First-round pairings for professional eliminations Sunday at the
10th annual NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas
Motor Speedway, the fifth of 24 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag
Racing Series. Pairings based on results in qualifying, which ended
Saturday. DNQs listed below pairings.

Qualifying is complete at the NHRA Southeast division's Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event at South
Georgia Motorsports Park.  In Top Alcohol Dragster, Artie Allen of
Jacksonville, Fla., the reigning division champion, jumped to the top
of the field while Mickey Ferro, Stamford, Conn., leads in Top Alcohol
Funny Car.

Allen, who won this race a year ago, blistered the quarter-mile with a
5.295-second run at 265.33 mph.  Marion, Ind., racer Robin Samsel made
the next closest run at 5.377-seconds at 265.90 mph.  In Sunday's
eliminations Allen will square off against No. 8 qualifier Cherissa
Griffis of Jacksonville, Fla., in the first round. Griffis ran 6.382
seconds at 168.70 mph.

After being preempted due to high winds, rain and even electrical problems with the timing systems on Friday at the Summitracing.com Nationals in Las Vegas, the Top Alcohol cars came to play Saturday afternoon.
 
Taking the dominate position into Sunday’s eliminations Top Alcohol
Dragster is Grand Junction, Colorado’s Jim Whitely and his Norm Grimes
tuned Y-NOT Racing Blown Alcohol Dragster. Whitely was the class of the
field in both qualifying sessions and round one competition. The
Colorado invader posted low elapsed time in every session, and made a
statement in round one, running an event best 5.320 second elapsed
time. His run was .060 seconds better than the second quickest car, 
driven by Sunland, California’s Chris Demke.

Defending NHRA Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin Jr., had a Bond, James
Bond, moment at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas on
Saturday.

Coughlin finished qualifying, put his Jegs entry into the 8th spot, and
was immediately whisked away James Bond-style to a waiting helicopter
for a quick flight to the Grand Canyon. He was scheduled to attend a
wedding for close friends Doug Daniel and Heather Rickard, Saturday
night on the rim of the Grand Canyon.

Don’t kid yourself into thinking Friday’s single Funny
Car session at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals didn’t play a huge
role in shaping Saturday’s final field, because it did.

That’s how two-time NHRA Funny Car champion and No. 1 qualifier Tony
Pedregon sees it. He’s the man to beat on Sunday with a 4.100 elapsed
time during the final day of qualifications.

Mike Edwards can’t help that he’s struck the jackpot, lately.

On Saturday afternoon at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals, Edwards clinched his third No. 1 qualifying
effort of the young 2009 season, the ninth of his career and the first
at Las Vegas.

He’s not apologizing either. Edwards is just taking in the moment
because he knows Pro Stock fate can be a fickle and cruel master of
destiny.

NHRA Announcer Bob Frey reveled in the moment and Top Fuel rookie Shawn Langdon didn’t mind the gifted microphone man stealing a bit of his thunder.

“This is something you’ve never heard any other announcer in drag racing say before,” Frey crowed over the loudspeaker.

“Shawn Langdon your No. 1 qualifier in Top Fuel.”

That’s correct. The rookie driver for Morgan Lucas Racing vaulted to
the top of a one-day Top Fuel qualifying program to lead for the first
time in his nitro career with a 3.874 elapsed time at 311.84 miles per
hour.

Rookie Shawn Langdon raced to his first No. 1 qualifying position in Top Fuel Saturday at the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals.

Langdon, a two-time Super Comp national champion in the NHRA Lucas Oil
Drag Racing Series and the 1997 NHRA Jr. Dragster national champion,
covered the race distance at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway with
a performance of 3.874 seconds at 311.41 mph in his Dixie Chopper/Lucas
Oil dragster.

Langdon will face Steve Chrisman in the first round of Sunday’s 11 a.m. eliminations.

Multi-time Pro Stock champion Greg Anderson will reluctantly tell you
the most seasoned drivers suffer brain fade from time to time.

Anderson had his fading moment during Saturday afternoon’s final
qualifying session at the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas, and it was so bad that even the Summit-sponsored
driver had to laugh.

“If I was smart, I’d keep quiet,” Anderson reluctantly admitted.

QUALIFYING IN THE BOOKS AT NHRA SOUTH CENTRAL DIVISION’S LUCAS OIL EVENT AT TEXAS MOTORPLEX

Qualifying is complete at Texas Motorplex’s NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing
Series event.  Eliminations were slated to begin Sunday morning,
however, due to high winds in the forecast, NHRA and track officials
chose to begin eliminations today and run as many rounds as possible in
all categories. When qualifying was done Kemmelyn Buff-Pesz of The
Woodland, Texas, remained the No. 1 qualifier in Top Alcohol Dragster
and Steve Harker, Gainesville, Ga., kept the to spot in Top Alcohol
Funny Car. 

Buff-Pesz did not improve on Friday’s 5.325-second, 274.72 mph run but
it was enough to keep her in the top slot.  Harker failed to improve on
Friday’s qualifying as well but his 5.623-second, 250.13 mph effort
still eclipsed the competition.