BRISTOL -- Cool temperatures and overcast skies made for a record setting day at Thunder Valley here on Friday in the first two rounds of qualifying for the NHRA O'Reilly Thunder Valley Nationals.

The track record in Pro Stock wasn't broken. It was smashed to bits.

Kurt Johnson sits on the provisional pole after running a 6.687 at 206.16 mph, knocking two hundredths of a second off the old mark.

Kurt's father and teammate, six-time Pro Stock champion Warren Johnson, set the track mark for speed at 206.57 mph.

Greeneville-based Pro Stocker Allen Johnson missed out on the good weather, running his best pass of the day in the first round of qualifying and having to sit on a 6.74. That's only good enough for 11th place, putting Johnson in danger of qualifying in the lower half of the bracket for the first time all season.

"It is pretty disappointing, but we've been there before," Johnson said. "We can't be perfect all the time. We'll take it, work with it and be good tomorrow."

The field, at least the cars at the top, aren't likely to change much today. The weather is still supposed to be fair, but it won't be as cool as it was Friday night -- and that's when the powerful motors make their best horsepower.

Johnson's Dodge had the horsepower Friday night during the good air. He said the problem was just getting the power to the track. He had problems early in the run and managed a time of only 6.75 seconds in the second session.

"The first run we were decent, but we still didn't make a good run," Johnson said. "That run there (the second), the track is a little bumpier over in the left lane. The car got to bouncing in second gear. I got it up against the limiter and killed the run myself. A good driver would have caught it. When it goes on the limiter like that, it killed three or four hundredths. We should have a run a .70 or .71, maybe even a .69. We'll get them tomorrow if it doesn't get too hot."

No records were set in Funny Car, but most teams put up some big numbers.

Rookie Mike Neff is in position for his first number one qualifying effort after running a 4.783 and 321.04 mph to best the first two rounds. Veteran Jim Head was close behind with a 4.785.

The first six races of the season were a struggle for Neff. He didn't win a round. Last time out, Neff not only won his first round of competition, he took it all the way to the final round of eliminations.

Neff hopes that runnerup finish has propelled the team into a good weekend at Bristol.

" It felt great to get that monkey off our back," said Neff, a former Funny Car championship-winning crew chief who traded in his wrench and notebook for a helmet and fire suit this year. "That was starting to wear us out. To have a great weekend there and be able to come here and have a couple of good runs on Friday, you just want to get a little momentum and keep it going. Right now I feel like we are starting to get a little good mojo going."

Low qualifier in Top Fuel didn't really get close to the track record, but that's OK because he already owns it.

Four-time defending Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher ran a 4.502 at 327.43 mph to hold onto the top spot which he also held down following the early afternoon round.

"I think a lot of cars can make power when it's cloudy and cool and the air is good," Schumacher said. "We do real good when it's conditions like this. When it's really hot, we are also good. It's difficult to make power in those conditions, but (crew chief) Alan Johnson knows how to do it in those conditions, too. We've got a great crew chief, plain and simple."

Schumacher thought Friday night's conditions would make for better power not only for his team, but for everyone.

"To be honest, it was a strange day, first round and second round," he said. "When the numbers were coming up, it was clearly not what people were going for, including us. We didn't try to run a .50. We tried to run in the mid .40s. Whatever everyone was doing, it wasn't as good as we thought it was going to go. To watch cars go out and run .60, .60, 60 ... who's trying to do that? No one is trying to run .60, yet one after another, those were the numbers popping up from cars more than capable of running in the low .50s. I think it was a little more difficult than we thought."
Qualifying continues today with the third round at 12:30 p.m. and the fourth round at 3 p.m. Gates open this morning at 7:30 with sportsman eliminations starting at 8 a.m.

On Sunday, gates open at 9:30 a.m., and eliminations begin at noon.