In a bit of a departure from our usual presentation of the elimination results, we're going to present them in chronological order -- not by class. In an even bigger departure from the norm, we're going to include some of the nitro and alcohol funny car results too. No, it's not going to be a regular feature in our event coverage, but since we were there and took lots of notes, we may as well include those classes.

Since we got off to a late start today, due to the overnight rain and the cool, cloudy conditions that slowed the track drying, NHRA (in their infinite wisdom) have decided to cancel the third qualifying session for the Federal-Mogul Dragsters and Funny Cars.

With only sixteen cars on the grounds in each category, this really isn't that much of a problem for anyone.... except Bernie Plourd, who didn't finish assembling his car until this morning. Since he hasn't made a pass yet, he's not in the field and can start packing up now. Everyone else can get ready for the first round of eliminations, immediately following the third session of the Pro cars.

2:10 pm:  Let's get ready to rock. The big boys signal it's time to get serious with the first blown fuel burnout of the day.

Wow, Tim Gibson on a single, with a career best despite a leaking hat nozzle line. If this is any indicator, it could be one awesome session. Hang on.

Vroooommmm.... KA-BOOM! A good launch degenerates rapidly into a booming fireball at half track. It started with a head gasket out like yesterday, then culminated in a full-blown oildown. And the wind blows on.... oops, false alarm; there's no oil, just parts on the track and we're ready to rumble again in less than three minutes.

Dunn runs hard until he starts mixing cylinders just past half track; then bangs the blower at the 1000 foot mark. It still adds up to a very respectable 4.64 timeslip. Hartman gets down the track for the first time this weekend (two nine-second passes yesterday) with a solid 4.78 pass.

It's close until well past half track, where Russell drops cylinders (or tosses the blower belt) and slows dramatically near the finish line. Kalitta steps up nicely and moves solidly into the top half of the field.

Schumacher mixes up cylinders in the top half of the run and fails to improve on yesterday's time, despite a promising start. Grubnic puts down a good number, middle of the pack, but not that far off the pace.

Now we're moving into the "hitters". Not wrong, as Dixon sets top speed and moves in right behind Scelzi's top qualifying 4.51. Herbert's no slouch either as he puts another good set of numbers on the board. Great drag race.

Could we see a 4.40 from this pair? The conditions look right for possibly side by side .40's from these guys. Not a chance, as Bernstein's up in smoke instantly, while Scelzi shakes haaaarrrddd and shuts off at the 200 foot mark.

2:30 pm:  With barely a missed beat, we move directly into the third session of nitro funny car.

Gilbertson pedals and saves a marginal run. Cannon tries too, but fails. He's down to one more chance (weather permitting) to make it into a field with a 6.71 bump spot.

Hofmann's not in the show either. Yesterday's only attempt ended very quickly with a blower explosion at the 200 foot mark. While everyone watches Hofmann struggling to control an out of shape car, Sarver blasts out a new low e.t. The "Mooneyes" car gets in the show with a mediocre number, lowering the bubble to a still not very respectable 6.37. And the track crew is out ministering to Sarver's lane.

Pretty good side by side pass between former teammates. Bazemore moves into the 4.80's and gets near top speed of the meet. Etchells puts down one of his best passes in quite a while.

Epler's still on the bubble after this run, but at least he lowered it by nearly half a second. However, it came at quite a cost. His blower expires with a big bang at half track, tossing the hood burst panel high in the air, then the back of the car is engulfed in flames as he crosses the finish line. The fire goes out quickly and Epler get's the car stopped barely 600 feet past the finish line. In the other lane, Haddock pedals furiously, but finally admits defeat and shuts off at 300 feet.

Pedregon puts on quite a show with a dragging header, but it doesn't slow him very much. Johnson smokes the tires and shuts off.

Gray gets his problems solved... in a hurry, with a 4-second pass that lowers the bump spot to 5.44. Pedregon hazes the tires, drops cylinders and shuts off early. Like half track early.

For a pleasant change we've got a great side by side four second race. Skuza leaps to the top of the qualifying charts, despite an early shutoff. Densham nearly matches him with another good pass.

Capps is on a strong one to the 1000 foot mark, then fades to a five second time. Worsham is up in smoke very early and his run is done at that point.

This is a blast from the (recent) past. These guys had some memorable battles, both on and off the track, last season, but this year's been a very forgettable experience for the WWF car. Despite a good pass yesterday, Toliver's "Season In Hell" is back in session and he smokes the tires hard. Force puts down a nearly flawless run and only misses Skuza's top spot by .006 second.

3:30 pm:  "Where's the fire?" is my first thought as the media grandstand empties en masse as soon as the last flopper clears the traps. "Sportsman racing? You must be kidding" seems to be their collective mindset. Since we've got 30 minutes or so until the first round of Federal-Mogul eliminations, I've got some time to see what's been happening in the pits. On second thought: I don't. By the time I get there, it'll be too late to see the first round of alky action. Time for a coffee instead. Maybe some of that delicious cheescake too.

We've got a great opening race. Federlin's reaction time advantage evaporates by half track and Jones turns on the winlight with a career best e.t.

The clouds are back. And the air feels unreal. Altitude readings must be verging on negative territory by now. More career bests (e.t. and speed) for Parker, but she still trails Hentges by three car lengths at the finish line. Hentges repeats yesterday's e.t. but may have trouble holding lane choice for round two tomorrow.

All the quicker cars are picking the left lane so far. Santos is no exception. He pulls into the lead right off the line and gradually stretches it all the way to the finish, running his first .30 of the weekend. Edwards falls off nearly two tenths from yesterday's qualifying time.

It looks like Shields favours the right lane, and with Cofini covered by more than half a second, it shouldn't make much difference. Cofini straps a holeshot on Shields, but he's behind before they've gone 60 feet. It's pretty much game over at that point. Hey, what about the lane choice situation? Shields takes low e.t. of the round (over Santos) by .002 second. Looks like both lanes are pretty equal for the Federal-Mogul dragsters.

We see our first injected nitro car of the day; a pair of them, in fact. Two very powerful cars also. Brown torches another cylinder head (is that six or seven passes in a row he's done that now?), while Baca lumbers to a mid-40 clocking.

Hough, with lane choice, picks the right side, but it's really a moot point as both sides have seen 5.36's already in this round. This race is over quickly as Hough leaves first by nearly two tenths and pulls away steadily. He falls off half a tenth from his qualifying pace, but is still train lengths ahead of Grocock's best pass of the weekend.

Here's the low qualifier on a solo due to the 15 car field. It'll be very interesting to hear this injected car run by itself. Tremendous pass. Another 5.33; the third in a row for young Bernstein this weekend.

Wooweee.... No wonder Austin's pass looked so slow I think to myself after seeing the scoreboards light up. Almost anything would look slow next to the second quickest A/FD run in the history of drag racing. Where in the heck did Henkelman and Hopewell find that number? If they can run 5.27 or quicker tomorrow, we'll have a new national record. How come it "only" ran 269 mph though?

And in case you haven't been paying attention, this has to be one of the best rounds of Federal-Mogul competition ever at an NHRA national event. Absolutely awesome stuff. If tomorrow's anything like today (weather-wise), then hang on. It's going to be quite a ride.

4:00 pm:  Is there anything the short-wheelbase alcohol cars can do to top the first round of dragster eliminations? Stay tuned and we'll see.

Austin's on a bye due to the short field and is probably going to try some new ideas on this free pass. He shakes, short shifts and runs "only" 248 mph, but it's coupled with a new low e.t. of the meet. Not a bad pyschological move to drop this bomb on the field.

Knox is out of this one early, shaking hard and taking out the 330 foot timing cone. McGlone's long gone already and if he didn't pop the blower at 1100 feet would have gone into the 5.70's for the first time this season.

This one's over even earlier than the previous race, as LeBlanc leaves way too early. Miner's lucky as he shakes, gets out of shape and nearly crosses the centerline at half track. He hangs on though and takes the automatic win.

It's close.... for 60 feet, then Gordon quickly stretches the gap to a second best of the round (so far) 5.75. Clough stays in it to record a respectable 6.21; his best of the weekend.

Thompson shakes hard and gets very close to the centerline at 300 feet. He shuts off and watches Weaver pound out a solid 5.85 to advance to the second round.

Austin only qualified #6 and doesn't hold a big advantage (on paper) over Patton. But this is raceday (part one) and Bucky is always tough to beat when it counts. Whew! This was pretty close for 600 feet until Austin started pulling away. Still, Patton put up a good fight.

The second chance for a Canadian car to advance to Sunday here. But Parker's been running consistently all season. Evanchuk will probably need a career best to get past him. The "Red Wolf" car gives it away with a red light, then tosses the blower belt just past half track. Parker lays down another 5.8 to move on.

It looks like Evanchuk left something more than a blower belt on the track. We're down for five minutes for a cleanup. This last pair of floppers is also Canada's last hope for a win today too. The "Showdown" car of Bateman & Reynolds finally breaks into the fives this weekend, and earns a matchup with Pat Austin tomorrow. Marx keeps it close until half track where something goes away and he slows to a 6.50.

5:30 pm:  Main event time. It's not exactly do or die time for the Top Fuel cars, as everyone's guaranteed a spot in eliminations tomorrow. Let's see what they can do under the great atmospheric and track conditions we're seeing this afternoon.

"Renton Ron" Smith lowers the bump spot more than a second... all the way down to 9.91. He leaves, shakes, shuts off. It took longer for Smith to do the quarter than it took to write the description of that run.

Despite dropped cylinders early, and mixed up cylinders late, Kalivoda knocks four tenths off yesterday's best effort. There's smoke in the braking area... and the Safety Safari. Time-out for another cleanup. In a top-end interview, Kalivoda apologizes to the track crew for messing the track. Thankfully, the job is done in just a few minutes.

Wow. Great side by side passes. This is a very good omen for the balance of this final qualifying session.

"Weak Dog" Dunn jumps into the #3 slot with a decent 4.55, at an "average" 315 mph. Mrs. Hartman-Smith falls back in the second half of her pass and doesn't improve her time or position.

Big speed for the "Army" car, but it's a tenth of a second off the pace. Kalitta jumps up into the 4.55 group. Another great side by side race. Too bad we didn't have more cars to watch under these conditions.

Whew. Dixon breaks the track speed record for the second time in two minutes. He repeats his earlier 4.53 e.t. too. Herbert drops cylinders, smokes the tires and shuts off at half track.

Scelzi rotates the tires, rapidly, instead of the earth and goes into heavy tire smoke. Bernstein moves into the #2 spot with a great 4.52, coupled to yet another new track speed record. That record's taken three hits in less than five minutes.

And that's it for Top Fuel qualifying at the 2001 Northwest Nationals. No shows in this final session were: Bonin, Sosenka, Gibson and Craig Smith.

6:00 pm:  Last chance time for two of these drivers; this being the only blown eliminator with a full field, plus alternates. Right now we have Jim Epler and Scotty Cannon on the outside and looking to get in. Fire the first pair!

Last chance time for Cannon and Epler. Epler leads for 800 feet, then the engine quits and he slows to a non-qualifying 5.32, as Cannon's 5.26 becomes the new bump spot.

Haddock is the only car left that can bump Cannon from the field. He's got a career best of 5.20 to his credit, so the bubble could be within reach. Four or five pedal jobs do not a qualifier make though. Haddock tries, and tries again, as the car shakes, smokes and gets out of shape. Hofmann is up in smoke very early and gives up right away as he's already safely in the show.

Gray's run ends with a big bang at 100 feet; the blower going away and launching the hood relief panel high in the air. Gilbertson lumbers to a 5.00 and holds his position in the field.

Not quite synchronized tire smoke, as Densham blows his off first and Etchells follows suit before he's gone 400 feet. Fire the next pair!

Johnson makes a clean, straight pass while Pedregon gets out of shape and has to shut off.

Excellent side by side pass here; the only one so far in this final session. Both cars are very close at the finish line. We saw some smoke out of the WWF car at the line, and it appears to have been more than burning oil. "Roll the sweep trucks" is the call. Bob Frey reports that the track temperature is now down to 77 (F) and the relative altitude is 200 feet. That's awesome.

It looked better than the timers thought, but Capps still puts down a solid 5-flat. Worsham smokes the tires early, and hard, and shuts off.

Force takes over the top spot with a run that could have been even better. He started mixing up cylinders from 1000 feet through the lights. Bazemore was on a strong pass until he goes up in smoke at half track.

Time for the last pair of nitro cars for the day. And both are a legitimate threat to knock Force off the top of the totem pole. A tremendous effort by Skuza falls just short and he lands in the #2 spot. Sarver is side by side with him to 800 feet, then hazes the tires, drops cylinders and shuts off to a 5.18. And that's a wrap for the on-track action on day two.

7:30 pm:  We've still got the Hentges' barbecue to finish the at-track activities, then it's back on the road to Mr. Binz's Des Moines residence for another long night of web-wonking. We'll be back tomorrow; computers and traffic willing.