What's New in the World of Drag Racing - UPDATED: October 28, 2023

The latest update as of October 28, 2023

As promised, we've got photos from Friday's first day of qualifying at the NHRA Nevada Nationals. With good atmospheric and track conditions: not too hot, dry air, good track prep, the promise was there for some great performances. Leading off nitro qualifying, as is NHRA's custom on Friday, the Funny Cars were first out of the staging lanes. Following them were Top Fuel and the Legends Series of Nostalgia Funny Cars. We expect to have Top Alcohol, Pro Mod, and even some Pro Stock pics from Friday posted later this evening. Captions and details will be added as time permits over the next few days. As always: Stay Tuned For Updates!

8:45 AM UPDATE: You've often heard the old saying about "be careful what you wish for". Well, that certainly applies this morning, as my email inbox just exploded with 70 more photos from Friday. Looks like it's going to be a late night this evening, dealing with them. Unfortunately, we have obligations during the day so won't be able to get to the latest batch of photos until this evening.

FUNNY CAR - QUALIFYING SESSION #1

(LEFT) Making his fourth appearance of the season, and sporting a beautiful airbrushed - yes, paint - body, Steven Densham, with father Gary tuning made a decent opening pass at 4.133 - 285.59. It could have been quicker but the blower hold down bolts sheared before the finish line, shutting the car off.

(RIGHT) A regular at Las Vegas events, the Bode family hot rod, with young Bobby Bode III driving ran well until he clicked it early, and cruised across the stripe with a 4.255 - 235.35 showing on the scoreboard. He was supposed to be paired with Jeff Diehl, but that team had some serious issues when they started the car and were forced to shut it down.

The third solo run in a row, due to Terry Haddock not appearing for this session, saw Paul Lee make one of his best runs of the season, notching a very good 3.915 - 323.97. With some additional tuning help from "retired" John Medlen, the team looks stronger than at any point in recent memory.

(LEFT) While they don't run all the events on the schedule, the Jim Head team always runs strong when they appear. Following a strong burnout, Blake Alexander ran strong for a few hundred feet before the tires started shaking, forcing him to shut off to a 5-second elapsed time.

(RIGHT) Bannering the Breast Cancer Awareness movement, the pink car of Cruz Pedregon looked good and ran okay, putting up a 4.131 - 255.73, after an early shutoff. It's been a long tough year for the "Snap-On" team as they are still looking for the magic that they conjured up at the end of the 2022 season.

(LEFT) Jumping straight into the 3's, the Bandero Tequila Toyota put down a solid 3.958 - 328.62 that put Alexis DeJoria in the #2 spot temporarily. With good conditions it was almost certain that someone in the lanes was going into the 3.80's during this opening session.

(RIGHT) Nearing the end of his first season with the Jim Dunn Racing team, Alex Laughlin put down a solid run to start his weekend, stopping the timers at 4.040 - 302.96 to grab a spot on the ladder.

(LEFT) Opening with a good run, with a slightly early shutoff, Tim Wilkerson notched a 3.965 - 314.97 to stake his claim to a top half qualifying position.

(RIGHT) One-upping his "teammate", Chad Green in the Dan Wilkerson-tuned Mustang ran all the way to the finish line, ringing up a 3.953 - 321.73, good enough for a temporary hold on the #2 spot in the field.

(LEFT) While he's still in the championship chase, J.R. Todd needed to qualify near the top of the field and win rounds to keep his title hopes alive. He made a good start in that direction with the quickest and fastest run - to that point - with a 3.909 - 329.58 coming up on the scoreboard.

(RIGHT) Running alongside Todd was the "GOAT" hisself, as John Force nearly kept pace with the DHL car, racking up a strong 3.916 - 323.81 to take the #3 spot in the order. With only two more pairs in the staging lanes, he assured himself of at least a top half spot in the first session. The gold chrome wrap on the car gave it a very different look as it celebrated the 50th year in business for one of his sponsors, Old World Industries.

(LEFT) Almost all season the Jimmy Prock-tuned Camaro of Robert Hight has been the quickest Funny Car in the JFR camp. He did it again with a new low e.t. pass of 3.881 - 328.45 to give the last pair something to think about. The "stealth" black body with only a few decals adorning it appears to be the way to go after they obliterated the fully wrapped one in that massive starting line explosion in Dallas.

(RIGHT) Coming into the event in 4th place in the points standings, nearly 100 points behind the leader (Matt Hagan), Ron Capps knew that they had to turn up the wick and start making dominating runs again. His opening salvo of 3.928 - 322.73 was okay, but only good enough for the #5 spot on the ladder, with two of the heaviest hitters still to make their runs.

(LEFT) Keeping the colourful PPG body in the trailer as a spare, the flat black Mustang of Bob Tasca III fell just short of matching the top runs of the session. His strong 3.910 - 327.66 pass was a good one and put him in the #4 spot at the end of the session.

(RIGHT) Outrunning Tasca on the scoreboard by a thousandth, Matt "Hulk" Hagan grabbed the 3rd spot in the field with a very good 3.909 - 324.44 to start his weekend on the right note.

The final tally after one session was Robert Hight on top at 3.881, Chad Green #8 at 3.953. Ten cars ran in the 3-second zone, four more in the low 4-second area, and a total of 16 cars made an attempt to run, with Jeff Diehl shutting off before his burnout, and Terry Haddock skipping the session.

TOP FUEL - QUALIFYING SESSION #1

(LEFT) Making his competition debut in Top Fuel was Arizona's Kelly Harper driving the Todd Paton owned Canadian car. Harper made an impressive opening run, 3.934 - 306.74 that saw the car drop a cylinder on the top end and start pushing towards the centerline before he wisely shut it off.

(RIGHT) Up next was another Canadian car, this one with a Canadian driver, Dan Mercier, but he didn't match Harper's heroics. The car left the line well, but lost traction before the 330' timers and he shut off to a 6-second elapsed time.

(LEFT) After two decades of trying to lay down a competitive number, Rob Passey finally broke two barriers, running 3.989 - 304.05 to send the crew into orbit and made Mr. Passey a very happy man in his top-end interview on NHRA.tv.

(RIGHT) Coming out again after more than two years off with some health problems, Illinois' Luigi Novelli unfortunately rolled the beams, triggering an automatic redlight and negating what looked like a decent run.

(LEFT) With a new sponsor (Future Energy Solutions) on board, Shawn Langdon launched hard, but the tires started smoking before half track, leading to an early shut off and a 4.70 - 157.23 result.

(RIGHT) It wasn't a great start for Josh Hart as he left with one cylinder out and gave up on the run early, coasting to a 7-second time. After some encouraging results in the first quarter of the season, culminating with a final round appearance at Route 66 Raceway, it's been all downhill for Hart, with seven straight first round exits since a semifinal finish at Sonoma.

(LEFT) More tire smoke in the next pair, as Austin Prock lost the grip before the 660' mark and clicked it off to a 4.911 - 143.75 timeslip.

(RIGHT) Getting a little further downtrack before the tires broke loose was Tony Schumacher, but it was still a disappointing result as 4.320 - 188.57 popped up on the scoreboard. At this point, after nine cars ran, T.J. Zizzo was #1 with only a 3.910 - 262.33 and Rob Passey sat in the #2 spot.

(LEFT) Running quicker than the car in the other lane (Brittany Force) to the 660' timers, Clay Millican started moving around just past that point, and pulled the pin to a 3.846 at only 251.06. Still it was good enough for the 2nd spot on the ladder.

(RIGHT) It was only a matter of time before someone let loose with a full, strong pass, and it couldn't have come at a better time for the David Grubnic-tuned car of Brittany Force. She ripped off a new low e.t. with a tremendous 3.732 - 335.48 to put more than a tenth between her and the second quickest car so far.

(LEFT) Running the second quickest of the round to this point, Antron Brown rang up a workmanlike 3.768 - 324.59 to open his event ledger.

(RIGHT) Tring hard to continue their streak of quick e.t.'s and big speeds, crew chief Rob Flynn went a little overboard on early wheel speed for Mike Salinas, as the car went up in smoke early, forcing him to shut off to a 6-second clocking.

(LEFT) Four-time world champion Steve Torrence and his Capco Boys crew were looking to hold onto their points lead but didn't get the stellar run they were looking for. Leaving the line with a dead cylinder forced Torrence to shut off before reaching the 330' mark, and netted him a 7-second e.t.

(RIGHT) Absolutely needing a good result here was critical to Justin Ashley's championship aspirations and he started in the right direction with a very good opening run, posting a second quickest 3.748 - 330.72 timeslip.

(LEFT) Saving the best numbers for the last pairing of the round, Doug Kalitta blasted out a 3.709 - 336.49 to surpass Brittany Force in e.t. and speed. It certainly showed that the Alan Johnson tuneup was ready to propel them back into the top of the countdown standings.

(RIGHT) Following her convincing victory at the last stop on the tour, Leah Pruett was looking to keep her lead in the standings and she made a solid start to that quest with a 3.764 - 329.67 that put her #4 after the first session.

With the first of four qualifying sessions complete, 16 cars ran, ten of them clocked in at less than 4-seconds, with the top eight e.t.'s ranging from #8 Kelly Harper at 3.934 all the way up to #1 Doug Kalitta at 3.709. With even better conditions in the late afternoon session, a rash of 3.6-second clockings could be expected.

LEGENDS FUNNY CARS - QUALIFYING SESSION #1

Launching reasonably well, the Billy Meyer tribute car, "Motivation" Mustang of Chuck Loftin wasn't able to keep up the pace going down track as he clocked in at an off pace 5.321 - 206.35 time. The Funny Car Chaos regular found the competition a little stronger in the Legends Nostalgia Funny Car series.

(LEFT) With crew chief Twig Zeigler finetuning the car, Tim Boychuk pushed the "Happy Hour" Camaro to a very good 4.884 - 232.31 to move in to #3 spot on the ladder. Making the trip down from Edmonton, Alberta was looking like a good gamble for the Canadian team.

(RIGHT) In the other lane, Billy Morris pushed the "Problem Child" Camaro to an even better 4.818 - 232.99 to sit at the top of the field.

Bobby Cottrell - 'Bardahl Special' - LFC

(LEFT) It didn't take long for the 4.80 e.t. group to get collectively pushed down when Bobby Cottrell in the bright green "Bardahl Special crossed the 1000' finish line at 4.798 - 235.68 to take the #2 spot on the ladder.

(RIGHT) Taking the top spot with a new low e.t. for the session was James Day with a very quick 4.759 - 239.44 in the Firebird-bodied "Pacemaker" entry. The Edmonton, Alberta team, owned by Ron Hudgson and normally driven by his son Ryan, picked up James Day to substitute for an ill Ryan Hodgson and the move worked well.

Kamaka Pocock - 'California Hustler - LFC

(LEFT) Things slowed down, but only a little, when the next pair ran. The Don Nelson-owned "California Hustler" with Kamaka Pocock driving put down a decent 4.902 at a slowing 228.73 mph to grab the #7 spot in the 8-car field.

(RIGHT) Slotting into #5 on the ladder was Cory McClenathan in the vintage "MAC Attack" paint scheme, as the Glenn Mikres-tuned Firebird put down a 4.883 - 231.44 on his first pass.

(LEFT) Closing out the round was the final pair, with Derrick Moreira in the very colourful "Nitro Junkies" entry. He was running strong until the car started heading for the centerline at the 330' mark, before finally taking out the 660' timing blocks, and DQ'ing his effort as he stayed in the other lane until crossing the finish line.

(RIGHT) In the other lane, and luckily not close enough to Moreira to get hit by his errant car, Dave "Nasty" Benjamin clocked in at #8, on the bump spot, with a 4.945 - 192.11 showing on the scoreboard. There was a short delay while the NHRA officials looked at the video replay of the run before determining that it was Benjamin's car that stopped the timers in his lane.

PRO STOCK - QUALIFYING SESSION #2

We don't usually post much on Pro Stock car or motorcycle, but we've got the second qualifying session for the "Factory Hot Rods" (how's that for an antiquated term ?). With 22 racers looking to get into the 16-car elimination field, qualifying was guaranteed to be more intense. The first session saw e.t.'s from #1 Erica Enders, at 6.595 down to the bump spot, #16 Fernando Caudra Sr. at 6.676. The tightness of the field, with a gap between top and bottom of just 8-hundredths speaks to the competitiveness in the class.