KENT, Wash. — While the rain only might have inconvenienced Schuck’s Auto Supply  Nationals winners Tony Schumacher, Jack Beckman and Dave Connolly at Pacific Raceways, it meant disaster for Top Fuel driver Morgan Lucas and Funny Car drivers Gary Densham, Tim Wilkerson and Jerry Toliver.
Because steady rain washed out Friday’s two qualifying sessions and reduced Saturday’s action to one run, National Hot Rod Ass’n officials
invoked the so-called “Top-10 Rule,” inserting non-qualified drivers into the two nitro-class fields for Sunday’s eliminations.

“As much as I want to be mad about it, I can’t. The part that does upset me the most is my crew guys. I really worry about them. I’m not thrilled and not exactly happy about it. So, we'll just deal with it. It’s just another speed bump." — Morgan Lucas

Dave Grubnic was the beneficiary in Top Fuel, leaving fairly qualified No. 16 Lucas the odd man out among the 17 entrants.
In the Funny Car class, Densham, Toliver, and Wilkerson dropped off the 16-car grid to allow previously non-qualified Jim Head, Cruz Pedregon and Gary Scelzi into the lineup.
Wilkerson took the decision in stride, although he qualified with a 14th-best 4.968-second elapsed time in his Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevy Impala.
“The rules are the rules,” Wilkerson said. “There’s not much we can do about it. We made a nice run. It should have been better, but we hit a big bump and it threw the blower belt off. We certainly would have liked another chance to improve. It certainly goes to show you how important one run can be and how important it is to be in the top 10.
“The worst thing about it is that we lose out on our qualifying money and points. But we have to live by the rules. So, we’ll just have to wait until next week to do better.”
This is not the first time this year that Densham and Wilkerson have been beaten up by rules and circumstances. They qualified first and second Memorial Day weekend at the International Hot Rod Ass’n race at Tulsa. But rain again was the culprit. The IHRA declared the race postponed, and immediately after the call, the Oklahoma skies cleared up. As it turned out, the weather held up so that the race could have been completed. But Densham and Wilkerson were unable to return to Tulsa to run, because the make-up date fell on the same weekend as the NHRA event at Englishtown, N.J.
Lucas didn’t whine, either.
“I’ve figured out every way not to qualify this year,” he said, showing his good humor and the resilience of a 23 year old.
“The fact of the matter is I’ve been at a race where this has happened before — Bristol 2005. At that race, we qualified No. 2, but were solidly in the top 10, and it really wasn’t an issue. It’s one of those circumstances that as much as we don’t like it, at some point later on in my career, it’s going to be the same thing for me.
“As much as I want to be mad about it, I can’t. The part that does upset me the most is my crew guys. I really worry about them. I’m not thrilled and not exactly happy about it. So, we'll just deal with it. It’s just another speed bump.”
Pro Stock/Pro Mod chassis builder Jerry Haas encountered more than just another speed bump Saturday in Seattle. We send him best wishes for a speedy recovery following a heart attack as he is released from Valley Medical Center in Renton, Wash. He underwent a procedure to have a stent implanted to clear a 99-percent blockage. Haas had suffered a previous heart attack and had received a stent then.