Bernstein, A. Force, Arend Fail To Qualify For Funny Car Eliminations

BRISTOL, Tenn. — It was a case of “damned if you do, and damned if you don’t” for NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Funny Car driver Jeff Arend Saturday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Heading into his final qualifying run, Arend was on the outside looking in at the Funny Car field. If he bumped his way into the field, it would be at the expense of his teammate, Del Worsham. If he didn’t, his streak of having qualified for 13-consecutive events would be over.
Arend ran a 4.944 pass in the heat of the day, but he missed the field. He had been the only driver to have made every Funny Car field this season.
Arend hit the wall during his third-round effort and rebounded well in round four, but came up just short.
“The worst deal was that we were up there trying to bump in, and had we done it we would have bumped our teammates out, because Del was sitting in the 16th spot,” Arend said. “We made a nice lap, but it was pretty hard to run 4.89 (bump time) out there on Saturday afternoon.”
And when Ashley Force failed to qualify, Worsham made the show and now has the longest qualifying streak in the division at nine races.
“We hate it that Jeff and the blue team didn’t make it, but man just look at the class this year,” Worsham said. “Can you even possibly believe that I'm the guy with the longest streak now? I don't know if it's a curse or not, but I know it tells you that this class is ridiculous and the parity is about universal.”

• When Jeff Arend failed to qualifying for the Thunder Valley Nationals, his teammate, Del Worsham, who qualified 16th, opted to use the Impala body from Arend’s car for Sunday’s eliminations. It was the same body on Arend’s car when he hit the wall during the third round of qualifying.
“The blue guys are fixing Jeff’s car, where it got all scraped up when he nicked the wall, and we’ll put my name and number on that blue Impala and race with it tomorrow,” Worsham explained. “I just think we have a better hot track tune-up with the Impala, for whatever reason, so we'll go with that.”

• After making it to the final round at the previous event at Norwalk, Ohio, Kenny Bernstein failed to qualify at Bristol Dragway.

• It was a Cinderella story of sorts during qualifying Friday and Saturday at Bristol, as Tim Wilkerson, one of the few independent single- car owner/drivers still on the NHRA circuit, was the fast qualifier for the Thunder Valley Nationals.
Wilkerson made a 4.819-second pass on Friday night that held up.
“The people are usually pretty excited when they see an independent guy run good,” said Wilkerson. “There are a lot of teams in the Funny Car and Top Fuel ranks that give us a lot of help. Don Schumacher has been letting me run his blower dyno here lately. He’ll probably lock the doors now on me but I hope not. There’s a group out here that pulls for the little guy and I think that's cool.”

PROS KNOW: Jeg Coughlin tied Don Prudhomme and Greg Anderson on Pro Stock’s all-time win list on Sunday. (Drew Hierwarter Photo)

• Wilkerson spent Saturday’s two sessions working on the setup for Sunday’s eliminations.
“We’ve been coming around here lately, going down the track nearly every pass,” Wilkerson said. “We really just try and treat every day and every pass as something new. We put Friday night behind us today and started working on getting down the track under the sunshine. Being No. 1 qualifier is a good thing, but it doesn’t mean anything tomorrow”
Wilkerson lost to eventual winner John Force in the finals.

• Tony Schumacher was fast qualifier in Top Fuel for the sixth time this season, but he was upset in the first round by No. 16 qualifier Bob Vandergriff, Jr., who made it all the way to the finals, where he lost to Brandon Bernstein.

• Interestingly, Pro Stock fast-qualifier Jeg Coughlin, who went on to win on Sunday, made his 6.765-second effort during the third round. His Cagnazzi Racing Chevrolet was only 12th after Friday’s session.
“It’s very common in Pro Stock these days to be sitting back in the staging lanes all suited up and hear the runs ticking off, and you know you're gonna get bumped out,” said Coughlin. “I was a little concerned. We hadn't run well, and as a driver you want to make sure you stage as perfectly as you can and make those shifts as perfectly as you can. We were able to get it all together and make that run.”

• Beginning next season, drivers competing in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series will be required to be at least 18 years of age. However, there are currently no full-time drivers in the three pro divisions under the age of 20.

• Four drag-racing legends were the inaugural inductees into Bristol Dragway’s Legends of Thunder Valley club this weekend. They are NHRA founder Wally Parks, Bristol Dragway builder Larry Carrier, many-time Top Fuel champion Don Garlits and Pro Stock legend Rickie Smith.