Bartone wheeled Rick Jackson's Center Pointe Mustang to low e.t. of both qualifying sessions (5.59 and 5.62) and low e.t of both preliminary rounds of eliminations, but he lost traction in the final and slowed by more than a tenth.

Bartone took out Steve Gasparrelli in the semifinal with a 5.60.

Annie Whiteley's husband, Jim, and Chris Demke were charging for the finish line side by side in the Top Alcohol Dragster final, but something blew through the lights in Demke's lane, giving him an inaccurate 4.92 elapsed time and nullifying the race, which will be re-run next weekend.

"I saw my win-light come on," Demke said. "Jim and I rolled around the corner, he came over to congratulate me, and I was just wrapping up my parachutes when somebody came up on a scooter and asked both of us who we thought had won. I said, 'I did – I never saw him.' But Jim never saw me either. It was close."

Going into the final, Whiteley appeared to have the advantage. He qualified No. 1 with a 5.30 and ran a 5.31 to eliminate James Butler in round one and a 5.32 against Don St. Arnaud in the semis. Demke, who has swept both national events so far this year, was right behind Whiteley, qualifying No. 2 with a 5.35 and defeating Garrett Bateman and Joey Severance with times of 5.32 and 5.35, respectively.

Whiteley and Demke left almost simultaneously in the final, with Demke in the lead, .030 to .040, and then both drivers went into shake in low gear and slowed to their worst runs all day.

"All the numbers to the 1,000-foot mark were accurate," Demke said, "and for me to lose, I would have had to have had an .854 split from the 1,000-foot mark to the finish line, and I don't think it did. I thought the motor might have hurt itself right at the end, but looking at the G-meter after the run, it didn't. Jim ran a 5.40 and, looking at our computer, I think I ran about a 5.39, so I should have gotten there first by 15- to 20-thousandths of a second. But I don't expect NHRA to use what's on my computer to declare me the winner, so we'll just have to try again next weekend."