Pro Stock rookie Cory Reed got quicker and quicker on the Tree in qualifying, culminating in a perfect .000 reaction time, but ultimately took himself out of the Carolina Nationals with his first red-light in years.

“I’m not discouraged,” he insisted. “Disappointed, sure, but not discouraged. The thing is, after you get to the final at your second race [Sonoma], your perspective changes a little because now you know you can win. I didn’t think I’d feel this way until next year. When I started this deal, I was like, ‘Pro Stock? Yeah, that might be fun. Let’s do it.’ No expectations, no pressure. But then you get out there and do well right away, and you’re like, ‘Hey, I can win one of these things…’ “

Reed had a .057 light on his first qualifying run, a .025 on his second, and a perfect trip-zip .000 on his third. First round the car lurched through the beams when he decked the throttle and opponent Cristian Cuadra inherited an easy win. “My foot got kicked off the pedal,” Reed said. “I was floating the clutch, maybe cheating the pedal a little. We were on our third different engine, so I didn’t know if the car was going to run good or not. I figured the least I could do was give us a chance with a .010 light.”

Cuadra, another young driver with quick reflexes on the cusp of his first major victory, scooted to a winning 6.67 while Reed clicked it early and still coasted to a 6.76 at 178 mph. “I moved my foot to a different place on the pedal,” Reed said. “The pressure point was right on the tip of my toes, so the pedal was barely pushing back. I did it in qualifying and it worked great, so I tried it again first round. I really thought I’d found something.”

Instead, Reed got a red-light, which, until this weekend, he never had, even in qualifying. “As soon as the car started to move, I knew I was screwed,” he said. “I thought, ‘You dumbass, what was that?’ and stayed in it just to see what the car would run, and I was all over the place. In 5th gear, I was like, ‘What the hell are you doing? You know you red-lighted – why are you still on it?’ I just drove the hell out of it for no reason. It would have been a good run, too, because I lifted before the 1,000-foot mark and still went a 6.70-something. But you know what really sucks? He only went a .67, so my normal light would’ve been just fine.”