Larry Dixon, Tony Pedregon, and Mike Edwards grabbed the provisional poles in their respective classes on Friday, the opening day of qualifying for the 22nd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, in Kent, Wash., just outside of Seattle. The event is the second of three consecutive weekends of racing on NHRA’s grueling annual Western Swing.
Dixon started out the second session in the No. 1 spot but had been bumped down to fourth by the time he staged the Al-Anabi dragster in the final session’s final pair, but it took him just 3.891 seconds to reclaim his top spot from Morgan Lucas. Dixon is gunning for his fourth No. 1 spot of the season.
“We’re back down at sea level again, so we just looked at the track temperature and corrected for the air and just tried to get our car down the racetrack,” said Dixon. “The first run it spun a little down track and we were hoping that the track conditions would be cooler [for the second session]—not a lot, but still cooler—and we ended up being a little quicker [than Lucas]. I just like to be in the top three or four cars, then at least you know you’ve got a good hot rod for Sunday. We got that and we’ll see what we can do tomorrow.”
Pedregon snatched the No. 1 spot away from first session leader Bob Tasca III in the final pairing of a very warm day’s final session, and did it with Tasca in the other lane. Pedregon’s Dickie Venables-tuned special-edition Conquest Boats Quaker State Chevy improved almost a tenth of a second, from 4.27 to 4.18, over his opening pass to move up one spot and steal the pole. Pedregon was the low qualifier earlier this year in both Las Vegas and Chicago.
“I’m surprised that more cars [didn’t get down the track],” said Pedregon. “Usually the first run on Friday is a little temperamental; you really have to hit the setup just right, and you have to be conservative. I was surprised the second session. The indirect heat really decreases the track temperature. Any time you get close to that 100-degree mark on the racing surface you can really set the car up to run somewhere in the teens, which we took advantage of. I’m glad we didn’t gauge it off of what the other cars did, and I think Dickie stuck to his game plan and that’s the benefit to getting down the track on the first run.”
Edwards is halfway to his eight No. 1 qualifying position in the season’s first 14 races after his A.R.T./Young Life Pontiac recorded the quickest run of the day, a 6.606, in the opening qualifying session. Edwards has been the polesitter at four of the six most recent events, including last weekend in Denver.
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