Three of the four professional low qualifiers from Friday’s preliminary rounds maintained their leads as qualifying concluded Saturday at the 27th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd Int’l Raceway. Tony Schumacher, Ashley Force, and Greg Anderson stayed atop their respective Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock fields while reigning POWERade champ Matt Smith (pictured) broke the track record with a 6.958 to claim the top sport in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

Schumacher’s 3.864 held up as the quickest pass in Top Fuel while Force’s 4.110, was challenged but not exceeded as she claimed the second-consecutive low qualifier award of her career. Anderson’s 6.679 from Friday was also not bettered in Pro Stock while Smith, who was riding in pain after being diagnosed with a kidney stone, grabbed the top spot in Pro Stock Motorcycle from Chris Rivas with a 6.958 on his new Nitro Fish Buell.

Tony Schumacher

Schumacher, who is seeking to win his fourth consecutive race and ninth overall in 2008, backed up Friday’s 3.864 with a best of 3.871 on Saturday. He has now qualified in the top spot five times this season and 52 times in his career, tying him with Hall of Famer Don “the Snake” Prudhomme. After running a best of 3.869 on Friday, Steve Torrence and his Vis Viva team elected to sit out both of Saturday’s qualifying runs in order to prepare for Sunday’s opening round. Cory McClenathan (3.877), Larry Dixon (3.899), and Doug Herbert (3.901) are also seeded into the top half of the field.

“This is a great spot to be in but more importantly, my car is running great,” said Schumacher. “We have a single in the first round tomorrow but that doesn’t matter; we still have to go four rounds. The key is to let the past be the past. We have to focus on the round and forget about winning four in a row or five races in a row. If we win the race, you can tell us about all the hoopla then.”

With 15 Top Fuel cars on the grounds, Schumacher will receive a round one bye during tomorrow’s opening round. Torrence will be paired with No. 15 qualifier Hillary Will, who never made a full pass and qualified with a 4.546 best.

Morgan Lucas and Bob Vandergriff, who are currently ranked 11th and 12th in the POWERade standings and are trying to qualify for the Countdown to One, will have their work cut out for them in Brainerd. Lucas is paired with No. 7 qualifier and four-time Brainerd winner Antron Brown while Vandergriff will face off against No. 6 qualifier Dave Grubnic.

Ashley Force

Force qualified in the top spot in Funny Car for the second consecutive event as her 4.110 from Friday remained the quickest elapsed time of the weekend. Force’s teammates are all qualified in the top half of the field as her father, John, is second with a 4.112, followed by Robert Hight (4.119) and Mike Neff, who is fifth with a 4.176. Del Worsham prevented a clean sweep of the top spots by putting his Check Schuck’s Kragen Impala into the No. 4 spot with a 4.152. Force will be paired with No. 16 qualifier Ron Capps in tomorrow’s opening round. 

"This is great but we really hope to win some rounds tomorrow," said Force. "We've struggled at the last few races even though we've been qualifying well. We just haven't had any luck. I'm happy about being No. 1 but I'm trying not to get too excited. This is the best qualifying performance we've had at John Force Racing in a while. We're all in the top half of the field so hopefully we won't run each other until the late rounds."

"Someone asked me if I was going to the Zoo [the infamous Brainerd campground] tonight but, no, I'm more concerned with winning the race tomorrow. However, I would encourage all of my competitors to go there tonight."

In the final qualifying session, Tommy Johnson Jr. drove the Monster Dodge to a 4.39 to bump his wife, Melanie Troxel from the field. Troxel returned the favor one pair later, running a 4.276 in Roger Burgess’ ProCare RX entry to knock Johnson from the field.

In addition to Johnson, Seattle winner Tony Bartone and Bob Bode also did not qualify.

Greg Anderson

Anderson remained atop the Pro Stock field with Friday’s 6.679 blast from his Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac and has secured the top spot for the 66th time in his career but fellow Minnesota natives Kurt and Warren Johnson are nipping at his heels with runs of 6.681 and 6.684, respectively, during Saturday’s morning qualifying run. Allen Johnson also improved his performance with a 6.688 in his Mopar Stratus. Jason Line, who began the day as the No. 2 seed, was bumped to No. 5 while Justin Humphreys (6.703), Ron Krisher (6.704), and Sonoma champ Dave Connolly (6.708) round out the top eight.

“We didn’t set the world on fire with our two runs today but we did learn a few things,” said Anderson. “Maybe we lulled our competitors into a false sense of security. We knew the sun would be out today and we planned on the track going away and it didn’t, at least not on the first round. Later it did go away a bit and we didn’t plan for it. Still, I have full confidence that when I pull up there for the first round tomorrow, I’ll have the baddest hot rod on the planet. I can’t wait to get at it. Unfortunately, the way the ladder worked out Jason and I could run in the semi’s but at least we can get one car into the final. That’s our plan anyway.”

Former IHRA series champ Steve Spiess, competing in just his sixth NHRA Pro Stock race, qualified on the bump with a 6.744 in his Spiess Construction Cobalt and will be paired with Anderson in tomorrow’s opening round. Former Super Stock champ Greg Stanfield was among the surprise non qualifiers, as his 6.749 best was not among the quick 16. Stanfield had qualified for every event since last year’s Dallas race, a string of 18 consecutive starts. Johnny Gray, Danny Gruninger, and Mark Hogan were also non-qualifiers.

Matt Smith

Smith, debuting a new Nitro Fish Buell that was completed just days before the start of the event, broke the BIR track record with a 6.958 on Saturday, knocking Chris Rivas to the No. 2 spot. Although he was suffering from the painful effects of a kidney stone, Smith managed to claim the top spot for the third time this season. Rivas improved his performance by a couple of thousandths and finished second with a 6.977 while Angelle Sampey joined the short list of six-second qualifiers with a 6.984. Norwalk champ Hector Arana (7.019), and Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson teammates Eddie Krawiec (7.021) and Andrew Hines (7.022) round out the top six.

“I’m in a bit of pain right now with this kidney stone but I’ll be okay,” said Smith. “I’m going to the hospital tonight and hopefully, they’ll be able to break it up and I’ll be good to go tomorrow. One way or another, I’ll be here.

“As for this new bike, it was built in-house by Kelly Campbell and it’s obviously a good bike,” Smith said. “We tried something on our last pass and obviously it didn’t work but that doesn’t tell the story. My old bike was fast, but it was just wore out. I was the third Buell ever built and it had a lot of runs on it. I think I lost about five races because that bike wouldn’t shift and the only thing we could figure was that the chassis was flexing too much. We shouldn’t have that problem with this new bike.”

Jim Underdahl, the son of former rider and current Karen Stoffer crew member Greg Underdahl, bumped his way into the field with a 7.274 and will be a part of final eliminations on Sunday for the first time in his career. Joe DeSantis actually matched Underdahl’s elapsed time to the thousandth of a second late in the final qualifying round, but the second-generation rider claimed the No. 16 spot based on his faster speed, 185.10 to 184.83.

E-mail this article   Print this article