Brown, Tasca, Johnson on Bristol Pole

Antron Brown

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

Antron Brown, Bob Tasca III and Allen Johnson claimed the top spots in their respective divisions in Saturday’s qualifying for Sunday’s 12th Annual Ford NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event.

Brown, Tasca and Johnson all held onto the positions they secured during Friday’s opening qualifying sessions, all the top five remained largely unchanged after Saturday.

Brown was quickest in the Top Fuel set for the second time this season with a record breaking run of 3.814 at 323.12 mph during Friday’s nighttime session, as cooler temperatures provided excellent track conditions, with three drivers eclipsing the track ET record of 3.828 set by Brandon Bernstein last year. Brown’s top speed also topped the track record of 322.34 mph set by Tony Schumacher.

The run earned Brown his second no. qualifier in the last three races and a first-round matchup against Scott Palmer in Sunday’s eliminations.

“That last session, the way the track temp was, that’s what we’re going to see a lot of tomorrow, so we felt real good to run well," Brown said. “We were trying to run like an.86 first lap today. That didn’t work out, but we got it back together and got that Aaron’s Lucky Dog car down there. I was very, very pleased with the run."

Tony Schumacher qualified second with a pass of 3.822/320.66 mph, followed by Terry McMillen (3.823/315.27), Doug Kalitta (3.835/321.81) and Hillary Will (3.837/308.35).

Among those who failed to qualify were both entries for the Morgan Lucas Racing team, with fourth-place points holder Morgan Lucas and seventh-place Brandon Bernstein both missing the show for the first time this season.

Pat Dakin, Chris Karamesines and Ike Maier also failed to make the field.

Bob Tasca III

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

In Funny Car, Bob Tasca III notched his first no. 1 qualifier of the season with a run of 4.063 seconds at 310.48 mph on Friday that no one was able to top in Saturday’s sessions. The run gave Tasca his third career top qualifier and his second consecutive at Bristol.

“I’m an all-Ford kid, driving an all-Ford hot rod, qualified No. 1 at the all-Ford race, so that’s a cool deal, and hopefully we can win this thing for Ford," Tasca said. “First round is going to be real good, then it’s going to warm up, and you’re going to have to learn how to pull the car back. We really wanted to go down that last run, but the data we have is good data. We know what we have to do to make it go A to B in the heat."

Mike Neff took second, posting a run of 4.072 at 310.70 mph. Jack Beckman (4.077/310.13), Ron Capps (4.091/306.40) and John Force (4.094/312.71) rounded out the top five.

Blake Alexander took the bump spot and will face Tasca in the opening round. Todd Lesenko and Bob Bode did not qualify.

Allen Johnson

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

Hometown favorite Allen Johnson, from nearby Greeneville, Tenn., topped the Pro Stock division for the third time in five events, besting the track ET record with a pass of 6.623@ 207.75 mph in Friday’s qualifying, topping the mark of 6.633 set by Mike Edwards in May of 2009. The pole-winning effort is his third straight at Bristol and gives him four for the season with eight consecutive top-three starts.

“We feel like we’ve won the battle [by qualifying No. 1] and now we’ve got to win the war during Sunday’s eliminations," Johnson said. “We’ve got a very, very consistent race car now with very good people making very good decisions. Now the driver just has to do his job tomorrow."

Defending Bristol winner Mike Edwards qualified second running 6.641 at 207.27 mph followed by Vincent Nobile at 6.659 at 207.43 mph.

Jason Line and V. Gaines were the only drivers in the top five to change position on Saturday, with Line’s 6.662/206.95 besting Gaines’ 6.673/206.26

Shane Gray took the bump spot to get Johnson in Round 1. Grace Howell was the only driver not to qualify.