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QUALIFYING ROUNDS RECAPS

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE Q1 (2:20 p.m.): A whopping 26 bikes made the opening qualifying session and it was no surprise to see a Harley-Davidson atop the pack; the surprise is that it was not points leader Eddie Krawiec but his teammate, Andrew Hines, who clocked a 6.959. Krawiec was a disappointing 12th after a 7.095. Suzuki powerhouse Scotty Pollacheck had the second-best run of the session, 6.961, followed by Angie Smith’s Buell at 6.970.

PRO STOCK Q1 (2:40 p.m.): Drew Skillman grabbed the early qualifying lead with a 6.644 from his red Chevy, an impressive pass that was more than three-hundredths of a second quicker than his closest challenger, Dallas winner Jason Line, who clocked a 6.679 for the No. 2 spot. Points leader Greg Anderson got a bonus point for the third-best pass of the session, 6.688, a run matched by teammate Bo Butner but at a faster speed, 20504 to 204.63. Twenty cars made qualifying attempts, with Kenny Delco on the current bump at 6.806.

FUNNY CAR Q1 (3:12 p.m.): Count another three points for the points leader. Ron Capps ran a 3.916 to snag three bonus points with the best pass of the first qualifying session of the weekend, extending his points lead right next to the driver who’s chasing him. Robert Hight smoked the tire halfway down the track, keeping him from earning any bonus points himself. Meanwhile, Cruz Pedregon (3.919) and Jonnie Lindberg (3.937) also picked up bonus points with the second and third best runs of the session. 17 drivers made passes in the first session, and Tim Gibbons holds the bump spot with a 15.52-second pass.

TOP FUEL Q1 (3:45 p.m.): Just another points leader taking the No. 1 spot through the first session of qualifying. Steve Torrence went .018-second quicker than the second-quickest car of the session, driven by Leah Pritchett. That earned him three bonus points, and moved him another two points ahead of Brittany Force, who earned one bonus point with her 3.758-second pass. Troy Buff held down the quick half of the field with a 3.978, while the rest of the cars in the top eight ran in the 3.7s. As temperatures cool, everyone will be trying to make up two-hundredths (or more) advantage Steve-O holds on the Top Fuel field.����

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE Q2 (4:50 p.m.): Eddie Krawiec supplanted teammate Andrew Hines atop the qualifying sheets, bouncing back from a sub-par 7.095 in Q1 to a field-leading 6.936 in Q2. Hector Arana Jr. moved into the No. 2 spot with a 6.940 while Hines slipped to third despite a slite improvement to a 6.955. LE Tonglet, who is chasing points leader Krawiec in the battle for the season championship, again got no bonus points after a session-ranked-seventh pass of 6.986. Fred Camarena is on the 16-bike bump spot with a 7.067.

PRO STOCK Q2 (5:15 p.m.): Points leader Greg Anderson picked up three very valuable bonus points for having the quickest run of the day’s second qualifying session, a 6.633, while the two guys chasing him =– his teammates, Bo Butner and Jason Line =– earned respective bonuses of two and one point to make it a KB Racing sweep of the top three spots in the session. First session leader Drew Skillman could not improve on his opening run of 6.644 but fell just one spot to the No. 2 qualifying position.

FUNNY CAR Q2 (5:57 p.m.): Jack Beckman tied a new track record with a 3.867-second pass, grabbing three bonus points in the process. Three different teams earned points, as Courtney Force (3.878) and J.R. Todd (3.884) rounded out the top three. Jim Campbell and John Force ended up in the same lane when the 16-time champion crossed the center line in front of the second-year Funny Car pilot. Force dropped the chutes in front of Campbell, but the two avoided what could have been a scary collision. Neither recorded a time as a result of Force smacking the blocks in the center of the race track. Cruz Pedregon also made a really solid run, making a 3.897-second pass.��

TOP FUEL Q2 (6:24 p.m.): Here comes The Sarge. Tony Schumacher ran a 3.673 to take the track record and the provisional No. 1 qualifier. That earned him three bonus points as he made a pass two-hundredths of a second better than the No. 2 qualifier, Steve Torrence, who ran a 3.694. Those were the only two 3.6s of the day, as Shawn Langdon hit a 3.742 to capture the lone bonus point of the second session. Richie Crampton sits at the bottom of the pack with a 9.863. Leah Pritchett and Brittany Force round out the top five, with 3.754 and 3.758.��

FEATURES

After his car wrecked at the AAA Texas 91���� FallNationals in Dallas, Steve Torrence and the Capco Contractors team pulled out a brand-new car in the semifinals against Brittany Force. Torrence came up short in that run, but after a day of testing and some time to work on the car, he felt confident entering the NHRA Toyota Nationals.��

It turns out that confidence was warranted. He laid down a 3.736 to move into the No. 1 qualifying spot after the first session at The Strip. That’s just .016-second behind the number that earned him pole position in Las Vegas at the Spring race back in April. That race featured cooler temperatures than we’re experience in Sin City currently.��

More than anything, it speaks to the fabulous job crew chief Richard Hogan and assistant crew chief Bobby Lagana have done on his dragster. To take brand-new pipe and run quick and fast, at altitude no less, should strike fear into the hearts of his competitors. There are still a few more qualifying sessions for Torrence to improve, but this is a great starting point.

Perhaps most impressive is how much better the Texan ran than his competition. Leah Pritchett made the second-best run of the session, a 3.754, and Brittany Force made a 3.758-second pass. Those are both nearly two-hundredths of a second slower than Torrence’s pass. They’ll likely improve on those runs as the weather improves for the second session, but it might not be enough to catch Torrence, particularly if he also gets quicker in the evening session.��

No matter what happens in Q2, Torrence has gotten his title chase off to an incredible start in Las Vegas. He came up short at The Strip in the Spring, but a win in the Fall, like he did in 2016, would put him on the verge of his first title. ��

With just two races left, Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army know that their chances of collecting a ninth season title are slim, but like the troops they represent, there’s no surrender in their hearts. Schumacher enters the event sixth in the standings, trailing leader Steve Torrence by 192 points. There are still a lot of points on the table – a total of 321 over the final pair of events – but any chance rests of gobbling up as many points as possible and hoping that the handful of opponents in front of them don’t.��

Although they’ve done well in qualifying at the last three events -- fifth, third, and second – the round wins haven’t been coming. Through four Countdown events, he has just three round wins. Qualifying bonus points, a maximum of 12 available, are a good starting point.

“The reality is that we still have a shot at the championship and that’s been the goal from day one,” said Schumacher. “It’s a longshot, for sure, but all we can do is control our part of it and hope for some help this weekend. The first part of doing that is being fast right off the trailer. I know Mike [Green, crew chief] and the guys have been working hard to make sure that happens. We’ve had so many good weekends racing at The Strip and, despite not having the success we were aiming for so far in the Countdown, we still have the chance to do something special here at the end of the season.”

Jim Oberhfoer was conspicuous by his absence on the starting line when Doug Kalitta made his opening qualifying pass at a crucial event for the championship-contending team. Oberhofer is in Las Vegas but was hospitalized for minor surgery after not feeling well Thursday evening. He had a procedure Friday morning and hopes to be back at the track for Sunday’s eliminations. Assistant crew chief Troy Fasching has taken over the lead role, with assists from Oberhfoer and the team. It's the first time since June 2013 that Oberhofer has missed a day; at the 2013 Summernationals in Englishtown, he missed Friday qualifying to attend the high-school graduation of daughter Ashley,

Former world champ Shawn Langdon only has two races left in his Top Fuel career before switching to a Funny Car next season, but he’s obviously planning to make the most of them.

He just missed adding a 15thTop Fuel Wally to his shelf in Dallas, where he was runner-up behind Brittany Force and would like to close out his current stint in a dragster with at least another win.

“If we have a car like that for the last two races, I plan on winning at least one of them,” said Langdon, pictured left with crew chief Rob Flynn. “It would be awesome to get another win in Top Fuel. My plan is to win the next two – that’s my goal. It will be a big change next year and I’m excited about it, but my plan is to just focus on the rest of this year first.”

With Langdon advancing to the final in Dallas, all five Kalitta Motorsports driver have now reached a final round this season, with three different drivers (J.R. Todd, Alexis DeJoria and Doug Kalitta) winning races.

It hasn’t been the Countdown that Tim Wilkerson had hoped for, with just three round wins in the first four events, but he’s nonetheless climbed one spot from his initial No. 9 seed to No. 8 and has aspirations of getting into or near the top five.

Wilkerson has finished in the top 10 for the last 10 seasons and 13 times overall, with a career-high second-place finish in a dazzling 2008 campaign, but will need to overcome some recent Vegas woes to continue to advance this season.

"I've given up some good rounds in Vegas the last couple of years,” he admitted. “If I can keep my head on straight, I think we can win some rounds this time and win the race. I want to keep climbing in the points, and it wouldn't bother me a bit to stay ahead of J.R. [Todd] and pass Tommy Johnson Jr. and [John] Force. That's my goal, and I don't know if it's possible – maybe we're pushing our luck – but if we go to the semis and they get beat early, it could work. I have a good car, and I'd like to show it here in these last two races."

Chris Bennett had hoped to be behind the wheel of his family-run No Mercy Racing Funny Car at this event, one with so much meaning to Nevada residents like them after the tragic events of the last month, but he wasn’t able to complete his licensing in time for the event falling less than a tenth of a second shy of the mandatory performance minimum required.

“We’ve just had some stupid stuff happen to us on the times we’ve been out trying to nail it down,” said Bennett, who hails from Henderson, just 45 minutes from the track. “I thought it was important to for my team and my sponsors to still make event, and we wanted to help promote the #VegasStrong movement, which we’ve added to the side of our car.”

Bennett has nitro sophomore Tim Gibbons in the seat this week, with veteran Johnny West tuning, but hopes to complete his licensing on Monday after the event in preparation for a West Coast-based schedule in 2018. The chassis, originally built in 2010 for Matt Hagan by Murf McKinney, was run sporadically by Josh Crawford and has just three dozen runs on it.

It has been anything but an easy season for Cruz Pedregon and his new crew chief, Aaron Brooks. Yes, the Snap-On Tools team qualified for the Countdown to the Championship, but the performance has yet to reach the heights either of them hoped for. Still, Pedregon’s first run at the NHRA Toyota Nationals, a 3.919-second pass at a career-best 329.26 mph, was excellent.��

It was especially good considering two things: First, it was the second-best of the first session. Pedregon isn’t chasing a championship at this point of the season, so those two points aren’t critical. But that the run was so good given the altitude of The Strip is encouraging. It’s also the sixth-best run of the season for Pedregon, another encouraging sign.��

He also kept all four wheels on the ground, something Pedregon failed to do the last time he was at The Strip. In case you’ve forgotten about that spectacular run, you can watch it below:��