Dodge-SRT NHRA U.S. Nationals - Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis

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Final Qualifying Sessions - Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car

(LEFT) Making a big move up the ladder, Julie Nataas in the #2 Randy Meyer Racing team car, improved from her earlier 5.265 - 271.57 best to a top qualifying 5.162 - 280.72 to lead the field. She also turned on the winlight in the first round of the JEGS Allstars competition as she outran Aaron Cooper (not shown) and advanced to the semifinal of that portion of the event.

(RIGHT) Running in the last pair of the first round of the JEGS Allstars, James Stevens ran away from opponent Shawn Cowie (not shown) and jumped into the T/AD field, moving from #21 to #11 with a solid 5.336 - 268.97. Those numbers also gave him lane choice in the JEGS semifinal over Mike Bucher.

(LEFT) The first pair of Funny Cars out of the lanes saw Dan Pomponio (near lane) and Brian Hough (far lane) engaged in a close race as part of the JEGS AllStars and for position in the U.S. Nationals field. Hough stayed in the #5 position with a good 5.542 - 268.28, not much slower than his previous best of 5.508, while Pomponio moved up two spots from #12 to #10 with his best of the weekend 5.578 - 260.26. The winlight came on in Hough's lane and moved him to the semifinal round of the AllStars.

(RIGHT) In the second pair, Bob McCosh (not shown) was up in smoke early, allowing Ray Drew to take an easy win and advance in the AllStars eliminations, but his 5.761 - 260.66 wasn't close to improving on his earlier 5.596 best and he remained in the #12 spot going into eliminations.

(LEFT) Fast-rising Midwesterner Kyle Smith in his family-run "Everybody's Nightmare" is quickly becoming that, following two consecutive regional wins in the past two months, and a win at Brainerd two weeks ago. He came into the final session in the #3 spot in the field with a 5.505 best, and improved that number to a 5.502 - 261.57 to hold the spot and advance to the semifinal of the AllStars. This is definitely a team on the rise and one to watch.

(RIGHT) Back to the dragsters now, with the "Real Deal" entry of Mick Steele making a bye run but not going far before smoking tires and coasting to a 13-second run, leaving him in the #15 position - and in danger of being bumped - with his earlier best of 5.489 - 256.45 on the qualifying list.

(LEFT) The singles continued as some of the safely qualified racers sat out the session. Next up was Jared Dreher, looking to move up, and he did from the #14 position to #13. His 5.391 - 258.81 pass (shown here) was a solid gain over his earlier 5.473 best.

(RIGHT) There was one more single before the pairing began again, with Oregon's Mitch Myers seeing his final session hopes go up in smoke as he shutoff to a 11.695 - 79.22, leaving his earlier 5.369 - 272.06 effort in the #12 spot on the ladder.

(LEFT) The parade of A/Fuel cars continued (with only 4 out of 21 cars in the field running a blown alky combo), and Marina Anderson made her best run of the weekend, picking up a tenth and a half, but that wasn't nearly enough as her 5.578 - 250.51 only advanced her from #19 to #18 and nearly a full tenth outside of the field.

(RIGHT) A team that doesn't run too often, but does well when they appear, the Michalek brothers, with Corey Michalek at the wheel, stayed in the 5.20-zone, with a great 5.297 - 277.66 backing up their career best of 5.290 - 278.06 as they stayed in the top half of the field in the #8 position.

(LEFT) Sitting in a rather unaccustomed spot, all the way down in #7, Rachel Meyer in the flagship of the Meyer team, looked to climb the ladder by running quicker than her previous best of 5.249. It didn't happen as a good, but not better, 5.256 - 278.52 left her in the #7 spot going into eliminations.

(RIGHT) One of the few blown alky cars in the field, Colorado's Steve Griboski was in the field, on the bubble, but safe as there were no other cars left to bump him. He picked up a bit from a previous 5.23 to a 5.448 - 262.85 to move up one spot to #15 and lock in the field at 5.489 or better (Mick Steele).

Running alongside Griboski in that second to last pair of the session, was the #2 "Scrappers Racing" car of Jianna Salinas who encountered instant tire smoke (12.633 - 56.87) and failed to better her #3 qualifying 5.206 - 281.01 earlier best.

(LEFT) Back to the Funny Cars, now and it's Doug Gordon

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Photo copyright 2021 NHRA/National Dragster
This photo sums up what happened after the weather took over on Saturday

In case you're wondering what happened to Saturday's coverage... well, with a very gloomy forecast our correspondent stayed at the hotel and missed the sportsman cars that ran before the rain washed out the PRO qualifying sessions. The rain started after the first round of Top Alcohol eliminations, and early rounds of Competition Eliminator, Top Dragster, Top Sportsman and the Super categories were completed and partway through Factory Stock Showdown.

Thankfully, Sunday dawned clear and dry and despite the loss of most of a day of qualifying and sportsman eliminations, the event was completed on Sunday. Just like the old days when NHRA more than a few times had to cram a weekend's worth of racing into one very long day. The organization is far better now and the race was completed on time. It was a very early start for the sportsman racers, with Super Street starting proceedings at 7:45 am. First round of PRO eliminations ran at 10:00 am, and the Top Fuel final went off at 4:00 pm.

Before the on-track action could start, the cars had to be unloaded and prepped. But this photo shows the Chip Beverett team loading up their Top Alcohol Funny Car after losing in Saturday's first round of eliminations. We're not sure why they sat around for a full day before packing up.

TOP FUEL ELIMINATIONS - Round One

(LEFT) In the second pair out, Joe Morrison in the "Right 2Breathe" sponsored car of the Leverich family, faced a tough task, coming out of the #12 spot on the ladder. He started dropping cylinders at the 660' mark and slowed to a 4.331 - 224.36 time.

(RIGHT) In the far lane, Leah Pruett streaks off into the distance, but not without problems as she shut off early also, but still managed a respectable 3.933 - 253.37 to take the win over Morrison.

(LEFT) Running by herself at this point, Brittany Force was well up on the tires as she stopped the clocks with a tremendous 3.702 - 332.34 in her "Monster Energy" car in a runaway win over Shawn Langdon (not shown). Langdon smoked the tires immediately, pedalled once unsuccessfully, and coasted to a 10-second elapsed time. Force's time was only a little slower than her #1 qualifying 3.684 - 334.57 effort.

(RIGHT) Next one out of the lanes was Doug Kalitta and he also carded a one-sided win as opponent Krista Baldwin (not shown) smoked the tires right away and shut off to an 8-second time. Kalitta pushed the "MAC Tools" entry to a good 3.794 - 319.75 pass. Not nearly as quick as Force, but it was a winner nonetheless.

(LEFT) Coming out of the #2 in qualifying, Steve Torrence almost kept pace with Ms. Force as he put down a very good 3.716 - 325.37 in an an easy win over Antron Brown (not shown), who smoked the tires almost immediately and shut off to an 8-second timeslip.

(RIGHT) The "Captain of the CAPCO Ship", Billy Torrence improved on his 3.756 qualifying e.t., carding a 3.741 - 326.95 to eliminate Trip Tatum III. For a change, the losing driver got off the starting line strongly, but lost traction before the 330' mark and slowed to a 5.288 - 131.72 for the loss.

For a change, we're showing a photo of the losing car, as last year's "Rookie of The Year" Justin Ashley was leading at this point in the race. Look closely in the upper left corner of the pic and you'll see the nose wing of Alex Laughlin catching up quickly as Ashley shut off with engine damage and coasted to a 4.081 at only 216.20-mph. Taking advantage of his plight was Laughlin who overcame a holeshot and cranked out a 3.878 - 304.94 for his first round win in Top Fuel.

FUNNY CAR ELIMINATIONS - Round One

(LEFT) It looks like Alexis DeJoria is in trouble here, as she's trailing a lot of raw fuel out of the pipes after lifting when she lost traction and cut the throttle early to a 4.128 - 257.14 clocking. It was still good enough to get past Blake Alexander (not shown) who got out of shape and shut off to a 6-second time.

(RIGHT) It's easy to get a clear, almost head-on shot of a car when it's rolling by your vantage point at less than 100 mph, as was the case here as Jim Campbell cruised to the finish line in Jim Dunn's Dodge Charger. For the record, he clocked in at 8.388 - 74.06 for the loss, as opponent J.R. Todd recovered from instant tire smoke to catch an ailing Campbell with the wildest set of numbers of the event: 6.401 - 292.58 in an epic chase to the finish line.

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It was interesting to note that every car with lane choice advanced to the second round, and the "quickest" e.t. of the losing cars was 6.081. Every winning car was in the left lane, and every losing car in the right lane (obviously), indicating that there just might be something wrong with the prep, or the track itself, in that lane. It will be interesting to see if or what NHRA can do to rectify the situation for the next round(s).

PRO STOCK ELIMINATIONS - Round One

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PRO MOD ELIMINATIONS - Round One

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TOP FUEL ELIMINATIONS - Round Two

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FUNNY CAR ELIMINATIONS - Round Two

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PRO MOD ELIMINATIONS - Round Two

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TOP ALCOHOL ELIMINATIONS - Round Two

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TOP FUEL ELIMINATIONS - Round Three

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FUNNY CAR ELIMINATIONS - Round Three

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PRO STOCK ELIMINATIONS - Round Three

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PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE ELIMINATIONS - Round Three

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TOP FUEL HARLEY ELIMINATIONS - Round One

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FACTORY STOCK SHOWDOWN ELIMINATIONS - Round Two

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COMPETITION ELIMINATIONS - Round Three

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE ELIMINATIONS - Final Round

PRO STOCK ELIMINATIONS - Final Round

FUNNY CAR ELIMINATIONS - Final Round

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TOP FUEL ELIMINATIONS - Final Round

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