Clay Millican  (Todd Dziadosz photo)

In the last qualifying session, Rit Pustari’s engine popped out a fireball, oiling the track and costing him five points. He just missed making the final cut. (Todd Dziadosz photos)

"With the inconsistent weather today, (crew chief) Joe Barlam did a fantastic job of tuning the car today," Bernstein said. "It was fun to drive. It was going down the track just like it was a bracket car.

"Whenever you go rounds, you are going to accumulate those points. We're about to hit the Western Swing soon and every point you can get is crucial."

Bernstein started the day off avenging a Topeka loss to Grubnic. Bernstein ran a clean 3.789 at 320.66 mph as Grubnic smoked and sputtered to a 5.790 at 108.88 mph.
Round 2 was almost a carbon copy of the opening round win. Bernstein was nearly flawless, running a 3.820 at 295.98 mph, while Langdon smoked his tires and coasted across in 8.452 seconds at 84.33 mph. 

The semifinal matchup with Millican was nearly as tight as the finals. Both drivers got off the line at the same instant with Bernstein powering to a 3.815 at 320.81 mph run and Millican hot on his trail, crossing in 3.859 at 311.99 mph.

"It was a really good day," Bernstein said. "It's just unfortunate we didn't get the win, because we all wanted it really bad."


Spencer Massey and Tony Schumacher light up the night during qualifying.  (Debbie Gastelu photo)