The O'Reilly NHRA Midwest Nationals were held May second through fourth in Madison, IL.  Two Bell drivers had stand out performances over the weekend; Pro Stock driver, Kurt Johnson and Pro Stock Bike driver, Andrew Hines. 

Kurt Johnson appeared in his 69th final-round in the Pro Stock field.  He drove to win over Connolly to earn his 37th victory.  He recorded the fastest pass of his career, a 6.598, and set a new track record with a 209.39 blast. 

"It looked pretty tough out there," said Johnson. "There was a lot of tire shaking, and we've had our lifelong fill of tire shake for years. I think everybody just kind of underestimated the racetrack. The grind job they put on it is the same grind job they put on Atlanta, and it was exceptional for me, running that [6.581] this morning. I was scared to touch it after that, but we knew we had to make some changes, so we changed the gears around, changed the clutch around. The whole ACDelco crew just came together, and we did what we needed to do. That's what it's all about. We just had a great day. It's brutal out there. Every run is a challenge."

The Pro Stock Motorcycle class made its fourth stop in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series.  Andrew Hines made the quickest run of eliminiations with a 6.875.  He added to his string of six second runs, which currently totals 16.  Hines ruled the field and took home his second victory of the season and 15th of his career. 

"Four races and three finals and two wins, it's just a tribute to how good my team is. They like being on top, and they're giving me a motorcycle underneath me to be there a lot this year. It's so fun right now. There's a lot of work back at the shop for the guys, and they're just trying to dig and scrape and find anything they can to help us out. This is a perfect way to go into a month-off swing. It's going to be fun once we get to Chicago," Hines said of the early season success.

He isn't taking the wins for granted, "Everybody else in the class is going to go home and do their homework. At this point last year, we made 40 test runs and won Chicago. We plan on doing the same thing. We're not going to slack off any bit; we're just going to enjoy this win right now, and we're going to go out and have some fun tonight."

Pictured is Andrew Hines (2) in the Pro Stock Motorcycles final.