The Golden Greek, 71-year-old Chris Karamesines, nailed his career-best elapsed time in qualifying, posting a 4.677 in his Strange Engineering top fueler.

David Baca's American Racing Wheels top fueler is showing signs of real consistency. He qualified 8th here and has made it to three semi final rounds. He characterized the year so far, "I'm living a dream a fantasy. It took me a long time to get here and I plan on being here a long time. There's a learning curve; I learn something everyday. Getting to the top class in this sport is what everybody's dream is."

With the U.S. Nationals just a couple of races away, Baca reflected, "Well, there's so much history there, you know maybe the second generation Baca winning the same as his father would be quite special. If you could put one thing on your resume it would be to be the champion of the U.S. Nationals."

Rookie Baca went to his first final round, unfortunately against the Miller Lite car. Larry Dixon won his eighth Wally of the season at Sonoma and joins Joe Amato, John Force, and Cory McClenathan as winners of the difficult Western Swing.

FUNNY CAR

Something has jelled at in Dean Skuza's camp as his Meat Loaf-backed Funny Car bumped Gary Densham in the last qualifying session picking up the #7 spot with a 4.932 charge. After an up and down year so far, his involvement with "Meat" -- as Skuza calls his short-term sponsor, looks to be a good outing. Skuza hasn't seemed this pumped and focused since before he lost the MOPAR sponsorship. There's something about a rock legend hanging in your pits and genuinely interested in the car that has sparked this crew and driver.

Meat Loaf and Dean Skuza met at a concert in Cleveland and after the show hit it off well. When it came time to promote the singer's new "Couldn't Have Said it Better" release, Skuza's funny car became a natural venue. It's a cool looking maroon car with a hot pin-up girl on the side.

Gary Densham's best qualifying effort was 5.076, leaving his Mustang in the 17th spot. Later on Saturday evening Densham quipped to Force, "Hey, that's why they made beer!" Densham's team has been on a slide opposite to his boss; since St. Louis he's not made a run in the 4's, gone out in the first round at St. Louis, Denver, and Seattle, and now failed to qualify at Sonoma. Densham's pit early on Sunday morning was a bit eerie, with no activity except preparation for the next race at Brainerd.