In the Charlotte final, turbocharger racer Troy Coughlin defeated New York state racer Mike Janis’s supercharged mount. Coughlin was first off the line and was never headed, recording a 5.937/239.14 to Janis’s troubled 9.438/112.11 effort.

"We're not the fastest car out here," Coughlin said in the winners circle. "We're just trying to make good, competitive runs. (Crew chief) Steve (Petty), Mike, Kyle and those guys are doing a fantastic job on this thing. They're giving us a race car that's been repeatable. We're not the fastest hot rod through all these laps, [Ed. Note: actually he was the quickest and fastest qualifier for the Charlotte race] but it's the most consistent, and I know when I pull up to stage that they've given me a good hot rod. This Corvette is pretty mean."

Point standings after the St. Louis event, the ninth of 10 Pro Mod events, find defending champion Rickie Smith with a solid points lead.

Here are the current point standing with just the finals at Vegas left to run: 1. Rickie Smith, 636; 2. Troy Coughlin, 560; 3. Mike Janis, 559; 4. Von Smith, 541; 5. Steve Matusek, 516; 6. Danny Rowe, 499; 7. Pete Farber, 452; 8. Kevin Fiscus, 451; 9. Mike Castellana, 412; 10. Mike Knowles, 353.

Photos and Pit Notes from St. Louis

‘Tricky’ Rickie Smith (Nitrous Chevy)

Defending NHRA Champ Rickie Smith left the two in one Pro Mod race at St. Louis with a comfortable points lead but he lost in both races in on holeshots to Von Smith. In the first round of the Charlotte race Rickie and Von squared off and, despite a quicker 5.929 ET for Rickie to Von’s 5.963, if you added their reaction times to their ET’s both cars ran a 5.998. Von Smith got the win by a couple of ten-thousandths of a second. In the St. Louis race the pair met in the semis and Von coupled a .027 RT with a 5.890 to beat Rickie, who had a .062 RT and a 5.884 ET, by about three-hundredths of a second.