The 24th annual Ford Performance NHRA Nationals didn’t finish on Sunday late afternoon as planned. Very high winds throughout the car on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and a chilling track were partly to blame.
Rear end blow-ups caused nearly a two-hour delay on Billy Torrence’s late Saturday qualifying run, and on Sunday ended the semifinals after Shawn Langdon became the second victim of this issue on a winning run against teammate Doug Kalitta, who gets the nod and moves on.
The balance of semifinals, for Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle will go off at 11am PT. Good tracks with great grip that can give up astonishing laps can be prone to this kind of mechanical issue, but this has been a persistent problem since Sonoma.
At any rate, the points races again look ripe for great swings, remembering that the finale offers 1.5 points, with both Justin Ashley and Antron Brown, Top Fuel points leaders coming in, out in the second round. In Funny Car, Matt Hagan was out after the first round, which saw other front-runners packing up early.
Pro Stock points leader Dallas Glenn lost in the first round to to Cristian Cuadra who, with brother David are on to the semis. Matt Smith’s Pro Stock Motorcycle exit in the second round to Chase Van Sant gives Gaige Herrera a bit more breathing room.
Stay tuned for more when the race is done.
Leave a Reply