Gusting winds end NHRA race day early at Las Vegas

First it was rain, then an electrical problem and finally gusting wind that ended racing early today in the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The first qualifying session for Pro Stock and Funny Car was completed before the winds began blowing across the dragstrip and canceled the Top Fuel session and the rest of NHRA Sportsman racing.

Racing will resume Saturday morning with the last two pro qualifying sessions scheduled for noon and 3 p.m.

Bob Bode is No. 1 in Funny Car, and Greg Anderson is first among Pro Stock drivers.

Rain around noon had delayed qualifying for about two hours.

After the track dried, two pairs of Funny Cars completed qualifying runs after the Pro Stock session was finished. But racing stopped for about 90 minutes after a bulb on the starting line "Christmas tree" caused a short in a circuit relay board in the computerized timing system.

The bulbs are provided by NHRA to ensure racers have consistent illumination at its NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series events.