Bernstein officially eliminated from title contention

He came into the event exactly 100 points out of the lead and his title hopes but a distant dream, but it took the final qualifying results to officially eliminate Brandon Bernstein from the championship battle. With Kalitta qualifying No. 1 and Bernstein No. 3, even with a first-round loss by Kalitta and a national-record run by Bernstein would leave the driver of the Budweiser dragster two points shy of Kalitta’s total.

Top Fuel qualifying session No. 4

Darkness has descended upon Auto Club Raceway at Pomona as Bernstein creeps into the left-lane beams alongside Hillary Will, then busts off a 4.473, 330.15, which will back up a sub-record 4.428 if he can run it, keeping alive his slim hopes.

The anticipation is high as Kalitta pulls into the left lane and Schumacher the right. Everyone in the place knows that Schumacher and crew chief Alan Johnson will be looking to reset their 4.437 national record and get that piece of business out of the way before eliminations. High drama. A leak crops up on Schumacher’s engine and the crew frantically tries to step it and clean up the small puddle in front of the right rear tire. Schumacher is given the shut off signal by Chief Starter Rick Stewart but stages the car anyway and, predictably, it goes up in smoke immediately, and he has the best seat in the house to see Kalitta steal his No. 1 spot with an in-your-face 4.452, 328.22 in a car that hours ago was sitting in the rafters of the Kalitta trailer.

Kalitta finishes No. 1, Schumacher No. 2, and Bernstein No. 3. Kalitta will face Alan Bradshaw, Schumacher will take on David Baca, and Bernstein will face Mike Strasburg. Kalitta is on the opposite side of the ladder from Schumacher and Bernstein, who could potentially face one another in the semifinals. All three drivers have backup runs for potential new national records Sunday.

Official adjusted points after qualifying:

Kalitta, 1,607

Schumacher, 1,561 (-46)

Bernstein, 1,505 (-102)

Quick Quotes:

Kalitta: "Rahn just set this car up like the other one. It's pretty cool to come out of the trailer and run a 4.45 like that. It's been such an honor to drive Rahn's car this year and he just proved how he operates right there. All of our teams lent us their spare guys to help get this thing together in time to make that run. That was neat to see."

Schumacher: "Unless my crew chief tells me to shut it off, I don't shut it off. Rick was signaling and I was signaling back that I was looking at Alan. Alan said go so that's what I did. I know all the fans were on their feet looking for a national record and believe me, we wanted to give it to them. It just didn't work out. We'll get focused and try to do it tomorrow. We also need to win the race. It's not going to be easy. Doug has a great team and he's a great driver. To pull a back-up car out and run a 4.45 and qualify No. 1 is pretty awesome. Now let's race and see who's the champ at the end of the day."

Bernstein: "Tim's been whittling away on the tune-up to get this Budweiser dragster in the 4.4s and he did it there. It was an awesome pass. It's very intense when the car's running like that. I'm proud of the guys. It was a nice job by the entire team."

Top Fuel qualifying session No. 3

Bernstein (pictured), in the left lane, and Dave Grubnic make up the first pair of the second-to-last Top Fuel session under cloudy conditions, and the Budweiser car steps way up to a 4.510, 332.34 to move to third.

A few pairs later, Kalitta, in the right lane alongside Steve Chrisman, rips off a stout 4.502, 328.86 to move into the second spot, but pays the costs as sparks begin flying from just behind the nose of the Mac rail in the shutdown area, indicating some sort of chassis problem. Close ups on the Motel 6 screen show the body buckled just aft of the front wheels.

Schumacher, in the left lane alongside Rod Fuller, accomplishes one part of this weekend’s mission, running 4.458 at 328.46 to get the necessary backup for a national e.t. record. Schumacher stays No. 1, Kalitta moves up to second, and Bernstein is fifth.

In the pits, all four Kalitta teams have descended on the Mac pit and are performing a chassis swap. The primary car's chassis has a nasty kink in it just behind the fuel tank.

Provisional adjusted points:

Kalitta, 1,606

Schumacher, 1,562 (-44)

Bernstein, 1,503 (-103)

Quick Quotes

Schumacher: "That was huge. We didn't want to set the record tonight and need to back it up in Round 1 tomorrow. We were looking for the back-up run right there and we got it. Alan [Johnson, crew chief] called the number, God gave us some clouds, and now we're in perfect position to go for it tonight. I saw what happened to Kalitta. We've been down that road before. I just hope they can get it fixed in time. I'm sure they have all the parts and pieces they need but if they don't and we have a spare, they're welcome to anything in our trailer. I don't want to win the championship without them running 100 percent also."

Kalitta: "It's hard to say what happened. It looks damaged for sure. It left really good and made a nice strong run. Right at the lights I saw some sparks coming up from the front end. We'll se what's wrong and get it fixed. I'm glad it stayed together."

Bernstein: "It was fast. I knew that before you told me. I could feel it. We're trying a different injector. It's something Tim [Richards, tuner] wanted to run to see if it's something that might help us next year. The car's strong right now and if it stays cool like this, we'll definitely see what we can do with it later today."

The Man in Black

Coming to Auto Club Raceway at Pomona is a homecoming for Lanny Miglizzi, who grew up just a few miles away in San Dimas, but he’s spent more time reacquainting himself with the Pomona quarter-mile than he has visiting old friends.

Miglizzi and his father, Tony, whose L&T Clutches was a major player in the nitro ranks in the 1990s, was able to take his years of watching racecars go down the track and turn it into a profession -- some may say an obsession -- and a job with Don Schumacher Racing, where he now serves as the team’s track consultant.

Miglizzi was a consultant during Tony Schumacher’s 1999 World Championship season, and Don Schumacher hired him fulltime for the 2001 season. He now works exclusively with the teams’ crew chiefs each race weekend to help them determine their race set-ups and strategy.

“I try to get to a track a few days earlier than the teams, so I can really go over the track and see where the good and bad spots are, where the groove is and things like that,” he said.

Armed with a digital camera, heat gun and other measuring devices stocked from his custom-made vest, the always-black-clad Miglizzi can spend up to eight hours poring over every bump and crack on the track, cataloging, photographing, and analyzing each track’s nuances, and then sharing it with the Schumacher Racing crew chiefs.

“With as many crew chiefs as Don has, having just one person scouting track conditions saves a lot of man hours that can be better spent.”

He’s also part meteorologist and part vulcanologist.

He’s constantly scanning the sky, judging by the cloud shape, color, and direction when and if the track might cool. He pays attention not only to how many passes the Safety Safari makes with the traction compound but from which direction: starting line to finish line, or vice versa? Was it a heavy spray or a light spray? It all matters, he says.

As the cars are preparing to run, he’ll be down on his hands and knees, minutely examining the rubber’s adhesion to the surface, and checking the temperature and the consistency of the rubber. He’ll wipe up minute spots of spilled fluids and even remove small pebbles from the groove.

“I’m not saying that a small pebble is going to cause a car to go up in smoke, but it certainly doesn’t hurt to do, does it?” he said with a laugh. “I’ve been with teams who have lost races by thousandths of a second, and if I can help them find that one thousandths through something I see or do, then I’m doing my job.”

His highest-profile customer, Tony Schumacher, certainly appreciates Miglizzi’s efforts and is glad to have him in his corner.

“Let’s face it, drag racing is a pretty ego-driven sport, and for him to do his job behind the scenes and not look for any attention for doing it, that says a lot about the guy. He’s the absolute definition of dedication.”

Top Fuel qualifying session No. 2

Doug Kalitta, running in the left lane alongside J.R. Todd, smokes the tires and doesn't make it to the finish line under power, coasting through to an 8.37 at 98 mph.

Tony Schumacher, running in the right lane alongside Brandon Bernstein, runs 4.503, slower than his previous best spot, but maintains the No. 1 spot. Bernstein smoked the tires every early and backfired the engine, and rolled through to a 12-second clocking.

Schumacher and Bernstein remain Nos. 1 and 3 while Kalitta slips one spot to sixth, although because qualifiers 5 and 6 each earn four points, he doesn’t lose any ground in the points.

Schumacher provisionally gains eight points, Bernstein seven, and Kalitta four. Each driver already has received 10 points for making a qualifying pass.

Provisional adjusted points:

Kalitta: 1,593

Schumacher: 1,552 (-41)

Bernstein: 1,496 (-97)

Quick Quotes:

Schumacher: "It was too hot to go for anything big there so we just played it as safe as Alan does, which really isn't that safe. I'm not sure what happened to Doug there. I know Grubnic stayed and tested in Vegas and was running low numbers so maybe they're trying some different stuff. I saw that he red-lighted there, which will play on his mind a little. Hey, everything has to be considered."

Kalitta: "Obviously we overpowered the track. Not what we wanted. It's hard to tell what happened but we'll figure it out. We'll just have to step it up tomorrow."

Bernstein: "I heard it pop right at the hit. I tried to catch it quick and just shut it off because I knew it wouldn't be a pass I could save and there was no reason to try. The burst panels are still in, which is strange, although I see that it was trying to push the head gasket out. It's weird for us to do that. We haven't see that on our car in awhile. The good news is we already have a good run in the books so we can still get after it tomorrow."