Scott Palmer shocked everyone with his first-round win over Tony Schumacher, clocking a 3.969/307.16 to Schumacher’s tire-spinning 4.076/275.96. Palmer could have won his match with Pritchett, who was up in smoke early and clicked off -- if he hadn’t turned on the red light by a big-time -0.241.

FUNNY CAR

Capps got past DSR teammate Matt Hagan in the semifinal.

Ron Capps drove his Mopar HEMI®-powered Dodge Charger R/T from Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) to his fifth win of 2017 and his 54th Funny Car win overall during the Thunder Valley Nationals. He defeated his teammate Jack Beckman in an all-Mopar final round.

Capps' win was the 10th for Mopar in the Funny Car category out of 11 events contested thus far in 2017. It also extended to a dozen the number of consecutive races won by a HEMI Nitro car, dating back to the end of last season. All four Mopar-powered DSR Funny Cars advanced to the semifinals at Bristol.

In the Funny Car final, Capps defeated Beckman on a holeshot from the left lane. Capps turned in a lap of 4.054 seconds at 317.05 mph to reach the finish line before his opponent, despite Beckman making a 4.040-second pass at 319.29 mph. Capps' reaction time was .026 compared to Beckman's .044.

The win broke an all-time tie between the two drivers, with Capps now leading Beckman 5-4 in final rounds. The final was a re-match of last week in Englishtown, where Beckman got his first win of the season.

Crew chief Rahn Tobler's bold decision after two disappointing qualifying runs Friday night to switch to a chassis that previously had not been raced in competition paid off.

"There's not very many teams out here that are that prepared to pull a car out and have it really ready to run quicker,” Capps said. “It was completely ready to go. That's off-season preparation, that's Rahn Tobler and NAPA Know How."

Capps first powered past Alexis DeJoria in round one to set up a showdown with the stout Robert Hight. Capps got by Hight in a side-by-side race and then squared off with Mopar and DSR teammate Matt Hagan. Hagan hazed the tires early and Capps, the 2016 Funny Car champion, advanced to his seventh final round of the season and won for the fifth time. It was also his fourth Bristol win, tying John Force.

With the win, Capps extended his already large points lead even further, despite the team deciding to change cars before the Saturday qualifying sessions.

Jack Beckman defeated fellow DSR teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. in the semifinal.

On Sunday, the Infinite Hero team, led by crew chiefs Dean Antonelli, John Medlen and Neal Strausbaugh, entered race day as the No. 5 qualified car with a time of 3.959 seconds at 322.96 mph.

Jack Beckman lined up against former Funny Car champion Cruz Pedregon for the opening session of competition. The car dropped a cylinder but Beckman got the win with a 4.172 (303.43) as Pedregon went into tire smoke.

The Infinite Hero team then matched up against Courtney Force of John Force Racing for the second round. Beckman went into smoke but got the win with a 4.321 (276.75) as Force also smoked to a 4.343.

In the semifinals, Beckman lined up with his Don Schumacher Racing teammate, Tommy Johnson Jr., also sponsored by Terry Chandler. The two ran a close race and Beckman got the win light. He cruised to a 4.009 (318.99) over Johnson's 4.043.

Finally, Beckman met another DSR teammate in the final round. That teammate was the reigning Funny Car champion, Capps. Last weekend, Beckman got the win over Capps but this weekend Capps got the win.

"We didn't get trounced, we lost a fantastic drag race," Beckman said. "We both had good lights. Ron rolled in a little farther than me but if you look, those cars were welded together the whole way down the drag strip.

"They out performed us by five-thousandths of a second. That's the way drag races should look and if we keep going the direction we are, those races will start going our way. I'm disappointed we lost, I can wait to get to Norwalk."

(Tom McCarthy photo)

The Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Shelby Mustang Funny Car team was elevated after a strong qualifying performance at the 17th annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals that entitled them to their first low qualifier award of the season. Tim Wilkerson and his steadfast crew had nothing to hang their heads over on raceday at Bristol Dragway as they powered to a round-win and continued to fine-tune their program at the third race of four in a row to start the summer.

Throughout qualifying and on raceday, Wilkerson was the only Funny Car to run in the 3.8-second zone. His 3.895-second pass at 328.22 mph on Friday evening held as low elapsed time and top speed of the entire meet.

After nabbing the 19th pole of his career, Wilkerson lined up on Sunday for a first-round meeting with Bob Bode. The air was thick with moisture and the racetrack was hot and unforgiving by the early afternoon kick-off. The nitro beasts were either slow or plagued by tire-smoke in the tricky conditions, and Wilkerson lumbered down to victory on a 4.367, 233.12, leaving behind a traction-troubled Bode.

"I could feel it had cylinders out, and they told me [over the headset] that it was smoking the tires, so I shut it off," explained Wilkerson. "The second round, I drove it to about 850 feet and I could see half of Tommy's car out in front of me. I knew there wasn't any use beating it up any more than that – it probably would have went a 4.16 or something like that, but it wasn't going to be an .08."

Wilkerson was dropping cylinders soon after leaving the starting line as his LRS Mustang battled the racetrack. Ultimately, he was defeated by Tommy Johnson Jr., 4.083, 314.53 to 4.220, 262.18. The day was shorter than Wilkerson and his team had hoped for, but they know the future is bright.

"Well, our car is a turtle, but it's a little bit faster turtle now," said Wilkerson with a grin.