Nitro Dogs Racing

Championship contender Eddie Krawiec improved and held onto his crucial spot at the front of the Pro Stock Motorcycle field, while J.R. Todd remained atop the Top Fuel class with his Thursday effort. Two qualifying sessions remain Saturday at Auto Club Raceway at

Although he was not able to better his Thursday pole run, Todd remained at the front of the Top Fuel field with a 3.851 pass just ahead of teammate Morgan Lucas, but the

“We’re No. 1 for another day and Morgan is No. 2, and hopefully we can finish that way on Sunday, too. That would put a smile of Forrest Lucas’ face because he’s not had a lot to smile about this season, especially on Morgan’s side. That’s always what you plan for when you have a two-car team, so hopefully we can meet in the final.”

Hillary Will also held onto her spot with a third-best effort of 3.860, though her 3.868 pass was the best of the session. She’s followed on the sheets by Brandon Bernstein and Steve Torrence, who jumped from sixth to fifth with a 3.87. Doug Hebert is in the sixth spot, one place ahead of Larry Dixon, who went from 13th to seventh with a 3.88. Doug Kalitta, whose 10-year streak of scoring at least one win per season is in jeopardy, is qualified eighth with a 3.88.

Tom Boychuk ended up on the 12th and final transfer spot heading into Saturday’s final two passes with a 3.925.

World champ Tony Schumacher, who has won this race in each of the last four years, is not among the fast 12 after smoking the tires on both passes so far. He’s netted a best of just 5.13 and sits in 20th place. Also needing to run well Saturday to make the field are top points runners Antron Brown and Rod Fuller and last year’s event runner-up, Bob Vandergriff Jr.

The Funny Cars were the last Pros to hit the track and the slightly cooler conditions were evident as a number of teams made their best runs of the event, including Troxel, who steered Roger Burgess’ R2B2 Dodge into the No. 1 spot with a 4.105, 304.25 and John Force, who ran 4.108 for the third spot. Troxel’s superior speed trumped Neff’s 299.13 from Thursday, meaning his identical 4.105 has to settle for the No. 2 spot.”Our car’s been running very well for a while now – we’ve had some problems with our consistency – so we knew it was just a matter of time before we got it in the right place and go more rounds than we’ve been going,” said Troxel, who was the low qualifier earlier this year in Chicago. “Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald are doing a great job of tuning the car and we’re a little disappointed that the season’s coming to an end because we’re hitting our stride, but the hope is we can carry that momentum into next season.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t say I expected us to do better this season,” she added. “It’s not quite what I had hoped for, but it’s still been a good season. I like to aim high and I knew the team was capable of being a championship contender, and I knew there would be a transition for me, but I didn’t expect us to struggle as much as we did early in the year. We had other issues with the car that we went through, but I certainly would have expected us to make the top 10 and maybe have another event win. We’ve still got a shot at that this weekend.”

Ron Capps, hoping to put a good ending to a bad season, has the NAPA Auto Parts Dodge qualified in the fourth spot with a 4.118 registered today. Gary Scelzi, who started the day second, dropped all the way to fifth after not making it down the right lane.

Ashley Force is sitting in the 12th and final provisional spot in the field with her Thursday run of 4.20 in her special-edition pink rookie of the year Ford.

Adding a little extra drama into an already white-knuckle race for the Funny Car championship, points leader Cruz Pedregon is not among the event’s quick 12 qualifiers heading into Saturday’s final two sessions, and he’s joined on the provisional sidelines by fifth-place Jack Beckman. Pedregon’s best is a 4.47 registered Thursday, but he slowed to a 6.98 today while Beckman fell from a 5.45 to a 6.09.

Line defied traditional Pro Stock logic and leapfrogged past Thursday low qualifier Dave Connolly with a 6.65 to take over the No. 1 spot with the KB Racing/Summit Pontiac GXP. Line has two previous low qualifiers this season, in St. Louis and

“These are the conditions we’re going to be racing in [Sunday], so we’re happy with that run, but we’d like to be No. 1 tomorrow, too. I don’t think that run will hold up through tomorrow morning’s session, but the good news we’re in the left lane tomorrow, and hopefully we can hold onto the No. 1 spot. We’ve had such a tough year it would be good to go out here with the No. 1 spot and a win.”

Connolly slowed a hundredth from his 6.660 pace of Thursday but still held onto the No. 2 spot with the Lucas/Charter Chevy, just ahead of the 6.664 registered by Mike Edwards, who jumped from seventh to third with the Young Life Pontiac. Ron Krisher also improved on his Friday run, chalking up a 6.668 to remain fourth. Jeg Coughlin, who needs only to qualify at the event to win his second straight Pro Stock world championship, is in the field in the ninth spot.

V. Gaines moved off of Thursday’s 12th-position bump spot with an improved 6.676, which slid Johnny Gray down to the final transfer spot with his Thursday pass of 6.704.

Among those needing to bump into the field tomorrow are Dallas winner Greg Stanfield, former world champ Warren Johnson, former event champ Richie Stevens Jr., and rookie of the year contender Rickie Jones.

Krawiec not only stayed atop the Pro Stock Motorcycle field but improved on his Thursday performance by a couple of thousandths of a second to widen the performance gap between he and points leader Matt Smith, the No. 2 qualifier. Krawiec’s 7.013 bettered his 7.017 while Smith slipped to a 7.04 after posting a 7.02 yesterday. By staying ahead of Smith on the sheets, Krawiec keeps his points deficit at less than a round of racing.”We’re just taking it one lap at a time and trying to maintain that No. 1 spot,” said Krawiec. “The Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines V-Rod ran great; Matt [Hines] is doing an awesome job making tuning calls. We went out there in a situation where I think it’s one- or two-hundredths slower and actually pick up a couple of thousandths, which gives us a lot of confidence.

“We ran really well here last year and had a bracket bike, so we’re hoping to repeat that performance. Having the best run of every round is important to for momentum to know that you’re making the right calls and going in the right direction.”

Angelle Sampey held onto the third spot despite having to abort her run early, but it was fellow female rider Karen Stoffer who made one of the round’s biggest jumps, moving from sixth to fourth with a 7.033, seven-hundredths better than her Friday effort aboard the GEICO Suzuki. Despite an improved 7.042 (over a Thursday 7.058), Andrew Hines slipped one spot to fifth, just ahead of Junior Pippin, who went from 12th to sixth after a solid 7.05 blast.

Pippin was the only driver to jump into the quick 12 and stay there. Championship hopeful Chris Rivas had pushed him down one spot with a 7.136 early in the session, but Pippin bashed back into the field to push Rivas back out and put Michael Phillips’ Thursday 7.135 on the provisional bump spot.