NHRA 2025. Round 3. Pomona. Race Part 1

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NHRA 2025. Round 3. Pomona. Race Part 1
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00:00:00There are plenty of places to find muscle figuratively and literally in Southern California.

00:00:07You can head to Venice and go to Muscle Beach and watch them lifting weights right there in the shore.

00:00:11Or you can head to the Hollywood Hills and meet all the high-powered celebrities you could ever dream of shaking hands with or seeing on the street.

00:00:17But in reality, all the power is concentrated in Pomona this weekend at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Drag Strip

00:00:23for the 65th running of the NHRA Winter Nationals brought to us by Lucas Oil.

00:00:28The second longest running event on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series Tour.

00:00:32It will feature big speeds, big mile an hour, and it will feature big stars like Shawn Langdon who just one week ago picked up a victory in Phoenix

00:00:40and earlier this weekend won the Mission Too Fast Too Tasty Challenge on these hallowed grounds.

00:00:45But then there's Brittany Forrest, the Monster Energy Top Fuel Dragster,

00:00:48making some of the fastest runs in Top Fuel history as the number one qualifier in the sport's quickest category.

00:00:54Paul Lee, who had an emotional victory just one week ago in Phoenix, showed up to much cooler climbs here in SoCal

00:00:59and laid down massive, nearing career best numbers to qualify near the top of the field.

00:01:04But this man, Austin Prock, has once again qualified in the number one spot, leading the field with a massive three-second charge.

00:01:11And it all kicks off officially right now.

00:01:16With two races complete in the 2025 NHRA Drag Racing Series,

00:01:20unpredictability has fueled the exhilarating speed and volatility of this sport.

00:01:25Oh, a huge explosion for Caps! The body destroyed and Caps slams into the wall across the drag strip.

00:01:31One week ago in Top Fuel, the Arizona Nationals turned into a playground for legendary Coletta Motorsports,

00:01:37where teammates and Top Fuel champions Doug Coletta and Shawn Langdon faced off in a final

00:01:43that showcased the clinical precision necessary to win.

00:01:47Oh, they're going to take it all the way to the house with the flames up it!

00:01:50Langdon bought himself twenty-six thousandths of a second on the starting line

00:01:53and then drove it out the back door right out of Doug's life.

00:01:56In Funny Car, if you predicted the first two winners of the season,

00:01:59you might want to give Play NHRA a try.

00:02:02Long shots Chad Green and Paul Lee pulled off surprising victories in the first two races.

00:02:07Their unexpected wins have injected even more excitement into a loaded Funny Car field,

00:02:13one that seemingly gets tougher with each event.

00:02:16And in Pro Stock, the dominance of teammates Greg Anderson and Dallas Glenn is beginning to make waves.

00:02:22But the Phoenix event took a bizarre turn that no one anticipated.

00:02:27Oh, Glenn's car! Look at this!

00:02:30Dallas Glenn's car blew past the two-step, engaged the clutch,

00:02:34and Greg Anderson just won the race and his car basically shut off ten feet down the racetrack.

00:02:40That is the weirdest final round in Pro Stock I have seen in my life.

00:02:45With a bit of luck on his side, Greg Anderson now celebrates 107 career victories

00:02:51heading to the Pacific Coast with momentum.

00:02:56Southern California sets the stage for race number three of the NHRA season

00:03:01as the legendary Lucas Oil Winter Nationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Drag Strip is next up on the schedule.

00:03:08Last week, it was a horsepower management tightrope walk.

00:03:11This week will be the opposite, a knock-down, drag-out, old-school horsepower war.

00:03:17The fastest side-by-side racers take center stage right now on FS1.

00:03:24The sport of NHRA drag racing is at its finest when the stands fill up, the skies are blue, and the temperatures are cool.

00:03:35And you can see the eight, nine lanes worth of traffic coming into the drag strip here on this beautiful Sunday morning.

00:03:41Welcome, everybody, into the broadcast booth here at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Drag Strip.

00:03:45Brian Lones and Tony Pedregon.

00:03:47And, Tony, one of the other elements when this sport is at its finest is when the drivers are able to use all the available horsepower,

00:03:53and the crew chiefs are as well.

00:03:54That's what today is going to be about.

00:03:56Well, when the contest is horsepower, it is all about bringing the muscle to the racetrack.

00:04:01And it's been pretty quick.

00:04:02It's been pretty fast all weekend.

00:04:04A lot of drivers, career best, top speeds.

00:04:06What we have around the corner is the coolest day.

00:04:08It may not get to 60 degrees.

00:04:09That means it's going to be awful quick.

00:04:11You still have to manage it.

00:04:12The magic for these high-powered cars really takes place from the starting line to the eighth mile.

00:04:16And then you can let it rip and see if you can pull up a 340-mile-an-hour run.

00:04:20Potentiality for speed records out here today, and track records could be on the line as well.

00:04:24And it has already been an awesome weekend for these two men, Sean Langdon and Doug Coletta.

00:04:29They raced each other in the Phoenix Finals seven days ago,

00:04:32and they began to mow through the fields respectively here this weekend as well.

00:04:36Sean Langdon's weekend in Phoenix was a dream.

00:04:42They're as good as they were a year ago, maybe better.

00:04:50Oh, and they're going to take it all the way to the house with the flames up,

00:04:53and score one for Brian Hewson.

00:04:55Langdon drawing out the back door right on a dunk line.

00:04:58To say that Sean Langdon is off to a fast start is a bit of an understatement.

00:05:06If you count the two fast, two tasty challenges, the guy is 11 for 12 on the season and set a new PR in terms of speed yesterday.

00:05:13How do you maintain this type of performance as we get through the hot summer months and throughout the rest of this year?

00:05:17Yeah, I mean obviously right now we have a great cool track set up.

00:05:21You know, Brian and the whole Coletta Air team over here has been doing such a great job.

00:05:25Give me a good race car and honestly just give me a chance.

00:05:28You know, we've got a fast car, we've got a consistent car.

00:05:32So I think, you know, last year we had a hot start.

00:05:34We kind of faded off a little bit.

00:05:35But I think if we keep doing what we're doing, you know, Brian needs just gain more confidence.

00:05:40And I feel like we've got a pretty good team over here.

00:05:43So I like our chances.

00:05:45For Sean Langdon, the work he did yesterday in the Mission 2 Fast 2 Tasty Challenge involved the rerun of that final round against his opponent and teammate Doug Coletta.

00:05:54Same results in such a strong field.

00:05:56The opposition coming from his teammate Doug Coletta.

00:06:00Sean Langdon has really run the table.

00:06:02He showed a lot of potential in the first race.

00:06:04But pulling off these wins for Sean Langdon, this seems to be the car that is surfacing to contend for that championship.

00:06:10And you noticed in those side deflectors were off the car.

00:06:13Those air deflectors on the side in his 338 mile an hour speed was something.

00:06:17But another woman who has made tracks in speed is this week's Fanta record setting performance log for Brittany Forrest.

00:06:22She became the first top fuel racer in history to record two runs in a row.

00:06:26The first at 301 in the 8th mile.

00:06:28The second 300.2 or 3 in the 8th mile.

00:06:31No one has ever done it back to back.

00:06:33Yeah, almost carbon copy runs in the first and second qualifying session.

00:06:36You just go back a week ago and Brittany Forrest was taken out of competition in the semifinal round because of an oil leak.

00:06:41It's going to be interesting to see how well they can do with a car that's performing like this.

00:06:46Jordan Vandegrift was with the driver of the Monster Energy Top Fuel Dragster.

00:06:50It has been fast here in Pomona and Brittany Forrest is the first person to go 300 miles per hour to the 8th mile.

00:06:57And she did it back to back.

00:06:58Brittany, can we see it again this morning?

00:07:00Yeah, I think conditions are looking really good.

00:07:02We've been running solid all weekend.

00:07:03We ran 64 and we got that 300 to the 8th.

00:07:05We did it in testing, but it didn't count.

00:07:07So now to be able to do it here at a home track, we're really proud of that.

00:07:10This Monster Energy team though, we're looking at race day.

00:07:12We're focused on race day, turning on four wind lights and getting this car to the winner's circle.

00:07:16They're long, they're strong, they're top fuel dragsters.

00:07:20A top fuel engine will consume one and a half gallons of fuel per second at full throttle.

00:07:25800 horsepower is required to spin the supercharger that sits on top of the V8 engine design.

00:07:31The car will launch from idle at 2500 engine RPM and rev up to as much as 8500 RPMs in the course of a run.

00:07:39And the rev limiter kicks in at the end of the track to control the incredible amount of speed that these cars will pull in a 1,000 foot racetrack.

00:07:49The Southern California drag racing fans clad in their sweatshirts and quarter zips are coming through the gates here at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Drag Strip.

00:07:56Let's check out our starting lineups in top fuel.

00:07:58Josh Hart and Justin Ashley.

00:08:00Josh Hart's car finally running in the middle 360's range this weekend after a year plus of trying.

00:08:05Ashley may have his hands full.

00:08:06Brittany Force and Steve Chrisman.

00:08:08The long odds here are Chrisman, of course, with Brittany Force's record-setting performance as we have mentioned.

00:08:13The back-to-back, 300-mile-an-hour, 58 shots.

00:08:15Sean Langdon and Ida Zetterstrom.

00:08:17Zetterstrom finds herself as the underdog in this scenario.

00:08:20Her car running in the low 370's but unable to truly crack the performance code.

00:08:24Doug Coletta and Scott Palmer.

00:08:26These guys are meeting for the 21st time in competition.

00:08:28The record, 17-3, favoring, of course, Doug Coletta.

00:08:32Clay Milliken and Sean Reed.

00:08:34Another couple of guys who are certainly hungry for round wins in this early part of the season.

00:08:39They'll make up the sixth pair of the first round.

00:08:41Steve Torrance and Jasmine Salinas riding an unprecedented wave of success with multiple semifinal finishes in a row.

00:08:46Salinas takes on the four-time champion of the world.

00:08:49Antron Brown and Tony Stewart.

00:08:51The first pair qualified with identical elapsed times.

00:08:54Brown's car carrying more speed.

00:08:56Stewart may need to get him on the start line.

00:08:58Antony, we are ready to fire the first pair of top fuel dragsters here at the 65th running of the NHRA Winter Nationals.

00:09:06The Renai tankless hot water heaters machine of Tony Stewart on the left-hand side of your screen in the Metco Tools.

00:09:12Lucas Oil, Toyota top fueler of Antron Brown.

00:09:15One car wearing the air deflectors.

00:09:17That would be Stewart's.

00:09:18The other car deflector free.

00:09:19And Antron Brown has been running in excess of 337 miles an hour this weekend.

00:09:24The summit onboard takes us through the water box.

00:09:26The numbers they qualified with identical on both sides in elapsed time.

00:09:37But on speed, Brown's car is measurably faster.

00:09:40Well, 332 miles per hour is the fastest speed with a car in the field.

00:09:45That's Clay Milliken with those side canard wings.

00:09:47And it's real interesting that the Intuner 4, Tony Stewart, has opted to keep those on.

00:09:52You can see Antron Brown making some career top speeds, and I think he even alluded to the fact that you could see something special.

00:09:57And I know they're looking at the top speed when they can do it consistently.

00:10:02They're looking for that magic 340 miles per hour mark.

00:10:05Right now the focus is on his opponent, but with big speed comes big power.

00:10:11And if they're making the power, they could apply it quicker earlier in the run.

00:10:15And I'm sure that's the focus right now, considering that both these cars were identical in terms of the last time during qualifying.

00:10:21George, what you got on Tony Stewart?

00:10:23Well, guys, I talked to Tony Stewart about running the air deflectors during qualifying.

00:10:26And he told me, look, we just want to get our combination right with this race car.

00:10:29Once we get it right, we will take them off and go from there.

00:10:38Antron smokes the tires.

00:10:39Tony Stewart is going to run to a round one victory.

00:10:42Stewart a 371 at 314 miles an hour.

00:10:45Brown's car sprung off the starting line.

00:10:47Stewart actually left on him and then smoked the tires.

00:10:50That's very interesting.

00:10:51It's one of the things that these cooler conditions are going to bring today.

00:10:55The increase in grip, the lower the racetrack surface, there's more grip for the car.

00:11:01You can see the jump that Tony Stewart got right off the starting line.

00:11:05But it tightens up the track.

00:11:06It makes the rubber more firm.

00:11:08The traction increases.

00:11:10So what happens is that rear tire has a tendency to stick.

00:11:13If they don't have the proper tire, the right amount of air pressure, typically crew chiefs will opt for a shorter tire so they can have that wheel speed.

00:11:21In Antron's case, when it shakes the tires that early in the run, it just doesn't have enough wheel speed.

00:11:26And that is due to these cooler track conditions with more grip.

00:11:31Let's watch Antron Brown here from the tire cam.

00:11:35And you saw that moment, Tony.

00:11:36You're right.

00:11:37We saw that moment where the tires squared themselves up.

00:11:39In real time, it's a blink of an eye.

00:11:41The next pair has fired and backed up.

00:11:44And it's Justin Ashley.

00:11:45The Skag Power Equipment top cooler bottom of your screen as we look down from the Summit drone.

00:11:49And the R&L Carriers dragster of Josh Hart, which showed us one flash, Tony, during qualifying.

00:11:54One flash of a run in the 360s, but it couldn't get back there again.

00:11:58They're going to need that flash right about now.

00:12:01They were able to back it up.

00:12:03I believe in the last qualifying session, they ran a 370.

00:12:06So that shows some level of consistency.

00:12:08But when you have an opponent like Justin Ashley, hey, you have to compete with him off the starting line.

00:12:12You have to know that they, like Josh Hart, are going after and pursuing a pretty impressive number.

00:12:25Ashley smokes the tires, and Josh Hart, a round win at 367.5.

00:12:30They did it again.

00:12:31332.67 miles an hour.

00:12:34Slowly but surely, they are changing what people's opinion of that car is.

00:12:38Well, the smile on their face from the crew walking back after that run.

00:12:41They see the impressive performance on the scoreboard right here.

00:12:46Take a look at Justin Ashley.

00:12:47He was 100th better off of the starting line, an 040.

00:12:49That's a good reaction time.

00:12:51That is what we expect.

00:12:52But unlike Antron Brown, that is excessive wheel speed.

00:12:55So you have to...

00:12:57We talked about the balance on the open.

00:12:59Yes.

00:13:00Not enough wheel speed, it's going to shake.

00:13:02Too much wheel speed early in the run.

00:13:04It's going to go into a tire smoke because that wheel speed never slows down for Josh Hart.

00:13:09What they did in qualifying with that impressive run, they were able to repeat.

00:13:13Significant moment for this team.

00:13:14Are they turning the corner?

00:13:15And if so, how dangerous can they be through eliminations today?

00:13:19A couple of pairs down and already a fascinating first round of the Winter Nationals and Top Fuel, which will continue when we return.

00:13:26The Lucas Oil NHRA Winter Nationals is sponsored by Mission Foods.

00:13:35Now that's too fast, too tasty.

00:13:37And by Lucas Oil, the world leader in high-performance lubricants and problem-solving additives.

00:13:43Our Lucas Oil competition ladder shows us the advancement, of course, of Josh Hart.

00:13:47A big one there for that team over.

00:13:49Justin Ashley and Tony Stewart has advanced over his first round opponent, defending world champion Antron Brown, Brittany Force.

00:13:57One of the big stories of this race, the Monster Energy Top Fuel Dragster garnered another number one qualifier as we ride the Wright Trailers onboard camera.

00:14:05Steve Crispin, her opponent. Brittany has raced Steve Crispin four times in her career and has come out on top all four of those times.

00:14:12Crispin driving the Worsham family, Top Fuel Dragster.

00:14:15You just saw Dell there.

00:14:17As you can see that Shirley Muldani shirt, Brittany is seeking her next victory to tie Shirley all-time on the list.

00:14:24The reason that we're still going to watch this race, even though it seems a little lopsided on paper,

00:14:28we've seen the defending series champion Antron Brown shake the tires.

00:14:31We've seen Justin actually smoke the tires from excessive wheel speed, and there's some level of unpredictability.

00:14:38You still have to find the sweet spot with these high-powered cars.

00:14:42And Brittany Force motoring down the left-hand side, 370 flat, 337.75 for Brittany Force.

00:15:05A blistering run, and you can see that car not running the side air deflectors.

00:15:09Why? David Freiberg is about to tell us.

00:15:13Over the next few races, you're going to see a lot of discussion of this thing right here,

00:15:17which goes ahead of the tire on a Top Fuel Dragster.

00:15:20Call it an air deflector or a canard.

00:15:23Sometimes we call them mud flaps, but racers don't like that because it makes their race car seem like a dump truck.

00:15:28What this is actually about is tires.

00:15:30See, Goodyear makes a special tire to go 340 miles an hour with these cars out here, and they data log every tire every run.

00:15:37And the temperature of the tire inside the tread gets to about 200 degrees on a funny car.

00:15:43On a typical Top Fuel Dragster, they'll go 250, but the really fast cars will turn in 280 to 300 degrees, and the edge of the tire tends to be separating.

00:15:53You remove the air deflector, you remove the load on that tire aerodynamically, and all of a sudden the temperature comes down 50 degrees, and we end up much happier with the tire.

00:16:04And we're seeing that cars that are not running the air deflectors are actually going faster.

00:16:10As we just saw Brittany make that roaring 337-mile-an-hour shot, Sean Langdon has been off to one of the best starts of his career.

00:16:17That's why he is the subject of this week's Budweiser Hot Start.

00:16:21Finalist at the first two events of the season wins Top Fuel, wins Too Fast, Too Tasty at both Phoenix and here.

00:16:29He has an 11-1 round record, including the Too Fast, Too Tasty challenge rounds.

00:16:34And Jordan Vandergriff, you're going to add even more to that pile of accolades.

00:16:37I talked to Sean Langdon about that hot start this morning, and I told him, man, you're the man right now.

00:16:42He goes, well, I'm the man for right now. You're the man until you're not.

00:16:46Things have been flowing with this team, everything has been clicking, and we have been fast.

00:16:51Now the next goal is to be fast and consistent.

00:16:54The JCM Racing top fueler of Ida Zetas from VP Racing Fuels and Dodge on board.

00:17:00Ida's wandering around the racetrack, top of the racetrack.

00:17:04It is going to be Sean Langdon, 366.8, 331 miles per hour.

00:17:10Ida ran a 3.806, a 2.78.

00:17:12The car seemed to be breaking traction at the top end.

00:17:15Well, you thought the Yankees were hitting some home runs the other night.

00:17:18It seems like these top fuel teams are doing the same thing.

00:17:20And we were bound to see a closed race.

00:17:21You can see Ida skating around the track.

00:17:24A decent run, but you're not going to top this.

00:17:26Not when Sean Langdon gets off of the starting line.

00:17:30Close to 400s quicker off the line.

00:17:32That's one of the things that Ida has to compete with in dealing with is Sean Langdon.

00:17:37He's quick off the line.

00:17:38He has a good car.

00:17:39He's got a misfiring cylinder at the end of the track, still running 331 miles per hour.

00:17:44Bruno's at the top end with Tony Stewart.

00:17:46So, Tony Stewart looks over that winning time slip, and you said when you walked over, we needed that.

00:17:51Why did you need that round so badly?

00:17:53Well, I mean, we're going up against the world champ.

00:17:55So, you know, he's in the top three in reaction times.

00:17:58And he's had a car that obviously has had performance.

00:18:01So, we needed to get down.

00:18:02Good, solid run.

00:18:03I'm really proud of Neil and Mike.

00:18:04It is so hard.

00:18:05People don't understand what it's like to be first pair of the day.

00:18:08Because you don't know what the track's going to do.

00:18:09So, everybody behind us is getting a read off of what we did.

00:18:12But, Srinay car has been pretty consistent this weekend.

00:18:14So, really proud of those guys.

00:18:15Happy with that light.

00:18:16So, we're all doing our job so far.

00:18:18A far better start this year than the last year for Stewart.

00:18:21This is the third race in a row he's gone to the second round.

00:18:24We can see Doug Coletta, the MacTools top fueler, including the Winter Nationals and the Finals.

00:18:29Seven wins at this racetrack.

00:18:30Eight runners up.

00:18:31Six number one qualifiers.

00:18:33How does the guy from Ypsilanti have so much success in Southern California?

00:18:36Give him the team.

00:18:37Give him the title of the property.

00:18:38You win that many races.

00:18:39Doug Coletta, he's always surrounded himself with the best talent.

00:18:43But I think, unlike the past, I think this is the best version of Doug Coletta that we can see.

00:18:49And for Scott Palmer here, they've been looking for performance at the 3.7 range.

00:18:53This would be a good time to find it.

00:18:55The Trask Performance PBR.

00:18:57Mark Recycling top fueler of Scott Palmer.

00:18:59Lines up next to Doug Coletta.

00:19:06Making a drag race out of it.

00:19:07And at the finish line, strike 366-0.

00:19:10338-34 for Doug Coletta.

00:19:13Now we're talking, baby.

00:19:14For Doug Coletta, some of the fastest mile an hour he's turned his entire career.

00:19:21And we watch it again.

00:19:22Well, these tuners, they're plugging and they're playing.

00:19:24But they're doing it because they had good runs over the course of the weekend.

00:19:28While the conditions are slightly cooler, the density altitude is better than we've seen all weekend.

00:19:33They're making the right adjustments.

00:19:35During the right trailers, top fuel all-star callout.

00:19:37He faced off against Antron Brown in the semis.

00:19:40And even only on seven cylinders, the car kind of waddled its way down to a 373.6 at 315 miles an hour.

00:19:47In the final round, Alan Johnson, he got all eight of those cylinders lit.

00:19:51And his driver took care of business on the starting line next to Brittany Force.

00:19:54He's gotten bested by his teammate for a couple of times in the final just a week ago in the callout.

00:19:59But right here, they got it right.

00:20:01And Alan Johnson dialed it up.

00:20:03And Doug Coletta is very reliable in that seat.

00:20:06Jasmine Salinas is among the pairs yet to come in the first round of eliminations.

00:20:10She has gone to back-to-back semifinals for the first time in her career.

00:20:13And she's going to try to punch her ticket out of the first round against Torrance when we return.

00:20:20The iconic Budweiser Clydesdales appeared this week in an In-N-Out Burger Pomona drag strip.

00:20:24And the king of speed himself, Kenny Bernstein, rode atop the hitch down the return road

00:20:28at this racetrack.

00:20:29The man who crested 300 miles per hour in 1992, still in great fitness shape.

00:20:34Tony, he could jump on one of these things today.

00:20:36He could jump at Sean Reid's car on the bottom of your screen,

00:20:38or Clay Milliken's on top of the mighty firebreaker, top-keeled dragster.

00:20:41He looks it, he'll take those side wings off, and he'll show these guys how it's done.

00:20:50Reid smokes the tires.

00:20:52Clay Milliken goes down the racetrack, 387, 282.

00:20:57He had to pedal it early.

00:20:58He got it to stick.

00:20:59Oberhoffer and the boys got away with one.

00:21:01Yeah, this is something you'll see from the good drivers, from the drivers with a good feel,

00:21:05from the drivers that have experience in these conditions.

00:21:07Clay Milliken will get another look at this.

00:21:09The car will leave off the starting line.

00:21:11It will start to shake the tire.

00:21:13He's going to give the throttle a quick blip, and that clears the tire shakeup.

00:21:17It's almost like taking a lot of timing out.

00:21:19You can see those rear tires start to basketball, but he eases back in the throttle,

00:21:24slowly opens the blades, and has the traction he's looking for, and gets to the finish line first.

00:21:29You can see Sean Reid attempting the same thing, but a masterful job from a good driver.

00:21:34So Clay Milliken advances on to round number two as Jasmine Salinas sits in the Valley Services Scrappers Top Fuel Dragster.

00:21:43Her inaugural season ended.

00:21:45This is her second season, and it is a hard road to hoe here in Top Fuel.

00:21:49But for Jasmine Salinas, it's been up, down, and sideways.

00:21:52Which Jasmine is going to be sitting on the starting line right now?

00:21:55I think for me, I've always, you know, I'm 5'2", and I've always been, you know, the smaller one.

00:22:03In all my grades, so never fit in with sports, could never, you know, it was always too short to do this,

00:22:08never strong enough to do, you know, anything.

00:22:11And somehow, for me, being able to jump into these race cars, and I think kind of squash all of these assumptions of,

00:22:19you know, what a drag racer would look like, and somebody that can handle these cars,

00:22:23I think, for me, it's very empowering to be able to do that.

00:22:26And I think it's a huge, huge play between, like, your ego and confidence building, but then also very humbling, too.

00:22:35And I think, for me, that's why I really love it, is you feel on top of the world knowing that you get to drive these things,

00:22:41but then you also have to find a balance of respect for these things, because they are incredibly powerful.

00:22:50Finish line, strike chance, and Salinas does the job.

00:22:52I think the feeling of being able to get into a vehicle that, you know, it's the fastest accelerated vehicle on the planet,

00:22:59it's really hard to comprehend that, and I'm still trying to register sometimes, like, that's what I do on the weekends,

00:23:04and that's, like, my job is to race that.

00:23:07But I think, for me, just the feeling is so empowering, because it's a scary, scary thing to be able to jump into one of those.

00:23:18And it looks like she's going to today, 375 at 333 miles an hour.

00:23:24It has been a hot start for Jasmine Salinas, the hottest of her career, but now she looks across the racetrack

00:23:31to see a fourth-time world champion of the Capco Contractors' Top Fuel Dragster.

00:23:35Steve Torrance competed in the right trailers' Top Fuel All-Star callout.

00:23:39Jasmine Salinas has been passing the test so far this year, Tony, but to me, in the first round, this is her biggest test yet.

00:23:44Yeah, her best performance was in the very first qualifying run.

00:23:47Now, this track has more rubber on it.

00:23:49For Steve Torrance, you've got to look over in the other lane and size up your opponent.

00:23:53Unfortunately for her, Steve Torrance made his quickest run, that ungodly 366, in the last qualifying session.

00:24:02Oh, Steve Torrance double-stepped the race car!

00:24:05Steve Torrance just went red against Jasmine Salinas.

00:24:10Did not see that one coming.

00:24:12You never see him coming.

00:24:13Unreal!

00:24:14You know, and Steve Torrance, you really have to chalk it up as inactivity just a week ago.

00:24:20You know, he was at home.

00:24:21I'm sure he's tending to business.

00:24:22He's working.

00:24:23He's spending time with his family.

00:24:25But he's paying attention to the race.

00:24:27He wasn't there.

00:24:28He wasn't in competition.

00:24:30We all know these drivers, they're not in these race cars for very long periods of time.

00:24:34Wow!

00:24:35They suit up.

00:24:36They get in the car.

00:24:37But this just goes to show you, every driver is subjected to the same thing.

00:24:40They have an opponent.

00:24:41They know that Jasmine Salinas has been going past the first round, past the second round, into the late rounds.

00:24:47And for Steve Torrance, just a little misstep off the starting line.

00:24:51You can see he tries to get back on the throttle.

00:24:53But at this stage, it's too late.

00:24:54He's already lurched the car out of those beams by tapping the throttle, trying to anticipate the light.

00:25:00And at that stage, it was Jasmine's win.

00:25:04Let's go down to Bruno.

00:25:07So Doug Coletta starts the day off on a good note.

00:25:09You run 66 with a zero, just three thousandths away from your best qualifying effort, and a thundering 338 miles an hour.

00:25:16Were you expecting the car to be that hopped up first round?

00:25:18Yeah.

00:25:19You know, the track's really good.

00:25:20And obviously, with Allen Johnson and all my guys tuning this thing, you know, you never can figure out what to expect.

00:25:26But great run.

00:25:27You know, McTools and Toyota, we're just happy to be going around so far.

00:25:33As well he should be.

00:25:34We look at a top fuel ladder that contained, if not many surprises, maybe some surprise endings.

00:25:39Brittany Forrest has a bye in the second round.

00:25:41Jasmine Salinas, whose car was set up to run and made a full pole,

00:25:44was handed a victory by Steve Torrance.

00:25:46She'll race Clay Millican.

00:25:47Coletta will take on Stewart.

00:25:49Langdon will take on Hart.

00:25:51And when we return, the nitro funny car category will be on the racetrack.

00:25:55And if you thought the top fuelers were fun, wait till you get a load of these suckers.

00:26:02Back in the pits here at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, the Gov-X Pit Cam showing us the peak performance Chevrolet Camaro team of Jack Beckman.

00:26:13Getting the car warmed up for round one elimination to nitro funny car, Tony.

00:26:17They are close to 1,400 pounds lighter than their production counterpart, be it a Ford, Chevy, Dodge, or a Toyota.

00:26:23Funny cars have a minimum weight of 2,600 pounds, and that is including the driver and the lightweight aerodynamic body that makes them 300 pounds of that weight.

00:26:32Same 11,000 horsepower powerplant as the top fuel dragster that is harnessed in a 10-foot wheelbase chassis that is measured from the center of the front wheel, the center of the rear axle.

00:26:42However, the total length of a funny car, when that body is lowered, is close to 19 feet.

00:26:47It has been said in the past that there's no such thing as a bad day at the drag strip, and if the person who said that had never seen a nitro funny car before, obviously, as we look at the pit area of Ron Capps, the Napa Auto Parts team, Ron Capps had a very bad day at the drag strip just one week ago in Phoenix, Arizona.

00:27:03His weekend thus far is going great, but this is what it looked like a week ago.

00:27:07Alexia is going to give a run for, oh, a huge explosion for Capps! The body destroyed and Capps slams into the wall across the drag strip.

00:27:17One of the most violent explosions we have seen in some time.

00:27:20I just hung on and just tried to brace myself, and when it hit, I honestly didn't expect to be awake afterward.

00:27:27Tony, the aftermath of that explosion was some chaos for his team, and just look at this pile of busted parts.

00:27:32Well, a lot of that is the body. You can see the tire that went down on the impact,

00:27:36but the tires spin, multiple cylinders misfired, a connecting rod broke, and, well, heck, broke loose.

00:27:42It literally lifted the rear tires off of the ground, but what they did in qualifying was nothing short of a championship team.

00:27:48In a performance that can only be described as maybe one of the gutsiest we've seen in years in Funny Car,

00:27:53Ron Capps, Dean Antonelli, and his crew came out here. They were not going to make a test pass.

00:27:57They were not going to soft-shoot this thing to the finish line. They came out and went low ET in the first round at 385.

00:28:02This was on somewhat of an untested track. We knew it was going to be quick, we knew it was going to be fast,

00:28:06but Dean Antonelli, who tunes and sets this car up, really had no fear, made a good read on the racetrack and let it rip.

00:28:12And we thought, okay, the 385 was great, what a feel-good story. They said, feel good about this, 383.

00:28:19When you compete against Beckman in the other lane, who made a good run, Capps was just over two-hundredths of a second quicker,

00:28:25but what a way, what a way to rebound, what a way to get the incident from a week ago out of sight, out of mind.

00:28:31This is the car he drove to a 2022 NHRA Funny Car Championship, and clearly it is still a very fine working piece

00:28:38as we get a look at our Lucas Oil Competition Ladder and Nitro Funny Car.

00:28:42Chad Green will take on Dave Richards. The Hagen-Dajoria matchup is going to be tight at 8-9.

00:28:47Capps will give an opportunity to Spencer Hyde to see what he has in that Jim Head car.

00:28:51Todd Wilkerson, that's going to be a tough matchup.

00:28:53But we look at the Austin Prock-Blake Alexander matchup. Alexander barely snuck his way into the field.

00:28:59We were shaping up, we thought we might have the first all-three-second field in Nitro Funny Car history.

00:29:04Blake was 4-0-1 to make it. Austin Prock, on the other hand, sledgehammered his way through.

00:29:08Well, while Capps was doing his thing on Friday, it was Thomas Prock and his team.

00:29:13They were hiding in the bushes, and they thought, well, we're going to come out to play here on Saturday.

00:29:17Picking up 14 positions with that 383.7 in the moment.

00:29:20The Cornwell Quality Tools Camaro was looking good.

00:29:23Capps bumped him back, and he said, eh, I'm not so sure about that, fellas,

00:29:26as Paul Lee also tried to grab the number one spot.

00:29:29But then Austin Prock lined up next to Chad Green. Did Austin Prock fix?

00:29:33Yeah, really, this team, as well as Austin Prock driving this car, they had the final say.

00:29:38They had the last word. It was Capps, it was Paul Lee.

00:29:41There were a couple of teams that flashed some pretty big numbers.

00:29:43But when the dust settled, it was this team on the left side of the screen.

00:29:46The car with the header flames up to the finish line set the pace for the field.

00:29:51Austin Prock leads them all, and David Freiberger's with him in the pits.

00:29:55Austin Prock went number one here at Pomona. He also went to the final round in Arizona.

00:30:01The thing is, the math shows that Beckman actually has the better car right now.

00:30:06Is the team feeling that pressure?

00:30:08No, not really. I mean, we want both of these John Force Racing cars to be competitive,

00:30:12and I think we're one, too, at the top of the field right now.

00:30:15So, you know, Sunday's a new day. It's race day, and anything can happen.

00:30:20We've got another shot to race him in the semis.

00:30:22We got around him last weekend, and hopefully we can do the same thing this weekend.

00:30:25Blake Alexander re-mentioned the fact that he was able to sneak his car in after three failed attempts.

00:30:30This run started out with some big promise. The car didn't quite make it to the finish line under power,

00:30:35but still managed a 4.01 in the Scheffler Dodge, which put him 16th, which was good,

00:30:40but there were cars behind him that had the opportunity to bump him out.

00:30:43Blake was pacing around the top end like a guy hiding from law enforcement,

00:30:46but he was able to stay in the field.

00:30:48We've seen a little bit of everything. We've seen drama.

00:30:50We've seen a little bit of conflict this weekend with Blake Alexander,

00:30:53but, you know, this is due to all of the stress that has gone into building this team.

00:30:57Blake Alexander will take on Austin Prock, and Jordan Vandegrift is with him.

00:31:03In what was a nail-biter of a Q4, Blake Alexander finds himself qualified

00:31:07in one of the quickest funny car fields of all time at number 16.

00:31:10Blake, if everything goes perfectly this morning, what is this team capable of?

00:31:14Running better than we have so far.

00:31:16This Scheffler Dodge, it's, you know, a new team, new processes,

00:31:19and some of those bid us this weekend.

00:31:21We kind of corrected it towards the end, had a bailout plan, take some blower off,

00:31:25take some clutch off, and just go out there and send it.

00:31:27Today, we don't have to do that, though. We kind of know what we're doing.

00:31:29Kind of.

00:31:31And there's a high vote of confidence for Blake Alexander.

00:31:35The second pair we'll see out this morning, Paul Lee and Young Bobby Bodie.

00:31:38Lee, of course, the winner in Phoenix and one of the fastest cars on the property so far

00:31:42in Pomona, California.

00:31:44We've mentioned this matchup, Austin Prock and Blake Alexander.

00:31:46Alexander, the longest Oz, is the number 16 qualifier taking on the defending world champion.

00:31:51Ron Capps and Spencer Hyde. Hyde qualifies for his first nitro funny car race of the season.

00:31:56After a couple of failed attempts with Jim Head, they are in this one

00:31:59and trying to go over their first round win of the year.

00:32:01Jack Beckman will take on Jeff Diehl.

00:32:03Diehl's car ran a .396 in qualifying.

00:32:05Some of the best times we've seen that machine ever turn.

00:32:08Meanwhile, we have Cruz Pedregon and Steve Densham going to line up.

00:32:12They have never actually faced each other in competition despite the slew of drivers Pedregon's faced over the last 30 plus years.

00:32:18J.R. Todd and Dan Wilkerson.

00:32:20Todd's car has been systematically quicker every single run this weekend.

00:32:24And Dan Wilkerson made it in on his final qualifying attempt.

00:32:27Matt Hagen and Alexis DeGioia.

00:32:29A virtual statistical dead heat in terms of their car's performance.

00:32:32This one may come down to driver acumen on the starting line.

00:32:35And the first pair we'll see.

00:32:37Gainesville winner Chad Green will take on what appears to be a resurgent Dave Richards

00:32:41who made a career best run in qualifying.

00:32:44And that pair is fired up here backing their way to the starting line

00:32:47as the fans continue to climb these spacious grandstands here at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Drag Strip.

00:32:52The Bluebird Turn 4 made its career best rip this weekend.

00:32:56Tony and Dave Richards ran himself down to a very respectable last time next to Alexis DeGioia.

00:33:01If you ever get a chance to walk into pits and see one of these cars up close.

00:33:05They have similar parts, similar components.

00:33:07The bodies are all aerodynamic.

00:33:09The parts do what the tuner tells it to do.

00:33:11And this time, this team has had time to gel, to come together to develop some chemistry.

00:33:16And it does appear that they are on the right track in getting this car to perform well.

00:33:20The track that Chad Green is on includes a stop at the 380s

00:33:24because his car ran down the racetrack 3885 and qualifying.

00:33:27The Gainesville winners are trying to reassert the fact that that was not a flash in the pan.

00:33:36Summit Drone looking down as Joe Serena walks away.

00:33:39Chad Green, the barcode court.

00:33:47Dave Richards blazes the tires out there as Green goes down at 396 at 325 miles an hour.

00:33:53To me, that just reeks of a very strategic approach in round one.

00:33:57Yeah, I do agree with that.

00:33:59We'll take another look and see if there's any misfiring cylinders for Chad Green.

00:34:03Here's the replay here.

00:34:05Early on in the run, it was a good launch for Dave Richards.

00:34:08Short-lived though.

00:34:09His car loses traction.

00:34:10But Chad Green, it just appears that they were racing smart.

00:34:13They dialed it back to not encounter any problems.

00:34:16Let's go to the top end.

00:34:17Jasmine Salinas is emotional after her first round win.

00:34:21Well, Jasmine Salinas continues to turn on wind lights.

00:34:24You've shown a lot of emotion right now, Jasmine.

00:34:25What's going on?

00:34:26This is hard.

00:34:27This is hard.

00:34:28And I mean, I just got to race Steve Torrance.

00:34:30And like this is, I feel like I'm like my Cinderella Cinderella dream.

00:34:34So, I mean, he's one of the best out here.

00:34:36Somebody I've looked up to and little wins like this mean a lot.

00:34:39I'm working a lot on things on my end, but my team's doing an incredible job.

00:34:43You know, I could keep saying one run at a time, but God, this means a lot.

00:34:47So, it's just, it's the smallest things.

00:34:48And I know it's not like, not a lot for some people, but this really means a lot to be out here.

00:34:52And you've got to race people like Steve Torrance and turn on wind lights.

00:34:55It's really cool.

00:34:57Fired up.

00:34:58She is fired up.

00:35:00Paul Lee.

00:35:01The McLeod clutches Dodge.

00:35:03The body going to come down around the winter from Phoenix last weekend.

00:35:06This was a day for the ages for this man who began drag racing in his mom's slant six

00:35:13Dodge at Echo Dragway as a kid.

00:35:14This is how it went to Phoenix.

00:35:17Today is the anniversary of Eric Medlin's death.

00:35:20He's really with us today and going to the final.

00:35:22See if we can take this one.

00:35:25Paul Lee is going to win the first drag race of his life in a nitro funny car.

00:35:29This is like a dream come true.

00:35:31We prayed that Eric was with us and he was.

00:35:33This trophy is going right to John Medlin on the starting line.

00:35:39Of course, Eric Medlin, one of the rising stars of nitro funny car.

00:35:42Hired by John Ford, the son of Eric Medlin.

00:35:44What a special day.

00:35:46The body up for Johnny Lindbergh right side.

00:35:48John Medlin, the elder statesman of the nitro funny car tuning set.

00:35:52Working hand in hand with him.

00:35:54Across the racetrack is young Bobby Bodie driving Dell worship CP Carrillo sponsored Toyota funny car.

00:35:59Over the course of their qualifying weekend, they went as quick as the 397.

00:36:04It was tough sledding for this team.

00:36:06They were unable to really take advantage of the conditions.

00:36:08That being said, Dell worship one of the most cagey and experienced men with a wrench in his hand in the pits.

00:36:14We'll see if young Bobby Bodie can have anything.

00:36:16From Phoenix winner, Paul Lee.

00:36:25Bodie's hanging on to it.

00:36:26What a great side-by-side drag race.

00:36:28And it's Paul Lee, 384.2 at 332 miles an hour.

00:36:33Bodie makes his best run of the weekend by a tenth, a 388.3.

00:36:36In fact, one of the best runs of his life.

00:36:38And that is not good enough.

00:36:40That's a drag race.

00:36:42We see that even NASCAR F1, they reference this.

00:36:45This is a good close race.

00:36:46It's a drag race.

00:36:47It's the Winter Nationals.

00:36:48It's Paul Lee.

00:36:49Now, for Bobby Bodie, first off the starting line, his tuner made the right adjustments.

00:36:54Gave him a good car, but just out-muscled by last week's winner.

00:36:58Ron Capp sitting inside his Napa GR Supra getting ready for round one eliminations.

00:37:03Everything is loaded prepared.

00:37:04It's going to have to be.

00:37:05As we know, this track has produced some incredible speeds, and those speeds never lie.

00:37:12The Toyota Autograph Station was populated by many, many fans and many, many well-known drivers.

00:37:17You can see that long line.

00:37:18Top fuel pilots, funny car pilots, young men like Bobby Bodie just made a career-best run,

00:37:23which wasn't good enough to get out of the first round against Paul Lee.

00:37:26We look at our competition ladder.

00:37:27Green's advanced and Lee is advanced on the other side.

00:37:30On the starting line now is that matchup between Blake Alexander, the Scheffler Dodge Body Nitro funny car

00:37:36that struggled and scuffled its way through qualifying, ran 4-0-1 to make the field,

00:37:40and across the drag strip, the number one qualifier, Austin Brock, the defending world champion,

00:37:45and a man who made the fastest run in NHRA national event history here at the NHRA Finals.

00:37:50Alexander's going to get around and they're sideways.

00:37:56Unbelievable!

00:37:57At the finish line, number 16 has just upended number one.

00:38:01It is the first time since 2012 that has happened.

00:38:05That'll do the trick.

00:38:06That's all it takes.

00:38:07Be competitive.

00:38:08Set the car up.

00:38:09Get off the starting line.

00:38:11Don't give it away.

00:38:12Don't hand it to them.

00:38:13With these high-horsepower cars, anything can happen, and here's proof.

00:38:16We're going to take a look at this.

00:38:17It does appear that Austin Brock starts to pull away.

00:38:21Car accelerates.

00:38:22Boom!

00:38:23Right there it gets in trouble just before 330 feet.

00:38:25Then you see Blake Alexander's car black tracking, leaving that fingerprint.

00:38:29His car starts to spin the tires.

00:38:31Austin Brock back on the throttle, but not enough racetrack to catch Blake.

00:38:35We watch one more time as Austin Brock comes off the starting line.

00:38:38Where does it go parachute for this guy?

00:38:40Early.

00:38:41Early in the run.

00:38:42Looks like it is tire shake.

00:38:43Not excited.

00:38:44Might have stuck the tire like so many cars have done.

00:38:46Took Tasca from qualifying out of this show, but he does a nice job.

00:38:50You can see he's wide open throttle.

00:38:52Now, he started to just roll in, but here's the big problem.

00:38:55Here's the reason that he could not catch Blake.

00:38:58He did get the car to recover to regain traction, but he had those multiple cylinders misfiring.

00:39:04Didn't have the power he needed.

00:39:05Unbelievable round win for Blake Alexander and this team.

00:39:08He had his hands full down track as well as his car trying to break the tires loose.

00:39:12But that is a number 16, beating a number one.

00:39:15A huge rarity, not only at this race, but anytime we line up Nitro funny cars.

00:39:19Ron Capps is in the staging lanes.

00:39:21We spoke to him moments ago.

00:39:23Great qualifying runs.

00:39:26Everything that happened last week, the trauma from it.

00:39:29Is it out of sight, out of mind?

00:39:31Well, I'll let you know here in about 10 minutes, but Friday was tough.

00:39:38I haven't had that many emotions in a long time with these guys.

00:39:42I talk about the Napa know-how.

00:39:44They brought out the 2022 championship car right down the track.

00:39:48So Spencer's going to be tough.

00:39:50He's a good kid.

00:39:51I love him.

00:39:52Known him for a long time, but just try and go up and pretend it's qualifying, Tony.

00:39:57You know the deal.

00:39:58Go up there and hit the lights the best we can.

00:40:00I hear you, Ron.

00:40:01You love him, but he's got to go.

00:40:02Best of luck.

00:40:03For Spencer Hyde, this is a historic moment in his career.

00:40:06The first official competition run he has made on Sunday as we look inside.

00:40:10The Napa GR Supra.

00:40:12The F3 energy drink sponsorship on the flanks of that race car.

00:40:16The in-car cameras, Dean Anzinelli, who has masterfully tuned this machine.

00:40:19And for Spencer Hyde, Jim Head, this is really the official start to their season.

00:40:23It was tough sledding for them at the Gator Nationals.

00:40:25It was tough sledding for them in Phoenix.

00:40:28But they're here, and as we just saw, hope has not left the building.

00:40:31Well, Jim Head has experience dealing with some drivers that don't have a lot of experience.

00:40:36I'm sure that he's been taking Spencer Hyde through the steps, but this is no time to soft pedal it.

00:40:41You know, you see exactly what happened in front of you.

00:40:44With a little luck, Jim Head can have this car set up a lot like he did in Phoenix when they made that very impressive qualifying effort of a low 390.

00:40:51Head was inducted into the Drag Racing Hall of Fame at Gainesville.

00:40:54Spencer Hyde is going to run away.

00:40:59Oh no, Spencer Hyde's up by the center line.

00:41:02Boy, that's going to have to go to race control and get a look.

00:41:05As Hyde goes 388-6, by far the quickest run of his career.

00:41:09And it's all going to come down to a race control analysis of whether or not he crossed the plane of the center line.

00:41:15For Ron Capps, a weekend that was going so well seems to have stopped Dednick's tracks.

00:41:20Well, Brian, this is what we're going to look at.

00:41:23Let's take a look.

00:41:24That's the finish line there.

00:41:25If he crosses or hits any of those blocks, the run will be thrown out.

00:41:29You can see a wobble.

00:41:30That may have been from the aerodynamics, from the force, or maybe some of the thrust from the exhaust.

00:41:36It does not appear that he got on that line before the finish line, but we're going to wait for an official ruling.

00:41:42The math, the numbers, the odds said that Spencer Hyde was supposed to get torn up like a snake and a lawnmower blade in that pairing.

00:41:48And it did not happen.

00:41:51Now the new rule is that any part, if it touches that block, it's a disqualification.

00:41:57But if the air touches it, that block's still intact.

00:42:00So that's the decision that we're waiting for.

00:42:02I mean, it is...

00:42:12And again, what we're looking for is to see if there's contact or if it's a win.

00:42:16That was the air.

00:42:17It's already moving because around that body, you have this air that flows up and over it.

00:42:22You have the air that flows around it.

00:42:24Now there's the tire tracks.

00:42:26Now the headers do stick out quite a bit from the body, but we haven't had an official decision yet.

00:42:31But this appears to me that he will advance into that second round.

00:42:36I mean, that is incredible.

00:42:39We have gotten word the run does count.

00:42:41He crossed past the finish line, about six millimeters past the finish line.

00:42:45But he is in the next round.

00:42:46First round win for Spencer Hyde.

00:42:48His jack back, but knowing his teammate has been eliminated, has a chance here at his peak performance Chevrolet Camaro.

00:42:53Jeff Diehl.

00:42:54I don't know what Jeff Diehl's thinking right now in the SoCal Speed Shop car,

00:42:57but it may be a more light thought than he had five minutes ago.

00:43:00I can tell you what he's thinking.

00:43:01He's thinking, this is my kind of party right here.

00:43:03I've got myself a chance.

00:43:04Man, what a first round so far in Funny Car.

00:43:22And Jack Beckman is going to reverse the curse.

00:43:24Goes 384.7 at 327 miles per hour.

00:43:28Beckman, not on my watch.

00:43:30And this is all set up here.

00:43:31You know, some of the drivers that have lost traction, you can see Ron Capps.

00:43:34He did a nice job controlling the car, trying to maintain or maintenance the throttle to get the car to recover.

00:43:39But when the setup on the car is the way it is supposed to be, the driver really doesn't have any work.

00:43:44He's got a lot of physical work trying to keep the car in the center of the track.

00:43:47But Jack Beckman off of the starting line first.

00:43:50The tune-up was where it was supposed to be.

00:43:52And when everything works right, they can make it look easy.

00:43:54The two cars are fielded under the same tent.

00:43:56But in this week's Cornwall Quality Tools, Crew Chief Confidential, we learned that Jack Beckman's car and Austin Procks are very different.

00:44:02Catching up with Chris Cunningham, Co-Crew Chief here for Jack Beckman.

00:44:08Chris, John Force Racing is a proud owner of two very fast, funny cars right now.

00:44:12But my understanding is they run very differently.

00:44:14What are some of the similarities and differences in the way you guys tune these cars?

00:44:17Well, John Force has got Force American Mage, which builds all of our parts.

00:44:22But he builds two different types of cylinder heads.

00:44:26So Jimmy's running one type and we're running the other.

00:44:28So his is more of a current version.

00:44:30Ours is more of a traditional, older version.

00:44:32Clutches are similar, the hard parts.

00:44:35But our philosophy to the setup changes drastically then.

00:44:40So, yeah, they're different for sure.

00:44:43But they're both fast?

00:44:44But they're both fast, yeah.

00:44:46And today's Jack is faster as David Freiberger talked to Brock and said,

00:44:51Hey, the stats are telling us a story on Jack's car.

00:44:54And those have borne themselves out again.

00:44:56When we come back, Crews Pedregons on the racetrack next to Steven Dencham.

00:45:02A Sunday morning Seal Master Track Walk to remember.

00:45:05The 45th Infantry Division Band leading a huge contingent of NHRA fans

00:45:10on a crisp Sunday morning here in Pomona, California.

00:45:13Down a drag ship that has seen some of the sport's most iconic moments and iconic winners.

00:45:18It is a heck of a way to get your NHRA race day started when you come and see us at your next national event.

00:45:23Blake Alexander advances from 16.

00:45:26Beckman and Green, Lee and Hyde have made the trip.

00:45:29The number 14 and 16 qualifiers in round two.

00:45:33Crews Pedregons has never raced Steve Dencham in competition.

00:45:36George, what you got on Crews?

00:45:37288s in qualifying for Crews Pedregons.

00:45:40And he told me they weren't perfect runs.

00:45:42They need to get it running on all eight cylinders.

00:45:44This year they have a lot of brand new stuff.

00:45:46They're trying to figure it out.

00:45:47He goes, is it 83 or an 81 for us out there?

00:45:50Probably not.

00:45:51But an 85 is doable.

00:45:52But guys, this first round, who knows what it might take?

00:45:55Unlike all the other teams, they have to race smart.

00:45:57They know that a couple of good cars are out of competition because they didn't hit it right.

00:46:01So you just want to balance that wheel speed.

00:46:03There are targets that all the tuners overlay their target at a quarter of a second, half second.

00:46:08At one second into the run, they want to hit those marks.

00:46:13Steven Dencham annihilates the tires upon application of the throttle and a very solid 389 at 324 miles per hour for Crews Pedregons.

00:46:23Paul Lee is at the top end with Bruno.

00:46:26That was a heck of a round one matchup for Paul Lee, a guy who's got a lot of mojo going his way.

00:46:31You make a quick run, but he made a great run alongside of you.

00:46:34When you're in those kind of battles, I mean, is that why you step up and do this?

00:46:37That's exactly why we step up and do that.

00:46:39I'm here for competition.

00:46:40I love competition no matter what it is, whether it's business or NHRA drag racing.

00:46:45I love the competition and what's even better is a great old fashioned drag race.

00:46:50And that's what me and Bobby just had, a great old fashioned drag race.

00:46:54And we now go to the pit area of Spencer High.

00:46:57The head contractor's car being put up on the Go Jacks right now.

00:47:00The service will begin.

00:47:01This is the first time this team will turn this car under the race day conditions and he will be racing Crews.

00:47:06And while it was a little bit of a surprise, the performance was there.

00:47:08Jim Head is back on track.

00:47:10He's racing a good car on a good race track.

00:47:12So this is exactly what Spencer Hyde needed was a round win.

00:47:15388 for Hyde.

00:47:17Very strong.

00:47:18Very competitive.

00:47:19And it gives them lane choice over Crews Pedregon.

00:47:21And I think they picked the right again.

00:47:24Oh, cool, baby.

00:47:25Dan Wilkerson on the starting line.

00:47:30The Skag.

00:47:31Jackal Ford will take on the DHL GR Supra.

00:47:35On the right hand side, Austin Brock and Blake Alexander with Bruno Massel.

00:47:39Well, that's why you race it.

00:47:41You know what I mean?

00:47:42One versus 16.

00:47:43And today, 16 gets the one out.

00:47:45Austin, coverage has been phenomenal all weekend.

00:47:47What happened in the first round?

00:47:48I mean, let's be honest, it hasn't been phenomenal.

00:47:50We've been working on it all weekend.

00:47:52And we've had trouble in that area.

00:47:53And we thought we were heading in the right direction.

00:47:55We changed some more things this morning.

00:47:57And it just didn't do the job.

00:47:59So frustrated in myself, I should be able to run 420 pedal in it like that.

00:48:03And I missed the first pedal.

00:48:04And that cost us around.

00:48:05You know, you win and lose as a team.

00:48:07But, you know, it's frustrating.

00:48:09You know, for Cornwall Tools, HenrikCars.com, Chevrolet, you know,

00:48:13we'll regroup and we'll go to the next one and try and get the job done for John Forrest.

00:48:17For Blake Alexander, it's a guy who's thrashed to get this team together in short notice.

00:48:21You come out to these couple of races and you're turning on wind lights.

00:48:24You're not putting up the big numbers, but you're still entering into round two.

00:48:26What's been going on for you and this team this weekend?

00:48:28Just a grind, man.

00:48:29We had problems in the bell housing with the clutch on Friday.

00:48:32And it set us so far behind.

00:48:34And then had other small issues on Saturday.

00:48:36But I'm so proud to drive the Shuffler Dodge.

00:48:38Everyone at Pronto, Parts Authority, hanging out with us.

00:48:40It's cool to be in Los Angeles doing this, especially against the Proc family.

00:48:43They're fun to race.

00:48:44And so now we'll find out how fun the Wilkerson family is to race as J.R. Todd stages next to him.

00:48:54J.R.'s car shakes the tires.

00:48:57Wilkerson's car brings traction.

00:48:58J.R. gives chase, but he runs out of drag strip.

00:49:01An ugly one, but 416.5 at a measly 234 miles an hour for Dan Wilkerson.

00:49:07Wind lights him.

00:49:08You put a little makeup on it.

00:49:09It was J.R. Todd off the starting line first, slightly ahead of Daniel Wilkerson.

00:49:14Quicker than 60 feet.

00:49:16And the car actually goes out a ways where it either starts to lose traction or that dreaded tire shake that we've seen from so many cars.

00:49:23But now we're seeing the sun start to poke out.

00:49:25You can see him trying to fix the setup.

00:49:27The setup was off.

00:49:28The driver's going to get off the throttle just to try to get the car to recover.

00:49:32But in the other lane, it was Dan Wilkerson that had some issues.

00:49:35Much farther down the racetrack.

00:49:37Had the momentum.

00:49:38You can see J.R. just not giving up hope because more than likely he could either see or hear that Wilkerson was having similar problems.

00:49:47A hair-raising first-round win for Spencer Hyde has earned him a chat with Bruno Massel.

00:49:52And the wild ride and funny car continues here in Pomona.

00:49:55Spencer Hyde, you just said that was your first full run down that racetrack.

00:49:59A 388 career best.

00:50:00You take out round caps and you just narrowly avoid that center line.

00:50:03What was going through your mind when that was all taking place?

00:50:05Well, I was thinking don't hit this cone again.

00:50:07I did that in Gainesville in qualifying and that one hurt.

00:50:10I beat myself up pretty bad over it.

00:50:12But Ron Kapp's my hero.

00:50:13He's been my hero for 20 years.

00:50:15Probably the coolest thing I've ever done is line up beside him.

00:50:18I'm lost for words.

00:50:20Thanks.

00:50:21Gym Head Racing, all the guys are amazing.

00:50:22My mom and dad, my girlfriend Courtney, everybody who supported me through this journey on 20 years.

00:50:27Man, I couldn't be more happy right now.

00:50:29Congratulations.

00:50:31He'll go back and meet Jim Head and the boys as they turn that machine around for the second stanza of competition.

00:50:38He will be racing Cruz Pedregon.

00:50:40It is the final pair of this wild first round of Funny Car, the Madero Cafe machine of Alexis DeJoria.

00:50:47The Dodge body car backing its way up next to Matt Hagen in the Johnson's Horsepower Garage Dodge.

00:50:52That has been engaging in the kind of game day, race day fit program.

00:50:56If you follow him on social media, he's kind of, he's walking in the racetrack all done up on Sunday morning.

00:51:01You would think it's the NFL, right?

00:51:03Yeah.

00:51:04You know, look, play the part.

00:51:05I completely agree.

00:51:06Just go back to some stanza of hindsight.

00:51:07I think these drivers go so fast.

00:51:09They continue to call those blocks homes.

00:51:11They are actually blocks, but if they take a walk around, they'll get to see it.

00:51:16Geometry class will throw that in for free as Alexis DeJoria has a 5-7 record against Matt Hagen in the first round.

00:51:22I think we can throw all those statistics out the window from what we have seen.

00:51:25Has it been lack of aggression or over-aggression for these teams so far that have been shaking the tires?

00:51:30No, and this is always interesting because take a listen to these drivers staging.

00:51:33You can almost hear Alexis.

00:51:34The car seems to rev up.

00:51:36I think she pushes, puts a little bit of pressure on that throttle pedal.

00:51:39As the car is pre-staging and staging.

00:51:42Immediate right-hand turn for Alexis DeJoria and for Matt Hagen, 388.4 at 324 miles an hour.

00:51:56And for Hagen, a nice clean run that is quicker than he's gone all weekend long.

00:52:00Yeah, beautiful run for Matt Hagen right there.

00:52:02I'm sure that's exactly what they were looking for.

00:52:04But for Alexis, very competitive off of the starting line, but you can see instantly that car take a turn.

00:52:09That misfiring cylinder, you have four that are under ignition pushing that car.

00:52:15You have four against three.

00:52:16It's going to turn the way that it misfires the cylinder.

00:52:19So that car, I think their problems start early in the run.

00:52:22It seems to have an issue idling properly, and that's something easy to fix.

00:52:27Look out world.

00:52:28Here comes Blake Alexander Hagen, Beckman Green, Lee Wilkerson, and Hyde Pedregon in round number two.

00:52:33When we come back, we're going right back into fuel racing.

00:52:36The top fuel dragsters are turned around, and that includes this man, Tony Stewart in their Renai tankless hot water heater's car.

00:52:42He'll be on the drag strip in round two.

00:52:45We've got a full weekend of football starting with Fox UFL Friday.

00:52:52The Birmingham Stallions take on the Michigan Panthers at 8 Eastern.

00:52:55Then next Sunday at 630, the San Antonio Broncos take on the St. Louis Battle Hawks.

00:53:00The United Football League next weekend on Fox and FS1.

00:53:04The scene here in Pomona, Ron Capps has been retired in the Napa GR Supra.

00:53:10And so his weekend has come to an end.

00:53:12We'll see him next in Las Vegas.

00:53:13That team will do its cursory turnaround before heading back east.

00:53:16And on the opposite side of the fence in terms of the joy or, you know, agony of defeat,

00:53:21we go over to Jack Beckman's pit area, the Govex Pit Camp.

00:53:24That car has been ridiculous this weekend, laid down that nasty 384 in round one.

00:53:29Spencer Hyde hung on loosely and made it to the finish line, millimeters past that finish line block.

00:53:34His team is turning the car around for a round two matchup with Cruz Pedragon in the Nitro Funny Car ranks.

00:53:40An experienced crew over there getting the job done in calm fashion.

00:53:43Take a quick look at our K&N Key storylines coming out of the first round.

00:53:48This could be a five-page look at things, but we're going to boil it down to the big ones.

00:53:52Jasmine Salinas defeating Steve Torrance with an 072 light.

00:53:55Tony Stewart upsetting Antron Brown for the third straight round one victory of his season.

00:54:00Blake Alexander defeating Austin Brock from the number 16 spot,

00:54:03which no number 16 qualifier had won a round at this race since 2012.

00:54:08And Spencer Hyde upsetting Ron Capps will have lane choice in round two.

00:54:11Those are your K&N Key storylines.

00:54:14And the top fuel cars are warming in the pits right now.

00:54:17Brittany Forrest, the Yorba Linda California Natives,

00:54:19strapped into the Monster Energy top fuel dragster at her home racetrack,

00:54:23trying to continue to do damage and seek that next career victory.

00:54:27We get a look at our top fuel ladder.

00:54:29Moving into the second round, Brittany Forrest will be unopposed.

00:54:32Jasmine Salinas left.

00:54:33Clay Milliken, what do you think about that right side?

00:54:35Well, Kalena against Tony Stewart.

00:54:37Tony Stewart picking up the pace.

00:54:38Sean Langdon, one of the better cars, has a tough opponent, Josh Hart.

00:54:42He was able to repeat what he did in qualifying.

00:54:44It's going to be a tough matchup.

00:54:48And the first pair of the second round is fired up.

00:54:50That is the mighty firebreaker, Tom Bueller,

00:54:52on the left-hand side of her screen of Clay Milliken.

00:54:54Across the racetrack, the Scrappards Valley Services car of Jasmine Salinas.

00:55:04Jasmine heats the tires, and she has done a very solid job these first two races of the year.

00:55:09Average reaction time was 94 in Gainesville, but she's been able to move that around.

00:55:13Yeah, it was 116 in Phoenix, but it has come down this weekend.

00:55:16She was 72 in the first round, a 4-2 round record for 2025.

00:55:20Jordan, what else do you have to add?

00:55:22Well, speaking of that, Brian, I talked to her about that for reaction time this morning.

00:55:26And she didn't have to worry about it in the first round when she launched it red,

00:55:28but I said to Jasmine, what are you going to do today to make you quicker on the starting line?

00:55:33She goes, you know what? I'm not going to think about it.

00:55:35All year last year, I thought about it. I listened to people.

00:55:38Today, I'm just going to react.

00:55:40Jordan, there was a social media piece that came out this week where she went golfing with the LPGA players,

00:55:45and at one of the moments, she was putting, and she said something interesting.

00:55:48She sunk a 10-foot putt, then she went up there and missed the 5-foot putt.

00:55:52And kind of subconsciously, she said, I was thinking about it too much.

00:55:56So your report seems to line up with exactly how she can be successful here this weekend.

00:56:00I don't disagree with that approach unless you think you really have to let nature take its course and just focus.

00:56:09Clay Milliken moved first. The orange header plays up for Jasmine Zelina's finish line stripe.

00:56:13It is going to be Clay Milliken on a hole shot. Milliken with 58 green, runs a 3.71.7.

00:56:19Jasmine was a competitive 82, but runs 3.707, simply outrun and outdueled by 14 thousandths of a second.

00:56:26That's one of the things you really have to watch out for with Clay Milliken.

00:56:28If you look at his first round performance in 0.51, pretty close to repeating that off of the starting line.

00:56:34And that's one of the things that Clay does so well.

00:56:36When he gets in a groove, when he has a car, his car can become very dangerous.

00:56:40For Jasmine Zelina, she gave it a good shot. She improved her reaction time from her first round and had a good car.

00:56:46But this is what happens in the second round when the caliber of competition ramps up.

00:56:51Solid runs on both sides. And you can see Milliken's car was missing.

00:56:55The raw fuel coming out of the cylinders, but Jasmine did not have enough time to catch him.

00:56:59Someone who won't be caught this round, we can say that with certainty, is Brittany Forrest.

00:57:05Forrest backing her way up to the starting line again, chasing that career win mark of Shirley Muldowney

00:57:10and her Monster Energy top fuel dragster. A buy run here.

00:57:13And the only question remains is what Clay Milliken's going to be looking at next round,

00:57:18because he's going to be trying to race Brittany.

00:57:20They're going to be real interested. You can see the sun wants to poke through a little bit,

00:57:23but when we look at the track temperature, which is what they're keying off of,

00:57:27they've really based this setup off of the track temperature.

00:57:31If there's the same amount of grip, if there's any less,

00:57:33it appears to be a lot like it was in the first round.

00:57:36The sun hasn't really been out, and there's some cloud cover that's going to kind of come

00:57:39and go through the course of the day.

00:57:50We have a grip like intently looking on here as this car now takes the trip.

00:57:57And Brittany on rail to the top end and did put a cylinder out.

00:58:07Still goes .369, still goes .332, and it was on seven cylinders through the end of the run.

00:58:13Gadzooks.

00:58:15Jasmine Salinas and Clay Milliken with Bruno Massel.

00:58:18Well, that was just a good old-fashioned drag race between Jasmine Salinas and Clay Milliken.

00:58:23Jasmine, it didn't go your way.

00:58:24You had a good outing, though.

00:58:25You advanced out of one round.

00:58:26Reaction time wasn't your thing today.

00:58:28What do we look to improve in moving forward?

00:58:30I know what I need to work on as a driver, just not listen to what everyone else has to say about it.

00:58:35I know what I need to do, and I'm going to keep working on it.

00:58:37But I enjoy being out here, getting to race with the best of the best.

00:58:40They keep me working really hard.

00:58:42Clay, you know, you got a chance to go on to the semifinals here today.

00:58:46A good drag race.

00:58:47What is your team going to do to move on to the next round and try and tweak this thing a little bit more?

00:58:50Just rinse and repeat.

00:58:51And I just want to say real quick, I just told her she's a good racer and I like racing with her.

00:58:55She don't play games.

00:58:56And the reaction time thing, that just comes.

00:58:59She don't have a lot of laps.

00:59:00Sometimes I don't have an excuse.

00:59:01I got a lot of laps.

00:59:02But I love racing with the Salinas family.

00:59:04We're going to go out there and stop on that loud pedal in the semis, taking the mighty firebreakers to the next round.

00:59:11Time in progress, and she is making it.

00:59:13And we know that Clay has progressed on to the next round.

00:59:16Josh Hart and this man, Sean Langdon, the Coletta Air, careers top fuel dragster with Toyota and Revkev Composites.

00:59:24A two-time Pomona winner, but the last time he won here was 10 years ago.

00:59:28And for Josh Hart, the RL Carrier's top fuel dragster, we mentioned the fact that it ran into 360s in qualifying.

00:59:33Scuffled a bit, but then they shot their way right back into that 360 bracket in round one.

00:59:38Josh Hart can make this very interesting.

00:59:40As good as Sean Langdon has been just coming off a victory a week ago.

00:59:44This team of Josh Hart, they found the range, the sweet spot.

00:59:48They're only a hundredth of a second slower coming into this first round.

00:59:51And Sean Langdon and his teammate were the quickest of round one.

00:59:54They staged a nearly identical fashion that Josh Hart's car went nowhere.

01:00:01369, 334 miles an hour for Langdon's car, which did appear to be slightly going away at the top end of the racetrack, Tony.

01:00:10Yeah, as we take another look, we're going to have a shot from the drone.

01:00:14And look at the difference in reaction time.

01:00:16This is an 041 versus an 074.

01:00:19And you can see where driver reaction time and reflexes matter.

01:00:22Unfortunately for Josh Hart, his car lost traction just at wide open throttle.

01:00:27It may not have mattered.

01:00:29He would have been playing catch up by better than three hundredths of a second.

01:00:33And it's not likely you're going to go around Sean Langdon when he's running a 3.69.

01:00:38Sean Langdon's teammate, Doug Coletta, takes to the racetrack next to Tony Stewart.

01:00:45Mack tools for Coletta tonight.

01:00:46Anglers hot water heaters for Tony Stewart.

01:00:50If Coletta gets around Stewart, it will be once again the Doug and Sean show, which we keep seeing a lot of these early races, but for good reason.

01:00:58Should we expect to see what we might have just seen the run before out of these two cars?

01:01:02More or less.

01:01:03Maybe less.

01:01:04You know, the track temperature did increase to about 102 degrees.

01:01:09I think I'm going to play in the favor of Tony Stewart.

01:01:11You saw the Brittany Force.

01:01:13They detuned the car a little bit.

01:01:15They made a good run, but they were a few hundreds off for first round performance.

01:01:18And, you know, for Sean Langdon, he just won right in front of his teammate.

01:01:23And they slowed the car down wisely about three hundredths of a second.

01:01:26So it's going to be interesting to see if Alan Johnson does the same.

01:01:29He just has to do enough to beat Tony Stewart.

01:01:33Oh, and it's going to be Doug Hayes in the tires.

01:01:48Tony Stewart goes to the finish line.

01:01:50370, 332 miles an hour.

01:01:53Stewart's going to his first semifinal round of the season.

01:01:56But Tony Stewart did a few things right when they left the pit.

01:01:59The setup on this car was righteous.

01:02:01A 370 right in the range that the cars that are advancing are winning with.

01:02:06For Doug Coletta, here it is.

01:02:08It's just a little too aggressive.

01:02:10He was a hundredth of a second behind at 330 feet.

01:02:13But it does appear that his rear tires had already started to black track.

01:02:17You could see a near even launch, a slight reaction, advantage for Tony Stewart.

01:02:23But they're right as that clutch starts to come in and try to accelerate the car for Doug Coletta.

01:02:27He just answered our question.

01:02:29Was Alan Johnson going to pull it back?

01:02:31Not enough.

01:02:32And so the top fuel semifinal is set, and Pat Mann, Tony Stewart, will be in it.

01:02:37His first one of the season.

01:02:39He will be taking on Shawn Langdon.

01:02:41And it will be Brittany Forrest taking on Clay Milligan.

01:02:45The Nitro Funny Cars are in the lanes.

01:02:47Cruz Pedregon's team seemingly thrashing to get there on time.

01:02:50They made a quick tow into the lanes, a little bit behind schedule.

01:02:53We'll find out more about that when we return, and the Funny Cars fire up.

01:02:56A thrash into staging lanes right now to start round two.

01:03:01Jim Head's car is at the water box.

01:03:03Cruz Pedregon's car is still being assembled.

01:03:05I believe we have Jordan Bender up there to give us a little bit of an idea of what's going on.

01:03:09Yeah, guys, I just talked to Crew Chief Jason Bunker,

01:03:11and he told me they found out they had a hurt block late in the thrash into the second round.

01:03:16So they caught it late.

01:03:17They threw a whole new block in, and they're rushing to get up here, guys.

01:03:20Cruz just got out of the tow vehicle and just got strapped in the race car underneath the tower.

01:03:25So let's get a look at our Funny Car ladder while they continue to finish the reinstallation of the parts of that car.

01:03:32You can see it's going to be Alexander Hagen, Beckman Green, Wilkerson Lee, and Hyde maybe Pedregon?

01:03:39Well, they did plug the starter in, so I think there's two things that are at play right here.

01:03:43There is some communication between Jason Bunker, the tuner for Cruz Pedregon, with Jim Head.

01:03:48So any jury can be involved.

01:03:50The competition department can say, Jim Head, you fire up.

01:03:53But right now, there may be some sportsmanship going on with this Jim Head team,

01:03:58at least attempting to wait for the snap-on car to roll forward.

01:04:03Jim Head and Jason Bunker having a conversation on the starting line.

01:04:07Any jury officials are there?

01:04:09We're going to get a resolution to this here momentarily.

01:04:13Let's check in with Jack Beckman.

01:04:14He's waiting patiently in the staging lanes.

01:04:17Pretty racy in the first round.

01:04:19Second quick of that first round, only quicker was Paul Lee.

01:04:24Does your tuner work with you?

01:04:26Do they communicate with you as the track temperature has increased close to 15 degrees?

01:04:30Do they clue you in on the adjustments that they're going to make?

01:04:34If you're asking me if they want my input on the tune-up, the three of them are pretty darn smart,

01:04:39but doing everything right.

01:04:40I'm lucky if they tell me what lane we're going into.

01:04:43As a driver, is there any adjustment that you make?

01:04:46Do you prepare yourself in the event the car gets loose?

01:04:48We saw some unpredictability in the first round with your teammate and Ron Capps going out.

01:04:53Tony would appreciate this.

01:04:56A track like Phoenix where the track temp's 135 degrees, you almost know you're probably going to have to pedal it out there.

01:05:03Whereas a track like here where it's 100 degrees, if you pedal it, it's going to be for a very different reason.

01:05:08It's because it's going to weak shake early.

01:05:10So you're always trying to wrap your head around it, but I would say the track's probably not nearly as sensitive as last race in Phoenix.

01:05:18All the best, Jack.

01:05:20109.

01:05:24And so Cruz Petragon now coming as we look down from the drone.

01:05:27They have pushed that car ahead.

01:05:29They are rolling into position now.

01:05:31They'll plug the starter in and fire this thing up.

01:05:33How it runs after that moment, Tony, is anybody's guess.

01:05:36I mean, obviously they know what they needed to do or had the setup in.

01:05:39Can they rush themselves to get it as accurate as they would normally?

01:05:43They have a lot of good experience at the top.

01:05:45They have Lee Beard.

01:05:46He's supervising.

01:05:47He's managing the workflow that's going on in the pits.

01:05:49You have to think that because of the experience that is with this team that everything has to be right to get it to this point.

01:05:55So in terms of the driver, the driver's job, and Cruz has done this so many times that he knows he has to focus.

01:06:01He has to allow his crew and the tuners to do their thing and get in the car.

01:06:06Once it starts up, he's in the zone.

01:06:08See a little gasoline hitting the injector there.

01:06:11One of the crew guys now up underneath that protective shield in the driver's area making a final adjustment there.

01:06:19Maybe to Cruz's belts or something, but they have the starter plugged in.

01:06:21They cross their fingers, hit the switch.

01:06:24Aha!

01:06:25It lifts.

01:06:26They have ignition, and of course they always start these cars with gas.

01:06:30Gas is going to see ignition much easier, much quicker than nitro methane.

01:06:35Once they prime the engine, it started on gas before the nitro on.

01:06:39So the body down on that rakish-looking snap-on dodge as it heads through the water box next to the head contractor Mustang.

01:06:49Short burnout for Spencer Hyde, as is normally the case for a gym head-tuned and operated race car.

01:06:54A little bit longer burnout for Pedregon as he begins to back up.

01:06:58Jordan, what you got on our first ever round one winner, Spencer Hyde?

01:07:01Well, he told me it feels like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders.

01:07:05And then I asked him, what about keeping the car straight?

01:07:08He told me, look, I'm just putting, I'm not putting enough wheel in the race car.

01:07:12If I put the amount of wheel that I need in this race car in my Pro Mod, I would end up upside down.

01:07:17He told me he just needs to trust that more wheel will not flip him over and it will keep him straight in the middle of the race track.

01:07:24He's absolutely right.

01:07:25And, you know, personal observation, I've seen a lot of funny car drivers go into Pro Mods and put them on their roofs learning how to drive them.

01:07:31So it's the exact opposite here.

01:07:32Yeah, a lot of physical in these nitro funny cars, mostly because of the downforce.

01:07:36But you're always better off being on the conservative side.

01:07:39So Spencer Hyde, he's taking the right approach because you just, you have to take it one step at a time.

01:07:44The licensing process for these nitro funny cars is 300 feet, 400 feet.

01:07:49Get it to 600 feet, slow increments so you can develop a feel for how much driving input to put in these cars.

01:07:55Hyde has gone left in those two big runs he made.

01:07:58The 90 run in Gainesville in the 88 here.

01:08:01If he goes left in this lane, that's not where he wants to be.

01:08:08Spencer Hyde motoring and Spencer Hyde is going to coast to a semifinal.

01:08:12414 at 231 miles an hour.

01:08:16Not the run Jim had wanted to make, but they, like manna from heaven, the wind lights are coming down for this team.

01:08:21That's all that really matters for the Snap-on team.

01:08:23Whatever they did in between rounds with the thrash, it may not have allowed them to make the proper adjustments.

01:08:29However, we did talk about the increase in track temperature for these shorter wheel-based funny cars.

01:08:35It is more of a challenge to manage that horsepower.

01:08:38You could see it had a decent 60-foot time.

01:08:41It wasn't quicker, but the idea, the approach to these warmer, slightly warmer conditions are to slip the clutch a little bit more,

01:08:48but not quite enough for the Snap-on car as it lost traction too early in the run.

01:08:53Tony Stewart's with Bruno.

01:08:56As Tony Stewart surveys that ET slip, one thing that stands out is that reaction time.

01:09:00You and I talked at the beginning of the season.

01:09:02Your goal was to even get better on the tree.

01:09:04How have you done that?

01:09:05I got a great coach with my wife, Leah Pruitt, so just practicing.

01:09:10I mean, I really didn't practice last year, not for any other reason than just superstitious.

01:09:16I mean, we were in the top five the whole season in reaction time as a rookie,

01:09:19so it doesn't mean you can't get better, but I mean, you just don't want to mess it up.

01:09:23I've heard stories of guys on the practice tree making self worse and getting their own heads,

01:09:27and I didn't want to do that.

01:09:29So, you know, we've got a car now that's more consistent.

01:09:31It's going down the racetrack, and I told the guys at Phoenix, I said, I'm going to work now.

01:09:34I said, I've got something to work for because we've got a car that's going down.

01:09:37So we're all doing our part.

01:09:39I mean, Mr. Knight, he's doing a great job, and it just keeps getting warmer.

01:09:42It keeps coming to us.

01:09:43I mean, we're not the fastest car down there right now, but as it warms up and slows down,

01:09:47it's coming over here.

01:09:49Of course, we got Tony right after his run.

01:09:51This is his car now in mid-service in the pit area.

01:09:54The car that he just told us that has given him something to work for, to work towards.

01:09:59You know you did me wrong.

01:10:02Just one more cup of coffee before I go.

01:10:06I know I better stop and cut the show.

01:10:10I'll leave you all the memories and go.

01:10:13I'mma go, two hours conversation.

Dianjurkan

58:29

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NHRA 2025. Round 3. Pomona. Race Part 2

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