INDIANAPOLIS – The Big Go is a no-go.
The 58th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Auto-Plus at Lucas Oil Raceway was postponed to next weekend.
As the NHRA was making the announcement to fans Monday morning, rain finally stopped after coming down for more than 24 hours. But the rain had already soaked the racing surface so much that it would have taken NHRA at least five hours to prepare the track, so the decision was made to pull the plug Monday.
"The persistent weather has affected the racing surface and we have chosen to make the tough decision to postpone the race until next weekend," NHRA senior vice president of racing operations Graham Light said. "We are planning to run the remainder of the event next weekend on Saturday and Sunday."
The four NHRA professional categories – Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle – will return with two qualifying sessions on Saturday and eliminations on Sunday. The Funny Car NHRA Traxxas Nitro Shootout, the $100,000 bonus race within a race, will be run on Saturday.
The postponement means the four No. 1 qualifiers – Spencer Massey in Top Fuel, Courtney Force in Funny Car, Erica Enders in Pro Stock and Andrew Hines in Pro Stock Motorcycle – are back to provisional status.
It also means the competitors who were originally out of Monday's eliminations will have a chance to bump back in the field. Among those who are outside the top 16 are Robert Hight and Cruz Pedregon in Funny Car, Countdown to the Championship contender Larry Morgan in Pro Stock and two-time U.S. Nationals winner Steve Johnson in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car of the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing series and the NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by Pro Care Rx will also continue qualifying Saturday, with the rest of sportsman eliminations scheduled for Saturday.
