Rematch of St. Louis on tap for Lucas Oil Racing TV rider Hector Arana Jr.

DALLAS – Hector Arana Jr. will have a great chance to exact some revenge in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations for the 32nd annual AAA Texas NHRA Fallnationals when he faces Karen Stoffer for the second race in a row. Arana fell to Stoffer in the opening round of the last national event in St. Louis and he knows he needs to avenge that loss to keep this year’s championship hopes alive.

“I usually never look to see who I’m racing because it really doesn’t matter who is in the other lane if we do our job right,” Arana said. “But I was told it was Karen so we’ll prepare as we normally do and hopefully we’ll get the win this time around. Maybe I owe her one after St. Louis. Either way, we need to win Round 1 and go a bunch more rounds tomorrow, no matter who we’re racing.”

Arana actually had never lost to Stoffer until two weeks ago, with his lifetime mark against the veteran now at 8-1. Just as it was in St. Louis, Arana has lane choice as the No. 8 qualifier, with his 6.900 at 192.80 mph besting her 6.914 at 193.02 mph. Stoffer is qualified ninth at this event.

“We are qualified, which is always the first goal,” Arana said. “We need to be happy about that. We also are qualified on the top half of the ladder, which is always the second goal. We have reasons to be optimistic.

“We’ve really done a lot of brain-storming this weekend, going through all of our notes, figuring out what’s going on with our Buell run after run so we have a good handle on it for tomorrow. We’re not running as well as we have been for most of the year so we’ll keep pecking away at it tonight.”

So far this weekend has been pretty hot but the weather is forecast to cool considerably overnight, which could help the naturally aspirated motors used in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

“Tomorrow is going to be a totally different ballgame with the weather but regardless I think we’ll have a handle on it,” Arana said. “We’re going to learn from our four qualifying runs, keep our heads on straight and move forward with a winning attitude. And I’ve got to do some expert driving tomorrow also.

“Once again, I’d like to send out special thanks to my sponsors: Lucas Oil, NGK Spark Plugs, CP Pistons, all the others. They are the ones that allow us to come out here and do this. We are truly blessed to be able to drag race at this level. Sometimes you have your ups and downs. You just have to go through them, take them as they come and enjoy every second of it.”

Pro Stock Motorcycle eliminations begin at noon, Sunday. FOX Sports 1 will carry live elimination action from 1-4 p.m., Sunday. (All times are local and subject to change.)