(Photo Courtesy NHRA)
By Logan Morris
Day One of the 70th Anniversary of the U.S. Nationals kicked off under the blazing sun in Brownsburg, Indiana on Friday.
Blake Alexander will head into Saturday as the provisional number one qualifier with an ET of 3.890 at 327.82 MPH. The run continues a pattern of strong performances for Alexander in recent weeks.
As he balances being a new father, he said he is working on compartmentalizing: “I'm getting better at it. I would say that I've struggled this year because I can't ’zone it all out.’ There's personal strife, and other things, and I think a lot of people can see it. Some men out here like myself, when you get out here and you're young, and you've got nothing going on in your head, you're a pretty damn good driver. Some of us are and if you put a lot of stuff in a young man's head and he starts growing into being a grown-up in front of people, they take on grown-up responsibility.”
(Photo Courtesy NHRA)
In Top Fuel, Brittany Force is currently on top of the board with a much-needed run of 3.740 at 334.32MPH. She sits in a precocious spot in the point standings and I had the chance to ask her how she keeps focused on the task without her family during such a pivotal and historic weekend.
“There is a lot going on. There's so much wrapped around this one race and it’s the first U.S Nationals that I haven't had my whole family around me, so that's different in itself. It just feels weird to be out here and not have my dad, not have my mom and my sisters but it's all for a good reason. They're all at home, supporting my dad.”
As far as her ability to focus on the task at hand, she added: “It's this long weekend. We have extra qualifying runs - the event is actually on Monday, so it's just all this excitement built around. And for me it's focusing on one day at a time. One run at a time. So today, that's exactly what we did. our focus was there. You can't look ahead. Let's just focus on now. And once we accomplish that we move on to the next one.”
Greg Anderson is the number one provisional qualifier in Pro Stock with a run of 6.621 at 206.23 MPH.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Angie Smith sits atop of the board besting her husband with a 6.883 at just over 197MPH.
(Photo Courtesy NHRA)
Day two of the 70th annual Toyota NHRA U.S Nationals begins at 12pm ET on Saturday.
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