First-round pairings for professional eliminations Sunday for the
third annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Racing
quipment Motorsports Park, the 12th of 24 events in the NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series.  Pairings based on results in qualifying,
which ended Saturday. DNQs listed below pairings.

For two rounds on Saturday at the Summit Racing Equipment Nationals in
Norwalk, Ohio, things were going according to plan for Greg

Roger Richards

Anderson. 
His Summit Racing GXP was the class of the field, posting a stellar
6.644-second time, moving him to the top of the Pro Stock leader board
and eventually earning the No. 1 qualifying position for Sunday’s final
eliminations.  This was the 72nd No. 1 qualifying performance of his
career, third of 2009, and the second time in three years the
three-time champion had accomplished this feat at Summit Motorsports
Park.
 
However, running in conjunction with the second day of qualifying was
the K&N Horsepower Challenge, a Pro Stock specialty race pitting
the top eight qualifiers for the last year aga inst each other in a
three-round, single elimination event paying $50,000 to the winner. 
Coming in as the No. 1 qualifier, Anderson advanced to the final for
the second consecutive year and fifth time in seven career attempts,
defeating Ron Krisher and teammate Jason Line with two of the quickest
runs of the day.

For No. 1 qualifier Mike Neff and his Ford Drive One Mustang team success has been building over the past four races.

Roger Richards

They
have improved their qualifying position with each passing race finally
grabbing their first No. 1 of the 2009 season in Norwalk. At the
previous two NHRA national events here teammate Robert Hight held down
the No. 1 spot going into eliminations.

“This (qualifying at the top of the field) is exactly what we need to
be doing right now at this time of the year, in the position we are at
in the points. Our Drive One Ford Mustang has been running great for
really the last four races. We have been improving every weekend and
that is a tribute to (crew chief) John Medlen and the crew. Now it is
up to me to make sure I can do my job driving to make sure we can go
some rounds. I am real pleased. I know Medlen feels good. It is
important for Ford to keep those Mustangs at the top and it was great
to see Robert up there as well be right behind us in the No. 2 spot,”
said Neff, the driver with the most to gain in the first round tomorrow.

Train wrecks aren’t coordinated as well as the incident that transpired
following the final Pro Stock qualifying session for the Summit Racing
Equipment NHRA Nationals. Two Pro Stockers incurred a measure of damage
in an accident which involved three race cars and a golf cart.

Jeg Coughlin added to his growing resume with a victory in the 25th annual K&N Horsepower Challenge.

"Any time you win a race that only invites the best of the best it's
pretty darn special," Coughlin said. "It certainly sets a great tone
for this weekend and continues the momentum we've built over the first
part of the season. We're going for our 60th career national event win
tomorrow so we could really make this one of the all-time weekends."

Spurred on by a partial home state crowd, Coughlin, of Delaware, Ohio,
was an underdog all day but used exceptional driving to claim the
special race-within-a-race, which invites the top eight qualifiers from
the previous 12 months to battle for cash prizes.

Andrew Hines has become predictable in 2009. For the three time world champion, it’s either a No. 1 or No. 5

Roger Richards

qualifier.
This time, at the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in
Norwalk, Ohio, it was his time to land in the top spot.

“It’s just a real weird statistic that I keep track of and it's been
working for us so far,” Hines explained of the interesting nugget. 

Hines currently resides third in the NHRA point standings and has
struggled to adjust to the recent NHRA weight adjustment to his Harley
following the team’s win at the NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga.

Dixon, Neff, Anderson and Hines claim No. 1 qualifying honors at Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals

Jeg
Coughlin drove his JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt to the $50,000 K&N
Horsepower Challenge victory Saturday at Summit Racing Equipment
Motorsports Park.

In other racing, Larry Dixon, Neff, Greg Anderson and Andrew Hines
claimed No. 1 qualifying positions and will lead their respective
categories into tomorrow's 11 a.m. eliminations for the Summit Racing
Equipment NHRA Nationals. It is the 12th of 24 events in the NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series event.

It was the third win for Coughlin in the special bonus event for the eight quickest Pro Stock teams from the last year.

Roger Richards

The
NHRA is leaving no room for Pro Stock rule improprieties during the
Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio. The
sanctioning body has dispatched its tech officials to look over the
cars of the eight drivers in the K&N Horsepower Challenge, a
special $50K race within a race contested on Saturday.

“They [NHRA Tech Officials] have been living with us all weekend,” Roy
Johnson, crew chief on the Pro Stock Dodge Stratus driven by his son,
Allen Johnson.

Are the inspectors looking for anything in particular? According to
the  drivers CompetitionPlus.com interviewed, the areas being checked
range from wing angle to engine displacement and the largest infraction
for a Pro Stocker, the use of nitrous oxide.

Jim Head refuses to criticize the management of Summit Racing Equipment Raceway Park for repaving the second 

half of the drag strip. The noted engineer of military runways just believes the process was an unnecessary expense.

“I would not have done that and that’s just my opinion,” Head said of
the track’s decision to undertake the major project a week before the
NHRA Nationals. “There are no circumstances that would have forced me
to put new asphalt on this track.”

SREMP reportedly spent six-figures to repair a racing surface that
percolated water following rain storms. Head believes the drainage
problem was one that needed rectifying, a problem the Bader family,
owners of the facility, corrected before repaving from the eighth mile
into the shutdown.

Jason Line and Greg Anderson run on the same team but have used distinctive paint schemes to differentiate
their identically prepared Pontiac GXP Pro Stockers. In Norwalk, for
this weekend’s NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Nationals, they have suited up as an army of one.

Line will trade in his tangerine-colored Pontiac for Anderson’s candy apple red entry used last season.

“There was nothing wrong with my Summit Racing GXP – after all, we won
two races with it earlier in the year,” said Line.  “However, over the
last few weeks it just wasn’t responding the way we wanted it to, so we
made the decision to switch to the car Greg ran last year. It’s a
proven piece that we feel gives us the best chance to win.”