BROWNSBURG, Ind. – NHRA officials called off Monday’s championship eliminations due to inclement weather and decided to complete the U.S. Nationals next Saturday and Sunday at Lucas Oil Raceway near Indianapolis.
NHRA announced at 9:30 a.m. Monday that the combination of a persistent morning drizzle and a saturated racing surface forced postponement of the year’s most prestigious event to next weekend.
NHRA also will re-open qualifying on Saturday with two sessions on Saturday that will run in conjunction with the inaugural Traxxas Nitro Shootout for Funny Cars, when eight Funny Cars, including three from Don Schumacher Racing, will compete for a $100,000 first-place prize in an all-star race.
That decision reversed the status of qualifying NHRA detailed on Sunday when it declared qualifying for the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series professional categories had been set after the two sessions were washed out on Sunday.
Although Don Schumacher Racing’s Spencer Massey currently is the No. 1 qualifier and would have started Monday from the pole, he is not locked into that spot pending next Saturday’s qualifying.
And in Funny Car, had racing been held on Monday then DSR’s Ron Capps and the NAPA Shocks team would have clinched the regular season points lead because Robert Hight, who is second to Capps, would not have been qualified for eliminations. But Hight will get two chances on Saturday to qualify for the rescheduled championship eliminations on Sept. 9.