NHRA: BURKART ENDS LONG DROUGHT.

Byline: Steve Ramirez Staff Writer

LAS VEGAS - Is qualifying overrated?

It is in the National Hod Rod Powerade Drag Racing Series, where the first four events have produced winners in the Funny Car class who qualified in the second half of the field.

The fifth annual SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was no exception Sunday. Phil Burkart Jr. kept the streak going by winning the second race of his career from the 12th position. He joins Jerry Toliver, who won the Winternationals from the No. 15 position, and Del Worsham, who won Phoenix from No. 10 and the Gatornationals from No. 11.

Other winners Sunday were Tony Schumacher in Top Fuel and Greg Anderson in Pro Stock.

``My father used to say that as long as you're in (the field), you can win,'' said Burkart, who won for the first time since June of 1999. ``I guess it's the element of surprise.''

But it wasn't easy for Burkart, who beat Whit Bazemore with a 5.029- second pass at 264.03 mph in the Funny Car final. He also defeated Tim Wilkerson, Gary Scelzi and 12-time champion John Force.

``Our objective (Sunday) was to just go rounds,'' said Burkart, appearing in his third career final round. ``We had no easy ones. We picked off all the big dogs.''

Bazemore nearly halted the streak when he held a slight advantage at halftrack before losing traction just past the 700-foot mark and slowing to a 5.452.

``We had a freak breakage that made the car drop a bunch of cylinders and then finally kicked some rods out,'' said Bazemore, appearing in his first final round of the season. ``Once the disappointment of losing in the final round wears off, I think we'll realize that all in all we had a good weekend and we made a lot of progress.''

Schumacher, winner two of the first three events, continued his early-season dominance. He survived a sub-par run (5.095) in the second round before making a solid 4.527 pass to beat two-time defending series champion Larry Dixon in the Top Fuel final. Dixon, making his first final round of the season, ran 4.575.

``It was a hard day,'' Schumacher said. ``We started the day (qualified ninth) with no lane choice, but I have a determined team right now. They just don't fail.''

Anderson also continued his recent control of Pro Stock by beating Kurt Johnson in the final. The 2003 Powerade champion won his third event of the season and is 15 in the past 27 races dating back to last season.

Steve Ramirez, [phone]

steve.ramirez(at)sgvn.com