POMONA, Calif. — Brittany Force powered to the top spot to close out qualifying on Saturday at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, earning her first No. 1 qualifier of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season at the 64th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals.
Matt Hagan (Funny Car) and Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) also qualified No. 1.
Top Fuel
After a lengthy rain delay, Force put together a run of 3.711 seconds at 335.73 mph in her 11,000-horsepower Mark Christopher Auto Center Chevrolet/Monster Energy dragster. It was the lone qualifying session due to weather and Force claimed her 47th career No. 1 qualifier with the standout run.
She’ll open eliminations looking for her first victory since 2022 when she finished the year as world champion.
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“That was a good, consistent run and that’s what we’re focused on,” Force said. “We’re in a good place and it’s pretty awesome to have 47 No. 1 qualifiers. That’s (crew chief) David Grubnic and this entire team. But our focus is on race day and trying to get a win. We’re ready for tomorrow.”
Eight-time Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher took second with a 3.735-second pass at 331.85 mph, while Billy Torrence took third with a 3.745-second run at 330.47 mph.
Tony Stewart’s run of 3.737 at 328.30 during the second session was ruled invalid due to a timing system malfunction.
Funny Car
Reigning Funny Car world champion Hagan, who won the Winternationals a year ago, made the most of his run on Saturday, going to No. 1 with a run of 3.893 seconds at 330.15 mph in his 11,000-horsepower Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat for Tony Stewart Racing.
It gives the four-time world champion 51 career No. 1 qualifiers and plenty of momentum going into race day, where Hagan looks to pick up his milestone 50th career victory. He’ll open eliminations against Buddy Hull trying to pick up his first win of the season.
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“To do a burnout and still have that many fans in the stands after the weather was pretty cool,” Hagan said. “The track was tricky, so we’ll take that run. All in all, I’m pretty happy with that. We’ve had a lot of success here and to make that run makes me feel confident going into tomorrow. We’ve won a lot of races because Dickie (Venables, crew chief) has been good on Sunday.
“It would be great to get that 50th (win) in Pomona. It’s such a special place and it’s really magical here. There’s so much history and when you show up here, you get chill bumps. It’s just a cool feeling.”
Ron Capps took the second spot with a 3.893-second pass at 326.71 mph and Bobby Bode took third after going 3.972 seconds at 292.96 mph.
Pro Stock
In Pro Stock, defending event winner Dallas Glenn racked up his fifth career No. 1 qualifier, closing out qualifying with a run of 6.536 seconds at 209.75 mph in his RAD Torque Systems Chevrolet Camaro.
Glenn made a big move to close out the day after the team made wholesale changes leading into the day. They struggled on Friday, but the changes paid off heading into race day, putting the young standout in a good spot to try and earn his first win of the season. He’ll open eliminations against KB Titan Racing teammate and rookie Sienna Wildgust.
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“That was really satisfying,” Glenn said. “We basically rewired my entire car this morning. We changed so much stuff on it. We were not happy with it and it had been doing some crazy stuff. It at least worked for one run and we were pretty happy with it. The run felt amazing and we made a really killer run. Pomona has always been up there as one of my favorite tracks.
“I’ve always loved coming here and hopefully we have it turned around.”
Defending world champion Erica Enders qualified second with a 6.547-second pass at 210.73 mph and Camrie Caruso jumped to third thanks to a 6.557-second run at 208.88 mph.
Mission #2Fast2Tasty Results
Only one round of the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge was completed on Saturday due to weather as well.
Shawn Langdon and Steve Torrence both won the opening round in Top Fuel, while J.R. Todd and Austin Prock picked up the Funny Car victories. In Pro Stock, Glenn and Enders raced to Challenge wins.