NHRA: Hartford, Force, and Pedregon take top spots at Four-Wide Nationals

Final qualifying is complete at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and for the first time in his Pro Stock career, Matt Hartford sits at the top of the pack. Brittany Force got the job done in Top Fuel, and Cruz Pedregon was the Funny Car No. 1 qualifier at the first of two consecutive four-wide races this season.

Pro Stock

It came as a surprise to many that five-time event winner Hartford had yet to gain a low qualifier award until this weekend. He made his first start in Pro Stock in 2006 at Maple Grove Raceway, and the Four-Wide Nationals marked the 161st race of his career. For most of this season and in the latter half last year, though, he’s experienced a surge of power and performance. He was No. 2 qualifier in Phoenix, then went to Pomona the following weekend and won the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and secured a final-round finish in the main event.

Ahead of this weekend’s event, Hartford was eager to see where he stood in the elevated, dry and warm conditions of Las Vegas.

“Maybe we had the car to beat in Pomona, but this is a whole new environment,” he said. “Right now, we just have to focus on qualifying, and there’s no one to beat here except ourselves. Our goal is to go up there, try to run at the top of the page, and continue our momentum.”

The plan started to come together on Friday, but Hartford’s KB Titan Racing teammate Dallas Glenn nabbed the provisional pole, holding Hartford back in the No. 2 position and achingly close to that coveted top spot with a solid 6.635-second pass.

“There was a time we were 16th and just overjoyed,” said Hartford. “It was like, wow, we’re in. But last night we were all sitting at dinner with our heads down, like, ‘We’re No. 2; we know we could have gone to No. 1, we just missed it.’ It’s just a different mindset as you progress through the sport.”

Pleasingly for Hartford, the early round of qualifying on Saturday came with a change of command as he blasted to a 6.599 in his Total Seal/CIP1 Chevrolet Camaro to unseat Glenn, and in the warmer conditions on Saturday afternoon, no one could get around it. The deal was done, and Hartford was set to start from the No. 1 spot and square off with one of the toughest quads of the opening act. He will race Phoenix winner Camrie Caruso, reigning world champion Erica Enders, and Elite Motorsports-powered Jerry Tucker.

“The first thing is just to make sure you get in, get both [pre-stage] bulbs lit on your tree before the seven seconds is up, and just be ready,” said Hartford. “You just have to focus on everything you can do correctly in your lane and see what happens.”

Top Fuel

Force held onto the No. 1 spot in Top Fuel with her Friday 3.697, a pass that no one could better or even come close to on Saturday, sending her to her 44th career No. 1. Force’s David Grubnic-tuned Monster Energy rail ran 3.751 in Q3 and smoked the tires in Q4, but three out of four solid passes set them up well for Sunday’s final eliminations.

“We pulled out the engine we ran in Q3, and put the one we had in it yesterday back in, and then gave it a shot on this last run,” she said. ‘It didn’t quite go down there, so we’ll reevaluate before going in tomorrow. But again, that was the plan. We still are testing some things that we’re still probably going to do in the future if we’re good qualified for the show and we have the opportunity.

“Overall, it’s a good start to our week, but the hard work starts tomorrow. We’re looking for a win. We were successful here last year and won both of them [spring and fall events] and we won our first win of the season, and we’d love to do it here.”

Four-time world Steve Torrence stayed No. 2 with his Friday 3.712 while Mike Salinas jumped up to No. 3 with the day’s best run, a 3.729, in the Petersen Automotive Museum entry.

Points leader Justin Ashley also improved on his Friday numbers with passes 3.730 and 3.735 to step up to No. 4. Leah Pruett (3.746), Shawn Langdon (3.754), Josh Hart (3.758), and Tony Schumacher (3.763) round out the top eight.

Schumacher, along with Antron Brown, will be in Force’s first-round matchups (only three cars due to the 15-car field). Those two, along with Steve Torrence, were in the final-round quad at this race last year, which Force won.

Funny Car

Pedregon stayed atop the Funny Car field with his Friday 3.910, but not without a little drama. The final quad — consisting of Pedregon, Matt Hagan, Robert Hight, and Ron Capps — was delayed for an hour and 50 minutes after Paul Lee had the misfortune of having an oil line come off that put oil into two lanes. With the air cooling, Pedregon’s 64th career and second straight No. 1 was not assured until all four crossed the finish line, all under four seconds, but with Capps the quickest at 3.93 while Pedregon clocked a solid 3.956.

“It was a little bit nerve-wracking but it all worked out and we ended up No. 1, and I’m proud of the Snao-On team. We made the right calls and only misfired on one run [a 4.09 in Q3],. If you can get a nitro car to make three out of four qualifying runs, that’s a good weekend.”

“Honestly, I thought low e.t. was wrapped [before we ran] and I hate to say it because I don’t want to sound like we’re counting our chickens but I felt given the temperature of the track and the conditions, I didn’t think it was in the cards for anyone to run better than our .91. it gets hotter later in the day here and then doesn’t cool down as fast as it does in places like Sonoma or Pomona.”

Alexis DeJoria remained No. 2 with her Friday pass of 3.933, a number her Bandero Premium Tequila Toyota ran twice on Friday followed by a consistent 3.935 in Q3 before smoking the tires on her final attempt.

Hagan’s 3.936 from Friday stayed third while Capps’ last-session 3.93 moved him to fourth.

Bob Tasca III (3.938), Robert Hight (3.942), John Force (3.945), and Tim Wilkerson (3.967) round out the top eight, Eleven cars qualified in the threes and Steven Densham ended up on the bump spot with a 4.082.

The biggest surprise of the meet so far was J.R. Todd not qualifying in Funny Car, probably not totally surprising after having two cars destroyed at the Winternationals. Todd and DHL team could never find their footing in Vegas, charting a best run of just 4.27. It’s Todd first ever DNQ in 129 starts in Funny Car. His last DNQ was at the 2013 U.S. Nationals, while he was still competing in Top Fuel on a part-time basis.

“It’s been a forgettable weekend, but I put the blame on me,” said Todd. “I should have done a better job earlier in the week keeping the thing in the groove and not come down to Q4 to try to get in the show. All in all, I feel bad for the guys who put in the work this past week to get this DHL GR Supra back on track and Dan and Joe at PBRC and everybody at Kalitta Motorsports in the fab shop for busting their asses to get us back out here. This is a tough pill to swallow, but I’m sure we will stay and run on Monday to get this thing figured out. It’s still early in the season. A lot of racing left. I told these guys that I’m sorry. They deserve better than this. I wanted to get them a win this week; that’s the way I can pay them back, so we still got plenty of time to try and do that.”