Saturday’s nitro qualifying at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals in Phoenix, Az., produced a memory for the generations.

For the first time in NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing history a father and a son tuned their drivers each to a No. 1 qualifying position in their respective nitro divisions.

Saturday in Phoenix was a good day to be a McCulloch.

Saturday’s nitro qualifying at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals in Phoenix, Az., produced a memory for the generations.

For the first time in NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing history a father and a son tuned their drivers each to a No. 1 qualifying position in their respective nitro divisions.

Saturday in Phoenix was a good day to be a McCulloch.

Ed McCulloch tuned his driver Ron Capps to the top spot in the Funny Car qualifying.

His son, Jason McCulloch, in only his second national event as a crew chief tuned his driver Larry Dixon to the No. 1 position in the Top Fuel division.

“I am obviously proud for the both of us,” Ed McCulloch said. “I’m really proud of my team here and all of the work they put in. On the flipside, those guys [Jason's team] had a mishap in Pomona and didn’t qualifying. They came back out here and put it on the pole. They’re an extremely good race team. I’m proud of Jason for being a part of that.”

“These kinds of things [being the first father/son nitro tuners to qualify No. 1 on same day] are bonuses,” Jason McCulloch added. “Those are things you always hope for but never dream of.”

Understandably the last month has presented a lot of sleepless nights for them. Jason joined mentor Alan Johnson at the conclusion of the 2008 season, literally walking across the street where he played a pivotal role in creating a new team from absolutely nothing. The shop he walked into didn’t even have any equipment.

Ed was coming off of one of the toughest seasons as a tuner, having been shut out of the winner’s circle in 2008. A painful season, which followed a year where he and driver Ron Capps lost a championship after leading the points for much of the season.

This year, Ed won the first race of the season with Capps in Pomona.

Jason’s new team failed to qualify in the first outing.

“I don’t think either one of us has gotten much sleep in the past few weeks,” Jason remarked.

Tonight they will rest just fine but come Sunday morning, they’ve been around long enough to know being the No. 1 qualifier means nothing on race day outside of presenting lane choice for the first round.

“It’s good to qualify No. 1 and get the car down the track,” Jason explained. “The main objective is always to win the race.

Ed can’t really say whether he’s gained more pride by landing his first low qualifying effort since 2005 or in seeing Jason score his first low qualifying effort in just his second race.

“I’m not really sure that you can compare the two,” Ed admitted. “I’m happy we did what we did and I’m happy he did what he did.”

There’s the father in Ed that makes the black and white lines sometimes gray. He’s not always going to be a crew chief but he will be a father.

That fatherly role came into play when Jason was first presented with the opportunity to pursue his first crew chief appointment. They worked for many years on the DSR team, with Ed tuning a Funny Car driven by Ron Capps and Jason working under the tutelage of Johnson with the U.S. Army team.

“Jason came to me about taking the job and asked my advice and said that he’d been with DSR for a long time and Don had been good to him,” Ed recalled. “I let him know that he was my son and I had enjoyed working every day alongside of him but the father in me had to remind him that this was an opportunity that he couldn’t turn down.”

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