"I must have been psyching myself up without realizing it, but I always know that when I get in the later rounds, I seem to do better – it just started earlier today," said McGaha, who earned the first round-win of his Pro Stock career over Anderson in Dallas in 2011. "It worked, especially against Greg. I had no idea of what I'd done. I knew I was beating him, but I didn't have a clue it was because I left on him."

Crew chief Brian "Lump" Self said, "We've come a long way. We learned how to race on raceday today, and maybe we don't know how to win yet, but we will. We're going to do it. We got just enough today to make us real excited. Let's go some more."

Richie Stevens, husband of Erica Enders-Stevens, hasn’t raced at all the events this year and bowed out via a red-light start against Shane Gray in the first round.  (Joe McHugh photo)