2010 NHRA LUCAS OIL NATIONALS - EVENT NOTEBOOK


		EVENT NEWS EVENT NOTEBOOK POINTS AFTER EVENT ROUND-BY-ROUND RESULTS FINAL ROUND RESULTS			EVENT GALLERY

SUNDAY NOTEBOOK - ANOTHER REGULAR SEASON IS IN THE BOOKS

DECADE-LONG DREAM COMES TRUE - Sunday’s Lucas Oil Nationals Funny Car final round was the stuff of storybook tales; a suburban Chicago plastic-bag manufacturer against the drag-racing instructor who rewrote the track elapsed-time record in the opening round, the underdog against a seasoned pro nicknamed “Fast Jack.”

nfc_final “Fat chance,” some at Brainerd International Raceway might have thought about Bob Bode’s quest for a victory over well-funded Don Schumacher Racing shoe Jack Beckman in the first final-round appearance of his 10-year career. After all, Bode said he didn’t remember winning a round all last season.

But fat is what a betting man’s wallet would have been Sunday. Bode pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Funny Car history, clocking a 4.248 at 253.66 mph to top Beckman’s 8.338 / 86.32.

“All of it is kind of like a dream. I’m afraid I’m going to wake up and it’s not real,” the Barrington, Ill., resident told reporters immediately afterward. “I was over there, watching guys you all talk to [Top Fuel winner] Larry Dixon. “I dreamed for a long time - 10 years - of being where he was. Now I’m standing in that same spot and you guys are talking to me. Is that incredible or what?!

“I didn’t know if it ever would happen,” Bode said. “But now that it did, its’ like 'I can’t believe it ever happened!’ It’s wonderful - best thing that’s ever happened to me in my entire life - in the racing world. I’ve got a wife (United Airlines flight attendant Alice) and kid (son Bobby, who has taken up Junior Dragsters this year) - wonderful [life] there. They are hooked on this as I am. In the racing world, this is it!

“This is the one I’ve been trying for. I can’t think of anything else on my 'Bucket List' I’d want. This is it. I’m here,” Bode said. “I love racing my car, first or last. This is the bonus. We love being part of NHRA.”

At no loss for words, Bode continued saying, “We never knew if we would get here, because we run a part-time schedule. There were times we questioned what we were doing. Were we doing things right? Right now we’re doing it the right way.”

Bode said his Alard Machine Chevy Impala “was just flawless“ Sunday. “We struggled yesterday because we were trying to go a littler quicker so we could run with the big guys. The car’s been good all year.” He said his driving and the car’s potential “just got together on the same day.”

He qualified 12th but said Sunday’s effort was beyond his expectations: “We never put four good, solid runs together.”

The cooler weather concerned him, he said. “I thought it was going to play into the big dogs’ hands. I was afraid those guys were going to run away, that they were going to run way quicker.” Instead, they dropped out early - or he showed them the exit.

nfc_winner Bode advanced to the final as semifinal opponent Tim Wilkserson was forced to shut off his Levi Ray & Shoup Mustang when its front end hiked up in the air and kept climbing. Earlier in the day he had knocked off Cruz Pedregon, a former Funny car champion, and used a holeshot to defeat rising star Bob Tasca III.

He said he’d go back to the pits after each round Sunday and ask his crew members if this truly was happening. Then when he pulled up through the staging lanes for the final round, he said he asked, “Where are all the cars?” He said, “It was just Beckman and me. I’ve never come up without a whole pile of cars. It all new stuff for us.”

He laughed at his own suggestion that maybe “we should quit while we’re ahead. We love it too much! We’re never going to do that!”

The former drag-boat champion’s competitive instincts awoke when he saw that the victory was possible. He said he thought. “I ain’t lifting!” He said, “There were no teeth left in the belt at the finish line, and there were flames coming out.” But he was keeping his foot in the throttle.

As for getting another victory, Bode said, “That’s going to be interesting to see. All the crew guys are in disbelief. Last year I don’t think we won a round. I don’t know what the next step will be.”

He said he had no idea the payout was $50,000.

“We weren’t racing for money,” he said. “But now we have enough money to go to the next race! Now we actually believe. Before, no one else believed.”

It was enough that he believed, to keep going.

“It's all fun, being out here,” Bode said. “The car is nothing but a pain in the butt. It's what everything here twirls around. It's all the people who circle around the car is why we all come out. We come out for the kind-of fantasy world, being in a race-car mode and being out and around lots and lots and lots and lots of fun people.”

He provided lots and lots and lots and lots of fun for the people in the stands Sunday. He had them on their feet, cheering on the Midwest factory boss, the “little guy” who plans his NHRA schedule on what’s in the piggy bank and how well the car behaved at its previous outing.

Support from the fans spurs him on, Bode said. “We were just amazed. There would be so many cheers. That’s probably one of the factors that helped put it over the top.”

Beckman got the jump on Bode at the starting line, and Bode admitted, “I’ve been mediocre at that.” He said his eight-year-old son has won reaction-time awards in Junior Dragster competition. “He kept telling me, ‘Dad, why are you so bad at the lights?’ “ So, Bode said, he has worked harder at that.” I think, ‘That little kid can do this, I can do it, too,’ ” he said.

Beckman blazed an impressive trail, as well, to his fourth final round of the year.

Dismissing the always-tough Del Worsham, the Freightliner Trucks Dodge Charger driver set low E.T. of the weekend with his 4.057-second pass. Then he disappointed Robert Hight, the last one Sunday to carry the John Force Racing banner. His victory over the traction-troubled Hight gave John Force the top seeding for the Countdown. His next victim was semifinalist Jim Head, who had beaten Beckman’s DSR teammates, Ron Capps and Matt Hagan.

“It's such a frustrating day,” Beckman said after improving to third place in the standings. “We had a dominant car this weekend. We were low (E.T.) of every round. The car looked safe every round.

“We thought we were going to be a little more conservative in the final so we wouldn't take a chance. We're looking at the data to see what happened. It was so early in the run that it's not a tune-up issue. It's almost like a parts malfunction or a race-track issue,” he said.

“That was not even close to what we were expecting out of that run. I'm not saying we thought the trophy was ours,” Beckman said, “but we had the race car to get it.

“We moved up to third. That's the silver lining. We're resetting the points at the next race. We got great data out here,” he said. “Right now we're going rounds. It's 'race wins' in the regular season and it's 'round wins' in the Countdown. So we can runner-up our way into the championship if we need to. But I think we have a good enough hot rod right now. They're going to be looking at us real sharp the next six races.”

No one is going to be overlooking Bob Bode anymore, either.

HINES OVERPOWERS UNDERDOG UNDERDAHL - Andrew Hines said Sunday after winning the Pro Stock Motorcycle final of the Lucas Oil Nationals that his “head is on straight, unlike last year.”

psm_winner But, it wandered a little as he rode his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson through the water box. Jim Underdahl was in the other lane, prepared to grab some glory on the eve of the Countdown he had no chance of enjoying.

That’s when the memories flooded back to childhood.

“I grew up with Jim,” Hines said. He recalled riding dirt bikes with him in Colorado while Hines’ brother, three-time champion Matt Hines, tested his bike, along with Greg Underdahl, Jim’s dad and with Gary Tonglet, whose sons GT and LE race also race against him.

“His dad, he’s a smart guy. And I know he wants to whip me,” Hines, the No. 1 qualifier, said. “Hungry little guys like that, you can’t take them for granted. You never know what could happen.”

But for Jim Underdahl, it was hard to argue Sunday with Andrew Hines’ string of 6.9-second passes.

Underdog Underdahl joined Funny Car’s Bob Bode and Pro Stock’s Shane Gray as first-time finalists at Brainerd International Raceway, but Hines overwhelmed him in the end.

With a 6.941-second pass at 191.00 mph, Hines recorded his class-best fourth victory and 22nd overall. He also used the run to clinch the top berth in the Countdown, passing Hector Arana and accumulating 30 bonus points.

That puts him in the best position he could be in as the start of the six-race playoff looms Labor Day weekend at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis, just a mile or so from the Vance & Hines shop in Brownsburg, Ind.

Underdahl, riding the Extended Protection/Kymko Suzuki, countered with a 7.012-second elapsed time at 188.52 mph.

“He has Vance & Hines horsepower in that bike,” Hines said. “I’m really proud of how he’s doing.”

Hines had two words for the completion of his own dominating weekend: “Big win!”

As the trip to Brainerd approached, Hines - even though he had won convincingly at Denver - wasn’t so sure this is how it would turn out.

Wife Tanya, whom he called “a jewel,” had a tough but rewarding 48 hours, giving birth to their son Declan - their “perfectly healthy baby boy,” the proud second-time papa said - right after the Mopar Mile-High Nationals. That kept Hines out of the shop and out of the team’s decision-making loop. His crew would visit them at the hospital but didn’t talk bikes or Brainerd. They talked babies.

Hines was in capable hands, he knew, yet he was out of his routine. Then when he did get back to the shop, he said, he was just as confused, just as off-base. He walked in and saw motorcycle engine parts and pieces spread out on the workbenches and wondered if the six days they had were going to be enough to put six motors back together and get to the racetrack north of Minneapolis.

“Eddie and I drive motor homes,” he said, referring to teammate Eddie Krawiec. “We work to get here, work here, and work to get home.”

Despite not getting in a planned test, the weekend played out perfectly.

“Garnering No. 1 in the points - that’s a big swing. I’ve never gone into the Countdown No. 1, so this is a different scenario. It’s nice to be in this position,” Hines said.

“Three or four races ago, we were looking at the points. Hector had a 160-point lead. We just wrote it off that we weren’t going to make it there. But luck turned to our side. The motorcycle started performing better. Hector faltered a little bit, so we capitalized on it.

“Man, its‘ been a streak we’ve been on,” he said. “We didn’t have the best motorcycle in Denver but we won the race. We came here and we definitely had the best motorcycle. That’s a lot of pressure. Luckily I was able to keep my head cool. And I had some consistent lights today.”

He had no assurances as he watched the first round. His plan was to be consistent by choosing the final spot in the Sunday first-round lineup. That way he also could watch his rivals. What he saw made him a little edgy.

“It was crazy,” he said. He saw Underdahl advance over the wily Craig Treble, David Hope knock out hot-streaking Michael Phillips, Countdown-desperate Shawn Gann post a snoozy .229 light against Angie Smith, teammate Krawiec (with the team’s next-best motor) lose to Steve Johnson, and Joe DeSantis cut a perfect light to holeshot Matt Smith.

It has been a special time, Hines said, with his two victories of the year so far book ending the birth of his son. “Declan’s birth is pretty special,” he said, adding that someday he hopes this story will make his boy say, “I’m really proud of my dad.”

Missing, like Funny Car winner Bob Bode, from the NHRA media guide, Underdahl beat veteran Treble, hot Joe DeSantis fresh from his perfect light in the opening round to eliminate 2008 champion Matt Smith, and Mike Berry, the Colorado native seeking his career-first victory, too.

The 24-year-old Forest Lake, Minn., resident had a pretty experienced tuner - dad Greg, a longtime tour regular who reached three final rounds himself.

Hines first had to outrun another home state favorite, No. 16 qualifier Buddy Robinson, of Princeton Minn., Then he benefited from Hector Arana’s foul start that was just two-thousandths of a second too early and defeated eager Angie Smith, who had advanced to the semifinals for only the second time this season. He remained perfect against Underdahl in this fifth meeting.

Hines ran his elimination-round record to 24-7 this season and 220-105 overall, as he added to victories also at Houston and Atlanta.

“WE WANT CHAMPIONSHIP BACK” - Shane Gray laid another brick in the foundation of his rookie-of-the-year campaign at the Lucas Oil Nationals. However, Jeg Coughlin sent out another notice Sunday to the Pro Stock class at Brainerd International Raceway - he wants a fifth championship.

Coughlin, taking his Victor Cagnazzi-owned JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt to a third straight final round, posted a 6.614-second elapsed time at 208.04 mph to claim his fourth victory of the season when Gray jumped the gun by a mere one-thousandth of a second in the Tire Kingdom Pontiac GXP, lighting the red light for himself and the win light for Coughlin.

Gray's official numbers were 6.654 / 207.21.

“I feel a bit fortunate,” Coughlin said, “because we barely made it up there for the finals. I heard something odd with the motor in the semis, and that engine is probably our best. So, we didn't want to damage it. The guys thrashed and put our No. 3 motor in there for the final and we used up every bit of that 75 minutes between rounds to get up there and race Shane.”

He got his break when Gray red-lit. And he knew it.

“I do want to say that the Grays have done a phenomenal job this year,” Coughlin said. “And if Shane had been a couple thousands on the green side of the tree, he would have put away my yellow and black car, because I was dead late. Those are good guys over there, and they'll win plenty of races, I'm sure.”

This was Coughlin’s fourth victory on the BIR quarter-mile. He also won here in 1999, 2002, and 2007 and was runner-up in 2000. In addition, He left the North Woods with a Super Stock “Wally” in 1997.

“The mode we're in right now is to keep this momentum ... on into the Countdown to 1 playoffs,” Coughlin said. “The U.S. Nationals in Indy, the granddaddy of all drag races, is always a big event and this year, for the first time ever, it's the start of our playoffs.

“We came here off a great Western Swing, where we won in Sonoma and followed that up with a strong runner-up finish in Denver,” he said. “We were sky high and certainly thought we'd have more success with a brand-new engine from the shop. But after struggling a bit in qualifying and then analyzing all the data, we decided to go back to the motor we had in Sonoma and, boom that thing took us right to the top.

“We're now the closest we've been to the points leader all year. That's the way the Countdown goes. It's worked in our favor before and last year it worked against us. This year we probably wouldn't have had a chance to run for our sixth overall world title but now we will. So that's really exciting,” Coughlin said.

All that, he said, made it “imperative to use Brainerd as a springboard into those final six races. We want the championship back.”

He said his Roy Simmons-led team, not to mention his Cobalt, enjoys the sea-level tracks. That, Coughlin said, is “where we tend to run at our best. The [previous] race at sea level was Sonoma, and we won. Then we changed the entire car around for the Mile-High Nationals in Denver and still managed to make it to the finals. Now we're back down at sea level and ready to rock and roll.”

Silent or stumbling uncharacteristically for the past few weeks has been class leader Mike Edwards, the No. 1 qualifier who lost on a holeshot in the opening round Sunday to No. 16 Rodger Brogdon. Even in his losing effort, Edwards had the quickest and fastest run of the weekend (6.593-second E.T., 209.04 mph), so no one is counting him out, by any means - certainly not Coughlin.

ps_winner “I'm expecting all the top teams to step it up down the stretch, including Mike Edwards,” Sunday‘s winner said. “He's too good of a driver and that's too good of a team for them to stay down for long. But he's not the only one we've got to worry about. There are several teams capable of going the distance.

“We'll just stick to our game plan and run the car the way we know how to run it and see how it all shakes out. I like our chances,” Coughlin said, adding, “We'll need to keep those wins coming if we want to have a chance at the title.”

For Gray, who improved from eighth place to sixth, Sunday’s performance was delicious.

He had said Saturday night, “If we’re really, really lucky maybe we could win the race. We are so fortunate to have done as well and gotten as far as we have. So I’m not going to be greedy. If we do well and move up in points, it will just be icing on the cake.”

Buttercream? Chocolate? His call. He said he simply appreciates the calls that his team has made all season.

“Jim and Jon Yates have figured out what the car needs for the conditions and all the guy are doing a great job making the cars work. I’m the lucky one that gets to get behind the wheel and take it down the track,” he said after testing at Martin, Mich., on the way to BIR.

Said Gray, “Back in February, I was hoping to just qualify at half the races. So to be in the position we are now is fantastic. And making the Countdown was something you didn’t even talk or think about at that time. And now it’s here and it’s real. This is truly amazing and some of the most fun I’ve ever had.”

He said he considered this Brainerd race “the beginning of a new part of my year. I’m so lucky to have made the Countdown and by doing so, it’s taken some pressure off me. As far as I’m concerned, when we made the Countdown, we more than exceeded the goals we set for ourselves at the beginning of this year. We were focused so intensely on getting in the playoffs for so many weeks, that now I’m not worried about anything. Going into the Countdown, I have everything to gain and nothing to lose because I’m not even supposed to be there. I’m anxious to get in the Big O Tires car and have some fun.”

That’s what Coughlin, with his Chevy, was thinking, too.

All season, Larry Dixon has had no equal in the Top Fuel class.
Sunday was no different.

NINE WINS AND COUNTING - Dixon capped an incredible regular season by winning his ninth final round in as many appearances. This time, he beat Cory McClenathan to win the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd, Minn.

Dixon clocked a 3.786-second run at 312.28 mph, while Cory Mac was close behind at 3.810 seconds at 314.17 mph.

“In the final, the car blew up, but it made low et (elapsed time of the meet), so that was just an awesome job by the team,” said Dixon, who pilots the Al-Anabi Racing dragster. “Right when I lifted, it (the motor) popped, then I saw the win light and I saw the 78 on the board. They were set up and they weren’t taking Cory and the (Don) Schumacher team lightly.”

Dixon’s nine wins in nine tries ties an NHRA single-season record. John Force started the 1994 season with nine straight wins and Pro Stock Motorcycle standout Dave Schultz also had nine consecutive wins in ’94 as well.

“I feel fortunate,” said Dixon when asked about his nine wins in as many final round appearances. “We’ve won it so many different ways. We have smoked the tires and won a final that way. Another time we pedaled the car and other times we have ran all right. There are so many variables and you just have one hiccup and somebody else wins. I feel lucky that is straight up how I feel about it. I’ve had seasons where I haven’t won one race, so to have to a season where you have won nine, it is overwhelming. These races are so hard to win, especially at 1,000 foot.”

Dixon also won nine races in 14 final-round appearances during his 2002 Top Fuel championship season driving for Don Prudhomme.

As good as Dixon was against McClenathan, he actually barely made it out of the opening round. Dixon had some engine problems, but was able to get around Steve Torrence, who smoked the tires at 300 foot mark, and shut his car off.

“First round it put a cylinder out early and we were very fortunate that Dexter Tuttle’s team was having more trouble than we did,” said Dixon, who ran a 3.917-second elapsed time against Torrence. “We actually ended up with lane choice for the second round which was nice. Alan Johnson and Jason McCulloch kept working on the car and it kept getting better and better as the day went on.”

Following his win over Torrence, Dixon defeated Shawn Langdon and Doug Kalitta to set up his clash with Cory Mac.

With his Brainerd win, Dixon finished the 17-race regular season with 1,639 points, followed by McClenathan (1,359) and Tony Schumacher (1,346).

The Countdown to 1 playoffs begin at the U.S. Nationals Sept. 1-6 in Indianapolis. The points are reset with Dixon having 2,110 points, while Cory Mac and Schumacher have 2080 and 2070 points, respectively.

“We’re not going to have a different approach at all going into Indy,” Dixon said. “I’ve never been a No. 1 seed before, and I’m excited going into Indy. I’m not even thinking about the playoffs really, I’m thinking about Indy. That is such a big race in itself that you always want to try and do well there.”

There’s no question Dixon has had an amazing season, and he didn’t reveal any horsepower secrets his team may unveil in the Countdown to 1 playoffs.

“I would be the wrong person to ask,” Dixon said. “I have no idea. They give me the horse and I just try and ride it the best that I can.”

QUICK HITS – RACE DAY REPORTING IN RAPID FASHION

TOP FUEL

BERTH DECIDED EARLY – Dave Grubnic was in the driver’s seat in the race for the final Top Fuel berth in the Countdown to 1 championship battle. Terry grubnic McMillen wanted to be in the same spot. Only one round [20] points separated them.

Grubnic secured his spot with a first round win over Terry Haddock. McMillen, with a tougher draw, battled seven-time series champion Tony Schumacher tooth an nail to the finish line and lost.

However, for Grubnic, a mid-track hiccup nearly eliminated the Kalitta Motorsports driver.

“It always does that,” said Grubnic, admitting his heart skipped a beat during the run. “You just have to try and recover it. I was able to do it, and we got the win.

A RELUCTANT WINNER – Tony Schumacher felt badly about winning his first round match. On the losing end, Terry McMillen, a considerably lower budgeted racer, fell short of his bid to garner a Countdown to 1 playoff berth.

McMillen battled Schumacher to the stripe falling short with a 3.931 elapsed time. Schumacher’s 3.846 was .004 short of the first round low elapsed time.

After the run, Schumacher exited his dragster making a beeline for McMillen’s dragster.

“I just shook his hand,” said Schumacher. “I’ve been in so many of those big battles, and I just feel so bad. I never want to be the deciding factor in anything like that. They [McMillen’s team] battled and Grubnic needed it too. They are both good guys and I just wanted to sit back and watch it. But, it’s my job to go out and do what I do.”

WELCOME TO THE CLUB – Cory McClenathan had no idea who he beat to score his first career round win but he knew who was his 500th. In the second round of eliminations, the Fram-sponsored driver eliminated teammate Tony Schumacher to reach the milestone.

“To get 500 wins and to beat Tony Schumacher to get it is awesome,” McClenathan said. “My guys are the ones who deserved it, I’m just the guy who gets to step on the loud pedal. This is a big deal for us.”

LANGDON’S BIG BREAK – When you’re the piloting the event sponsor’s flagship ride, the one place you don’t want to be is a tenth behind at the eighth-mile mark. However, it's exactly where sophomore driver Shawn Langdon and his Lucas Oil dragster were in a first round match up against Steve Chrisman.

Despite leaving the line .12 of a second later than Chrisman, Langdon thundered by for the victory with a 4.175 to 4.154 victory.

“I was nervous,” Langdon recalled of the race. “[Teammate] Morgan [Lucas] went out in the first round and he was the defending event champion. It was left up to us and with [Lucas Oil owners] Forrest and Charlotte Lucas here … we wanted to win. As soon as I stepped on the throttle, I felt the thing shake and I probably got back onto it a little too early. It was natural reaction and it was just the right time. I heard him about half-track.”

OIL DOWN DELAYS – The first round of Top Fuel took over an hour to complete. The cause of the delay was three major oildowns.

FUNNY CAR

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES – Tony Pedregon scored an emotional victory at last season’s NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn. Pedregon was solidly in the Countdown to 1 program. On Sunday, he was fighting for his 2010 championship life.

tpedregon Pedregon needed to outlast Jeff Arend and his brother Cruz Pedregon for the tenth and final spot in the playoffs. However, his first round loss to the No. 3 qualifier Robert Hight reduced his chances to life support. Then Cruz lost to Bob Bode and the final threat, Arend, dropped his first round match to Tim Wilkerson.

“We just didn’t have the performance in the last four or five races,” Pedregon admitted. “It was pretty nerve wracking and you think you can control your emotions. You’d like to think you’re bigger than to get emotional.

“For the Kalitta guys and my brother Cruz, you have to have the right timing. If you go back in time, we earned it. We wrecked a car, blew up a couple of bodies and I just had to slow down and be careful with the spending. That may change and may not be the most competitive in the Countdown but it’s just that little glimmer of hope I have again.

“I don’t know that I have ever been so happy with losing first round.”

UPSETS GALORE – Of the eight first round winners, half came from the bottom half of the ladder.

HOT DIGGITY DOG – Paul Lee drew the top runner Ashley Force Hood in the first round of eliminations and most any time, this might signal an early trip home. However, with the unpredictability of Sunday’s eliminations, his upset of Force Hood followed the trend.

“That’s awesome,” said Lee. “We battle all weekend and broke some stuff. We’ll take the win any way we can get it. I was looking for that win light on the right side of the wall and it came on.”

Lee lost one round later to Tim Wilkerson.

THE DAY THAT ALMOST WASN’T – Jack Beckman’s blistering 4.057 established low elapsed time in the first round but it was almost the end of his day.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Beckman said after the impressive victory. “I was about to blink. That must have been the long tree. I didn’t know if Del left on me, but there was a lot of clutch dust inside of the car. It moved around a little on the run but then it stuck.”

GIVING CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE – Ray Charles likely had no idea his name would become so popular in drag racing. But, for Jim Head, the late singing legend is his inspiration and admittedly his “co-pilot”.

Head defeated Ron Capps and Matt Hagan in the first two rounds to reach his second semi-final during the 2010 season. He later lost to eventual winner Jack Beckman.

Thanks to Ray Charles, Head’s admitted co-pilot, he was able to navigate his way to the later rounds.

“I just thanked Ray because without him, I couldn’t have done this today,” Head said with a smile. “I think by the end of the season you will see more cars with Ray Charles on them.”

SOMETHING BROKE – Something broke on his Diehard Funny Car and that’s about all that could stop No. 2 qualifier Matt Hagan who was on a tear during Sunday’s eliminations.

Hagan drove past Dale Creasy in the opening round while posting the second-quickest pass of the weekend. He then fell to Jim Head when an oddball mechanical glitch surfaced in the quarterfinal round.

"Basically there's an apparatus that we have on the injector and the throttle cable that limits the RPM in the burnout,” said crew chief Tommy Delago. “It's stuff that's been here at DSR since we've been here and all the cars have them. In a fluky incident, it decided to spin around when the throttle blades were open during the burnout and when Matt shut the blades after the burnout it got wedged in between the injector and the throttle arm. It held the blades open so the idle was really high and made them drag the clutch and get too much heat in it, and that makes it too aggressive and screws everything up."

HAPPY NO MATTER WHAT - Robert Hight came up one point shy of John Force and will ultimately go into the first race of the Countdown 30 points behind the winningest driver in NHRA history. Force was on the starting line for the second round match-up and while his points lead hung in the balance there was no doubt where Force’s rooting passion was directed.

“Would I have been happy if Robert was No. 1? Without a doubt. What I was focusing on in Brainerd was winning this race. When Ashley and I got beat the only one left was Robert. What you have to look at is would you rather have a few points going into the Countdown, a round, over the chance of winning $50,000 here when you have a car that is still in the game. You know what I mean? Do you think I was hoping he was going to get beat? I’ll be honest I have never hoped for one of my cars get beat ever. Not even when they are racing me. Those words will never come out of my lips,” said Force.

PRO STOCK

THE TENTH AND FINAL SPOT – Rodger Brogdon entered the final day of the event knowing he had to at least win a round and hope Kurt brogdon_clinches Johnson didn’t win the event to make the playoffs. If this scenario had happened, Johnson held the tiebreaker for the final Countdown to 1 spot.

Brogdon qualified in the No. 16 spot and drew the unfortunate pairing against 11-time 2010 winner and No. 1 qualifier Mike Edwards. The playoff hopeful strapped .07 on the champion and led him all the way past the finish line.

“Making the Countdown was one of our goals,” Brogdon confirmed. “We wanted to get into the K&N Shootout and that’s another one of our goals we pulled off. We limped into the Countdown but took our fate into our hands and made it happen.”

UPSETS GALORE – Just like Funny Car, Pro Stock had four of the eight winners in the first round come from the bottom half of the ladder. The most shocking came from Mike Edwards, who recorded low elapsed time [6.593] and still fell short of the finish line.

THIS IS NOT HIS PLACE – Edwards run of bad fortunes at Brainerd International Raceway is nothing new. He’s raced at BIR 11 times and won only six rounds of competition.

FAMILY FEUD – Greg Anderson continued his mastery of brother-in-law Ronnie Humphrey. In the first round, Anderson left on Humphrey and won his seventh race between them.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

ON A MISSION - Perseverance paid dividends for Angie Smith Sunday as she drove Karl and Kim Klement’s Coffman Tank Trucks Pro Stock DSA_2683 V-Twin into the semifinals of the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway.

It was her second semifinal of the season. The performance was unexpected and contained a bit of drama along the way. She also finished 13th in the regular season standings.

“I’m tickled to death to have had such a good day,” Smith said. “My crew worked hard to help make this happen.”

After qualifying 12th, Smith began eliminations with a victory over slow-starting Shawn Gann. She had a .046-second reaction to Gann’s .229 and lit the win light in 7.097 seconds at 179.92 mph. Gann followed at 7.023, 186.77.

“We broke our motor on that run,” Smith pointed out, “and we had to hurry to make sure we made it to the starting line in time for the second round. “We got ready and got to the staging lanes just as the last pair of Pro Stock cars ran. We were the next pair to run.”

All of the intensity of getting there didn’t affect her performance against Steve Johnson. She left first and stayed in front throughout the quarter-mile, winning with a 7.027 at 184.75 to a 7.102 at 182.

In the semifinals against Andrew Hines, Smith had a slight advantage off the line (.029 to .039), but it became a moot point when the transmission didn’t shift, forcing her to shut off. He ran 6.928 at 191.13 to her coasting 9.033 at 97.28.

“I wish we could’ve raced him, but he ran well all day.” Hines went on to win the event.

MORE UPSETS – Five of the eight bottom half qualifiers advanced to the second round of eliminations. Amongst the Countdown runners sent packing early: Eddie Krawiec, Matt Smith, Craig Treble, LE Tonglet and Michael Philips.

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SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - SECOND DAY BRINGS INTERESTING RACE DAY SCENARIOS

EDWARDS: I’M NOT THE MAN ANY MORE - For a man who had just claimed his 11th No. 1 qualifier of the season, NHRA Pro Stock racer Mike Edwards was anything but brimming with confidence.

Edwards, the defending series champion from Coweta, Ok., ran a 6.644 elapsed time at 207.45 miles per hour to edge out championship contender Allen Johnson for the top spot at the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn.

“We’re definitely not in front of the game,” Edwards cautioned. “We were just fortunate to make a real good run earlier today. I’m not the man any more, I am just trying to hold on and compete as good as I can. There’s a lot of cars out here that are faster than us right now.”

Edwards is adamant his team hasn’t been testing and as much as he regrets to admit, the competition has caught him.

“We haven’t been testing, but we have been tinkering,” admitted Edwards. “We tinkered some in Seattle and a couple of things in Sonoma. We didn’t do anything in Denver. That Mopar just kicked the you know what out of us. He’s extremely fast and in my estimation, the car to beat.”

Johnson led Brainerd qualifying after Friday’s lone session but in the opening on Saturday, Edwards assumed the role of leader.

“He’s got the car to beat, actually,” Edwards continued. “All of the teams out there are the ones to beat but Johnson is definitely faster than us. I think there are seven or eight cars out here that can win the championship.”

Edwards has won eight times this season with the last one coming in June at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn.

“We’ve won a lot of races and only dominated twice,” We’ve won some races here and there. We are in for a dogfight and I don’t know whether we can hold or not, but we are sure going to try.”

With that said, Edwards believes the rest of the season will be a treat for Pro Stock fans.

“The next seven or eight races will be a treat for the fans, I promise you,” Edwards said. “It will be exciting, I promise you.”

VENABLES: A YEAR LATER – One year ago, on this same weekend, longtime nitro crew chief Dickie Venables felt the best situation for him was to take a trip to his favorite fishing hole. He’d just resigned his position as crew chief for the points leading Funny Car driver Tony Pedregon and hadn’t settled on a future plan.

Fishing was the escape he needed to clear his head enough to make the right decision for his future. A year later, Venables is grateful for a relaxing day of casting and reeling.

He, and assistant crew chief Kurt Elliott, are coming up on their one year anniversary tuning the Al Anabi Funny Car driven by Del Worsham, managed by tuning legend Alan Johnson.

“It certainly worked out for Kurt and myself,” said Venables. “It worked out for Tony. We couldn’t be happier to be able to come to a deal like this, with all the resources. I feel very fortunate.”

When the phone rings off the hook with job offers, it’s bound to make even the most seasoned veteran smile.

“It did wonders for my confidence,” Venables admitted. “After leaving Tony, there were a couple of weeks where I had time to think. I was beginning to wonder if I had made the right decision. After a couple days, the phone started ringing. I just had too much time to think. I had several deals to pick from.”

Having time to think allows for second guessing, however having Elliott at his side helped him to weigh his options carefully.

“Kurt had worked with Alan before,” Venables said. “He had always told me how much he enjoyed working with Alan and how he ran his programs. He couldn’t be more right.”

Venables brims with excitement at the opportunity he’s been given since joining the Al Anabi group.

“We’ve got everything we need right now,” he said. “We’ve got Alan. To me he’s the best guy out here. How could you go wrong? It was an easy decision for me.”

Even though he’s now in what he deems a great place, Venables admits the transition hasn’t been without challenge. His talents were enough to put him and his previous driver atop the playoff seeding last season but adjusting to a new combination with the Alan Johnson-managed team forced him to learn a host of new tricks.

He’s confident the toughest part of the curriculum is behind him.

“It has been a crazy year, it has,” admitted Venables. “We’ve been playing catch up. The performance hasn’t happened as fast as we’d like. It’s coming together really good and I feel good about this being the last race before the Countdown to 1. Going into Indy, we’ve put it right on the edge. We’ve got a good car. It just took a lot longer than we expected. All of these things are different and we’ve just been picking away at it. It looks like we are finally getting there.”

The learning part hasn’t discouraged Venables in the least. He believes this is a valuable part of the occupation. If you’re not willing to learn and be taught, the road can be a rocky one, filled with potholes.

“I’ve always approached being a crew chief as a never ending learning process,” Venables said. “I’ve been very fortunate to work with good people in my career. Alan is another one to learn a whole lot from.”

Venables learned a lot from Johnson when it came time to abandon the combination he’s learned and developed while working for Pedregon. He had to learn a completely different combination than he’d been previously accustomed.

“All you know is what you have done in the past,” Venables said. “We tried to run this car like we ran Tony’s car for a long time. Finally, we drew the conclusion that was not going to work. For whatever reason, it doesn’t matter. The funny thing is I don’t think I could take Tony’s car and run it like I used to. Everything changes out here and you have to adapt. You can’t keep going back to what you used to do. You have to be able to adapt. You have to do what the car is telling you.

“It has been a learning curve and I think I am finally up on it.”

Venables says time off can be refreshing for a crew chief, however it can also put him behind the eight ball.

“You can talk to some of the guys out here and if you miss a few races, a couple months or so, it can get away from you,” admitted Venables. “You have to be around the car all of the time. It’s always changing. When you think you’ve mastered it, it will remind you that its boss.”

And for the other boss, Venables is firm in his belief that the way you leave an employer can either come back to you in a positive way or a negative. He refused to participate in any negativity over his split with Pedregon.

“A valuable lesson is to never burn a bridge,” Venables said. “This is a small community and you never know where you are going to end up. Never burn bridges.

“I only want to know how these cars run. I don’t care about driving. I just want to know what makes them go fast and win. I’m always looking at how can I make myself better. It’s all about being around the right people and I have it here.”

THE SILENT THUNDER - While all the attention this past week has been on his Countdown-hopeful teammates and even crew chief Jim Oberhofer for his newly learned ballroom dancing skills, Top Fuel veteran Doug Kalitta quietly stole the show in his camp and in his class at Brainerd International Raceway.

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Kalitta pulled off a 3.842-second pass at 305.49 mph in the Technicoat Dragster and will line up first in Sunday’s Lucas Oil Nationals against Luigi Novelli. And, he said that’s all the farther ahead he’s looking.

Although he locked into the Countdown several races ago, the Ann Arbor, Mich., resident said, “I’m definitely focused on this race here. We’ll just take one round at a time throughout the year and hope for the best. I feel good about tomorrow. Jim Oberhofer and Troy (Fasching) and all my guys have been working real hard at this thing. We’re hoping to do well tomorrow, hopefully win the race and build some momentum. We’re locked into the chase.”

After earning his second No. 1 qualifying position of the year and 30th of his career, Kalitta predicted Sunday conditions would make for some outstanding racing.

“We managed to get down the track both lanes today, so I think the track’s pretty even. Looks like there’s some rain moving in tonight, but I think tomorrow’s supposed to be a little bit cooler. The fans are going to be in for a treat with performances tomorrow. It should be an interesting day,” he said.

Saturday’s chart-topping run, which nudged out Friday provisional leader Brandon Bernstein in the first Saturday session, was a splendid gift for new associate sponsor Optima Batteries, which recently announced its NHRA sponsorship and partnership with Kalitta Motorsports.

Kalitta noted that his car has carried livery for Rocky Boots, Kalitta Air, and longtime partner Technicoat and said, “We’re real proud to have those guys.”

Brainerd has been hospitable to his family.

“[Team owner/uncle] Connie [Kalitta] won this thing back in ‘85. And we’ve had some luck here,” he said, modestly referring to his own two victories at BIR in 2003 and 2005. And he indicated he’d like to break that five-year Minnesota drought and register his second consecutive victory.

“We’ve been fortunate to win here a couple of times with my car. This is always one of the places we like coming to. The fans are great. It’s just a nice area,” he said.

For Top Fuel teammate Dave Grubnic, Sunday promises to remain a nail-biter. Now that Steve Torrence secured the class’ ninth berth in the Countdown, only one more spot remains setting up a tug-of-war between Grubnic and Terry McMillen. To be eligible to compete for the championship, Grubnic must advance at least as far as McMillen.

Grubnic appears to have the easier path to the final Countdown spot. Grubnic is matched in the opening round with Terry Haddock, and McMillen will meet Tony Schumacher.

Jeff Arend, Kalitta’s Funny Car teammate, remains alive in his struggle against Tony Pedregon and Cruz Pedregon, the current champion who still has a remote mathematical chance to crack the top 10.

In the meantime, Doug Kalitta -- despite the roar of a 7,000-horsepower motor -- will go about his business quietly.

YOUNGER NOBILE MAKES NOBLE ATTEMPT - John Nobile is noted for being pretty wound up at the racetrack.

But the veteran Pro Stock racer and IHRA champion said he’s “really excited” about watching his 18-year-old son navigate the minefield that is the factory hot rod class.

Vincent Nobile took his father’s new Ford Mustang out for a spin this weekend at the Lucas Oil Nationals. And the newcomer from Dix Hills, N.Y., was impressive even with a DNQ on the Brainerd quarter-mile.

Young Vincent will have to wait to give a performance to compare to his father’s animated style, for the younger Nobile said he didn’t think he would be quite as rambunctious as his dad “but if I qualify, I might get pretty excited like him.”

He was 21st of 22 entrants, with a 6.761-second elapsed time at 204.11. He was .069 of a second slower than Rodger Brogdon, who took the 16th and final spot in the order (at 6.692 / 205.41) in his effort to clinch Pro Stock’s final spot for the Countdown.

Nevertheless, Vincent Nobile's father gave him high marks for his NHRA debut.

“He does a good job driving,” John Nobile said. “As green as he is, he’s out there driving as well as anybody I know. He shifts on time. He’s awesome on the tree - he’s absolutely phenomenal on the tree. If we can get him qualified, I think he’d be a threat. I really do.”

Vincent Nobile, who has some Top Sportsman passes under his belt, made his Pro Stock debut July 9 at a Mountain Motor Pro Stock Association event at Martin, Mich.

“That was a good experience,” he said. “I got to qualify. I got to run one round of competition. I knew I wasn’t going to win first round. But it was fun.”

Hardest, he said, is “overcoming my nerves.” Other than that, he said, he’s fine. “My dad taught me well, I guess.”

At Brainerd International Raceway, the nerves acted up a bit.

“I was pretty nervous. Right before the burnout box, I had so many butterflies in my stomach. But once I did the burnout it was all good,” he said.

He settled down fast because he knew all the procedures and had a really good idea what to expect. Like Kurt Johnson and Billy Glidden and Rickie Jones and Shane Gray, Nobile learned his craft at home.

“I watched my dad for 18 years, for my whole life. I learned everything from him and followed in his footsteps. I was born at the racetrack. I grew up at the racetrack.

“Since the beginning I always asked questions. I was always curious. I always wanted to learn. Every race I learned something new.”

The idea of bringing Vincent to the Lucas Oil Nationals was “both of our ideas,” the teenager said. Both he and his dad said this doesn’t at all mean that John Nobile is ready to hang up his fire suit.

A two-car team, Vincent said, is a possibility “if we get a sponsor. We need a sponsor.”

Said his father, “It’s all about the money. I’d eventually love to run a two-car team. That’s juts about the money. For right now, I’m having more fun watching him.”

The younger Nobile also didn’t rule out someday having to arm-wrestle his dad for the race car. “I don’t know. Maybe. We might,” he said jokingly.

NOT YOUR AVERAGE FISHING TALE - Both of Jack Beckman’s grandfathers were fishermen, but “clearly that skips two generations - I just don’t have that gene,” he said. To the Funny Car driver, a pole is a body pole, a line is the starting or finish stripe, and hook refers to the grip of the racing surface. “Bait” is something he wouldn’t do to, say, fellow drag-racing instructor Roy Hill.

Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan was going on a trip in American’s northern fishing paradise - Minnesota - this past week. Beckman said, “I thought, ‘Man, that would be cool.’ ” But then he thought, “I’d kind of rather not,” followed by, “Well, I’d better.”

He shook off any misgivings - couldn’t disappoint his fisherman-extraordinaire boss Schumacher - and found himself in a boat with wife Jenna, three-year-old son Jason, and a handful of other adventurous souls. They included Top Fuel driver Terry McMillen, his Amalie Oil Dragster team members Jim Walczak and Cori Wickler, and ESPN cameraman Matt Ilas and pit producer Trevor Towle.

And Jason Beckman, using a junior-sized pole and casting his line for the first time in his life, out-fished them all.

“That is a fact,” McMillen said. “Little Jason went out there and just tore us up. It was his first time ever fishing! I began to wonder if the ESPN guys weren’t swimming under the boat, putting fish on his hook!”

Jason’s fishing-impaired dad said, “He caught 16 fish, more than both of us combined. He named them all Bah-Bah and threw them back in the water.”

Luckily, diverting attention away from the grown-ups’ rout by a pre-schooler, was a spectacle involving a bald eagle.

“All of a sudden we see these bald eagles soar and a couple diving at another one,” Beckman said. “We were with Matt Ilas, the ESPN cameraman, who might be the world’s most intelligent person - he knows all the waterway navigational laws - and all of a sudden we saw one go into the water. He said, ‘I’m pretty sure once they go in the water, they’re screwed. They can’t generate enough lift with wet wings.’ And sure enough, this thing can’t get out of the water.

“So we called back to where we got the boat rental and they said they’d dispatch somebody. I’ve got that animal-rescuer type of mentality,” Beckman said, “but I’m thinking, ‘I’m not quite sure how you rescue an eagle!’ I thought we’ll stay close to it. If goes underwater, we have this little rectangular plastic platform. And I’ll try to get that under the eagle. And after it claws my eyes out, I’ll float until the boat comes and gets me again.

“Then this thing starts swimming,“ he said. “And the only way to describe it is it looks exactly like it’s doing the butterfly stroke. He would keep his head out of the water, stroke his wings like arms, and I swear the thing swam 700 foot plus and made it to shore. We have it on tape, so its not a fishing tale!”

McMillen backed him up.

“It was the most unique thing you’ll ever see,” the Elkhart, Ind., driver said. “To watch this guy swimming to shore ... And the other birds kept attacking it ... “He said the eagle made it to the shore, shook off the excess water, and flew up into a tree, where it sat for about five minutes, then went on its way.

As they went on theirs, they knew they had just participated in the experience of a lifetime.

For Beckman, it was another lesson in fatherhood. Mindful not to expose his son only to the things he himself is interested in, he said it was a special reminder to try something out of the ordinary.

He said, “It’s cool for me to see Jason’s reaction to something new.”

A recap of the adventure is scheduled for a segment on ESPN2’s Sunday morning NHRA “Race Day” news magazine show that airs at 10 a.m. ET.

THROWING OUT ALL OF THE STOPS - Jeff Arend and the Kalitta Motorsports Funny Car team pulled out all of the stops headed into this weekend’s NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn.

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Arend, along with brothers Cruz and Tony Pedregon, all have mathematical chances of qualifying for the NHRA’s Countdown to 1. Only one will leave this weekend’s event with the berth.

The Kalitta Motorsports team wants the spot so bad they were willing to make wholesale changes to the car following the Summit Raceway Park Night Under Fire match race event two weeks ago.

“We made the decision to front half the car after the event,” said Arend, who ran a pair of 4.19 elapsed times before smoking the tires twice. “The car had a lot of runs on it. We brought it to [chassis builder] Murf [McKinney] on Tuesday and it was ready to go by Friday.”

The team reassembled the refurbished car and tested on Tuesday at O’Reilly Raceway Park. They were able to get in five test runs before headed to Brainerd for this weekend’s event.

Arend admits in a roundabout way this was their shot at “going for broke”.

“We have some pretty smart guys working on this car and it just hadn’t been repeatable,” Arend said. “We had one variable with a [style of] chassis that no one else runs. Once a car gets about 70 or 80 runs on them, you want to front half them anyway.”

Maybe Arend believed they had pushed the chassis as far as it could go.

“This one had probably about 200 runs on it,” he admitted. “We changed it over to a slip-tube design and it appears to be working fine.”

Arend concluded qualifying as eighth quickest with a 4.165. He was three spots behind Cruz Pedregon and eight spots ahead of Tony Pedregon.

Another added dimension to Arend’s efforts has been the “alliance” with the Al Anabi Racing team Funny Car driven by his former boss Del Worsham. Even though they run different combinations, there is common ground beneficial to the two teams.

“We’ll look at their runs and they’ll look at ours … it’s great to have crew chiefs able to talk,” Arend said. “The more guys you have talking about it. The better off you’re going to be.”

And because of that, Arend likes his chances.

HINES ADDS TO THE LORE FOR HIS SONS - Andrew Hines will have a wonderful story to tell son Declan one of these days.

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Declan joined brother Rion with his birth during the break between Hines’ victory at Denver and his No. 1 qualifying position at Brainerd.

“It’s a great way to bring our new baby boy into the world, winning the Denver race right before he’s born, qualifying No. 1 right after he’s born,” Hines said after recording his first top spot of the season but 27th of his career.

The Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson rider used a track-record 6.915 elapsed time to erase Hector Arana’s year-old 6.944. It also cemented his No. 1 spot, improving his own performance by six-hundredths of a second. He was the provisional No, 1 qualifier Friday.

But Saturday afternoon’s speed - an eye-opening 193.40 mph - woke up even Hines.

“That was a fast run. I didn’t think it’d be that quick,” he said. “But weather conditions didn’t really change much from the first round [Saturday]. We had less of a side wind, so that might have been the difference. Everybody picked up some.

“Matt Smith picked up pretty good, and he was right in front of me and when he was going down the track, I’m like, ’He’s going No. 1,’ “ Hines said. But he said he knew otherwise “as soon as I popped the clutch and felt my bike leave.”

Smith will start second Sunday.

“This is really good conditions for Brainerd - nice and dry out there today, way more dry than yesterday. Our V-Rod loves this kind of air.”

Some of Hines’ improvement comes from his Brownsburg, Ind., shop, too, he said.

“Luckily we’ve been able to find a little bit of performance over the last couple of weeks, tearing apart all our engines. We didn’t do any dyno work, but we knew what needed to happen. We had some things that were getting a little tight in the motor. We had to loosen those up a little bit,” he said.

“We never did change motors today, because the bike was running so well,” Hines said. “It’s probably the combination we want. We started off the weekend with the right one.”

He is scheduled to race favorite native son Buddy Robinson, of Princeton Minn., and his Suzuki in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations.

Hines said he hopes this momentum spills over into the Countdown races and the data the team has accumulated in the past couple of weeks should be helpful.

“I think we can push a lot of it into Indy. This is a big stepping stone for our Countdown this year,” he said, adding, “hopefully one of these V-Rods will win the championship this year.”

Krawiec qualified fourth and will meet Steve Johnson in the first round.

Hines said, “The engine combination in each bike is a little different. It looks like mine has worked a little better. So we’ll throw my spare motor into Eddie’s bike for tomorrow and send him down the track - hopefully it will be a rocket ship, just like mine.”

The bottom line for Hines is that he is back at the top of the order for the first time in 29 races.

“I don’t know when our last for the team was,” he said. It was Eddie Krawiec’s Dallas 2009 effort last Sept. 26. His own was last June 27 at Norwalk, Ohio.

“It’s nice to qualify No. 1. It’s been a long time,” Hines said, adding that 2004 and 2005 “were dream years, qualifying No. 1 eight and nine times. That was fun. It really means a lot to qualify No. 1, to see your name at the top of the sheet.”

Hines won just days before son Rion’s Aug. 24 birthdays in 2005 and 2006 at Memphis. Now he has a perfect story, too, for son Declan to brag about.

THIS TIME SHE STAYS NO. 1 - Ashley Force Hood heads into Sunday’s final eliminations as the No. 1 seed in the Funny Car division. Her Friday night provisional No. 1 qualifying pass of 4.102 seconds stood throughout a warmer second day of qualifying at the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn.

Force Hood, who won last season’s final event of the regular season in Indianapolis, was looking at an even brighter side of her good fortunes headed into Sunday.

“We don’t have to run any of our teammates in the first round,” said Force Hood, who claimed eight of the nine available bonus qualifying points. “That is a different way to start the race. It seems like almost every race this season we have raced either my dad (John Force), Robert (Hight) or (Tim) Wilkerson in the first round. I don’t know who I have but I don’VENABLES: A YEAR LATER – One year ago, on this same weekend, longtime nitro crew chief Dickie Venables felt the best situation for him was to take a trip to his favorite fishing hole. He’d just resigned his position as crew chief for the points leading Funny Car driver Tony Pedregon and hadn’t settled on a future plan.

Fishing was the escape he needed to clear his head enough to make the right decision for his future. A year later, Venables is grateful for a relaxing day of casting and reeling.

He, and assistant crew chief Kurt Elliott, are coming up on their one year anniversary tuning the Al Anabi Funny Car driven by Del Worsham, managed by tuning legend Alan Johnson.

“It certainly worked out for Kurt and myself,” said Venables. “It worked out for Tony. We couldn’t be happier to be able to come to a deal like this, with all the resources. I feel very fortunate.”

When the phone rings off the hook with job offers, it’s bound to make even the most seasoned veteran smile.

“It did wonders for my confidence,” Venables admitted. “After leaving Tony, there were a couple of weeks where I had time to think. I was beginning to wonder if I had made the right decision. After a couple days, the phone started ringing. I just had too much time to think. I had several deals to pick from.”

Having time to think allows for second guessing, however having Elliott at his side helped him to weigh his options carefully.

“Kurt had worked with Alan before,” Venables said. “He had always told me how much he enjoyed working with Alan and how he ran his programs. He couldn’t be more right.”

Venables brims with excitement at the opportunity he’s been given since joining the Al Anabi group.

“We’ve got everything we need right now,” he said. “We’ve got Alan. To me he’s the best guy out here. How could you go wrong? It was an easy decision for me.”

Even though he’s now in what he deems a great place, Venables admits the transition hasn’t been without challenge. His talents were enough to put him and his previous driver atop the playoff seeding last season but adjusting to a new combination with the Alan Johnson-managed team forced him to learn a host of new tricks.

He’s confident the toughest part of the curriculum is behind him.

“It has been a crazy year, it has,” admitted Venables. “We’ve been playing catch up. The performance hasn’t happened as fast as we’d like. It’s coming together really good and I feel good about this being the last race before the Countdown to 1. Going into Indy, we’ve put it right on the edge. We’ve got a good car. It just took a lot longer than we expected. All of these things are different and we’ve just been picking away at it. It looks like we are finally getting there.”

The learning part hasn’t discouraged Venables in the least. He believes this is a valuable part of the occupation. If you’re not willing to learn and be taught, the road can be a rocky one, filled with potholes.

“I’ve always approached being a crew chief as a never ending learning process,” Venables said. “I’ve been very fortunate to work with good people in my career. Alan is another one to learn a whole lot from.”

Venables learned a lot from Johnson when it came time to abandon the combination he’s learned and developed while working for Pedregon. He had to learn a completely different combination than he’d been previously accustomed.

“All you know is what you have done in the past,” Venables said. “We tried to run this car like we ran Tony’s car for a long time. Finally, we drew the conclusion that was not going to work. For whatever reason, it doesn’t matter. The funny thing is I don’t think I could take Tony’s car and run it like I used to. Everything changes out here and you have to adapt. You can’t keep going back to what you used to do. You have to be able to adapt. You have to do what the car is telling you.

“It has been a learning curve and I think I am finally up on it.”

Venables says time off can be refreshing for a crew chief, however it can also put him behind the eight ball.

“You can talk to some of the guys out here and if you miss a few races, a couple months or so, it can get away from you,” admitted Venables. “You have to be around the car all of the time. It’s always changing. When you think you’ve mastered it, it will remind you that its boss.”

And for the other boss, Venables is firm in his belief that the way you leave an employer can either come back to you in a positive way or a negative. He refused to participate in any negativity over his split with Pedregon.

“A valuable lesson is to never burn a bridge,” Venables said. “This is a small community and you never know where you are going to end up. Never burn bridges.

“I only want to know how these cars run. I don’t care about driving. I just want to know what makes them go fast and win. I’m always looking at how can I make myself better. It’s all about being around the right people and I have it here.”

THE SILENT THUNDER - While all the attention this past week has been on his Countdown-hopeful teammates and even crew chief Jim Oberhofer for his newly learned ballroom dancing skills, Top Fuel veteran Doug Kalitta quietly stole the show in his camp and in his class at Brainerd International Raceway.

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Declan joined brother Rion with his birth during the break between Hines’ victory at Denver and his No. 1 qualifying position at Brainerd.

“It’s a great way to bring our new baby boy into the world, winning the Denver race right before he’s born, qualifying No. 1 right after he’s born,” Hines said after recording his first top spot of the season but 27th of his career.

The Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson rider used a track-record 6.915 elapsed time to erase Hector Arana’s year-old 6.944. It also cemented his No. 1 spot, improving his own performance by six-hundredths of a second. He was the provisional No, 1 qualifier Friday.

But Saturday afternoon’s speed - an eye-opening 193.40 mph - woke up even Hines.

“That was a fast run. I didn’t think it’d be that quick,” he said. “But weather conditions didn’t really change much from the first round [Saturday]. We had less of a side wind, so that might have been the difference. Everybody picked up some.

“Matt Smith picked up pretty good, and he was right in front of me and when he was going down the track, I’m like, ’He’s going No. 1,’ “ Hines said. But he said he knew otherwise “as soon as I popped the clutch and felt my bike leave.”

Smith will start second Sunday.

“This is really good conditions for Brainerd - nice and dry out there today, way more dry than yesterday. Our V-Rod loves this kind of air.”

Some of Hines’ improvement comes from his Brownsburg, Ind., shop, too, he said.

“Luckily we’ve been able to find a little bit of performance over the last couple of weeks, tearing apart all our engines. We didn’t do any dyno work, but we knew what needed to happen. We had some things that were getting a little tight in the motor. We had to loosen those up a little bit,” he said.

“We never did change motors today, because the bike was running so well,” Hines said. “It’s probably the combination we want. We started off the weekend with the right one.”

He is scheduled to race favorite native son Buddy Robinson, of Princeton Minn., and his Suzuki in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations.

Hines said he hopes this momentum spills over into the Countdown races and the data the team has accumulated in the past couple of weeks should be helpful.

“I think we can push a lot of it into Indy. This is a big stepping stone for our Countdown this year,” he said, adding, “hopefully one of these V-Rods will win the championship this year.”

VENABLES: A YEAR LATER – One year ago, on this same weekend, longtime nitro crew chief Dickie Venables felt the best situation for him was to take a trip to his favorite fishing hole. He’d just resigned his position as crew chief for the points leading Funny Car driver Tony Pedregon and hadn’t settled on a future plan.

Fishing was the escape he needed to clear his head enough to make the right decision for his future. A year later, Venables is grateful for a relaxing day of casting and reeling.

He, and assistant crew chief Kurt Elliott, are coming up on their one year anniversary tuning the Al Anabi Funny Car driven by Del Worsham, managed by tuning legend Alan Johnson.

“It certainly worked out for Kurt and myself,” said Venables. “It worked out for Tony. We couldn’t be happier to be able to come to a deal like this, with all the resources. I feel very fortunate.”

When the phone rings off the hook with job offers, it’s bound to make even the most seasoned veteran smile.

“It did wonders for my confidence,” Venables admitted. “After leaving Tony, there were a couple of weeks where I had time to think. I was beginning to wonder if I had made the right decision. After a couple days, the phone started ringing. I just had too much time to think. I had several deals to pick from.”

Having time to think allows for second guessing, however having Elliott at his side helped him to weigh his options carefully.

“Kurt had worked with Alan before,” Venables said. “He had always told me how much he enjoyed working with Alan and how he ran his programs. He couldn’t be more right.”

Venables brims with excitement at the opportunity he’s been given since joining the Al Anabi group.

“We’ve got everything we need right now,” he said. “We’ve got Alan. To me he’s the best guy out here. How could you go wrong? It was an easy decision for me.”

Even though he’s now in what he deems a great place, Venables admits the transition hasn’t been without challenge. His talents were enough to put him and his previous driver atop the playoff seeding last season but adjusting to a new combination with the Alan Johnson-managed team forced him to learn a host of new tricks.

He’s confident the toughest part of the curriculum is behind him.

“It has been a crazy year, it has,” admitted Venables. “We’ve been playing catch up. The performance hasn’t happened as fast as we’d like. It’s coming together really good and I feel good about this being the last race before the Countdown to 1. Going into Indy, we’ve put it right on the edge. We’ve got a good car. It just took a lot longer than we expected. All of these things are different and we’ve just been picking away at it. It looks like we are finally getting there.”

The learning part hasn’t discouraged Venables in the least. He believes this is a valuable part of the occupation. If you’re not willing to learn and be taught, the road can be a rocky one, filled with potholes.

“I’ve always approached being a crew chief as a never ending learning process,” Venables said. “I’ve been very fortunate to work with good people in my career. Alan is another one to learn a whole lot from.”

Venables learned a lot from Johnson when it came time to abandon the combination he’s learned and developed while working for Pedregon. He had to learn a completely different combination than he’d been previously accustomed.

“All you know is what you have done in the past,” Venables said. “We tried to run this car like we ran Tony’s car for a long time. Finally, we drew the conclusion that was not going to work. For whatever reason, it doesn’t matter. The funny thing is I don’t think I could take Tony’s car and run it like I used to. Everything changes out here and you have to adapt. You can’t keep going back to what you used to do. You have to be able to adapt. You have to do what the car is telling you.

“It has been a learning curve and I think I am finally up on it.”

Venables says time off can be refreshing for a crew chief, however it can also put him behind the eight ball.

“You can talk to some of the guys out here and if you miss a few races, a couple months or so, it can get away from you,” admitted Venables. “You have to be around the car all of the time. It’s always changing. When you think you’ve mastered it, it will remind you that its boss.”

And for the other boss, Venables is firm in his belief that the way you leave an employer can either come back to you in a positive way or a negative. He refused to participate in any negativity over his split with Pedregon.

“A valuable lesson is to never burn a bridge,” Venables said. “This is a small community and you never know where you are going to end up. Never burn bridges.

“I only want to know how these cars run. I don’t care about driving. I just want to know what makes them go fast and win. I’m always looking at how can I make myself better. It’s all about being around the right people and I have it here.”

THE SILENT THUNDER - While all the attention this past week has been on his Countdown-hopeful teammates and even crew chief Jim Oberhofer for his newly learned ballroom dancing skills, Top Fuel veteran Doug Kalitta quietly stole the show in his camp and in his class at Brainerd International Raceway.

DSB_5599

Jim Head ran during Saturday's qualifying at the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., with a new paint scheme from veteran graphics/paint man Chucky B. The paint scheme also included the likeness of the late singer Ray Charles.

Head admitted the addition was to fan the flames from the war of words with Pro Stock driver Warren Johnson. A frustrated Warren Johnson exclaimed on ESPN that a nitro car was so simple to drive that "Ray Charles could drive one in his current state."

A smiling Jim Head offered, "Ray Charles tells me which way to turn the wheel. He tells me how to drive. I'm thinking I could close my eyes and he'd steer me straight to the finish line."

a d v e r t i s e m e n t

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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - GOING RACING IN BETWEEN SHOWERS

BRANDON BERNSTEIN: DARKHORSE IS FINE WITH ME - Brandon Bernstein believes the Copart/Lucas Oil team cleared a major hurdle six races ago. During first day qualifying at the NHRA Lucas Oil DSB_5202 Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., Bernstein offered the proof.

Bernstein claimed the provisional Top Fuel pole position with a 3.846 elapsed time at 309.24 putting nearly .04 on second quickest qualifier Cory McClenathan.

“Six races ago we started to get that confidence that we could go down the track and make the big runs and not smoke the tires,” Bernstein explained. “We’ve got that confidence and hopefully we keep it.”

If the run holds, it will be the 14th pole of his career and the first of the 2010 season.

Bernstein admittedly had a terrible start to the season before adding the tuning duo of Todd Smith and Donnie Bender, who guided Spencer Massey to NHRA Rookie of the Year honors last season before Don Prudhomme parked his Top Fuel operation due to lack of major sponsorship.

“I think they needed some time to gel,” explained Bernstein. “We made a lot of changes to the race car to get it to the point that Donnie and Todd were comfortable. They are really gelling together. No mistakes are being made, knock on wood. Everything is going good and they are making the right calls.”

Friday’s qualifying was limited to just one run due to persistent rain showers. Sportsman qualifying was interrupted by rain but the skies cleared and the NHRA was able to get in both Pro Stock divisions before the skies opened, delaying competition by nearly two hours.

“It’s a distraction. As a driver, you are pumped up and ready to go, you want two runs. Unfortunately, we only got one run. You just try and stay concentrated. Whatever it is, it is. We can’t dictate the weather.”

For Bernstein, he found a way to turn negative into positive.

“With just one run and a lot of rain on the racing surface [today], the conditions were optimal,” said Bernstein. “We figured we could run a good number but I don’t know that we figured we could run a [3].84. It was a great run and the car left really hard.”

As great as the run started, it had the potential to get real ugly.

“At about half track, the car started moving towards the center-line,” Bernstein explained. “I tried to get it back but it didn’t feel like the front wing had enough [downforce] on it to keep it on the ground. We tried to get it to respond and it just barely made it to the finish line. It was headed straight for the cones.”

Bernstein has been around this sport long enough to understand championships are won when bad situations still turn good like Friday’s near disqualified run. Headed into the Countdown to 1 gaining this kind of favor from Lady Luck bodes well for a team gaining momentum at the right time.

“This is a great race for our Copart/Lucas Oil team to really come on,” said Bernstein. “We felt like we’ve been there in the last four to six races. We have really been in the thick of everything. To be peaking is perfect. Right before Indy, this is the place you really want to charge on. Hopefully, this is going to be an indication that we are going to be at the top and run for the championship.”

He doesn’t mind not being the current center of attention in the race for the 2010 title.

“Being a considered a dark horse is fine with me,” Bernstein admitted. “Everyone knows that we can run with the best. This lets the leaders know there’s another team in there capable of running the numbers.”

And on Friday in Brainerd, Bernstein proved that.

PERFORMANCE LOOKING UP FOR FORCE HOOD - A week or two ago, Ashley Force Hood was perturbed, saying she and her Castrol DSB_5063 GTX Ford Mustang team “for some reason . . . are just having a crappy year.”

But it’s looking happy, not crappy, right now at Brainerd International Raceway.

Already in the Countdown field with the No. 8 berth and a chance to leapfrog both No. 6 Tim Wilkerson and No. 7 Bob Tasca, Force Hood took the provisional top qualifying position Friday for the Lucas Oil Nationals.

Her 4.102-second pass at 302.55 mph kept teammate Robert Hight at bay. He’s second in his Auto Club Mustang at 4.131 / 302.35 after the rain-shortened activity.

Cruz Pedregon, the 2008 Funny Car champion, who has struggled all season, is third after Friday qualifying at 4.139 / 285.89. And Jeff Arend, hoping to break into the Countdown field for the first time is pressuring 10th place Tony Pedregon, with his fourth in the order qualifying effort (4.165 / 289.63) with two more sessions scheduled for Saturday.

“I read that ‘insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result,’ so I’ve been trying different things,” Force Hood said. “Some have worked and some haven’t, but I think I am making progress.”

Noting she was including her reaction times in the previous statement, she added the conditions on Friday meant not asking questions. Uncertain whether the weather would permit her and her class to make runs at all, she said she didn’t communicate with tuners Dean “Guido” Antonelli and Ron Douglas.

“There was really no time to talk about what was going to happen. I didn’t want to bug the crew chiefs and be asking, ‘What do you got in there?’ So I never really spoke to them,” she said. “So we went up and went right down there. Even my crew [said], ‘Man - we didn’t know they were going for a 10’ - especially your first run out, especially with a lost qualifying run ... you never know what’s going to happen tomorrow.

“My crew chiefs, Dean and Ron, like to keep us all in suspense,” she said with a smile. “I don’t need to know what’s going on in the tune-up. I just need to adapt to the car and do my best job to get it A to B.”

She said she never knew what the crew chiefs had in mind. All she was concerned about is what the track was giving all the racers.

“I had no idea. I was a little concerned. I couldn’t see the pairs ahead of me. It sounded like people were getting down the track,” Force Hood said. “You always got to be concerned if there is (adverse) weather tomorrow. You want a good A-to-B run, you risk maybe hurting the car pedaling it. It all depends on the people ahead of you. I was this close to asking that [but] I didn’t want to put a bad karma out there and ask that question: If it doesn’t get down [under full power] do you want me to pedal it? Or is everybody else running A to B?’ I decided to bite my tongue.

“Then Guido gave his nod and said, ’Piece o’ cake ’ - which he always does. And it’s never a piece of cake. But I’m glad I didn’t doubt them.”

Force Hood, the No. 1 qualifier at BIR two years ago, said, “It’s always good to have a strong first run out. The team’s all pumped, really excited. We’re happy. We have a good feeling about this weekend. It’s all about that attitude. You definitely gain that confidence when you run - especially if you’re No. 1 - but even if you can just get a strong run in the first session.”

Force Hood, still seeking her first victory of the season, said she has spent too much time asking herself, “What else do we have to do?”

She said, “You do get down on yourself. We are just in the biggest slump we’ve ever been in.”

It appears she is breaking out of it -- just as Hight did about this time last season, when he leaped from an 11th-hour 10th place showing at the start of the Countdown to the championship.

“We’re in the Countdown,” Force Hood said, “and Robert showed last year that if you’re in it, you can win it.”

Part of her aggravation is a handful of close losses.

“[This year] everyone else has run just a little better than us,” she said. “Like at Charlotte (in the final round of the Four-Wide Nationals), we ran 4.04 and Dad ran 4.03. At Chicago (Joliet, Ill., the UA Route 66 Nationals), we ran 4.04 and Matt (Hagan) ran 4.02. We ran 4.32 at Norwalk and Tim (Wilkerson) ran 4.31. That’s just how it has gone.”

In the previous 16 races, Force Hood has been beaten by less than .085 of a second in 12 of them.

“It’s been frustrating,” she said. “The breaks that went our way last year are going the other way this year, but that’s just racing.

“I’m glad the skies cleared up,” Force Hood said. “You never want to leave for the day without giving the fans a show.”

She gave them a good one Friday.

Burnouts are supposed to be routine but during Friday qualifying, Richard Cortino [top] and Steve Spiess managed to get a bit squirrelly during Friday's qualifying.
steve_spiess

HINES ON CUSP OF FIRST 2010 NO. 1 QUALIFIER - Andrew Hines finds it hard to believe he’s on the cusp of his first pole position of the DSA_2720 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Series tour.

His 6.977 elapsed time at 191.46, if it holds through Saturday’s qualifications at the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., will indeed mark the first time he’s been the No. 1 seed headed into race day.

“It has been a while,” Hines admitted. “I don’t think I’ve had a number one since St. Louis last year. Everybody’s tough out here. The Suzuki’s are tough out here. Hector [Arana] has been showing us all how to do it out here. It’s nice to have a provisional out here on Friday and hopefully it will stick. We have a couple of things up our sleeves and we might be able to pick up a bit. I’m proud of our team. We did a lot of hard work. It’s paying off.”

The hard work for the Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines team included an extensive tear down and rebuild of the team’s V-Rod engines prior to this weekend’s final event of the regular season.

“We did a lot of work over the off weekend, completely tore down every engine,” Hines explained. “We’ve got a lot of engine combinations we can try. It’s good to get that baseline data on the first run. The V-Rod made a nice, clean run and that’s probably why we went to the top. We are going into tomorrow with a good idea of what we can do.”

Hines confirmed his team will likely change an engine after Saturday’s first run.

In years past, Hines and his team have been one of the most dominant teams in the history of the Pro Stock Motorcycle division. The last two seasons have been tough for the three-time champion.

“It’s been tough,” said Hines. “We’ve been sitting back and scratching our heads and wondering what is happening to us. To get the performance we did out of the bike has made us rest easier. This time we started the weekend off right. Lately we’ve struggled at the start and progressively improved. Starting at the top is a nice change.”

Hines will be the first to admit his team hasn’t fallen off. The competition has simply caught up. That’s not necessarily a bad thing for Hines, who was often chastised in the form of rule changes aimed at limiting his performance so the competition could catch up.

“The addition of the 100 cc’s for Suzuki’s was the right way for the NHRA to go,” Hines said. “Instead of slowing the Harleys and Buells down, they let the class remain fast. That was a big step in the right direction for this class and makes for great racing. It’s obviously shown lately with the great shows and parity. It’s real fun to be out here racing now. It’s a lot more fun than it was.”

More fun means more confidence, at least for Hines.

“My confidence is about the best it’s been in three years,” Hines explained. “My riding has been way better and I have been better on the Christmas tree. I’m making nice, and clean straight runs and that’s the key out here. You can’t leave anything sitting on the table and I’ve been good at that lately. You see it in the team morale and they have a better attitude towards me. We are never down on one another, but I could tell things are working better as a whole unit.”

JOHNSON LEADS PRO STOCK PACK AGAIN - The Pro Stock class, arguably drag racing’s most tightly clustered, had only one shot at qualifying Friday for the Lucas Oil Nationals, and Allen Johnson once again blazed to the front of the pack.

The Team Mopar/J&J Dodge Avenger driver, fresh off his Denver victory from the No. 1 qualifying position, edged defending champion Mike Edwards by two-thousandths of a second, and was the lone racer in the 206-mph range, to take the provisional No. 1 spot at Brainerd International Raceway.

Saying he had “worked real hard in the last couple of weeks,” Johnson posted a 6.702-second elapsed time at 206.61 mph to prove it.

“We made a really, really good run,” he said, by “taking our Denver momentum and our engine combination and improving on it a little bit.”

Going for his third straight top-qualifying position and fifth in the past nine events, Johnson indicated it wasn’t as effortless as it might have looked. He said the soggy weather and damp air wreaked havoc on his dad, Roy and crew chiefs Mark Ingersoll and Jeff Perley.

This kind of weather “always provides a problem for Pro Stock cars,” Johnson said, “because we run carburetors and gasoline. It affects us a lot. It’s like trying to burn water in the engines.

“But we’ve got lots of notes,” he said. “We’ve run all over with these types of conditions. So we go back to our notes and set the timing and fuel and all that, just like we run our best run. So you’ve got to have really good notes, where to set the timing to be maximum.”

Edwards, in his Penhall / Interstate Batteries Pontiac GXP, ran a 6.704, 205.13, with Johnny Gray, Ron Krisher, and V Gaines rounding out the tentative top five.

Johnson capped the Western Swing with his first victory of 2010, at Denver’s Mopar Mile-High Nationals. He reached the finals at Houston, Topeka, and Norwalk, and by the time he arrived at Brainerd International Raceway, he has won two-thirds (30-15) of his elimination rounds. Only twice has he qualified worse than fourth.

That’s especially impressive in a season in which Mike Edwards has gobbled most of the goodies -- eight victories in nine final-round appearances, 10 No. 1 qualifying positions, and a 42-8 round-win mark.

Johnson said Edwards “had us all by about 10-15-20 horsepower early in the season and he was making great runs. We’ve gained 15-20 horsepower -- and we’re making some good runs, too.”

Friday’s certainly was one of them.

A DIFFERENT ROUTE - When Kurt Johnson races this weekend in his native Land of 1000 Lakes, he won't be driving a Chevy to the levy.

DSB_4898 In an effort to raise his game, Johnson has a new car at the Lucas Oil Nationals; at least it is new to him. It’s still in the General Motors family, but it’s a Jerry Haas-built Pontiac GXP, the flashier outfitted cousin to his trusty Chevy Cobalt, formerly driven by his father, Warren Johnson.

“That Cobalt, that aero package, was designed back in 2005, and the GXP was new in 2008. So you know, it’s time to step up a little bit,” Johnson said Friday as he took aim at the 10th Pro Stock spot in the standings in his final weekend to become part of the Countdown.

“Dodge has been awfully fast out here, so we need to catch it.” he said, referring mainly to sizzling-hot Alllen Johnson‘s recent performances. “It’s just time for a change.”

Although the change isn’t radical on the surface - he’s not switching to a Ford, for instance - Johnson said he does detect some noticeable differences in this new ride.

“I took that whole slingshot package off my Cobalt - springs, shocks, everything - and bolted it into this car, and it was an entirely different-feeling race car,” he said. “So there’s obviously something different about it. I heard it’s just the body, that the chassis is the same. But it’s definitely a little bit different.”

He shrugged it off, though, saying, “It’s the way these cars are put together. The tubing’s made at different times. They’ve all got different characteristics.” he said Haas “does the best he can to make ’em the same, but until you put ’em on the racetrack, you never know.”

Johnson, who hasn’t won since this event in 2008, is desperate this weekend to crack the top 10; having never finished outside the top 10 in his career. But last season he blanked in the victories column for the first time since his sophomore season, 1994. He’s eager to shed his label as the NHRA’s most successful driver (with 39 victories) not to have won a championship.

So, all of those issues are uppermost in his mind this weekend. He said he hasn’t given a lot of thought to whether he’ll flip-flop between the GXP and the Cobalt at the remaining racetracks, based on data already accumulated.

“I don’t think we’re really worried about racetracks right now,” Johnson said. “We’re just worried about winning rounds and trying to get a trophy. It’s been awhile now. I think we’re overdue, so maybe this will be our weekend.”

Johnson trails 10th-place Rodger Brogdon by 80 points, and leads Bob Yonke, who is 12th, by just four points. With a maxium of 150 points on the table for any driver, Johnson and Yonke will need to win or get very close to winning and hope that No. 9 Johnny Gray and Brogdon stumble.

RESETTING HIS GOALS - Steve Torrence is taking his aspirations to the next level.

DSB_5185 The Top Fuel driver from Kilgore, Texas, has taken a major stride in his first full-time season, positioning Dexter Tuttle’s Capco Racing/Tuttle Motorsports Dragster into ninth place heading into this last of 17 races in the so-called “regular season.”

“That was our goal at the first of the year: to go out and race and do the best we can, and to make the Countdown. That’s what our intentions were. That’s what our goal was,” Torrence said.

“That’s what we intended on doing. Whether it was a reality, we had to make that ourselves. So I think we’ve done well this year. I’m proud of the guys. I’m proud of Dexter and everyone that has helped this team. I feel that now we’ve had an opportunity to come out and learn things -- I’ve been in the car week in and week out. We’ve done well as a team. We’ve done what we set out to do,” he said.

“We’ve reached that goal. It’s time to set another goal, maybe top five, top seven finish in the Countdown,” Torrence said “We’ll see what we can do from here.”

Torrence has been holding steady in ninth place since June, but he has had to rally back to respectability.

A DNQ at Las Vegas, on Torrence’s 27th birthday, began a bit of a tailspin. Team owner and crew chief Tuttle said back in mid-April that he had been trying new parts on the first day of qualifying at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “You shouldn’t be testing parts at national events, but I did and we got behind the 8-ball,” he said.

Sticking a new Chuck Ford-designed supercharger on the car “really threw a curveball at us, the way the car was running, the way we tune the car,” Torrence said. “It took us about five or six races to get a handle on the tune-up. It changed the whole tune-up, and we had to relearn the set-up. It was very frustrating.”

He marveled at his own progress, although he indicated he still isn‘t satisfied.

“We didn’t do too bad at Pomona and we did pretty good at Phoenix, then everything started going downhill from there. It put you on the edge - ‘Oh-oh. Are we going to make this Countdown? What are we going to do? Where are we at?’ We were sixth, then we were seventh - as time went on, we fell further and further back. It did raise a little bit of a red flag for all the guys and us, whether we were going to make the Countdown,” he said.

“So we’ve had to buckle up and really work more on our consistency, because this car really has run pretty well as of lately. Now we need to make consistent runs down the track.”

As he waited for qualifying to start Friday at Brainerd International Raceway (where he won the Top Alcohol Dragster crown in 2005 and reached the Top Fuel semifinals in 2008), Torrence said, “We’re still struggling with these hot racetracks. That’s the thing we’ve been battling the most. Now we have lot more power than what we’re used to in years past.

“We’re still learning as we go,” he said. “This season’s not near yet over. We have six races left. We’ll see what we can do for that Countdown.”

Not biting his nails about staying in the top 10, Torrence said, “We have a little bit of a cushion this weekend coming in. Not room for error, but we can go out and concentrate more on getting ready for the Countdown.

“I’m always nervous,” he said. “You do your best when you have a little bit of anxiety and nervousness, I think. I always do. We’re really looking for a good performance here and something to give us a little momentum going into the Countdown.

Torrence leads David Grubnic by 64 points, with upset-minded Terry McMillen ready to storm into 10th place in his Amalie Oil Dragster. Were Torrence to qualify and win his first-round match-up, Grubnic’s performance is inconsequential.

DALE CREASY CAN RELATE TO BARBARA NESBITT ACCIDENT - Dale Creasy Jr. can relate to how NMCA Nostalgia Pro Street DSA_2761 racer Barbara Nesbitt must be feeling.

The two have never met, but for Creasy he feels a bond after what transpired last Sunday during an NMCA event at zMax Dragway located on the grounds of Charlotte Motor Speedway in Concord, NC. Nesbitt was racing when the driveshaft in her Camaro broke, sending shrapnel into the cockpit inflicting severe internal and external injuries.

A first responder to Nesbitt’s car stated he saw her arm wrapped around the driveshaft twice. However, to see her car sitting still on the track, there was no indication of the hell that had just transpired minutes early.
Creasy knows the feeling all too well.

In 2008, Creasy came to a stop on the track in Edmonton (Canada), after a transmission broke off of the bell housing and beat his legs with the ferocity of a sledgehammer strike, over and over. It wasn’t the shifter handle, it was the actual transmission striking his legs.

Just like in Nesbitt’s situation, those walking up on the car had no idea what had just happened. In fact, Creasy recalled, the safety crew was just about to hook his car up to the tow vehicle and tow him off of the track, which would have resumed the sledgehammer beating, before he got them to understand he was hurt.

Creasy can’t help but wonder if Nesbitt felt the same way he did sitting in the stalled car; helpless and desperate for help. Nesbitt reportedly had the presence of mind to kick her door out in an attempt to gain attention to her plight.

“You just want someone there,” admitted Creasy, who returned to racing in 2009 after a long rehabilitation process. “Whether they can help or not, you just want to see someone’s face so they will know what you are going through.”

In the case of his own accident, Creasy was desperately trying to reach someone via his radio as he teetered on the verge of shock. He later learned the wires had been torn out of his communication system, meaning no one could hear his desperate pleas for help.

“It pulled my right leg underneath the transmission,” Creasy recalled. “I really didn’t even know my right leg was hurt until I looked down. I knew the left leg had taken a beating but I didn’t know how bad it was. I was in a race. I was too busy concentrating on how I could fix the race car to get ready for the next round.”
Being able to race again, was the biggest question and concern in Creasy's mind as he lay in the hospital. His spirit was willing but the flesh was very weak.

“You have to listen to the doctors and I wasn’t really good at that,” Creasy admitted. “I started exercising before he told me to and that set me back. When it’s ready, it’s ready.”

The first prognosis was hard to swallow, it appeared his racing career would be on hold for years as he recovered from the serious injuries.

“And that was very disheartening,” Creasy said. “I just wondered from that point, what am I going to do now that I don’t have this. I wondered if I would be happy in a team ownership role. Then, as time passes, you head clears. Once you start healing, then you can focus.”

Creasy will be watching Nesbitt’s recovery closely as he knows she’s in for a long, tough and challenging road.

“If I could speak to her, I’d tell her – keep your head up,” Creasy said. “It’s going to be hard when you’re laying there in the hospital and later at home, and you’re all alone – you’ll get all the calls and well wishes, that stuff is great. But, in the end you’re alone in this battle. Keep your head up. You will be surrounded by people who want to see you succeed.”

Even though he has no contact information for Nesbitt, Creasy would love to talk to her, if for no other reason than to encourage her during the recovery process.

“I would love to,” Creasy said. “If I had a way to contact her, I’d gladly call. I would just love for her to know someone has gone through a similar situation and made it back.”

DRAG RACING IN "THE STATE OF HOCKEY" - As most Minnesotans will tell you, the sport of hockey is so ever-present in their home state, with outdoor and indoor rinks dotting the landscape as commonly as baseball diamonds can be seen in other parts of the country, the residents in the Land of 10,000 Lakes have proudly proclaimed their home as "The State of Hockey."

This weekend, the NHL and NHRA have come together in Tim Wilkerson's pit, as Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Jeff Finger is in the house, along with his father John. The former St. Cloud State Husky was born and raised in Michigan, but spent his college years in Minnesota, attending the Brainerd race every year. He was originally drafted by the Colorado Avalanche, but signed a free agent contract with the Maple Leafs before the 2008/2009 NHL season. The drag racing fanatic has been Wilk fan since meeting Team Manager Bob Wilber on airline flight after the Denver race in 2008.

"I love this sport, and it's been really great to get to know these guys and get inside the ropes and up close," Finger said. "It was just pure luck that Bob and I were on the same flight that night, and now my dad and I get to experience this from a place we never dreamed of being. All these years of being such a huge NHRA fan, and this is as cool as it gets."

DSA_2549

DSA_2544 Rain showers have altered the Friday schedule of the NHRA Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway. Track crews were able to dry the racing surface and racing opened at 9:30 am CST. However three or four pairs into the Stock eliminator qualifying session, the skies opened up again.

The Safety Safari nearly has the racing surface dry for racing to resume.

5:30 pm, CST - Racing has resumed with all nitro classes limited to just one qualifying session apiece.

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ADDITIONAL THURSDAY NOTEBOOK

Persistent rain ended Thursday's action.

R

Super Comp racer Jeff Cheney had some difficulty on the topend when he experienced a fairly large fire but was uninjured in the incident.

Super Stock got in three seasons before the skies opened up. Charley Downing's SS/BA Mustang leads the 64 car field at .889 under the index.

The Zoo'scommunity begins to take shape while the parade route for the gathering is wide open on Thursday.

This ghost town will become a wide-open gathering place of race fans seeking to look at the latest products on the marketplace.

Thursday is the day to shine up the main stage with eliminations on Sunday.

THURSDAY NOTEBOOK - GETTING READY FOR THE ZOO AND COUNTDOWN CLINCHING

LAND OF OPPORTUNITY - Minnesota’s nickname is the “Land of 10,000 Lakes.”

Robert Hight is looking to erase the sting of DNQ at Brainerd last season that sent the Force camp into a tailspin.

At this weekend’s Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway, it’s the Land of 10,000 dreams and doubts, 10,000 ambitions and anxieties.

That’s especially true for National Hot Rod Association drivers Terry McMillen and Dave Grubnic (Top Fuel), Jeff Arend and Tony Pedregon (Top Fuel), and Kurt Johnson and Rodger Brogdon (Pro Stock). They all are trying to grab the last spots in their respective classes as the Countdown to the Championship fields are finalized. A handful of Pro Stock Motorcycle riders also are scrambling to fill the remaining five Countdown positions.

Never mind that rural-market Brainerd, Minn., might not be the most strategic venue the NHRA could have chosen as the final event of its so-called "regular season" -- where the 10-driver pro fields are set for the Countdown. McMillen, Arena, and Johnson don't care where they have to go. They just want to have a chance to run for the title in the six-race Countdown that kicks off Labor Day weekend at the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis.

Chasing current ninth-place Top Fuel driver Steve Torrence are No. 10 Dave Grubnic and McMillen, who's only 19 points out of the mix. In the Funny Car class, only one spot is up for grabs, and Arend is hoping he can bump out No. 10 Tony Pedregon, the two-time champion. Pedregon has a 33-point edge.

Pro Stock's Johnson, who grew up in Minnesota, would like nothing more than a hometown hurrah. In the past four races, he has improved four spots in the standings, from 15th to 11th. He'll be trying to pass 10th-place Brogdon. He's 80 points behind Brogdon but has four victories at BIR in his favor. Johnson never has finished outside the Top 10 in his 17-year career.

Five Pro Stock Motorcycle spots are open. Reigning champion Hector Arana leads the pack. Also having clinched are three-time champ and three-time 2010 winner Andrew Hines, three-time winner Michael Phillips, 2007 champion Matt Smith, and perennial contender Steve Johnson.

Top Fuel's Larry Dixon and Pro Stock's Mike Edwards clinched the No. 1 seeds, earning a 20-point bonus once the playoffs begin Labor Day weekend at Indianapolis with the U.S. Nationals.

The No. 1 spot in Funny Car so far belongs to John Force, but teammate, son-in-law, and reigning champion Robert Hight is looking to close that 28-point gap.

Hight is looking to erase the sting of DNQ at Brainerd last season that sent the Force camp into a tailspin.

Last year, amid some turmoil that included a health scare for crew chief Austin Coil, Force switched cars and teams with Hight to help him qualify for the Countdown and ended up embroiled in controversy that he took a dive to enable Hight to advance to the final round at Indianapolis and make the field.

But Hight has another motive.

“I want to do well in Brainerd for a couple of reasons. Last year we didn’t qualify, and that was just terrible. It put a lot of pressure on the team but we pulled through and I think ultimately it made us stronger,” Hight said. “The other reason I want to do well in Brainerd is that 30 point lead as the No. 1 Funny Car going into the Countdown. The No. 1 driver will be either me or John Force. I have more work to do than him, but we will give it our best shot.”

Hight has some momentum, with his victory in the previous race, at Denver, among his four this season. But Force has won this Brainerd event 11 times in 13-final-round appearances. Force also has won four times this season, tying them for best in the class.

“Every driver gets up for racing John Force. I’ll be honest -- it is a little tougher for me because he is the reason I am in the driver’s seat,” Hight said. “This is his 25th anniversary with Castrol, so this is a big year for him. Castrol is on my Auto Club Ford Mustang, too, so this is a really a win-win situation. One of us will be the No. 1 Funny Car [driver] for the Countdown, and the other one will be No. 2. For those last six races it will be a battle.”

He said he’s looking over his shoulder at teammate Ashley Force Hood, as well.

“The other thing is you can’t just focus on John because Ashley’s Mustang has been running so well, too. She has just run into some bad match-up and had some bad racer luck. If she gets hot in the Countdown that could be trouble for all of us.”

For most of the nitro-class drivers, the drill is familiar. Funny Car driver Tim Wilkerson expressed it best: "We've been there, and we know what it's like. The key is to do as well as we can in Brainerd. If we move up, that's great. If we slip a few, that's not the end of the world. You can make up a lot of points in just one race during the Countdown, and we have six playoff races to work with. The object is to build some confidence and feel good about the race car by the time we leave Minnesota. That's the main goal."

Brainerd promises to be the Land of 10,000 Stories this weekend.

PEAKING? - Brandon Bernstein celebrated his 38th birthday August 2, but he’d like to celebrate another milestone this weekend -- his first victory

since last October 11 at Richmond. He won at Brainerd in 2006 and 2007, so he knows the quick way down the track here. He’s sixth in the Countdown standings, with two runner-up finishes and a semifinal effort in the past five events.

“We’ve been so close to victory this season that we can taste it,” the Copart/Lucas Oil Dragster driver said. “On one hand, it has certainly been disappointing not to get that win. On the other hand, we are so close that it gives us faith that we can bring home another Wally soon. We’ve celebrated back-to-back wins at Brainerd. Maybe it will be our turn again this year to drive to victory circle. Lucas Oil has been an integral part of our team since they came on as a sponsor in 2002, so a win for them as well as Copart, Mac Tools, and the U.S. Air Force would be sweet.

“The Lucas Oil Nationals is our last chance to take a deep breath before the stress level ratchets up a notch or two when the playoffs begin,” Bernstein said. “If we can keep going rounds like we have been, then we’ll be in prime position to challenge for the championship.”

Team owner dad Kenny Bernstein -- who won at Brainerd International Raceway three times in Top Fuel and twice in Funny Car -- gave him some reassuring news from his own experience. Said Kenny Bernstein, “Brainerd just always seems to be the race that comes at the time of year when our team was peaking performance-wise. It seemed we would do well at Brainerd and then keep up strong performance until the end of the season. You always wanted to do well at Brainerd because that was the final preparation before Indy.”

IN PERSPECTIVE - Dave Grubnic still remembers the sting of waiting out several days of rain delays at Reading in 2007, only to learn -- via phone call from Graham Light, NHRA’s sneior vice-president of racing operations -- that he had been bumped from the Countdown field. As Grubnic awaits the 2010 results at Brainerd, this year’s cutoff event, he looked back to that time but put his effort to hold off hard-charging Terry McMillen all in perspective.

“You can't let it get to you. You just got to go and do your job. We're going to stick to our game plan of what we always do, and that's qualify well, get the car qualified, hopefully go rounds. Worrying about it, changing stuff or getting involved, it really can't change the situation,” the Montana resident by way of Brisbane, Australia, said. “If we don't make it, Terry does, as Terry said, we go over and congratulate Terry and move on to the next event. I don't see any other way to do it. We do the same job we do every week, which is we give it our best and we give it our all.

“We get asked a lot if we're going to do anything different or change or procedure or what we do at the start line or how we drive the car. Realistically we don't. We can't. It's not all of a sudden I can't come up with 110 percent or 100 percent, go up to Connie (team owner Kalitta) and say, ‘I've only been giving it 50% at all these previous events.’ You always give it your best. That's the only thing you can do. We'll have to go to Brainerd and see how it all turns out.”

In the scheme of things, it’s a drag race. It’s Grubnic’s dearly held job, but he said, “What we're talking about here, I've said this in another interviews as well, it's not a catastrophe. Last year there were people losing their houses, people struggling with other issues. It's something we have to work through. You take the good with the bad.”

BOUNTY HUNTER STILL HUNTING - Top Fuel driver Dave Grubnic said he’s thrilled to be back in a dragster for team owner Connie Kalitta full time, after only five races in 2009 following a top-10 finish in 2008. “Connie, he decided he wanted to run it again, then just recently announced full-time. In short, yes, it's thrilling and it's great and it's wonderful to be back out there. But ultimately we still got to find funding for the car,” Grubnic said. “It's still unsponsored for next year. We still have to sort of keep searching. I'd love to put something on the car that's obviously a three-to-five-year deal. Again, that's absolutely fabulous. And that's all Connie Kalitta. I don't think there's anybody that's put more of his own personal money than he has over the years and I'm very thankful and grateful for that.”

CAN-DO ON TWO - Top Fuel driver and former Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Antron Brown has the most victories at BIR -- four -- in the Pro Stock Motorcycle category. Although he dominated here on two wheels, the Matco Tools Dragster driver is seeking his first here in the Top Fuel class. Last year at the Brainerd, Brown was coming off his Western Swing sweep, but his round-win streak ended at 14 when Larry Dixon beat him in the semifinal. However, he came away with top speed of the meet at 318.69 mph.

NOT SO EASY - While much ado is being made about David Grubnic’s 10th-place challenge from “Instigator” Terry McMillen, No. 9 Steve

Torrence hasn’t secured his place in the Countdown yet. The Torrence Racing/Tuttle Motorsports Dragster driver knows what would be a sure-fire way to do that: qualify and win in the opening round of eliminations. Then it wouldn’t matter what Grubnic does.

This will be the third time Torrence has visited Brainerd. “I do have some success there,” Torrence said. “I won the Alcohol dragster race there in 2005, and I went to the semifinals in Top Fuel in 2008. It would be a good place to get my first Top Fuel win.”

He said after his break in Kilgore, Texas, from the seven races in eight weeks, he, like co-crew chief Kevin Poynter, is “ready to get back on the track and take care of business.”

Ion this first full Top Fuel season, Torrence already has matched his previous career best of 16 races that accumulated in four different years. He said he sees how experience plays a part of success.

“It has benefited me as a driver. I need to do everything I can to be on top of my game,” Torrence said. “Being in the car on a regular basis helps you get into your routine. I can get in the car and do what I need to do without having to start over at each race. I have a better sense of what the car is doing and am comfortable driving it.”

OVER-THE-TOP-EXCITED - Terry McMillen is a relative newcomer to the NHRA after a successful career in the IHRA. But he’s winning fans with his rapid-fire, John-Force-like wound-up top-end interviews. But he said he’s just enjoying his incredible opportunity. “I would hope by the end of the day I have no voice left,” the Amalie Oil Dragster driver said, “because that means I went a lot of rounds. It's exciting to me. It's kind of what I've lived for. At 14 years old I knew this is what I wanted to do. So every time you get in that car and you have that opportunity to go out there and win a round, for me, winning a round in NHRA is like winning a championship somewhere else. It's that big of a deal. These guys are so much tougher. There are so many more cars that are capable of running any day of the week, taking you out. None of us comes here with the attitude that we're going to lose. We all come motivated to get in the car, win the race, and do our jobs. What has been overwhelming to me is the fans. The support has just been incredible. I've never been part of anything like it. I'm overwhelmed with it, for sure.”

HEART OF A CHAMPION - Terry McMillen said, “I think what you'll find in champions is . . . they're driven. Sometimes they figure out the combination. It's a big jigsaw puzzle. This whole business is. We have to align all the pieces and parts. You just try to get everything pointed, all the energies you have, going that direction. The guys that are successful in this business have done just that. They've got every piece in place. They've got all the manpower in place. They have the marketing partners in place. When you can go out there and have the funding, being out testing as much as you can possibly get away with, you're going to be good at what you do.”

STOUT STATS - Funny Car leader John Force has won at least five times in 12 of the 23 events that make up Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. But he has been most successful at Brainerd International Raceway, where in 24 appearances he has advanced to 13 final rounds, won 11 of them, and won 82.5 percent of his elimination rounds (with a 66-13 record). His most recent victory there was in 2007, when he defeated Kenny Bernstein. That means Force has won here almost every other year for 24 years. His qualifying mark is as impressive. He never has started worse than sixth place in the order and has qualified among the top three 18 times.

In 2008, his cars qualified first, second, third, and fifth at this race, representing the team’s best-ever in a four-car assault and the first 1-2 start for a father and daughter. She was first, her dad second.

And this year, Force, celebrating his 25th anniversary with primary sponsor Castrol, has a personal reason to improve to a dozen victories at Brainerd. “There’s no race that’s more fun to win than one that’s sponsored by the competition,” he said. But of course, he understands the bigger picture, saying, “Our goal is to put a Castrol GTX Ford in the Lucas Oil winners’ circle one more time and get that No. 1 bonus for the Countdown.”

INCREMENTAL GOAL - Ashley Force Hood was the No. 1 qualifier here two years ago and was No. 3 last year. A prime qualifying position this year could help her improve in the Countdown standings from her current eight place to as high as sixth. Force Hood, still seeking her first victory this season, is 25 points behind No. 6 Tim Wilkerson and 21 behind No. 7 Bob Tasca.

SO MUCH ON HIS MIND - Tony Pedregon, clinging to his No. 10 spot in the standings, said, “I’ve been through tougher challenges when I was tped

growing up.” But that’s not to diminish the task he has ahead of him this weekend as a professional. He’s serious about winning a third championship -- just focused on reality, as well.

“I have to race within my means. I think that's been one of the biggest challenges for us,” the Nitro Fish Chevy Impala driver said. “But we've managed to get through it. We've managed to be competitive at all of the races, maybe not at the level that we once were. But that could change. I think that we're probably just close to getting our problems sorted out. And we have to. We know that the clock is ticking.”

But as he approached the Lucas Oil Nationals, he said, “We all have the tendency -- we're very competitive -- It's just our nature that we want to get into it. There's some excitement. There's a little bit of drama. I think I'll settle down when I get to the track. It should be business as usual,” he said. “I've been in a lot of situations, some with more pressure, some with less. I think that's the benefit of experience. My responsibilities are more than just getting in the seat.”

MANY EAGER FOR TESTING - Don Schumacher racing driver Ron Capps said, "I believe that most teams that are going to be fighting for a championship will be fine-tuning their setups in this last race before the Countdown. Many teams will be testing in Indianapolis after Brainerd, and I expect they will be using Brainerd as a tune-up for the test and the start of the Countdown.”

The NAPA Dodge Charger driver has to keep an eye on his own two teammates, Jack Beckman and Matt Hagan, this weekend.

Said Beckman, who’ll carry the Freightliner Trucks banner at this race, “It looks to me like John Force and Robert Hight have locked up the first two spots. And it looks like the Schumacher cars are battling for third, fourth and fifth.”

ACROSS THE POND - Melanie Troxel won’t be at Brainerd this year. The Pro Modified and Funny Car racer Melanie Troxel has returned to Germany’s Hockenheimring. Last year, she was simply a spectator at the FIA Nitrolympx -- where NHRA drivers Cory Lee and Brady Kalivoda and others have competed. This time, she’ll be on the track in Roger Burgess’ ‘67 Camaro when qualifying takes place August 13 and 14 for the August 15 eliminations.

Troxel, who made an exhibition pass earlier this year at England’s Santa Pod Raceway, said she has “gotten a taste for racing over there. We're looking forward to going back and running some of the kind of numbers we did in our exhibition run in England.” She registered a 5.937-second pass at 242.42 mph that was the quickest and fastest Pro Mod run in Europe at the time.

"I was impressed with the level of competition over there," Troxel said of the Nitrolympx. "There was a huge diversity of classes and cars. Plus, Hockenheim is a beautiful facility."

She’ll be back in her Roger Burgess-owned ‘67 Camaro, in which Micke Gullqvist topped her Santa Pod effort with a 5.911 / 245.78 this summer in Finland.

"All the pieces are in place for us to run really well. The guys have a little more data on running that car over there because the car has run two more events since I was last over there,” she said. “So we're going to go over there to put all the pieces in the right places and hopefully we'll have a good weekend. It would be really special to add an FIA trophy to our collection here at R2B2 Racing.

"It's really exciting to be racing FIA again, even more so knowing we've got the best car on the European circuit at the moment," Troxel said. "We had just gotten the car dialed in at the end of the race in England, but our best run came on an exhibition pass. We certainly feel like we have some unfinished business to take care of over there."

Burgess and his staff at R2B2 Racing have been assisting Gullqvist this year. The first European racer to win a national event on the NHRA tour, Gullqvist will race as a teammate to Troxel at the Nitrolympx.

"Michael (Gullqvist) came over here this spring and won the Atlanta race so maybe we can return the favor in Germany,” Troxel said.

After two events, Gullqvist is second in the FIA championship points. Troxel, who did not race in Finland, is 15th overall out of 29 drivers.

HARD TO IMAGINE - Pro Stock’s Mike Edwards is the only points leader in the four major pro classes who has not won at Brainerd.

‘ON AN EVEN KEEL’ - How does Allen Johnson, the hottest Pro Stock driver at the moment, describe himself heading into the Lucas Oil johnson2

Nationals at Brainerd? Not cocky, confident, and cobweb-free. After earning his first victory of the season, in his sponsor’s race at Denver, the Team Mopar/J&J Dodge Avenger driver tested last week at North Carolina’s Farmington Dragway. “We wanted to try to keep the cobwebs off while we had some down time,” Johnson said. “We made four runs, testing out a few new things. It keeps the rust off and keeps the momentum going for Brainerd. We’re definitely not cocky, but we are confident. We’re confident with the motors, the setup of the Mopar Dodge Avenger, and I feel confident as a driver. We need to just keep doing what we are doing and keep the momentum going. We’ve got everything on an even keel.” The Greeneville, Tenn., native has clinched the class’ No. 2 berth in the Countdown, earned single-season career-highs in final-round appearances (four) and No. 1 qualifying awards (four, including the past two), and matched his 2009 round-win total (30) -- all with seven races remaining in the season.

GOING FOR FOUR - Third-place Jeg Coughlin, who has reached the final round at the past two events and is three-for-five in finals this season, has won three times at BIR. A victory would tie him with Bruce Allen, Bob Glidden, Kurt Johnson, and Warren Johnson for the most in the Pro Stock class at the Minnesota racetrack. As a sportsman driver, Coughlin also claimed the Super Stock title at Brainerd in 1997, beating Jeff Taylor, his teammate at the time, in the final round. In 11 career appearances at Brainerd, he has a 21-8 record in Pro Stock competition.
Larry Morgan isn’t sweating Countdown scenarios this weekend. He won’t make the field for the playoffs. Still, he’s working on his Lucas Oil Ford Mustang, hoping to get on the 2010 winners list for his sponsors at their race. "We went up to Michigan to test," Morgan said. "We've got our carburetor guy with us and we're trying to learn a little more about that part of the engine combination. You have to have all these parts working together and that's been an area where we've had some issues." With six straight races putting him back on the crowded Pro Stock map, the Ohioan is quickly accumulating data for his new engine and chassis. And he wants to show it off at BIR. “We're looking to have this car in good shape for Brainerd," he said. "Forrest and Charlotte Lucas will be there, and they have sure done a lot for me. I want to make certain we run well for them at their title race, because I know what this event means to them. It'll be nice to have a big breakthrough at this race." He’s expecting to have some fun this weekend, maybe even off the track. "It's a laidback race," Morgan said. "The fans are crazy. They like to have fun up there, and that carries over into the pits. You find yourself smiling and laughing at every turn. It's always a bunch of fun. I'm looking forward to getting up there."

MOST VACANCIES - The Pro Stock Motorcycle class has five sports to fill for the Countdown lineup. Realistically, No. 11 Shawn Gann, on his RumBum Racing Buell, and No. 12 Jim Underdahl, on his Suzuki Extended Protection/Kymko Suzuki, have to hope that two of the five drivers ahead of them fail to qualify if they are to make the 10-rider field. Each has something to prove. Eddie Krawiec wants to show that his 2008 championship was no fluke. Besides, he won the bikes’ season-opener at Gainesville and hasn’t won a race since. LE Tonglet needs another strong showing to add to his rookie-of-the-year candidate credentials. David Hope wants to take his John Hammock-owned Mohegan Sun Racing Buell above the .500 mark and hang onto at least the No. 8 place in the standings. Karen Stoffer, itching to go one round better after her runner-up showing at Denver, has her Geico Powersports Suzuki ready. And veteran Craig Treble, knowing that is just 57 points behind him and Underdahl trails by just 89, wants to make an impressive effort for his new Rodger Brogdon / Pistonator team.

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2010 NHRA LUCAS OIL NATIONALS - EVENT NOTEBOOK