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In their effort to assure that the marquee names would survive Saturday
night's preliminary round of racing and be back for eliminations on
Sunday, officials dictated that if either John Force, the reigning Winston
Funny Car Champion, or Tony Schumacher, the reigning Top Fuel Champ,
were to lose on Saturday, one or both would be reinstated on Sunday
to fill out the 16-car field. Similarly, if either of the top qualifiers,
Gary Scelzi in Top Fuel or Ron Capps in Funny Car, had stumbled on Saturday
they, too, would have been back in the Sunday show.
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Jerry
Toliver's WWF/"The Rock" Camaro sprints to an early lead against
Tony Schumacher in qualifying. Ideally, this is the way this nitro
bracket should have looked, but most cars did pratfalls when it
came to traction.
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As it turned out, Force, Schumacher, Scelzi and Capps all survived
on Saturday, which meant that the four open spots in the Sunday show
were to be filled by the quickest Funny Car and Top Fuel losers from
the preliminary round - not Kenny Bernstein and Larry Dixon or Jerry
Toliver and Whit Bazemore as the rules manipulators might have hoped,
but instead Bob Gilbertson and Phil Burkart among the Funny Cars; Jim
Head and David Grubnic among the dragsters.
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Winning
his first Pro Stock biggie of the year was Troy Coughlin in the
Jeg's High Performance Olds Cutlass. Coughlin relied on driving
as much as anything as not one car ran in the sixes in eliminations,
a fact that caused all six ticketholders to throw up their arms
in disgust.
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Cory
McClenathan, like Troy Coughlin, struck for the first time this
year by winning the Top Fuel/Funny Car handicapper. En route to
beating Ron Capps in the final, McClenathan also beat defending
champ John Force.
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Tony
Mullen's Bradenton, Fla. Suzuki Pro Stock Bike made the field
at Bristol and lasted two rounds. After an opening round win over
Zackia White, Mullen got nosed out in round two by Gino Scali.
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The
biggest story of the summer in NHRA Pro Stock has been Ron Krisher.
The Warren, Ohio driver clocked wins at the Route 66 Nationals
and Sear Craftsman Nationals, and turned in a semi-final showing
at Bristol.
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Ron
Capps wheeled Don Prudhomme's U.S. tobacco Camaro past Bob Vandergriff
Jr. in round two at Bristol. The way overdue Capps, still winless
in 2000, lost in the final and wins DRO's "What does it take to
win one of these damned races?!" award.
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