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by Rob Geiger, NHRA.com
Brandon Bernstein's fight to hold onto his spot in the inaugural Countdown to 1 field got off to a great start Friday night as the second-generation Top Fuel pro earned the provisional low qualifier position at the second annual Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals. The son of legend Kenny Bernstein blistered Virginia Motorsports Park with a 4.549 at 321.58 mph to outrun the four drivers looking to replace him in the final leg of the playoffs.
Tommy Johnson Jr. leads Funny Car with a solid 4.790 at 312, while scorching-hot Pro Stock points leader Dave Connolly showed the way in the factory hot rod class with a steady 6.649 at 207 mph. Johnson and most of the other Funny Car racers are driving reconfigured chassis this weekend. Drivers and teams have strengthened the chrome moly tubing around the driver's compartment after the incident that sidelined John Force.
"That was big," Bernstein said. "To qualify in the top half and get those extra points gives us a little bit of a cushion. But it's still going to come down to a round-by-round deal on Sunday. We just have to go rounds on Sunday and hope we go more than [Bob Vandergriff] goes and even Whit [Bazemore] and the others. They're all right back there. Whit Bazemore, who needs Bernstein to bow out early Sunday for him to have a chance at making the Countdown to 1 field, is second after Friday's lone qualifying session with a 4.574 at 321.42 mph in his Matco Tools rail. A lengthy rainstorm canceled the second session outright.
Bernstein entered this decisive weekend as the man with the biggest target on his back since his Budweiser Top Fuel team is currently fourth in the standings. Only the top four racers in each professional category will have a chance at the 2007 championship after this weekend's race.
Brandon Bernstein
"When it's pouring down rain out there and you start thinking you might not even get one run so you're going into Saturday maybe with just two runs to make it into this championship deal it becomes very unsettling. But Tim Richards [tuner] made an awesome call and got the car to go down there so now we feel great."
J.R. Todd, who is also chasing Bernstein, is third with a 4.592 at 317.64 mph in his Torco dragster, followed by points leader Larry Dixon, who is fourth with a 4.600 in his SkyTel dragster. Another Countdown racer, Doug Herbert, is next in fifth place in his Snap-on Tools car with a 4.606.
The closest racer to Bernstein in the points, UPS pro Bob Vandergriff, broke right off the starting line, leaving him outside the field with two rounds remaining.
Johnson isn't a part of the Countdown but that didn't stop the Skoal racer from putting his Impala R/T on the provisional Funny Car pole with a 4.790 at 312.06 mph. Johnson's speed was the difference as John Force Racing pro Robert Hight also posted a 4.790, but he ended up second in his Auto Club Ford after topping out at 307.58 mph.
Tommy Johnson Jr.
In the wake of John Force's accident in Dallas, most of the racers in the field reconfigured their cars to strengthen the cockpit area. "We sent our car in when Murf (McKinney, chassis builder) and all the engineers decided what needed to be fixed," Johnson said. "Our car was the first one to leave Murf's with all of the updates. They actually ended up making a lot of the jigs off of our car for everybody else's car. It wasn't a performance secret, so you want to share the safety stuff with everybody. We were more than happy to help everybody out. "I was plenty nervous about the first run. You don't know what it's going to do, is it going to make the chassis stiffer, smoke the tires? So it was good to get a good run in and everything looks normal. If we can make the safety better and the performance the same, that's fine with me. The car actually felt stiffer and easier to drive."
The three drivers fighting to replace John Force in the Countdown to 1 field -- Mike Ashley, Ron Capps, and Gary Scelzi -- had mixed results Friday. Ashley was fifth in his Torco Dodge with a 4.905. Beckman was all the way down on the bump with a coasting 10.973, while Scelzi finds himself outside the top 16 with a best of 11.762.
Considering he's won the last four races in a row, it surprised no one that Connolly has the quickest car in Pro Stock as his 6.649 at 207.24 mph in the Torco/Seelye Wright Chevrolet Cobalt got the job done Friday night.
Dave Connolly
"The run we've been on is kind of incredible," Connolly said. "Sometimes you just get those vibes you're going to have a good weekend. I got that feeling last week and we actually made some gains in testing. You can go out there and test for months and months at a time and just never really find anything, but we actually felt like we made some progress with our Chevy Cobalt and it showed on that run.
"You never know what to expect, especially when it rains that hard, but NHRA did an excellent job. My car never moved around one bit, so hat's off to NHRA. I don't know what it is about these East Coast races with 'R' in it -- Reading, Richmond -- it seems like it rains on us all the time, but we've always had a lot of luck in the rain and we did it again today."
Connolly's teammate at Cagnazzi Racing, fourth-place points earner Jeg Coughlin, is second on the grid with a 6.661 at 207.27 mph, so it appears the testing the team did between races really paid off.
The other players in the Countdown to 1 chase showed well with Larry Morgan earning fifth place with a 6.674, Allen Johnson taking sixth with a 6.677, Kurt Johnson grabbing eighth with a 6.689, Jason Line ninth with a 6.704, and Warren Johnson claiming 12th with a 6.708.
Bob Benza set the Day 1 bump with a 6.748 in his unsponsored entry. Twenty-four drivers attempted passes Friday.
Posted for FlA by TAB