"Rainout Theatre at Richmond"

This is Danica Patrick's Dallara Honda getting ready to go back in the transporter after a strong shower cut back the practice before tonight's qualifying. USAC has sprint cars and Silver Crown cars on the property as well.

The qualifying session for Saturday night's SunTrust Indy Challenge is slated to begin at 7:30 local time.

Now that I have some time to digest what NHRA announced on their investigation into Scott Kalitta's fatal crash...

~What they found seems consistent with what happened on the video. Of course, there may have been other video that was recorded but not used by ESPN, and that video was likely reviewed.

~The top end at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park has a gradual concrete curve which was designed to funnel out of control cars that may have shot through the "kitty litter/sand/etc". back into the "kitty litter" to slow the cars down. But when a car gets airborne, that curve would seem to serve like the pocket of a baseball glove once all of the crashing against the television camera boom was complete. This can be illustrated by looking at an aerial photo of the facility.

~The Ford/Delphi "Blue Box' evidently survived the explosion and crash, and is yielding some valuable information. You can thank Dan Davis...the soon-to-retire boss of Ford Racing...for greenlighting this project, which put the data recorder in each Funny Car this season.

~Engine failure with 7,000+ horsepower is a fact of life. It can be mitigated with stronger engine parts...but stronger parts trade power for reliability. Power in a nitro funny car or Top Fuel car translates to speed.

~Parachute mounting: The inflation of the parachutes didn't happen. Does one suppose that an auxiliary chute could be mounted to the chassis of the Funny Car, set to deploy if the body blows off?

Just some thoughts as the straight line guys get ready for racing at Norwalk Ohio. We'll keep our eyes on the sky...and rejoin you with some qualifying highlights.

Tough Day...Inspired Racing...NHRA Lucas Oil Supernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park

An emotional Greg Anderson after his Pro Stock win over Dave Connolly. Greg, like all of the other racers, took the loss of Scott Kalitta very hard...and told the PA announcers that he was on a mission to win. He backed that up with three stout runs...and a pedal fest which he credited to the spirit of Kalitta. The win cuts into Kurt Johnson's lead in the Pro Stock category.

Point leader Tim Wilkerson won the Funny Car final over Mike Neff. In the first run of the category...all of the Kalitta Racing team members on the property lined up on the starting line in eliminations, where Robert Hight would have made a run with Kalitta had events not played out like they did.

In Top Fuel...an ironic story. Connie Kalitta's Kalitta Flying Service has the contract to fly the remains of fallen servicemembers who've died in Iraq and Afghanistan back to their families. Scott was involved in the family business when he wasn't piloting the DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car. Tony Schumacher picked the right day to add points...Schumacher's win...his first at Englishtown. Schumacher's team is sponsored by the US Army.

This will be a short and sad week for all of the straight line folks as they get ready to go to Norwalk, Ohio. They will lay Scott to rest...and remember his zest for life...his competitive nature...and memories that haven't been shared. There will be time for questions to be asked and answered...and thanks to Ford Racing...maybe those answers will come a bit more quickly. Like the CART cars of years past...each of the Funny Cars that runs has a Blue Box data recorder, which measures a bunch of operating parameters, and was instrumental in the investigation into the death of Greg Moore in 1999 at Fontana. No doubt the engineers will have a lot of data from Kalitta's crash. No doubt the Napp family will be taking a harder look at the top end, where the crash occurred to find ways to make it more effective in stopping a car that suffered a catastrophic failure of its braking system. And there should be no doubt and delay in implementing lessons learned from this tragedy.