In Funny Car Krabill was out first with a .074 reaction time but he then blew the tires off just before the tree. Horan was long gone. The transition in the left lane sent Horan toward the centerline, but he was able to tiptoe down the center line and then bring the car back to the center of the groove and take his second win in a row, and his first ever Nightfires win. 

Horan was thrilled and gave credit those who have helped him and his driving. “Ronny got me hooked up with Jack Beckman and I have been talking to Beckman between rounds; he is keeping me focused. I was going to drive that thing and do whatever it took to win.  I was stabbing the throttle, keeping it off the center line.”

Horan was especially thrilled to win the Nightfires, as late track owner Bill New’s name on the side of the car for the year.

Top Fuel was a battle of giants in some ways. Jim Young driving the “Nitro Hemi” car which won not only last year’s Nightfires, but three other Nightfires as the “Nitro Thunder” against the Beast from the East, Tony Bartone in the Bartone Bros. ride.

At the green it was Young out on Bartone by two. However, Boggs must have found a way to make the car navigate the right lane, because Bartone set sail and went by Young at the 330 mark and was never headed. Bartone drove the car to low ET of the event at 5.76 and reset the track speed record by five miles per hour at 267.37.