HOERNER HOLDS ON TO ADRL XPS LEAD

Todd Hoerner led at the end of all three rounds of Friday’s Extreme Pro Stock qualifying Sep. 28, at Summit Motorsports Park, but it wasn’t until the final pass of the day that he secured the top spot heading into Saturday’s final session.

Hoerner came out with a 4.056 in the opening round that stood up as number one through round two, but with points leader Cary Goforth just two-thousandths of a second behind. In the third round, Richie Stevens Jr. squeezed between the two at 4.057 seconds before Richard Penland stepped up to run 4.055 and take over the top position, leaving each of the top four qualifiers just one-thousandth apart from the next.

That changed when Hoerner lined up beside Scott Hintz for the final XPS pairing of the day as he ran a career-best 4.040 at 178.95 mph in his unique EFI-equipped 2012 Camaro.

“It was great to run that after we saw Richard (Penland) take the lead away right in front of us,” Hoerner said. “Jeff (Dobbins Jr., crew chief) told me it was going to run a .04 and he was right on. He did a great job on the clutch all day and with our Sonny’s motor and Bickel car it was a collective effort from everyone that got the job done for us.”

With one more qualifying round scheduled before eliminations begin Saturday afternoon, the Summit Racing Equipment Ohio Drags VI presented by Mickey Thompson has produced the second-quickest XPS field in history, anchored by the 4.107 at 175.52 by Brad Waddle in the provisional 16th position.

Notable non-qualifiers at this point included former race winners Brian Gahm and Hintz, as well as John Montecalvo, the 2010 XPS champion and winner of the previous ADRL event at Memphis earlier in September.

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