Ashley, Pedregon among provisional top spots at Summit Nationals

NORWALK — Top Fuel's Justin Ashley picked up the provisional No. 1 qualifier on Friday at Summit Motorsports Park, putting him in position for his first top spot of 2025 at the 19th annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals. Cruz Pedregon (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) are also the provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the 10th of 20 races during the 2025 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season. Selections were also made for the opening round of the Pro Stock All-Star Callout, which takes place Saturday. Top seed Anderson called out six-time champ Erica Enders, while Dallas Glenn picked Troy Coughlin Jr. Matt Hartford selected Eric Latino, setting the other first-round matchup as Aaron Stanfield against Jeg Coughlin Jr. The first round takes place at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, with the semifinals at 1:20 p.m. and the finals at 3:50 p.m. Ashley went 3.752-seconds at 330.88 mph in his dragster, holding off points leader Tony Stewart and Antron Brown as he seeks his first No. 1 qualifier of the year and seventh in his career. Ashley heads to Norwalk on a strong note, having advanced to the final round at five of the past six races. He was also named the Top Fuel winner last Sunday in Richmond after Shawn Langdon's final-round run against Ashley was disqualified. "Unlike in years prior, I feel like we've kind of flown under the radar a little bit this year. When you look at the first nine races, we've been to a total of five final rounds and that's a really difficult thing to do in today's Top Fuel class," Ashley said. "You know, we want to win races. It's our goal to win races, but we also want to pick up steam here, you know, midway through the year and make sure that we're in a good position going into the Countdown." Brown took the second spot with a run of 3.755 at 333.33 and Stewart is third, going 3.755 at 327.11 after a huge engine explosion during the first session. Funny Car's Cruz Pedregon appears headed for an impressive turnaround and made another strong step on Friday in Norwalk, grabbing the provisional No. 1 spot in a loaded 21-car field with a stellar run of 3.890 at 318.39 in his 12,000-horsepower Snap-On Makers and Fixers Dodge Hellcat. That gives the veteran and two-time world champion a strong chance to pick up his first No. 1 qualifier in more than two years, which would be another big step for the team. Currently, Pedregon is 11th in points, but he could make up ground in a major way if he can repeat Friday's performance the next two days. "We rolled the dice. Going up there it was either going to make a good run or we were going to see a whole lot of tire smoke," Pedregon said. "I thought to myself we might mess around and rip down there and make a good run. I know you're probably tired of hearing me, but we're right there. "We just need a little racing luck. It goes a long way. I have a young group. Jason [Bunker] my crew chief, is a young guy and most of my crew member are as well. Austin Prock has the Prock Rocket and we have the Bunker Buster." Points leader and defending world champion Prock is right behind in second with a 3.900 at 331.28 and Bristol winner Ron Capps is third after going 3.908 at 325.06. In Pro Stock, Anderson enjoyed an ideal Friday to get ready for the GETTRX Pro Stock All-Star Callout, making the quickest run in both qualifying sessions. That included a second session pass of 6.594 at 206.78 in his HendrickCars.com/Summit Racing Equipment as the points leader and reigning world champion continues to roll. Should that hold, Anderson would take home his fourth No. 1 of the season and 136th in his career, but Anderson's main focus was the confidence he'll take into tomorrow's Callout. The standout, who picked up his 1,000th career round win in Bristol, loved that it moved to Norwalk and he'll be after a repeat win in the bonus race. "I've got as much confidence as you can possibly take going into Saturday and Sunday but the truth is that in Pro Stock, cars are within .02-seconds and you never know who is going to win," Anderson said. "We've got four [KB Titan] cars in the [GETTRX Callout] tomorrow so I like our chances. "I was melting today. We all complain that it was too hot but it was a good day. My race car made two good runs. I've got a race winning horse, let's just see if I can jockey it right." Glenn is currently second with a 6.596 at 207.15 and Matt Hartford's 6.604 at 207.21 has him third. Matt Smith put together a standout run to close the day in Pro Stock Motorcycle, going 6.824 at 200.68 on his Denso Auto Parts Buell. It puts the six-time world champion on track for his first No. 1 qualifier of the season and 59th in his career. Smith led the points after the first two races but has suffered back-to-back losses in the second round at the most recent two events. Friday's run is a sign he's about to get on track and the veteran would love for it to happen in Norwalk. "We've gotten beat up this year with the performance of the Vance & Hines bikes," Smith said. "We're behind about two or three hundredths but sometimes that's all it takes. Today was very humid, and the air was bad, but track is very good and we made some nice runs. I'm No. 1 and John [Hall] is second and Ron [Tornow] is up there too. "I think we're in a good spot. We stayed Monday after Virginia to try and better ourselves. We tested in 101-degree heat and we're focused on trying to get our four bikes in the top eight." Hall made two strong passes on Friday, including a 6.832 at 199.35 that puts him second, while Tornow is third after a 6.874 at 197.88. Qualifying continues at 12 p.m. Saturday, with final eliminations set for 11 a.m. Sunday.