NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

TOP FUEL Q3

Clay Millican stunned a lot of folks with a 3.691, his best run of the season in the now-Rob Wendland-tuned Super.com/Rick Ware Racing entry, and did it with a 300.06 eighth-mile speed, a career best for him. Perhaps even more impressive alongside him was Doug Kalitta, whose Mac Tools machine went 301.40 mph to the eighth but backfired the blower shortly afterwards and slowed to a 3.76 at just 264 mph.

"Well, it was obviously a first for me to go 300 in the eighth mile," said Millican, who moved to fourth in the qualifying list. "That's really cool. I mean, Rick Ware on the starting line, no pressure, you know, he don't get to come to all these races, so it's pretty cool. 3.69 at 300 mile an hour in the eighth is pretty dang cool. All I know is, it's a lot of fun doing what I get to do, and it's also awesome that you folks are always tuned in watching. Let's go stomp on that loud pedal."

As good as Millican's run was, it was Tony Stewart who had the session's best pass, a 3.677 that backed up his 3.676 from last night and earned him three session bonus points. Millican got two points, and Stewart's wife, Leah Pruett, in her second-to-last race before taking a hiatus, earned one with a 3.705 that improved on her Friday best of 3.720.

Maddi Gordon (3.716), Billy Torrence (3.722), Tony Schumacher (3.750) and Shawn Reed (3.823) also improved on their Friday bests. 

Points leader Shawn Langdon smoked the tires at the hit, losing the chance to add to his points lead over Kalitta, but neither earned session points and Langdon's lead remains at 144 points.

Class newcomer Chris Powers remains freakishly consistent in his Top Fuel debut in Todd Paton's dragster. Crew chief John Stewart, a Top Fuel star of the 1970s, has tuned the car to consecutive passes of 3.885, 3.883, and 3.882.

Past NHRA Winternationals Top Alcohol Dragster winner Bernie Plourd made his Top Fuel debut in his Right Trailers-backed dragster, with Gerda Joon calling the tuning shots. He shut off just a few feet off the line and will have one chance to get past Cameron's Ferre's 4.218 bump spot.

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FUNNY CAR Q3

Second-generation Funny Car racer Jason Rupert and crew chief Rahn Tobler helped make some Funny Car history on a 3.998-second pass, becoming the 16th driver at this event to make a qualifying run under four seconds and finally giving us the sport's first all-three-second field.

It's been more than 15 years since Matt Hagan made the class' first three-second run, Sept. 16, 2011, in Charlotte, and more than seven years since Justin Schriefer was the quickest 16th qualifier with a 4.005 at the 2019 U.S. Nationals.

The cruel fate for Rupert is that he was quickly bumped from the field by Austin Prock, who made an impressive early-shutoff pass of 3.878 to set the bump at 3.975 by Dave Richards with one session to go.

Jack Beckman had the session's quickest pass, 3.846 after a Friday pass of 3.836, and his John Force racing teammate Jordan Vandergriff was second-best at 3.868 right alongside him.

Spencer Hyde made his best run of the season, a 3.887, alongside Matt Hagan's 3.871, but what got people's attention was the crewmembers on Hyde's Jim Head-owned car who were decked out for Halloween in the distinctive purple and yellow crew uniforms of Head's 1996 Smokin' Joe's/Camel sponsorship.

Julie Nataas made her first career three-second run, a 3.938 in Del Worsham's Hedinger's Equipment Toyota, and Jeff Diehl also got back into the threes for the first time in a while with a 3.968, just a tick off of his 3.95 career best.

Daniel Wilkerson also had a highlight-reel-worthy moment in the Scag Jackal, absolutely grenading the engine in a huge fireball that shed the body alongside J.R. Todd. D. Wilk gamely fought for control but made contact with the guardwall with both the front and rear tires before bringing the remains to a safe stop.

"I'm fine. I'm just embarrassed," said Wilkerson. "I feel bad for everybody that everybody worked so hard on this thing and I screwed it all up in 2.5 seconds. It barely started spinning, and by the time I thought, 'Oh, it's spinning,' it freaking blew up in my face. I didn't want to hit J.R., so I kind of yarded it left, and I think that turned out to be a bit of a downfall. Thank the good Lord above that body fell off because that is the hottest thing I've ever felt. I've never had anything that hot in my entire life."