Championship Drag Racing

Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals
Pomona, CA
(November 1-4)

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Driver Profile

Jeff Arend Grime Boss/Jim Dunn Racing Charger

Pomona, Saturday: Jeff Arend did the same thing in Indy. He came out of the box strong, taking the top spot after the first qualifying run, and then held on throughout the rest of qualifying to maintain his grip on the pole. The two top spots are the only No. 1 qualifying efforts in Arend's career, and both came at historic races held at massively historic tracks. What made this pole position even more rewarding was the fact it's Arend's final race as driver of the Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Impala. He will face Tony Pedregon, who has all but a mathematical grip on the POWERade Championship, despite the fact he qualified 16th here.

"I'm here to talk about being number one, but there's no way I can be in this spot without Chris Cunningham, Marc Denner, Seth Randall, Larry Lush, Travis Nicholsen, and Danny Gilbert, who all make up my team. On top of that, without Del and Chuck Worsham and CSK Auto, there'd be no chance at all, and I just want to take a minute to sincerely thank all of these great guys, who have worked so hard. The first step in my master plan is complete, and now I just want to have a great day on Sunday. Maybe we can all end this deal on the highest of high notes.

"Of course, our reward for qualifying at the top that we get to race Tony Pedregon in round one. Hey, it's my chance to step up and get it right after red-lighting against Tony a week ago. I just want to give my guys a chance to win, whether it's round one or the race. It's always hard to qualify in the top spot, but this was just plain a hard race to qualify for at all, so I'm glad we're not done racing as the CSK blue team. We're not done yet, and I don't want to be for a while."

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