Junior Pippin admitted he was never really big enough to play football. However, Friday evening at the NHRA Gatornationals, he used one of the most famous plays in football history to claim the provisional Pro Stock Motorcycle pole position.

He went “Hail Mary” on the competition.

“This is a new bike,” Pippin admitted. “We've only made three pulls on the dyno.”

With rain cutting Friday qualifying to just one run, Pippin went back to last year’s Pomona2 combination and let it rip.

Robert Hight knew headed into this weekend’s NHRA Gatornationals, this race was an important race for him for more than the prestige the event holds. This was the event where the reigning Funny Car series champion pinpointed his early season tailspin began last year.

“This sport is very humbling,” said Hight, who edged out boss/father-in-law John Force for the No. 1 spot with a 4.060. “You can change in a hurry. We just have to work hard, stay doing what we're doing. We're not changing a whole lot; and refining what we have. It is awesome. But, that No. 1 is a target out there, because there are a lot of other Funny Cars that want that on the side of their car next year. We're going to have to do a good job to regain that.”

The good job begins with a confident crew chief and Hight believes he has one with Jimmy Prock.

Tony Schumacher set both ends of the 1,000-foot Gainesville Raceway record to ensure an esoteric stat in Friday's rain-delayed first day of qualifying for the Tire Kingdom Gatornationals.
 
"All three No. 1 qualifiers are last year's [series] champions," Schumacher said, musing about the feat he shared with Funny Car's Robert Hight and Pro Stock's Mike Edwards.
 
"That," the U.S. Army Dragster driver said, "is a great stat that on Sunday I will never think about."
 

Veteran driver Jay Payne raced to the qualifying lead Friday at Gainesville Raceway in the debut of the NHRA Get Screened America Pro Mod Drag Racing Series.

Payne, of Ontario, Calif., covered the quarter-mile distance in 5.887 seconds at 241.28 mph in his supercharged 1968 Camaro, which is tuned by Brad Anderson.

Payne, who has 36 career NHRA victories in Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car competition, will try to earn his first official Pro Mod victory Sunday when Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals eliminations begin for NHRA’s newest national touring series. Payne has seven wins in NHRA Pro Mod exhibition racing.

Robert Hight raced to the Funny Car lead Friday during a rain-shortened day of qualifying at the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals.

Defending world champion Hight powered his Auto Club Ford Mustang to a Gainesville Raceway track-record performance of 4.060 seconds at 310.13 mph to move to the top of the 16-car qualifying order.

“A lot of guys went out there and [lost traction], but [crew chief] Jimmy Prock has got a good handle on this race car,” Hight said. “We were hurting it a little bit in Phoenix, so he decided to put a new fuel pump on it, and he was even second-guessing himself a little after we had the threatening weather and one run today. But he stuck with it, and as you can see, it ran 310. It was a flawless run. If we can get some more conditions tomorrow, maybe we can lower that a little bit because there’s a lot of other cars out there that can do that. An .06 is a great start, and it’s definitely going to stay in the top four, five.”

History is offering Ed Hoover a unique opportunity.

Back in 1990, Hoover won the inaugural sanctioned Pro Modified race at the IHRA Winternationals in Darlington, S.C., and he has been driving Pro Mods ever since.

This weekend, Hoover has the chance to write his name in the record books again in his Paul Trussell-owned 1968 Chevrolet Camaro.

The Get Screened America Drag Racing Series is making its NHRA debut at the 41st annual NHRA Gatornationals Friday through Sunday in Gainesville, Fla., and Hoover is vying for top honors.

Shirl Greer, 75, a former NHRA Funny Car champion from Kingsport, Tenn., passed away today at 11 AM.

Greer was hospitalized at the James H Quillen VA Hospital in Johnson City, Tenn., with complications from a previous surgery. He had undergone four surgeries in the last two weeks.

“It’s been a pretty rough day,” said Brian Greer, youngest of Shirl’s three sons. “But he’s not suffering anymore. I can’t believe he’s gone. We love our drag racing family and my dad did too. Your prayers helped us through a tough time.”

Greer is survived by wife Deborah, and sons Van, Rusty, and Brian.

Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com, through the assistance of a key group of Pro Modified historians and enthusiasts, has compiled a list of the Top 20 all-time drivers based on their contribution to the class, historic achievements, statistics and fan appeal.

Starting on Friday, January 8, 2010, the electronic magazine began revealing those names on the list, and will announce two drivers per week, until the No. 1 driver is unveiled on Saturday, Mar. 20, during the ADRL Dragpalooza in Houston, Texas.

Attitude’s CompetitionPlus.com narrowed the list from hundreds of drivers down to 20. Today, we reveal No. 3 on the list.

Drag racing fans can go full throttle and save eight dollars on single-day tickets to witness history March 25-28 at the inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway.

From now through the event, fans can purchase a can of Full Throttle Energy Drink at participating Circle K convenience stores, then redeem the empty can at the Charlotte Motor Speedway ticket office or, during event weekend, at the zMAX Dragway ticket windows for the eight-dollar savings.

Single-day tickets for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals start at only $25 before the eight-dollar discount. When applied, fans can save 32 percent and pay only $17.

Pat Musi is accustomed to covering a lot of ground at a rapid rate.

The multi-time Pro Street champion usually does this behind the wheel of race car, but lately it’s as if the ground-covering has been in knocking out one assignment after another on his to-do list.

Musi, in his 40th year of the high-performance engine industry, doesn’t appear to be at the end of the list either.

“It’s been non-stop around here servicing customer engines for the new season,” said Musi, who runs Pat Musi Race Engines in Carteret, NJ. “I am headed to Curacao to do some racing and I also have this match race to run. Not much time for sleep around here.”