COMMERCE, Ga. — Mike Edwards was in some impressive company Sunday at the Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. He won the National Hot Rod Ass’n’s 600th Pro Stock race and added his name to the “Milestone Club.”
Greg Anderson in the Summit Racing Pontiac won No. 500, ACDelco Chevy driver Kurt Johnson captured the 400th, and WileyX Pontiac GXP driver Jim Yates was winner No. 300. (Drag-racing legend Bob Glidden was Mr. 200, and the late Lee Shepherd won the 100th race.)
Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins won the first Pro Stock race 38 years ago and  Thursday night was inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Ala., as a racer, engine builder, and continuing industry innovator.

• In addition, Edwards, one of the elite starting-line masters in the Pro Stock class, used holeshots to knock off reigning POWERade champion Jeg Coughlin and his predecessor, Jason Line. “Not many times can you say you raced those two top competitors and come out on the winning end,” said Edwards, a combined 7-28 against the two in prior meetings. “I knew I had to be on my game on the starting line, and it paid off.”
Edwards won in just his second outing in his Pontiac GXP.
“This might be my best-feeling win because it’s ours. It’s all ours,” Edwards said. “It’s our engine program with Nick and Paul at the engine shop. Terry Adams came on board this year, Josh Robinson, Alan Lindsey, John Phillips, I mean the whole team worked so hard and put in such a great effort. I’m so proud of them.”

HOT ROD: Ron Krisher snagged No. 1 qualifier with a pass of 6.655 at 207.69 miles per hour. (NHRA Photo)

• Pro Stock runner-up Jason Line, winner of the previous race at Las Vegas, was a bit distracted this time. His wife, Cindy, was about to give birth to their second child. He said the baby’s arrival marked “a big day for the Line family” and said. “I’m excited and nervous all at once.”
But Line had other consolation. He left Atlanta as the point leader, and he said losing was easier to accept, considering he lost to Mike Edwards.
“Mike deserved to win. There was a really good chance that no matter what light I had, it wasn’t going to be a .008. He is a really good guy. He’s been doing this a long time so if you’re going to lose to somebody, he’s as good of a candidate as anybody.”

• Atlanta Dragway made NHRA family history in 1993, when it also was the site of the first father-son final-round match-up. Warren Johnson defeated son Kurt in Pro Stock action. Sunday’s Force duel was the first father-daughter showdown and the third overall final-round pairing of a parent and child. Top Fuel’s Connie Kalitta won against son Scott in 1994 at Gainesville, Fla.
 
• Despite concessions that “there’s still some rust on the driver and the car doesn’t have quite as many runs as we need to have on it,” Dave Connolly is back in the chase after a five-race absence.
One of the Torco-sponsored drivers forced to the sidelines when the Michigan-based fuel company withdrew its extensive drag-racing financial support, Connolly rejoined Victor Cagnazzi Racing at the sixth of 24 NHRA races with primary sponsorship from Charter Communications. Crew chief Tommy Utt — and the same team members who helped Connolly win eight races last season — prepped the rising Pro Stock star to a No. 6 qualifying spot. However, Connolly lost to Kurt Johnson in the opening round.

TIMING IN: Tim Wilkerson claimed his third No. 1 qualifier spot on the season Friday at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga. (NHRA Photo)

• Funny Car driver Cruz Pedregon was fired up about the 4.812-second pass at 314.53 mph that capped Friday’s action and left he and his Advance Auto Parts Chevy Impala in second place in the order — behind independent owner/driver Tim Wilkerson and just ahead of privateers Tony Bartone, Gary Densham, his own brother Tony and Del Worsham.
“That just goes to show you don’t have to have Don Schumacher’s stinking money to run nitro,” Pedregon said.
Such an injudicious breach of propriety raised eyebrows.
Schumacher, whose massive drag-racing umbrella covers seven professional teams and trumps John Force’s stable of four Funny Cars, shrugged it off.
But Pedregon didn’t take it back. Instead, he said, “I was just giving some love to the independent racers. We had Tim Wilkerson as No. 1 and Tony Bartone, for Jim Dunn Racing, at No. 3 and Densham up there. It’s a pretty big deal,” the seldom-emotional Pedregon said. It was, considering that Densham had said at the previous race at Las Vegas, that he might not have enough funding to travel to this event.
But love? “We’re not like NASCAR. We don’t sit in the car all day. It’s such an adrenaline rush,” Pederegon said, explaining his excitement. “John Force always says it — ‘You’re in fight mode.’ I’m the kind of guy — I get in fight mode. I so much admire (NASCAR driver) Tony Stewart, because he speaks his mind. I’m on that side of the fence. I didn’t mean it in a negative way,” he said. “I just feel like I’ve got to give some love.”
Wilkerson expressed surprise at Pedregon’s burst of emotion. “Really? Wow,” he said. “I’m going to have to give him a hug.”

• The two-car David Powers Motorsports Top Fuel team, more specifically Hot Rod Fuller’s side of the pit, has a lucky charm it carries in the tow vehicle. They call it a mojo stick, but it’s actually a broken hockey stick they fished from a trash can at Firebird Int’l Raceway near Phoenix last season.
Fuller adopted it to go along with the tiny troll doll he has for his dragster for which teammate Antron Brown’s wife, Billie Jo, sews clothes. But Brown said he didn’t need a mojo stick, for he has crew chef Lee Beard. Brown’s Top Fuel victory was Beard’s fourth at Atlanta Dragway. Brown is the 10th different driver Beard has guided to a victory. Beard has 53 victories and 56 top-qualifiers as a tuner.