Top Fuel racer Shawn Reed had a plan when he signed on for the IHRA Triple Crown.
The first NHRA top-10 finisher to publicly commit to the program understood the math from the beginning. If a driver wants a shot at the series’ $1 million bonus, the first order of business is surviving Race No. 1.
Friday night at Darana Raceway in Hebron, Ohio, Reed gave himself that opportunity.
Under the lights, Reed blasted to the quickest 1,000-foot elapsed time in IHRA Top Fuel history, running 3.767 seconds at 332.35 mph to claim the No. 1 qualifying position in a field loaded with race winners and championship-caliber teams.
Qualifying wasn’t just a formality for the professional categories. It was strategy.
By night’s end, Reed in Top Fuel, Dale Creasy Jr. in Funny Car, Jason Harris in Pro Modified and John DeFlorian in Mountain Motor Pro Stock had all secured the top spots in their respective divisions. More importantly, they positioned themselves to chase both the lucrative race purses and a bonus program that has become the centerpiece of the Triple Crown.
Reed admitted the record-setting run wasn’t exactly planned.
When he rolled into the water box for the final qualifying session, there was uncertainty about where he stood on the ladder and what kind of run would be required.
“It’s pretty cool. I mean anytime you can get number one anywhere you are, NHRA or here, it’s still pretty cool, man,” Reed said. “The guys did great and it was kind of sketchy. We didn’t know when we were sitting in the water box if we were number eight or number nine or what we were. The leadership over here had no fear and said, ‘Send it.’ I drove the s*** out of it and lucky I didn’t hit another wall or something.”
Reed edged a tightly packed field led by Tripp Tatum, who qualified second with a 3.797 and won a tiebreaker over Jasmine Salinas. Points leader Gary Pritchett qualified fourth at 3.811, while former national event winners Scott Palmer and Kyle Satenstein were among those left outside the eight-car field.
The record run may have put Reed at the front of the conversation, but he isn’t allowing himself to think about the million-dollar prize yet.
“It’s just one round at a time,” Reed said. “You can’t even think about that. That’s so far down the road and you got to get through round one tomorrow and then you got to get through number two and then you got to get through number three. And then if you can win that thing, then you got a couple months to think about the chances and the possibilities like winning the lotto.”
In Funny Car, the story belonged to redemption.
The last time Creasy raced at the Hebron facility, he failed to qualify and watched a season’s worth of momentum disappear in a single weekend. This time, he led qualifying from start to finish and capped the effort with an IHRA-record 3.962-second run at 315.19 mph.
Bobby Bode qualified second with a 3.976, while points leader Del Worsham landed third with a 4.010.
Creasy said the sting of the previous DNQ never completely left him.
“Until I ran here on Thursday,” Creasy said when asked how long he carried the disappointment. “The last race killed me financially when we didn’t qualify. We gave back the whole advantage we had for the season. Our car’s capable of running with everybody. So if we just do our job and the dumb old driver does his job, we should be all right.”
The breakthrough came after the team identified what went wrong and invested in tools they previously raced without.
“We got over center at the last race and we figured out what we did wrong,” Creasy said. “There was nothing wrong with the car. We just got over center, and we bought a grip meter, next step teaching us things that we don’t know, and that seems to be helping because we got a little more information.”
If Creasy’s story was about redemption, Harris delivered the comeback of qualifying.
After struggling through earlier sessions and finding himself buried in the order, Harris entered the final round of qualifying sitting 25th. A few minutes later, he was back where he’s spent most of the season.
Harris powered to his fifth No. 1 qualifier of the year with a 3.595 at 209.69 mph, edging Jacob McNeal’s 3.615 and Melanie Salemi’s 3.618.
“I was a little worried,” Harris admitted. “I was just trying to be 10 and Brandon Stroud got me where we needed to be. We made an educated decision together and we ended up number one.”
For Harris, qualifying dominance has become routine but turning it into victories remains the challenge.
“There’s a lot of heavy hitters here,” Harris said. “This is almost kind of winner series vibes here, it feels like this weekend. But I think you’re just going to have to round by round.”
The Mountain Motor Pro Stock category delivered one of the weekend’s deepest fields, with 24 cars fighting for 16 spots and a 4.126 required just to make the show.
At the top sat DeFlorian and his Total Seal Camaro.
DeFlorian’s 4.078-second pass held off Australian racer Jason Grima at 4.086 and Johnny Pluchino at 4.087 in one of the closest qualifying battles of the weekend.
“We were trying to just get out there and make a good clean A to B run,” DeFlorian said. “So we’re like, ‘You know what? We’re going to swing.’ We felt like we could make a good clean run, but not knowing if it would be enough to hold.”
The run delivered more than lane choice. It delivered an opportunity.
“Oh, that’d be life changing,” DeFlorian said of the Triple Crown bonus. “The thing of it is, is it all starts right here. Everybody here knows that it means nothing if you don’t win this race.”
Eliminations are scheduled to begin at 10 AM on Saturday.
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