Mike Edwards can count the number of times he’s made a perfect run on one hand. Friday night he used one of those digits to quantify his Friday evening run at the NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, NJ.

Edwards’ 6.513 second pass was the second quickest run in NHRA Pro Stock history and his 211.49 mph speed enabled him to grab both ends of the Old Bridge Township Raceway Park track record en route to the provisional pole position.

“I think it paid to be in the back of the line,” said Edwards, who is the current national record holder with a 6.509 elapsed time. “The conditions just kept dropping drastically. It really paid off for us. I knew when I threw out the parachutes I couldn’t get any better than that run.

Mike Edwards can count the number of times he’s made a perfect run on one hand. Friday night he used one of those digits to quantify his Friday evening run at the NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown, NJ.

Edwards’ 6.513 second pass was the second quickest run in NHRA Pro Stock history and his 211.49 mph speed enabled him to grab both ends of the Old Bridge Township Raceway Park track record en route to the provisional pole position.

“I think it paid to be in the back of the line,” said Edwards, who is the current national record holder with a 6.509 elapsed time. “The conditions just kept dropping drastically. It really paid off for us. I knew when I threw out the parachutes I couldn’t get any better than that run.

“I think that run in Richmond could have been a 6.46. When you can run a .954 (60-foot clicking) that’s just incredible for one of these cars. The quick runs were out there. We swung for the fence and got away with that. We knew when we left the trailer the car was hot. Just before I made the run, I stood up there and watched all of the big numbers come up. I had to go back to my car, I couldn’t stand watching it anymore.”

According to Edwards, the altitude dropped 600 feet from the time his team left the pit area until they ran.

“Any time the conditions get like that, you know the track is going to be awesome,” Edwards said. “It was out there for us to make an awesome run. Hat’s off to my team. It’s good to have a great day like this … but …”

Then Edwards paused and paid tribute to Neal Parker, the Top Alcohol Funny Car racer killed Friday afternoon in a qualifying accident.

“My heart is real heavy for Neal Parker and his family,” Edwards said, voice cracking with emotion. “It’s a tragic loss anytime we have something like that happen with one of our racers. My heart goes out to his family … my thoughts and prayers are with them.”