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Cruz Pedregon raced to the qualifying lead in Funny Car with a track record performance Friday at the Dollar General NHRA Summernationals at Heartland Park Topeka.

Antron Brown (Top Fuel) and Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) also were qualifying leaders at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event.

Pedregon powered his Snap-on Tools Toyota Camry to a leading performance of 4.046 seconds at 315.56 mph, bettering both ends of the Funny Car track record, to hold off Bob Tasca III for the top spot. Tasca was second with a 4.062 at 315.56 in the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Ford Mustang. The two-time world champion is very pleased with the performance of his new Toyota Camry body. 

Cruz Pedregon

Antron Brown

Allen Johnson

“We definitely have one of the quicker cars out there,” said Pedregon, a four-time winner at HPT and a two-time No. 1 qualifier this season. “So we just have to continue to do our job and not beat ourselves on Sunday.”

Pedregon was the quickest in both sessions, but his final run of the day continued the recent trend of his Snap-on team pulling out an impressive performance during a Friday evening qualifying session.

“To be honest with you, we don’t swing for the fence,” Pedregon said. “We try to race the track and be smart. We had 16 rounds in a row before we smoked the tires at our last race. That’s a credit to our thought process. The track was excellent, so there were a lot of good runs.”

In Top Fuel, Brown paced the Top Fuel division with a 3.797 at 324.98 in his Matco Tools dragster to move around recent first-time winner Steve Torrence, who ended up second overall with a 3.801 at 320.51 in his Capco Contractors dragster.

“It’s been awhile since our Matco Tools boys have been No. 1,” said Brown, whose last No. 1 came last season in Reading. “It’s not for lack of work. The class keeps getting tougher, so we have to keep digging deeper. It feels great any time you can take a swing and land it. You have to make some power to get through that clutch. We went out there trying to get after it. Brian [Corradi, crew chief] told me it was a little lazy coming off the starting line. We ran a .79, but the car did it from 150 feet through half-track, where it ran strong.”

Johnson, a past winner at this track who has earned two No. 1 qualifying positions this season and raced to one victory, led Pro Stock with a performance of 6.618 at 207.85 in his Team Mopar Dodge Avenger. 

“We’ve got a great, consistent car now with the Mopar Dodge Avenger,” Johnson said. “We’ve finally climbed that mountain and have gotten settled on the top. We tested earlier in St. Louis and managed in similar conditions, and that helped us a bit this weekend. We’re trying to be close to the edge all the time now. You’ve got to do that to beat the Summit cars, Vincent [Nobile], and Mike [Edwards]. But we’re staying on this side of the edge so that we can maintain being consistent.”

Series leader Greg Anderson was second in the Summit Racing Pontiac with a 6.624 at 208.55, and defending world champ Jason Line was third with a 6.630 at 207.11 in his Summit Pontiac.

Qualifying continues Saturday with sessions at noon and 2:30 p.m. Sunday’s eliminations start at 11 a.m.

The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series heads to the heartland and Kansas, where it all began. The first NHRA event was held in Great Bend, Kan., a short drive from Heartland Park Topeka, where the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series will be this weekend, May 18-20 for the 24th annual Dollar General NHRA Summernationals.

It should be a great weekend of racing in Topeka, and those not attending can catch all the action on ESPN2/ESPN2HD beginning with qualifying on Saturday, May 19, at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT. Sunday’s race-day coverage begins at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.

Here’s what viewers can expect when they tune in this weekend:

Turmoil turns into success: In the first part of the season, there was nothing but turmoil on the Ron Capps NAPA Auto Parts Funny Car team. A new crew, led by tuner Rahn Tobler, has Capps looking for his fourth final round in a row and second NHRA Full Throttle Series win. Is it Capps' year?

First for Torrence: Ripe off his first Top Fuel win, Steve Torrence, who posted the victory one year after he started his own team, will be featured in-depth on the ESPN broadcast. Torrence, who overcame Hodgkin's lymphoma several years ago, won Indy in Top Alcohol Dragster as well as the championship in 2005. We'll break down his amazing story.

No wins but in the points: Seven-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher is leading the Top Fuel points without winning a race. Will his winless streak come to a stop in Topeka?

K&N Horsepower Challenge update: The battle for the final spot in the K&N Horsepower Challenge is heating up. Vincent Nobile overtook Greg Stanfield for the seventh and last guaranteed spot. This battle should go down to the final race in Chicago.

Prestone’s Ask the Expert with David Grubnic: You can ask David Grubnic, who scored his first Top Fuel win in Topeka in 2005, a question on NHRA's Facebook page under Prestone's Ask the Expert column, and one lucky fan will have his or her question answered on ESPN2's telecast. It just might be the one selected for the weekend’s ESPN2 broadcast!
 

Steve Torrence’s seemingly sudden explosion onto the Top Fuel scene with a commanding victory two weeks ago at Atlanta Dragway shouldn’t have been a huge surprise to many.

The 29-year-old Texan basically put together a team from scratch in the span of a year and won a race in the team’s 10th start. For most of the season, his team was showing signs that the Capco Contractors dragster was getting ready to make a move.

He had qualified in the top two at three straight races, including earning his first No. 1 position at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals. In Las Vegas and Houston, he lost in the semifinals in extremely close, good old-fashioned drag races with Spencer Massey and Antron Brown.

When he pulled to the Atlanta Dragway starting line two weeks ago in his first Top Fuel final against seven-time world champ Tony Schumacher, who was the event’s No. 1 qualifier and trying to put an end to a win drought and earn his first win at that track, Torrence was probably one of the few people at Georgia’s House of Speed who thought he had a chance to win.

When he powered away from Schumacher’s tire-smoking U.S. Army dragster and crossed the finish line first, Torrence felt as if he had finally arrived in the sport in which he has been working so hard to gain his footing since embarking on a Pro driving career in 2006, one year after he claimed the Top Alcohol Dragster national title in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series.

With a victory in hand, Torrence certainly will approach the Dollar General NHRA Summernationals, May 18-20 at Heartland Park Topeka, with more swagger. Spencer Massey (Top Fuel), Robert Hight (Funny Car), and Shane Gray (Pro Stock) are the defending winners of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event that will be televised on ESPN2HD.

“Anytime you can win a Top Fuel race – or any race – that definitely boosts your confidence, and it is just the motivation to go out and try harder,” Torrence said. “You are at the pinnacle of your sport, and you are driving a Top Fuel car and racing with the best teams and drivers – Schumacher, Alan Johnson, Morgan Lucas, and all of those guys. You can go out and say you won a race, and that’s a huge thing for us, especially.”

Torrence said the win has really pumped up his young crew, which he refers to as more than a team, led by veteran crew chief Richard Hogan, who has worked with some of the sport’s greats, including “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and Johnson, among others.

“We are really pleased to get that first win for the Capco team and Torrence Racing, but we are not satisfied with that,” Torrence said. “We want to keep going.  If anything, it’s made us hungry for another win.”

He says the special circumstances surrounding his first win will always put it at the top of his personal highlight reel.

“Beating Tony in the finals was pretty special because I’ve looked up to that man for quite some time,” Torrence said. “He sets the bar for what a driver should be and do, in the car and the way he conducts himself at the tracks. That sets it apart for me, and it is something I will always remember.”

He also remembers his first NHRA national event victory, in 2005 during his TAD title run. He won that race at Heartland Park Topeka, a track that he says has always been good to him. With summer fast approaching, he expects similar weather conditions in Kansas that were present in Atlanta.

“The car performed well in the heat, and I think it will probably be hot for the race in Topeka,” Torrence said. “So that definitely bolsters our feelings quite a bit, knowing Richard has a good handle on the tune-up in the hot-weather conditions and on hot tracks.

“We are carrying a lot of confidence into Topeka.” 

For Torrence to start a winning streak, he’ll have to outrun a host of challengers, including a very hungry Schumacher, defending winner Massey, Antron Brown, Lucas, Doug Kalitta, Brandon Bernstein, Shawn Langdon, David Grubnic, and Clay Millican.

“Our goal is to field a competitive race car,” Torrence said. “It would be awesome if we could win a race or two more and get established as a good team that can run with the Schumacher and Alan Johnson teams. What more could you ask for? If you look at the point standings right now, Tony Schumacher is the leader, and he hasn’t won in [30] races. Consistency is the key here. You don’t need to win a race here and go five or six races before winning another one. You need to be there every week and going rounds [in eliminations].” 

In Funny Car, Hight will try to keep his HPT winning streak alive; the Auto Club Ford Mustang has won at the Kansas track the last two seasons. To turn the hat trick, Hight will need to hold off nine-time HPT winner John Force as well as four-time Topeka winner Cruz Pedregon. He’ll also have to contend with Atlanta winner Ron Capps, who has advanced to the last three final rounds in his NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger and is a three-time HPT winner. Others to watch in Funny Car include defending world champ Matt Hagan, who is trying to climb back into the top 10 after a slow start to the season, Houston winner Mike Neff, Jack Beckman, Bob Tasca III, Jeff Arend, Tony Pedregon, and high-profile rookies Courtney Force and Alexis DeJoria.

Greg Anderson has been leading the way in Pro Stock with three victories and holds the series lead over teammate Jason Line, the defending world champ who is also a winner this year. Team Mopar’s Allen Johnson, Mike Edwards, Vincent Nobile, Erica Enders, and Larry Morgan are among the top contenders in the 200-mph category.  

* SCHEDULE: NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series qualifying sessions are scheduled for 4:30 and 7 p.m. on Friday, May 18, and noon and 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 19. Final eliminations will begin at 11 a.m. on Sunday, May 20.

* TICKETS: For tickets for the Dollar General NHRA Summernationals, call Heartland Park Topeka, 785-43-RACES (72237), or log on to www.hpt.com.

* ON TV: ESPN2 and ESPN2HD will televise two hours of qualifying coverage at 5 p.m. ET on Saturday, May 19. ESPN2 and ESPN2HD will televise three hours of eliminations coverage at 7 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 20.

* LUCAS OIL SERIES: The Dollar General NHRA Summernationals also will feature competition in seven categories in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, where some of the future stars of the NHRA Full Throttle Series are born. Lucas Oil Series qualifying begins at 8 a.m. on May 18. Lucas Oil Series eliminations begin at 8 a.m. on May 19 and continue through May 20.

NHRA officials have announced the formation of a Nitro Technical Advisory Council. The Nitro Technical Advisory Council will be chaired by NHRA Vice President-Technical Operations Glen Gray and will provide input on rules and other technical matters.

The Nitro Technical Advisory Council members represent a cross section of the current Professional nitromethane teams and include Mike Green, crew chief, U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster; Alan Johnson, owner, Alan Johnson Racing; Mike Neff, driver and crew chief, Castrol GTX Ford Mustang; Tim Wilkerson, owner and crew chief, Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Shelby Mustang; and Del Worsham, crew chief, Tequila Patron Funny Car.

“We believe this group of seasoned and experienced participants in the Top Fuel and Funny Car categories can assist NHRA in both the short- and long-term,” said Gray. “The group understands the intricacies of the fastest-accelerating vehicles on the planet, and their knowledge could serve to help NHRA in rule making and technical matters that are in the best of interest of the entire sport.”

The first meeting of the Nitro Technical Advisory Council is set for this weekend during the 24th annual Dollar General NHRA Summernationals at Heartland Park Topeka.