Brittany Force and the Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy Chevrolet dragster team earned the provisional No. 2 qualifying spot Friday at the betway NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway. John Force in the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet Camaro SS are sitting No. 6 with Austin Prock in the Montanan Brand / Rocky Mountain Twist dragster is No. 9. Robert Hight and the Cornwell Tools / AAA Chevy Camaro SS team had an engine explosion and didn’t record a time.
Force and the Flav-R-Pac team, who are looking for their third No. 1 qualifying position at the Carolina Nationals, laid down a stout 3.686-second pass at 332.75 mph in the first qualifying session. Their performance would be the second quickest of the night earning two bonus qualifying points for the reigning world champions.
“We are in the second race of the Countdown to the Champions and we currently sitting No. 2 after our 3.686 run. It’s a great start for this Flav-R-Pac / Monster Energy team,” Force said. “We need to grab as many bonus points as we can and we grabbed two in our first pass. We hopefully get two more tries tomorrow under cool conditions. So, we are going to see if we can push it a little bit and take advantage of points and qualifying.”
John Force and the PEAK Chevy team got off to a solid start Friday night running a 3.915-second pass at 325.30 mph. Force will start day two of qualifying from the No. 6 spot.
Austin Prock and the Montana Brand team, who are looking to double up victories at zMAX Dragway after winning the four-wide in the spring, had a clean pass at 3.742 seconds and 328.30 mph to start the Carolina Nationals and put them in the No. 9 qualifying spot.
Robert Hight and the Cornwell Tools Chevy team had an eventful first qualifying session. Sitting 15th with no time, the Camaro Funny Car was up in flames right at the hit with an engine explosion.
“I’m all good. Maybe some hurt feelings. We were trying to go out there and make a good run. I don’t think we had anything for the No. 1 spot. Maybe something in the 3.85 range which would have been respectable,” Hight said. “Right after we did the burnout, and put the body on it, I heard it, it sounded like it had a hot cylinder. I told myself I’d drive it and lift if I had to, but I didn’t think it would be something like that, to blow up like that, that fast. We found out there was an oiling issue. Putting a new body on it and we’ll be ready for tomorrow.”
Competition at the betway NHRA Carolina Nationals will continue with qualifying Saturday at 2:00 and 5:00 p.m. Eliminations will be run Sunday at 11:00 a.m. Television coverage of the second of six races in the Countdown to the Championship will air on FOX Sports 1 (FS1) and include two qualifying shows on Saturday at 9:30 a.m. ET and Sunday at 11:00 a.m. ET. Eliminations coverage will be on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. ET.
This story was originally published on September 23, 2023. 
