Friday News and Notes from the NHRA Potomac Nationals presented by JEGS

News, notes, quotes, photos, and more from the opening day of qualifying at the inaugural NHRA Potomac Nationals. Updted throughout the day.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE Q1

Welcome to a new track on the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series and the first of three straight weekends of racing on what is an unofficial Eastern Swing through Maryland, New Hampshire, and Tennessee.

Charles Poskey had the honor of being the first Pro racer down the track at an NHRA national event and, as with every first racer in each class, will set the first track record, which Poskey did at 7.010, which no one expected to stay No. 1, and didn't.

Homestate hero Kelly Clontz, from nearby Hughesville, was an early leader with a 6.832, and Jianna Evaristo, on the first of the four Matt Smith Racing bikes racing without him on the grounds this weekend, quickly bettered that with a 6.81. Chase Van Sant and Ryan Oehler clocked MIR's first 200-mph Pro Stock Motorcycle passes side-by-side on respective runs of 6.778 and 6.770, both at 200.32 mph. which MSR rider John Hall quickly bettered with a blistering 202.55-mph lap.

Angie Smith, who heartbreakingly lost the Chicago final to husband Matt due to a broken transmission, made sidelined hubby proud with a stout 6.69 at 202.97 that held up as the No. 1 spot with Hall at No. 2, leading some to question if Matt Smith is more dangerous as a tuner on the sidelines instead of having to ride, too.

World champ Richard Gadson, who has made countless laps down this track in other motorcycle series, posted a 6.754 for the No. 3 spot. His teammate, two-time world champ Gaige Herrera, spun the tires hard and shut off on his first pass.

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PRO STOCK Q1

Greg Anderson, who has been the No. 1 qualifier at four of six races this year, has an early claim on a fifth after running MIR's first 6.4-second Pro Stock pass, a 6.494, to lead the factory hot rods after the first of four sessions. His KB Titan teammate, Matt Latino, is the surprise no. 2 with a 6.504 with Elite's Greg Stanfield slotted third with a 6.506. Latino's 212.56 is top speed of the meet and the other half of the new track records.

World champ Dallas Glenn is qualified fourth with a 6510, just two-hundredths ahead of Jeg Coughlin Jr.'s 6.512. The quick eight are capped by Eric Latino's 6/542.

Most of the Pro Stock cars made it down successfully, with the notable exception of Erica Enders, who qualified No. 1 in Chicago, and Troy Coughlin Jr., who both squared tires on the launch, both in the right lane, and two-time season winner Matt Hartford, who appeared to spin the tires in the left lane and clicked it off.

With 16 cars on the grounds, all of them will qualify for Sunday's eliminations, so the race is on for first-round lane choice.

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FUNNY CAR Q1

Chicago winner Chad Green, whose co-crew chief, Dean Marinis, has a lot of experience running at Maryland International Raceway, put that knowledge to good use, putting down the track's first (and only) three-second pass with a 3.985 late in the session after an early parade of 4.0s.

Southern Nationals runner-up Alexis deJoria, who won the Mission Challenge two weeks ago in Chicago, qualified No. 2 with a 4.025 just ahead of former Kalitta Motorsports teammate J.R. Todd's 4.056 at a track-record speed of 322.88 mph. Dave Richards, whose father, Gary, match-raced Funny Cars on the East Coast, including here, in the 1970s, was a pleasant early surprise leader with a 4.056 early in the session and ended up fourth.

World champ Austin Prock, who scored his first two round wins of the season in Chicago, continued his upward trend with a solid 4.10, which ended up No. 8, rounding out the top half of the field.

"It's definitely difficult," Prock assessed of a new track surface that the Tasca team, like most, had never seen. "You get here, and you do as much as you can to diagnose what this place needs, and we hit it right on the head. We were going up there to run 4.10, and we knew we needed to go down the track in Q1, so I'm really proud of this PPG team when you can hit it right on the head; it really feels good."

Perennial championship contenders Matt Hagan and Ron Capps, both winners already this season, didn't make it down the track under power.

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TOP FUEL Q1

Doug Kalitta, the No. 1 qualifier at the last two races, leads the field again after the first session, clocking a 3.817 that fronts the field by more than two-hundredths of a second.

High-flying rookie Maddi Gordon sits No. 2 with a 3.840 at a track-record 330.39 mph in her Carlyle Tools machine, sliding in just ahead of Kalitta's teammate, points leader Shawn Langdon, who sits third at 3.844.

Clay Millican, who probably has more Top Fuel experience at MIR than any other racer, rounds out the top half of the field with a 3.927. This weekend, the Rick Ware Racing entry is bannering digital health platform RocketDoctor.

There are 16 Top Fuel entries here (Lex Joon did not make the opening round), so all of them will compete Sunday.

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PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE Q2

World champ Richard Gadson had the best run of the session at 6729, but not enough to get around Angie Smith's Q1 pass of 6.690, which will have her halfway to her fifth career No. 1 qualifier.

Smith slowed to a 6.753 in Q2, which was third-quick for the round behind Gadson and the 6.743 of her new-again teammate, Chip Ellis, who is subbing for Smith's husband, Matt, who remains hospitalized nearby with a gallstone issue. Gadson's run did move him into No. 2 in the field with Ellis third after two sessions.

Jianna Evaristo, on the fourth MSR Buell, sits eighth with a 6.787 recorded in Q2.

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PRO STOCK Q2

World champ Dallas Glenn joined teammate Greg Anderson in the 6.40s with a 6.497, three-thousandths short of Anderson's Q1 pass of 6.494. Anderson slowed to just a fourth-best of session 6.510 after blowing through the clutch and didn't score any bonus points. Matt Latino slowed to a 6.536 after an opening 6.504 from Q1 and sits third in the field.

Anderson's son, class rookie Cody, was the second-quickest of the round with a 6.505, which has him No. 4, while Greg Stanfield ran a 6.508 after a 6.506 in Q1 for third best for the session but only fifth for the day.

Six-time world champ and Chicago low qualifier Erica Enders battered the rear tires for the second straight time and did her Elite teammate Troy Coughlin Jr., both ending the day at the bottom of the field with double-digit bests.

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FUNNY CAR Q2

With a run already under their belts, the class as a whole learned from those lessons and improved almost across the board, with 10 of 15 improving.

Cruz Pedregon, a 65-time No. 1 qualifier who once went more than six years (2015 Chicago to 2021 Reading) without a No. 1 start, is halfway to his second in less than a year after last year's Norwalk polesitter cranked out a 3.951 in his Snap-on Tools entry.

Spencer Hyde (3.953), Jordan Vandergriff (3.970), and Matt Hagan (3.985) joined the three-second parade with Hyde, and Vandergriff in second and third in the overall field, just ahead of Q1 leader Chad Green's 3.985 with Hagan in fifth. Green did not make it down under power on his Q2 effort.

The top half of the field is capped by Blake Alexander's 4.018 and 11 cars under the 4.058 of Ron Capps.

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TOP FUEL Q2

Points leader Shawn Langdon, who came into the event with a two-race win streak, is back on top again, charging to a 3.758 at 336.23 mph to have the field lead halfway through qualifying.

Langdon's teammate, Doug Kalitta, who had the quickest run of Q1 (3.817), improved to a 3.774, the second-best of the session, and also fell to No. 2 in the field.

With just 15 cars on the grounds, the battle for No. 1 is more than bragging rights, as it also will mean a first-round bye on Sunday.

The all-Kalitta Motorsports feud eventually overshadowed the family battle between Leah Pruett and husband Tony Stewart. Pruett was the first to steal Kalitta's Q1 lead with a 3.799, but a pair later, Stewart took it away from her with a 3.790. They finished third and fourth heading into Saturday.

Rookie Maddi Gordon improved from her first-session 3.84 with a 3.80, but still tumbled from second to fifth with Josh Hart (3.811), Antron Brown (3.823), and Clay Millican (3.839) rounding out the quick half of the field.