Antron Brown raced his Don Schumacher-owned Valvoline/Matco Tools dragster to a third-place finish in the inaugural Four-Wide Nationals. Yeah, it’s going to take some getting used-to to say third- and fourth-place finish. (Ron Lewis photo)

Doug Kalitta, driver of the Technicoat Companies Top Fuel dragster, raced to his third runner-up finish.

Two Dougs, Foley (far) and Herbert. In his 2010 season debut and his first race with IRWIN Tools, veteran driver Doug Herbert advanced to the final round of eliminations. (Gary Nastase photo)

Both Kalitta and McClenathan advanced to the final round with Antron Brown and Doug Herbert filling the remaining two slots. Once again it was Kalitta and McClenathan battling for the title as Herbert faded to fourth place and Brown took third. Kalitta led the race at each timing incremental until the last one at the finish line, 3.825 sec., 316.60 mph to 3.820 sec., 319.60 mph. The margin of victory was about eight inches.

“Man, we were so close on that one,” Kalitta, a 45-year-old resident of Ann Arbor, Mich., said. “It would have been awesome to be the first four-wide winner, but we’re pretty happy with our runner-up, too. Our car was outstanding in the last two rounds. Our Technicoat team really did a great job getting our dragster to put up some great numbers.”

Kalitta moved up one position in championship points to third. He is 53 points away from the lead.

Morgan Lucas  (Ron Lewis photo)

In the first round Morgan Lucas lined up his 8,000-horsepower GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil dragster first against Cory McClenathan, Brandon Bernstein, and Rhonda Hartman-Smith but never had much of a chance to race them as his brilliant yellow and black rail was engulfed in tire smoke almost immediately after he stepped on the accelerator. 

Although Lucas pedaled his machine in an attempt to regain traction, McClenathan and Hartman-Smith were quickly pulling away, advancing to the next round with a 3.799 at 319.14 mph and a 4.630 at 258.32 mph, respectively. Lucas drifted through with a 7.964 at 83.31 mph.

"We can't make any excuses," Lucas said. "We didn't get the tune-up right. We're a better team than this. That's all there is to it at this point. It's time to get back where we need to be.”

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