Mike Herring earned the biggest payday of his career April 17 at Atlanta Dragway’s 15th annual O’Reilly Auto Parts Peach State Fun Ford Weekend Nationals. The Pace, FL-based racer picked up $1,000 for qualifying on top of the Mr. Gasket Pro field, then advanced to defeat Richard Penland in the $20K-to-win final round.

“I’m still in shock,” Herring said in victory lane. “This is nearly three times as much as I’ve ever won at a race before. We’re the lowest-funded team out here and this is really going to help.” He said the money is earmarked for buying a new race trailer as he’s been borrowing one since joining the class last year. “And I’ll let my wife go shopping, too,” he added.

Tony Gillig was among a handful of IHRA Pro Stockers attracted to “Georgia’s House of Speed” by the special big-money FFW Pro purse. Gillig made it to the semis, but redlighted away a sure round win as Herring got out of shape early.

Herring put his 2004 Mustang on top of a 15-car field with a 6.475-second lap at 214.89 mph, barely edging the 6.476 by Doug Mangrum. After making a bye run in round one, Herring sent Ben Hopko home before facing off against Tony Gillig in the semis, where he was forced to shut down early. but dodged a bullet when Gillig left 16 thousandths too soon.

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“The tree is so low here that all I can see [over the hood scoop from the left lane] is the top bulb,” Gillig said. “I had a .430 light in the second round and actually thought I’d hit about that again in the semis.”

On the opposite side Herring explained he was lined up a little crooked and headed straight for the wall off the launch. “I didn’t know he [Gillig] had gone red; I got out of it just because it’s not worth it to wreck the car. We definitely got lucky there.”

Penland, from Gastonia, NC, overcame a holeshot by Brit Floyd to win in round one, defeated IHRA regular Robert Patrick in round two, and beat defending series champion Chuck Samuel in the semis when Samuel got out of shape about half-track and had to abort the run.