Edwards closes on championship as he, Bernstein, and Worsham are victorious in Virgina
On a record-setting final day of the Virginia NHRA Nationals. Brandon Bernstein, Del Worsham, and Mike Edwards enjoyed much-needed get-well moments at Virginia Motorsports Park, at the fourth event of the six-race NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Countdown to 1 playoffs.
Both ends of the Pro Stock national record were reset and the points scenarios in the nitro classes got a shake up as there wasn’t a top-two car in the semifinals of either Top Fuel or Funny Car and Funny Car’s final four was staked out by drivers in positions five through 10. Top Fuel’s top two, Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon, went to the trailer in back to back races in round two while Funny Car points leader Ashley Force Hood was a first-round casualty to red-hot Jeff Arend, who beat her for the third time in their last four meetings over the past events, and her teammate, second-place Robert Hight, fell in round two but nonetheless passed Force Hood for the points lead.
Bernstein had been winless for more than two years and eight straight final rounds, since his last title at the 2007 Brainerd event, when Antron Brown smoked the tires in the final. Bernstein, who entered the event in seventh place, reached the fifth spot in points with the win, the 18th of his Top Fuel career. Bernstein sealed the win with a 3.84, 307.09-mph pass while Brown coasted to a nines-second runner-up pass.
Both ends of the Pro Stock national record were reset and the points scenarios in the nitro classes got a shake up as there wasn’t a top-two car in the semifinals of either Top Fuel or Funny Car and Funny Car’s final four was staked out by drivers in positions five through 10. Top Fuel’s top two, Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon, went to the trailer in back to back races in round two while Funny Car points leader Ashley Force Hood was a first-round casualty to red-hot Jeff Arend, who beat her for the third time in their last four meetings over the past events, and her teammate, second-place Robert Hight, fell in round two but nonetheless passed Force Hood for the points lead.
Bernstein had been winless for more than two years and eight straight final rounds, since his last title at the 2007 Brainerd event, when Antron Brown smoked the tires in the final. Bernstein, who entered the event in seventh place, reached the fifth spot in points with the win, the 18th of his Top Fuel career. Bernstein sealed the win with a 3.84, 307.09-mph pass while Brown coasted to a nines-second runner-up pass.
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