The downside to have team cars qualified for the NHRA Countdown to 1 playoffs is the potential for them to meet in the first round of eliminations. Two teams will have a pair of drivers face off in the first round of eliminations at the NHRA Midsouth Nationals.

Top Fuel teammates Morgan Lucas and Shawn Langdon will square off for the first time ever while Bob Tasca III meets Tim Wilkerson in Funny Car.

"Shawn and me have been friends for a long time, all the way back to our school days, and we used to dream about driving Top Fuel dragsters. Now we're living our dreams together," said Lucas. "I've already made an executive decision -- we're going to go up there and race heads-up, may the best man win. We owe that to the fans and we owe it to our sponsors.

"Both of us are still in the championship hunt so it's too early to start worrying about anything else at this point. I just want us to have a good, clean race and give the fans their money's worth."

Unlike Lucas and Langdon, the Funny Car drivers have met five times during 2009 eliminations and thrice have raced in the opening round.

"It sure seems like we run each other an awful lot, and neither one of us likes to do it in the first round," Wilkerson said.  "We're both fighting for points and position in the Countdown, so it's going to have to be a knock-down drag-out deal I guess, and this is the point where the trading of information comes to a stop and we both go up there with our best tune-up.”

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