LAS VEGAS — Top Fuel driver Alan Bradshaw’s luck ran out here at The Strip @ Las Vegas. He missed the cut after back-to-back top-qualifying performances at the previous two events.
“It is so easy to go from hero to zero out here,” he said.
Nothing, it seemed, went right from the start of his weekend. Before the first of four qualifying sessions, his Shell V-Power/Vis Viva Energy Drink Dragster crew discovered a malfunctioning fuel pump. That threw off the tune-up in the second session.
“We found ourselves behind the eight ball from that point forward because of clutch problems,” Bradshaw said.

• Bradshaw was in some excellent company, including 14-time Funny Car champion John Force, whose record of 395 consecutive starts ended here last year. This was the 14th time in 499 events that Force has failed to qualify and the first time ever he has done so back-to-back in one event.
Force discounted the fact he still is not fully healed yet from injuries sustained in his Sept. 23, 2007, accident and that safety changes to the cars have prevented him from testing extensively, like he has traditionally.
“You have to perform,” he said. “You get the same shots as everybody else, and we didn’t do it. We didn’t deliver. Thank God I have three other Ford Mustangs — Ashley (Force), driver for Castrol GTX, Robert (Hight), driving for Auto Club and the Old Spice Ford with Mike Neff. They made the show. Even my daughter Brittany, driving for BrandSource in Jerry Darien’s car, outran me (qualifying No. 15 in the Top Alcohol Dragster division before losing to Jim Whiteley in round one), but I’ve got no complaints. We’ll take our whippin’ and we’ll get ready for the next race.”

• Longtime NHRA Pro Stock driver Kenny Koretsky was the No. 1 qualifier for the first time in his career. He put his Jerry Bickel-built Nitro Fish/Indicom Electric Pontiac GXP at the top of the order with a 6.724-second pass at 204.05 miles per hour.
“This is a tough class,” Koretsky said. “There were 22 cars here and we’re No. 1. It’s unbelievable. It has been a long time coming, more than 200 races, and it’s really a great experience, especially doing it here in Las Vegas.”  

• Kevin Maddux, the bottom-end specialist for Del Worsham’s Checker Schuck’s Kragen Chevy Impala Funny Car, put in a full day — and night — Saturday. After helping Worsham qualify 11th in a tough 16-car field, Maddux and Kristen Melton were married in an 11 p.m. ceremony at A Special Memory, a Las Vegas wedding chapel they selected on the Internet. Maddux was back at the track Sunday morning.
Incidentally, Team CSK top-end specialist and transporter driver Ryan McGilvry and his wife, Krista, tied the knot during this same race three years ago.

• Bob Tasca III is the only Funny Car driver Melanie Troxel  has raced against, and he has beaten her twice. The Simayof Jewelers Dodge Charger driver, in her first season in the Funny Car class, broke her string of three DNQs by earning the No. 14 starting spot. But rookie Tasca took the first-round victory easily.
“We aren’t running as quick as we want to, but we made it down the track three out of four runs. That’s a big improvement for us,” Troxel said. “We’ll just keep tweaking on the tune-up until we get it running a little quicker. It runs real good on the second half of the track, but it’s just a little slow early.”

• Tim Wilkerson, who was No. 1 Funny Car qualifier at the first two races of the season, missed making it three in the first five events by a mere one-thousandth of a second. John Force Racing’s Robert Hight ran a 4.849-second pass to edge Wilkerson’s 4.850. That marked the first time this season that a Chevy Impala SS has not led the field.
Referring to Hight’s crew chief, Wilkerson joked, “That criminal Jimmy Prock stole $4,000 right out of my pocket for a thousandth of a second. But you know, No. 1 qualifier hasn’t been a lucky spot for us this year, so maybe tomorrow we can go some rounds, win the race, and make up for that little bit of money we lost here a while ago.”
 
• While the NHRA slapped Don Schumacher Racing with a $100,000 fine, the organization was busy raising more than $40,000 to help longtime friend Eric Greendale with his cancer treatment.  
Mike Lewis, executive vice president of DSR, said he thought the total “will go well beyond that, once all is said and done.” DSR joined with John Force Racing to host both a live and silent auction Friday night that turned DSR’s Mopar hospitality pit into a fun frenzy in which fans and race teams bid on unique racing memorabilia.
Artist Kenny Youngblood drew caricatures for attendees, and a painting went for $4,000. The McDonald’s team helmet from the 1996 gang of Joe Gibbs, Cory McClenathan, Cruz Pedregon and Jim Yates went for $3,800 to a couple from Sacramento who were bidding by telephone. Several other items brought $3,000 each.
“The most fun,” Lewis said, “was the ‘Date With Ron Capps.’” Capps’s Funny Car teammate Gary Scelzi invited himself along, and two bidders paid $2,000 apiece for a limo ride and dinner in Las Vegas with Capps when the NHRA visits again in October.