Jones had to win this round to regain his points lead, up against the young gun John Broussard, who plays a tough game on the starting line and recently had been living in the mid three second zone. After side-by-side burnouts, the cars crept into the beams, guided in by the crew chiefs. Broussard was off the line first and both cars were trucking hard, side-by-side through the 330-foot mark. As they neared the stripe, Jones lit the scoreboards with a winning 3.94 at 181 mph to Broussard’s strong 3.97 at 185 mph. Jones got the nod by just one hundredth of a second in the closest race of the round.

Mary Reep rolled out next facing off with Mark Bowman. Reep had posted the quickest elapsed times of both qualifying sessions and was looking for her first final round appearance of the season. Reep was off the line with a .002 reaction time and blasted right down the groove to a strong 3.95 winning effort at 191 mph to take out Bowman’s 8.45. Reep’s quick light earned her the Good Vibrations “Quick Reaction Time” bonus and her strong 192.64 mph qualifying pass earned her the DFW Napa Auto Parts “Top Speed of the Meet” bonus as well.