Don Schumacher, owner of both Funny Cars in the Atlanta final, raided his U.S. Army Top Fuel team to provide scuffed slicks for Whit Bazemore's car. Bazemore's crew chief, Lee Beard, said he had only new "sticker" tires in his trailer and didn't want to run them on the hot Atlanta strip.

Crew chief Lee Beard (far left) and driver Whit Bazemore both confirmed there was something wrong with their engine when they went to the line against Scelzi. Bazemore said it was idling about 400-500 rpm too high and the number-one cylinder was out right from the start. "It may not have looked like it, but we had a little luck on that one," he said.

PRO STOCK

The Pro Stock contingent also got into record-setting mode when Larry Morgan (far lane) earned his first number-one starting spot in more than 13 years with a Friday night pass of 6.796 seconds that also set a new track e.t. record. Morgan's fifth pole of his career, and the first top qualifying effort for a Dodge in Pro Stock since Feb. 2003, also ended Greg Anderson's top qualifier streak at 11 races, indefinitely preserving Bob Glidden's incredible streak of 23 consecutive number-one spots in 1986-88. Perhaps fittingly, Anderson faced off against Morgan in the Pro Stock final, where Anderson overcame a .031 holeshot to post his fifth-straight victory this year. At 6.850 seconds, Morgan's worst pass of the entire weekend came at the worst possible time.

Mike Edwards put run numbers five through nine on his new Jerry Haas-built '04 Firebird at Atlanta. After picking the car up on Monday before the race, Edwards spent two days testing in St. Louis, but managed to make only four passes due to inclement weather. He qualified the new ride 14th, but lost to number-three qualifier Anderson in the opening round.