Montecalvo, the 2010 world champ in the class, had never found his rhythm this season before putting it all together in Memphis. It came together late in eliminations, too, as Montecalvo qualified No. 12 and then went 4.089 with a .001 reaction time in the second round to beat Todd Hoerner, topping it with an event-best and new track record pass of 4.056 at 178 mph to beat points leader Cary Goforth in the semifinals.

“The car was fast and had plenty of horsepower,” Montecalvo said. “Sonny’s Racing Engines did a great job as usual and we were just happy to put some good runs together. It just took us a while to find where we needed to be.”

In Extreme Pro Stock John DeFlorian’s Camaro was number-one qualifier with a 4.105 at 176.14 mph.

Todd Tutterow had a weekend that couldn’t have gone much better and the former Pro Extreme world champion capped it off by going 3.90 at 199 mph in the Aeromotive Fuel Systems Pro Modified final against first-time finalist Adam Flamholc.

“This feels really good. We’ve probably put a 100 laps on this car just testing and all that hard work paid off this weekend,” Tutterow said.