Eddie Krawiec entered the final day of qualifications with a clear understanding he had zero chance to improve on Friday’s 6.822, 195.31 No. 1 qualifying effort. He also knew nobody else would beat his provisional effort.

Saturday became Sunday for Krawiec, and headed into race day at the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals, his 6.897 and 6.939 weren’t bonus point earners, but he didn’t need to get them either.

"It's all about making good runs, and today we made some decent passes," Krawiec said. "I wouldn't say they were the greatest. The main objective was to get the bike off the starting line clean. This is probably the first hot race track the bikes have had to face this season. It's a matter of adjusting.”

Krawiec and the Screamin’ Eagle team adjusted reasonably as teammate Andrew Hines was second quickest in the Q-4 session.

"We have to have a good clutch program,” Krawiec explained. “We have a good handle on ours with Andrew's last pass. It showed as he was second quickest of the final session, that we are headed in the right direction.  We tried tune-up changes on both bikes with that last session. I think moving into tomorrow that will be a good baseline. You have that to tune on. I've always said if you give us enough hits at a track we will get the job done."

For his efforts, Krawiec will face Chip Ellis in the first round of Sunday’s eliminations.

"That could be a final round, just about any given weekend," said Krawiec. "They might be struggling now, but they have the horsepower, and they have everything to go fast. You never get excited when you see a first round race like that. You definitely don't want to take that one lightly."

The No. 1 starting position was Krawiec’s fourth of the season, and No. 31 of his storied career. He’s won two races out of three finals this season and currently leads the championship points.

"It's difficult out here, you cannot take anything for granted," Krawiec said. "I think I have a very good bike going into tomorrow. The biggest thing we've struggled with is keeping with the wind direction. It's been changing from a right-to-left, left-to-right, crosswind. There has not been a headwind to make the proper adjustments to make the chassis go straight. That's very crucial with our bikes having no front fairing to know we have to stay tucked in tight. We've done a good job of managing that."

The act of cutting and pasting articles from this publication to a message board is a clear copyright violation as is pulling photos to post on social media sites. All articles and photography published in CompetitionPlus.com are protected by United States of America and International copyright laws unless mentioned otherwise. The content on this website is intended for the private use of the reader and may not be published or reposted in any form without the prior written consent of CompetitionPlus.com.