Third was Tennessee’s Clay Millican rounding out the Top Fuel dragsters in the 3.7 zone with his career best 3.799 ET at 325.77 mph. (James Drew photo)

Top Fuel rookies Brittany Force (near lane) and Leah Pruett.

On her maiden weekend of professional competition, Brittany Force performed a textbook burnout but as she was applying the brakes she knew immediately that there was an issue.

“I have had a problem before with the brakes,” she said. “There have been times when I have been pulling on the brakes and the car hasn’t stopped.” The dragster rolled through the staging lights for an automatic disqualification.

Gary Densham  (Tim Marshall photo)

In nitro Funny Car it was veteran Gary Densham, sporting a newly designed patriotic paint scheme, with the same set up that propelled Paul Lee at the World Finals, Densham ran a career best 4.053 ET at 307.09 mph for #1 in Thursday’s qualifying.