A weekend of racing thrilled the fans in North Carolina, April 28 through 30, during the Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals.
In Top Fuel, Austin Prock ran low elapse time of eliminations (3.684 at 330.88 mph), winning every quad he was in, including the final round quad, to collect his fourth career win and first win of the season. Leah Pruett finished as runner-up, followed by Josh Hart and Steve Torrence, who red-lighted away his chances in the final round.
The Top Fuel championship points battle is still led by Steve Torrence (404) followed by Justin Ashley (-35), Leah Pruett (-53), Austin Prock (-55) and Brittany Force (-56) after five events.
In Funny Car, Robert Hight won all three quads, capturing his 63rd career win and second win of the season. Hight used a better reaction time (3.888 at 328.30 mph) to take out Alexis DeJoria (3.872 at 333.41 mph), Ron Capps (3.923 at 331.85 mph) and John Force (3.924 at 329.26 mph) to claim the win. With Matt Hagan going out in the second round, it allowed DeJoria to move into second place and Hight into third place in the season championship battle. The Funny Car championship standings after five events has Matt Hagan leading followed by Alexis DeJoria (-58), Robert Hight (-69), Ron Capps (-72) and Chad Green (-129).
In Pro Stock, Matt Hartford had never been the #1 qualifier in Pro Stock in his 160 prior events. At the Circle K NHRA Carolina Nationals, he scored his second consecutive career top qualifier and third of his career. His second was two weeks earlier in Las Vegas, where he was unable to close out the event with a win and first top qualifier of his career earlier was in Pomona, where he finished as runner-up. Once again, he would not be able to close out the event with a win, finishing third in the final round quad against Deric Kramer, Dallas Glen ands Fernando Cuadra Jr. Kramer took the win for his first victory since he won at this same track in the fall of 2019. It was Kramer’s fifth career win and first in the four-wide format. Kramer (6.555 at 208.88 mph) defeated Dallas Glen, Matt Hartford and Fernando Cuadra Jr (who red lighted) in the final round quad. Dallas Glen leads Matt Hartford (-81), Troy Coughlin Jr (-119), Deric Kramer (-154) and Camrie Caruso (-164) in the championship battle.
Gaige Herrera has been a dominating force in Pro Stock Motorcycle. The class has only contested at two events this season and he has won them both. This is his first season contesting in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. In the final round quad, he defeated Matt Smith, Steve Johnson and Eddie Krawiec with a 6.710 at 202.00 mph, for his second career win in two events. With 255 points, he leads the championship race over Matt Smith (-102), Eddie Krawiec (-120), Angie Smith (-129) and Steve Johnson (-133.)
Tony Stewart came up 4/1000ths of a second short of winning his second consecutive NHRA National event in Top Alcohol Dragster, TAD. His teammate, Mike Coughlin, won the event, utilizing a better reaction time than all three of the other drivers in the final round quad. This gave him a triple hole-shot victory. Stewart has raced at five NHRA events in TAD, been to three final rounds and won one, so far in his career.
