In Pro Stock action, Gugliotta, of Mt. Airy, Md., used his 14-time final-round experience to halt Cary Goforth's modest streak. The man nicknamed "The Flying Meatball" ran a 6.427-second E.T. at 217.67 mph to Goforth's 6.457/218.19.

One of the men who made the weekend successful was track-prep expert Jim Weinert, who had been at the new facility for three weeks and had logged far too many sleepless hours, scraping and mending the all-concrete track.

In the beginning, the IHRA Director of Field Operations discovered that the track needed regrinding. Then the Outlaw Pro Mods broke in the track, and that's when Weinert discovered "some issues farther downtrack, so we came in and  ground another 2,000 feet of racetrack. After running another race on it, the concrete started pulling apart real bad. On the Tuesday before the national event, my crew and I cut 100 feet by 30 feet wide of concrete out of the racetrack and replaced it.

"When we started on the concrete job on Tuesday, we were here from 6 o'clock Tuesday morning and never slept or left here till until midnight Thursday. We had that test & tune on Thursday and I saw some more issues. I shut the track down so we could work the rest of the night to get it."

He said he was "relieved" to see incident-free side-by-side racing -- especially at the temperatures. "The times they run for as hot as the track was -- 104 degrees (Saturday) -- they went right down it flawlessly."

Bruce Litton, the IHRA's 2007 Top Fuel champion, recorded Dallas Raceway's first 300-mph pass at 300.20.

None of it was a surprise to McMillen. "To be honest, I was here a month ago, and I told Ken that it is going to take up to the last minute to get this track ready to go and I will tell you, hats of to these guys because when I got here on Sunday they had already got in two races on the track and everything was in pristine condition," he said.  "These guys have been working 24-7, and what a fantastic job they have done. The facility is phenomenal."

Top Fuel driver Bobby Lagana said, "Kenny (Barnes) has put so much money and effort into this place, it is awesome. This will definitely be the fastest facility in IHRA. It might need a year or so to settle in, get a few cars down the track, but this is going to be a fast track. It is so flat. The shutdown is so smooth. The guys have put a lot of effort into making it right."

Adcock said he and Barnes always are in pursuit of perfection. Along with their 3,600-square-foot tower and 13.5 acres of paved pit parking, they offer a 24-million-gallon lake on the property that's stocked with bass and catfish.

Adcock graded his team with high marks for accentuating the positive. He said they're investigating the computer situation and indicated he's optimistic about solving the mystery of who caused the trouble and why. "I'm not at liberty to discuss it," he said.

As for the restrooms, he said, "We went in and repaired them, and we got many compliments on how clean they were and on the design. The women were just ecstatic."

He said the racing surface will receive continued scrutiny. He said he doesn't plan, contrary to rumors, to tear up both lanes and repave after the season ends. However, Adcock said, they'll study whether bad cement, bad installation, or neither caused the cracking of certain sections of the track. "Our concerns are very minor," he said.

In exhibition action, Gaylen Smith grabbed the win in the Outlaw Pro Modified shootout. Smith, dubbed the Texas Bounty Hunter in his "Hell Fish" Barracuda, ran a 3.908-second E.T. at 200.80 mph and a 3.896/196.56 in a track-opening shakedown May 15. Other sportsman winners Sunday were Chris Gulitti (Top Sportsman), Russell Marr (Top Dragster), Kevin Helms (Super Stock), Bob Murray (Stock), Doug Miller (Quick Rod), Leonard Greathouse (Super Rod) and Jeremy Hefler (Hot Rod) all took home Ironman victories in sportsman competition.