On the strength of a 6.571-second elapsed time recorded in his first attempt on Friday afternoon, Summit Racing/Genuine Hotrod Hardware racer Ronnie Humphrey captured the No. 1 qualifying position for Sunday’s final eliminations of the NHRA Spring Nationals in Houston, Texas.  This marks the first time in the Jacksonville, NC native’s 47-race Pro Stock career that he has qualified in the top spot.

Although the increased temperatures and high humidity on Saturday slowed the naturally-aspirated Pro Stock Cars and prevented any major changes at the top of the starting order, Humphrey showed he was more than deserving of the No. 1 position in the final session, posting the second quickest time of the round at 6.627 seconds to complete a very consistent qualifying effort.  Having added a No. 1 qualifying performance to his racing resume, Humphrey attributed his success to a new approach and thanked those responsible before turning his attention to race day.

“This is a new day for Ronnie Humphrey and Troy Humphrey Motorsports, a dream coming true,” said Humphrey.  “I came into this race with a different plan – I quit thinking.  In the first four races I put too much pressure on myself trying to make perfect runs, and it affected my performance.  I want to thank Jason Line because he told me to forget everything else and just go out and do it, which worked perfectly this weekend.

“As everyone knows, the NHRA’s Pro Stock division is a very tough category, and took a total team effort to get this done.  Our team motto is that together everyone achieves more, and I want to thank Summit and their Genuine Hotrod Hardware brand for coming on board and making this happen, as well as the KB Racing team, with special thanks to Greg Anderson, Jason Line, Rob Downing, Tommy Utt and Jeff Perley.

“I also want to thank my guys Chris Flud, Jason Sutter and Lance Line.  We made two good runs yesterday and then the weather turned in our favor, slowing everybody down.  That allowed us to do a little testing today, but we ended up making good runs in all four sessions, including being second quickest in the last session, so we’re excited heading into race day and ready to make this happen.   Having accomplished our first goal, we’re now going to move on to the next one, seeing if we can capitalize on what we learned in qualifying, going some rounds on race day.”