medlen's death has saved another life. This according to Bob Tasca, driver of the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Ford Mustang Funny Car.

Ironically, Tasca's violent ride occurred in a fourth round qualifying
match up with John Force, Medlen's car owner at the time of his
catastrophic accident.

“The car was on an awesome run and we were just a click behind John,”
said Tasca as he started to describe the wild ride. “It was dead
straight as an arrow and I am not sure what happened first. I remember
the car smoking the tire and I remember shutting it off. When it gets
out of shape at that point in the race track, it will make some violent
moves. I was compensating but it was like I wasn’t even driving it.

The NHRA continued their inspection of Countdown to 1 finalists in the
Pro Stock Car and Motorcycle divisions on Saturday afternoon. Friday
evening, five Pro Stock drivers and motorcycle riders were forced to
leave their cars and bikes in the care of technical inspectors after
second round qualifying.

The process of impounding the cars and bikes is not without precedent
although Pro Stock low qualifier Mike Edwards said Friday evening in a
press conference that he’d never been subjected to an impound of this
nature.

The NHRA has twice performed inspections without representation, first
in 2007, with the final four Countdown finalists and last year, the top
five points earners were subjected to the scrutiny of the tech
inspectors.