Payne, Martin Lead Pro Mods Into Dallas

DALLAS – With less than a third of the 10-race AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge season remaining, the top two drivers, Jay Payne and Joey Martin, are virtually tied.

Heading into Dallas for this weekend's O’Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals, Payne, who finished second to Mike Ashley for the 2005 championship, has an almost invisible 16-point advantage on Joey Martin, who lost in the opening at the most recent event, the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, after reaching four finals in the previous four races.

With just two races left on the 2006 series schedule after Dallas – the Torco Racing Fuels Nationals in Richmond Oct. 6-8 and the ACDelco Las Vegas Nationals Oct. 26-29 – every round, every point, and every qualifying position is critical.

Payne probably is the favorite, for a couple of reasons. First, he's number one in points. Second, his Brad Anderson-powered Valvoline Dodge made the quickest run in Pro Mod history, a 6.000 that was tantalizingly close to the class' historic first six-second run, at this race last year. He also made the second- and third-quickest runs in Pro Mod history – 6.010 and 6.011 – at the Texas Motorplex in 2005 and has a history of success there, especially recently, winning once and reaching the final round three times with his Alcohol Funny Car.

"That 6.000 was last year," said Shelly Payne, Jay's wife and also a Top 5 driver in the series. "It's a new year, and what happened last year doesn't mean anything now. The last time out, at Indy, Jay qualified worse than he has all year – eighth – so we have to work on that. We're not there to run in the fives; we're there to win the race. Jay needs to worry about keeping his points lead, and that's what we'll be focusing on."

Martin, who trails Payne by less than one round in the AMS Staff Leasing Pro Mod Challenge standings, lost in the first round at Indianapolis, but he appeared in four consecutive finals coming into that event, winning Englishtown and Memphis and finishing second in Bristol and St. Louis.
Joshua Hernandez, the U.S. Nationals champ, stands third, 294 points behind Martin. In addition to being one of the three winningest drivers in series history (along with 2004-05 world champ Ashley and legendary Shannon Jenkins), Hernandez is fresh off beating Tony Pontieri in the Indy semifinals in the quickest side-by-side match in Pro Mod history, 6.07 to 6.05.

Other top challengers are Texas favorite Thomas Patterson, Memphis runner-up Shelly Payne, and Troy Critchley, who made the fastest run of all time (239.40 mph) his last time out.