The cars and stars of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series rolled into Bruton Smith’s palace of drag racing — the zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C. — over the weekend for the Carlyle Tools NHRA Carolina Nationals, the first race in the six-race NHRA Countdown to the Championship that will decide the professional champions in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Photographer Kevin Thorne was on hand at zMax to capture all the action of the Countdown opener, including Cruz Pedregon’s monster sub-national record 3.98 in Funny Car qualifying on Friday, Brandon Bernstein’s fiery finish line explosion, Robert Hight’s big win in Funny Car, and Andrew Hines’ return to victory lane for the first time this season aboard his Vance & Hines Harley. Check out Kevin’s awesome gallery of images from the weekend below.
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