Capps, Massey earn season's first No. 1 qualifying spots based on NHRA bestever runs Friday night at Englishtown
ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. (June 2, 2012) - Friday night is for records and Saturday is for getting ready to win rounds on Sunday when championship eliminations begin.
After a night of "best-evers" when weather conditions were ripe for records to be harvested, teams settled down with warmer conditions Saturday afternoon in the Toyota SuperNationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway at Englishtown.
Several Top Fuel and Funny Car drivers recorded personal bests Friday night, but Don Schumacher Racing drivers Spencer Massey and Ron Capps recorded NHRA all-time bests.
Capps drove his NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T to the second Funny Car run below 4 seconds and became the quickest ever when he went 3.964 seconds at 320.89 mph with crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant crew chief John Collins.
About a half hour later, Spencer Massey with Prestone/FRAM crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler produced the quickest run ever in Top Fuel with a run of 3.728 seconds at 329.91 mph.
Both performances held up to earn each the No. 1 qualifying positions in their respective categories. It's the first pole for each this season and 12th for Capps and fourth for Massey, the current points leader and reigning champ at Englishtown.
Neither Capps nor Massey were able to set national records on Saturday by running within 1 percent of their runs Friday night. It was warm and sunny for most of Saturday's first session and although it was cooler with cloud cover later in the afternoon their team's priorities were not to earn 20 bonus points for setting national elapsed time records. However, the drivers can use racing Sunday to earn national records.
"We knew there wouldn't be any records on Saturday," Tobler said. "We weren't even trying to run quick enough to back up what we did Friday night. The weather should be about the same Sunday as it is today and our focus is getting ready for Sunday."
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