Heavy downpours played havoc with an emotional version of the O’Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park -- the first event back on the NHRA POWERade trail following the tragic death of Eric Medlen, less then a week before. The event featured abbreviated qualifying, with the Pro fields being set on only two qualifiers on Friday before rain and wet track conditions prevented any action on Saturday.

As cosmic as it seems, J.R. Todd, who was a very close friend to Eric Medlen, won huge in Top Fuel driving Dexter Tuttle’s Skull Shine dragster. Todd won for the second time this season when he outdistanced surprise first time Top Fuel finalist, Oregon’s Joe Hartley, in the final round winning a close 4.603 secs 313.80 mph to 4.645 secs 307.79 mph decision.

Todd, who had also recently overcome some internal team turmoil following the unexpected departure of his crew chiefs, dedicated the victory to Eric’s memory in an emotional victory lane celebration.

Former Funny Car driver Whit Bazemore continues to shine since his crossover to the Top Fuel category this season, collecting his TF first pole and setting top speed and low ET at 4.514 secs and 326.87 mph.

Ron Capps vaulted into 1st place in POWERade FC points with another dominating run in the Ed McCulloch-tuned Brut Revolution Dodge Charger. Capps, who won two weeks earlier at Gainesville was the most consistent car on the premises on Sunday allowing him to collect the 24th win of his career. Capps too – dedicated his victory to the memory of fallen classmate Eric Medlen.

Capps defeated Cruz Pedregon’s Advance Auto Parts Chevy in the final round running a 4.868 secs at 307.93 mph compared to Pedregon’s trouble plagued 5.025 secs at 270.97 mph.

Capps had defeated both his teammates Jack Beckman and Gary Scelzi in earlier action before stopping Del Worsham in the semi final round.

FC class competition at the event did not include the John Force Racing team who as a group elected not to compete at the event following the earlier tragedy. That marked the first time since 1985 that John Force has not competed at a NHRA national event.

Defending POWERade World Champion Jason Line won his first race of the season when he stopped a determined bid by Mopar driver Allen Johnson in the final round. “AJ” delivered a great .010 RT in the final but ultimately his run of 6.712 secs at 206.26 mph in his Dodge Stratus was run down by Line’s powerful Summit Racing Equipment GTO which won at the stripe at 6.661 secs 207.75 mph.

Pro Stock qualifying was paced by Jeg Coughlin who ran the Slammers-sponsored Chevy Cobalt to a new track record 6.649 secs during qualifying. Line’s teammate, Greg Anderson, set top speed at 208.59 mph.

The Pro Stock Motorcycle title went to Angelle Sampey who rode her U.S. Army-sponsored machine past Craig Treble in an all Suzuki final round.

Angelle's victory, the 41st of her career, was highlighted by her track record setting elapsed time of 6.947 secs which came up during round two.

Sampey’s victory in fact marked the 5th straight season that a lady driver has won at NHRA Houston. Angelle had also won here in ’01 and ’02 while Karen Stoffer prevailed in both 2005 and 2006.

NHRA’s AMS Pro Mod event was weather affected with that 16-car field being set on a single qualifying round due to the rain.

Texan Josh Hernandez prevailed to win that feature at Houston for the 3rd straight year driving the Dr. Moon’s Rage Camaro to a final round victory over 2nd generation class racer Scott Cannon. Hernandez won a tight title bout with his 6.208 secs at 225.26 mph prevailing over Cannon’s 6.227 secs 233.72 mph.

Canada’s Raymond Commisso paced the field with one of only two 5-secs runs in Pro Mod during the event. Commisso roared to 5.985 secs at a career best speed (244.43 mph) to anchor the field but then lost on a holeshot to Cannon in the semi final round. Scott Cannon’s R/UP finish included the first “five” of his career – a 5.998 secs effort while winning over Tony Pontieri.

The Top Alcohol Dragster class featured a remarkable performance by defending World Champion Bill Reichert to reset both ends of the NHRA record for the class to an astounding 5.103 secs and 284.75 mph. Reichert topped off his record setting weekend with a final round win over Spencer Massey’s similar injected nitro machine.

Oregon’s Brian Hough scored in Top Alcohol Funny Car when he beat Cy Chesterman in that final round.

TAFC racing included the fastest speed in class history set by recent Gatornationals winner Mickey Ferro who ran a 265.95 mph terminal speed in the semi final round but still lost out to Hough; 5.619 secs to 5.634 secs.

All the wet weather and flooded pit areas forced NHRA officials to defer the completion of Sportsman class eliminations one week – until April 7th. The event champions in Competition, Super Stock, Stock, Super Comp and Super Street will be determined then.