POMONA, Calif. -- Melanie Troxel had a 4.105-second pass Friday in hot conditions to take the provisional Funny Car pole in the Auto Club NHRA Finals, the sixth and final race in the Countdown to 1 playoffs.
J.R. Todd (Top Fuel), Jason Line (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also topped their divisions in the season finale. There will be two more rounds of qualifying Saturday before the 16-car fields are set for Sunday.
With the air temperature in the mid-80s and track temperature exceeding 100 at Auto Club Raceway, Troxel's run in her Dodge Charger matched Mike Neff's time from Thursday, but she moved around Neff based on her speed of 304.25 mph to Neff's 299.13.
"Some days you've got to be good and some days you've got to be lucky and today, getting it on speed, I think we were a little bit of both," Troxel said.
The run was particularly impressive because of the soaring heat that kept every one of the five Funny Car title contenders from getting down the track under power.
The most notable of the five was points leader Cruz Pedregon, who remained unqualified and will have just two more attempts on Saturday to get in the field and keep his championship hopes alive.
Among the chasers in Funny Car, second-place Tim Wilkerson (trailing Cruz Pedregon by 12 points) slipped from the eighth to 10th qualifying position, third-place Robert Hight (39 points back) slipped from fourth to seventh, fourth-place Tony Pedregon from third to sixth, and fifth-place Jack Beckman (64 points back), like Cruz Pedregon, also remained unqualified.
Todd's 3.851 at 308.14 mph from Thursday held up Friday and he remained the provisional No. 1 qualifier in Top Fuel.
In Pro Stock, Line assumed the provisional No. 1 from Thursday leader Dave Connolly with a 6.658 at 208.39 in a Chevy Cobalt. In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Eddie Krawiec improved by 0.004 seconds on his No. 1 time from Thursday with a 7.013-second pass at 188.70 on a Harley-Davidson to maintain the top spot.
