LAS VEGAS (April 14, 2023) – Brittany Force and the Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac Chevrolet dragster earned the provisional Top Fuel No. 1 qualifying position Friday at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Force, who is looking for her second No. 1 of the season, 44th of her career, had a solid day of qualifying at The Strip opening the weekend up with a 3.749-second pass at 330.55 mph, good enough for third quickest of the session. The David Grubnic-tuned Monster Energy dragster stepped things up in the second session laying down a stout 3.697 pass at 335.73 to jump into the top spot.
“It feels good to get back on track. To run like that with such a big improvement from Q1, a 3.74 to a 3.69 that’s huge for this Monster Energy / Flav-R-Pac team. When I crossed the finish line, it felt like a killer run and I got on the radio, and the guys, clear as day, said, ‘sixty-nine!’ and so we all congratulated each other on the run. That was really exciting, and the best part is we still have two more rounds tomorrow before we go into race day,” Force said. “Grubnic has really started to get a handle on this car. We did a lot of off-season testing, working on some new things that we’re putting in this mix. W knew it was going to take us a little while until we found our footing and got back on track. We knew that going into the season and it’s coming around much quicker than we thought which is good news. In the long run, it will set us up better, especially going into the end of the season and the Countdown.”
Cruz Pedregon, the Funny Car low qualifier at the Winternationals two weeks ago, has his John Collins-tuned Snap-on Tools Charger back in the No. 1 spot after a couple of fine passes of 3.910 and 3.934, which were the best and second-best passes, respectively, of the first two qualifying sessions.
"The track was really good, even with not a lot of cars running on it," he said. "And for us, it's been trying to back the car down. It's trying to run low e.t. on every run, and it's just all over the place. It's really just a matter of backing it down a little bit and trying to go down the track and just race smart. It's nice to have low e.t., but we're looking for that consistency.
"I'm just trying to drive it straighter because the car is really is all over the track. It’s like a bull trying to buck me off and I'm trying to hang on to it, but this isn’t my first rodeo. I told J.C., ‘Hey, don't back it down too much; I can handle it.’ The car’s a wild child, man, so I'm just trying to hang on and do my job.”
Dallas Glenn kept the efficient pace in his RAD Torque-branded Chevrolet Camaro and found his way to the top of the pack with a pair of strong passes. He wheeled the KB Titan Racing-powered Chevy to a 6.633-second pass in the first qualifying round and followed up with an even better 6.629 at 206.07mph. The incoming points leader is in the hunt for the third low qualifier award of his career.
"Matt [Hartford] and I had the best two cars in Pomona, and I think it just carried right on over," said Glenn. "This track just kind of agrees with me, from the starting line to my driving style, and the way the car is set up. I didn't expect to see that good of a run on Q2, because we made a really nice run Q1 and the air was worse. I figured we could probably duplicate it, maybe be a few thou' worse, but we were a few thou' better. Hopefully, that means there's even a little more left in it, because I think tomorrow morning is going to be the good run."
Glenn, who is competing in the 40th Pro Stock race of his career this weekend in Las Vegas, is particularly fond of four-wide racing as he claimed the first Pro Stock win of his career at the 2021 Charlotte Four-Wide Nationals.
"Racing four-wide, everyone says it's a driver's race, but it seems like all the drivers step up and perform better," said Glenn. "I know I change my style a little bit for four-wide. I almost rush myself a little bit in staging because I do kind of take a long time to stage. For four-wide, I try to make sure I don't dilly-dally around. Four-wide racing is a great time; it changes it up a little bit."
He's also a fan of The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway – it's where he won the very first national event trophy of his career. The win was in Super Gas at the spring Las Vegas race in 2011.
"I love racing here," concluded Glenn. "Everything always seems to come together here. I've had a lot of good times here; hopefully, they continue through the rest of this weekend."
See the full recap by NHRA National Dragster staff:
Check out Friday's photo gallery:
Content: John Force Racing PR / NHRA.com
Photo's: NHRA
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You go girl can't wait for today's outcome