Brittany Force, Alexis DeJoria lead NHRA qualifying at LVMS
Brittany Force and Alexis DeJoria held on to the top qualifying spots in Top Fuel and Funny Car, and Greg Anderson and Steve Smith vaulted to the top of the speed charts in Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle during second day qualifying Saturday for the Dodge//SRT NHRA Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Force improved on her Friday time of 3.693 seconds with a 3.668 run at 331.36 mph in the final session to earn her 12th top qualifying spot of the season. DeJoria remained in the catbird seat with her 3.896 posted Friday. Anderson grabbed the top spot from teammate Kyle Koretsky with a pass of 6.65 for his 11th low qualifier award of 2021, with Smith setting the fast time in the bikes with a 6.839.
“We’re in the hunt for this championship, and we’re in a great spot,” said Force, who started the weekend in second place, 73 points behind three-time defending Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence, who was second-fastest with a 3.71 Saturday. “We got that No. 1, we picked up a ton of bonus points and excited to get here (Sunday) and get started.”
It has been a speedy weekend, as an impressive 13 dragsters qualified quicker than 3.8 seconds, with two more under 3.90.
The Funny Car points lead changed hands in final qualifying. Matt Hagan, who started the weekend a point behind Ron Capps in the hottest of the four championship battles, posted the best run during the last session and collected five bonus points to Capps’ three.
Hagan is pursuing his fourth Funny Car title and will start Sunday’s eliminations two points ahead of Capps.
Final eliminations begin at 11 a.m. Sunday.
Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.
