A few raindrops may have impacted the schedule on Friday, but "The Worlds Biggest Drag Race" was able to get the first round of qualifying in as planned on Friday evening.
With the threat of rain on Saturday, many drivers and teams hit the staging lanes with acceptance that this might be the only run they would make prior to Sunday's final.
By the time the evening was complete, it was John and Brittany Force who sat in the provisional pole positions in Top Fuel and Funny Car respectively. The John Force Racing Teams looked strong and like they had long prepared for the weekends event.
"Eight number one qualifiers, that says a lot about this team, and David Grubnic and Mac Savage and all these guys," said Force. "We want No. 1 qualifiers, but we also want to win on raceday. We had some luck in Topeka a few weeks back, but we want to do it here, the biggest race of the season.
"I've been coming here since I was a baby, I love this place and we want to get the win here. It's the one race that every team wants to win. I've heard people say 100 times, you know, you can't retire until you do that. So I've been chasing the Indy win. It's the big one and we want to come out here and do it this week. We haven't had luck here in the past but hoping to turn things around."
In Pro Stock, Kyle Koretsky sits on top of the ladder in search of his first Pro Stock Wally. “This is the Big Go. It’s the race we all look forward to,” said Koretsky. “My dad was a runner-up here so for me to be on top is huge. It shows that the KB team has the best power out here.
"I do think there is a lot left in the Lucas Oil/Nitro Fish Camaro. The KB guys make the calls on that because it’s way above my pay grade. I just get in the car and try to hit all my shift points. I feel like we have an advantage at every event we go to."
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Eddie Krawiec ran the fastest on Friday. "For the first run, it was good and we have data to look at,” said Krawiec. “I’m not even going to question the weather tomorrow. It’s going to be sunny and we’re going to get two runs and the field is going to shuffle. I just hope I don’t get shuffled the wrong way because when you’re No. 1 there’s only one way to go and that’s down.
“The air was humid and that’s a challenge but thankfully our shop is just a couple of miles down the road and we dyno in this weather all the time. In fact, Andrew and I were on the dyno last night until about 10 p.m. We made a bunch of changes to our bikes lately and we’re just learning what they want.”
With the threat of rain on Saturday, many drivers and teams hit the staging lanes with acceptance that this might be the only run they would make prior to Sunday's final.
UPDATE: Saturdays qualifying sessions were a wash out so the field is set by Friday's single qualifying runs.
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