When the NHRA was making history at the inaugural Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, N.C., late last month, T.J. Zizzo was busy.

The 34-year-old Top Fuel driver was delivering on a promise he made to his wife, Jen, 15 years earlier.

“The whole situation boiled down to my wife quitting smoking 15 year ago,” Zizzo said Friday. “I told her back then if she quit smoking, I would take her to Spain. Needless to say, as a good husband usually does, we’re always a little bit behind on our promises, but last October I told my wife that she deserved to go to Spain because she had quit smoking many, many years ago.”

Zizzo and his wife, who teaches Spanish at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Ill., made the trip to Barcelona during the week of March 22.

If the Pro Stock Bike gig doesn’t work out for Hector Arana, there’s a good chance being a meteorologist might make for suitable alternative work.

The defending world champion from Milltown, Ind., rode his way to the top of the qualifying list during first day qualifying at the NHRA Springnationals in Houston, Tex.

Arana credits his incessant study of this weekend’s weather reports as a key element for his Friday evening performance.

There was no surprises in Pro Stock qualifying Friday in the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park.

 Mike Edwards, the reigning world champ of the class, once again set the pace, capturing the top qualifying spot with a 6.539-second run.

“Conditions here (at Houston) are not quite as good as they were at Charlotte a couple of weeks ago, but the track got really, really good tonight,” said Edwards, who also had the top pass of the second qualifying session at 6.550 seconds. “We left a little bit out there on the track because it definitely got better for us. Tomorrow is another day and it looks like it might be a little more humid, but we will see. I’m just real happy with my guys. They did a great job and we made two nice runs tonight. We will come out tomorrow and hopefully we can race the track and improve.”

So far this season, things have not gone according to script for Top Fuel driver Antron Brown.

Brown, who finished third in the final points chase last year, just 49 points behind champion Tony Schumacher, has had a rocky start to 2010.

Brown, trying to reverse his fortunes, took a step toward doing just that by grabbing the top qualifying spot Friday at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Spring Nationals with a 3.803-second elapsed time at Houston Raceway Park.

“We went out there earlier in the day in the right lane and we were just a little bit early fast,” Brown said. “We went to the left lane after Brian (Corradi) and Mark (Oswald) saw (John) Force run that 4.02, that was pretty sporty. We were in that lane and we were like two pairs behind him (Force), so they wanted to step it up. When we took off, the car lifted the front wheels higher than they’ve ever lifted them up and carried them far out there. I knew I was on a ride right there. The car held on really good and we got back to look at the computer and that thing was on the edge all the way to the 330-mark. That’s about as much as it is going to hold for a dragster, unless someone runs out the back door better than we did.”

Austin Coil smiled when longtime driver John Force thundered to the second quickest elapsed time in 1,000-foot drag racing history during qualifying for the NHRA Springnationals in Houston, Tex.

Then he barked as only an old dog with a renewed bite could

“There was a couple of old dogs on the porch and didn’t want to get off, me and Bernie, and then when the young pup came in barking and running around,” Coil proclaimed. “When he started grabbing our food, it made us old guys get up. He made us realize we still had some fire left in us.”

Donnie Bender is officially a part of Kenny Bernstein racing this weekend.

Bender, most recently crew chief for Don Prudhomme Racing, leaves a legend to join a legend with Bernstein. He’s joining former DPR co-tuner Todd Smith, who was appointed as crew chief after the release of Rob Flynn.

Getting his hands dirty with the tuning challenges pleases Bender.

The ageless John Force earned the provisional pole in Funny Car with a 4.021-second pass at 316.08 mph on the first day of qualifying at the 23rd annual O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals Friday.

The other provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the fifth of 23 races in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season were Antron Brown (Top Fuel), Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) and Hector Arana (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

Force, now 60 years old, has already won twice this season in his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang and if the No. 1 holds up it would be the 133rd of his career, leaving him just five shy of Warren Johnson (138) on the all-time No. 1 qualifier list. It’s really the one major NHRA milestone that the 14-time NHRA champion and current points leader does not possess.

Jay Payne raced to the provisional No. 1 qualifying lead Friday as the second round of NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series qualifying came to an end at Houston Raceway Park.

Payne, of Ontario, Calif., drove his supercharged 1968 Camaro to a 5.813-second run at 246.21 mph to the provisional top spot of the field. For Payne, it would be his first official No. 1 qualifier at the second event of the inaugural season of the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series.

Driving a Pro Stock Motorcycle is exhilarating enough without this happening.

Angie Smith was in the midst of qualify run Friday afternoon at Houston Raceway Park when her Coffman Tank Trucks Buell bike caught fire.

“My lower left leg, right by my ankle, was on fire and I used my right shoe and patted it out,” the 30-year-old Smith. “I’m not burned or anything, but my motorcycle is messed up and that hurt my feelings more than anything.”

When Smith took off from the starting line, she didn’t feel or notice any problems, at least initially.