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

 

SUNDAY EVENT FINAL - ONE MORE RACE LEFT IN THE REGULAR SEASON

SEVENTH TIME IS THE CHARM - Johnny Gray’s wait is over.

Seven times Gray tried to get an NHRA national event win in a Pro class – three in Pro Stock and four in Funny Car – and he failed each time.

He didn’t fail Sunday.

Gray, a veteran racer, clocked a superb 4.113-second run at 307.02 mph to defeat his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps in the finals of the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway. Capps had a solid 4.134-second run at 307.37 mph.

“We have won in everything, but in a pro car,” Gray said. “We really wanted to win a race in a fuel Funny Car. I’m 58. I do not have a whole lot of time to get this done, so it feels great. There are no words for it.”

Gray also was part of history Sunday as it was the first time Don Schumacher Racing had all four cars in the Top Fuel and Funny Car finals. Antron Brown beat Tony Schumacher to claim Brainerd’s Top Fuel title.

With his victory, Gray remains in 11th place in the point standings unofficially 62 points behind 10th place Bob Tasca III. The 10 drivers in NHRA’s pro categories earn a bid into the Countdown Playoffs which begin Sept. 15-18 at Charlotte, N.C. The final race of the regular season is the U.S. Nationals Aug. 31-Sept. 5 at Indianapolis.

“It is kind one of those deals where we will go to Indy and do the best that we can,” Gray said. “Basically, if Tasca has some bad luck, we have a chance. If Tasca has good luck and runs like he is capable of running, we are pretty well done. The way I look at that is that we are going to have a good race car next year because we are getting a really good car put together for next year and we are going to be here next year. About all I can do is think back about all these guys that crucified me when I didn’t have a good race car and we will see if can ruin their chances at the championship.”

Gray ending up in the winner’s circle Sunday seemed highly unlikely when he had to shut off his Funny Car during his first qualifying run.

“The first qualifying session we went out and did a burnout and somewhere, we do not know where, that thing got an O-ring in the fuel system,” Gray said. “It chewed it up and started plugging nozzles. I did a burnout and about halfway through it, it started sounding pretty trashy, and a little further it sounded worse and by the time my burnout was about over it sounded liked it was fixing to chunk parts out on the ground. I elected to shut it off. It was a good thing because it would have been real loud. We came back and the thing was a little soft getting going, but if you look at every round, they picked the thing up and the guys gave me a Hot Rod that last round.”

Part of Gray’s roller-coaster season happened in the first of July, when his chief Lee Beard was reassigned at DSR. Rob Wendland, Gray’s assistant crew chief, was promoted to crew chief.

“In Lee’s defense, things were just not working,” Gray said. “Lee is a brilliant guy and he is still at DSR and he helps them there in the shop and stuff and he is still a friend of mine. Don (Schumacher) elected to make a change. It’s Don’s deal to make a change, so he put Rob there (as the crew chief). Rob and I used to run against each other in alcohol, so we are old friends. We decided to try this deal and Rob has done a great job, but we also have had a tremendous amount of help out of Rahn Tobler (Jack Beckman’s crew chief), and just really all of the DSR crew chiefs. They helped us get a baseline for the car and she is coming around.”

Prior to Sunday, Gray had been in one final round this season, losing to Robert Hight in April at Las Vegas. All of Gray’s other career final round Funny Car appearances came in 2003 when he lost at Pomona, Atlanta and Indianapolis.

Gray raced in the Pro Stock ranks from 2008-2010 and established his NHRA Pro Stock team as a championship contender. Gray lost in the finals in Seattle last season in Pro Stock and did the same at Reading, Pa., and Dallas in 2009.

Shane, Johnny’s son, finished fourth in the Pro Stock points chase as a rookie last season, and Johnny was 10th in the Pro Stock points.

“I’m 58 years old and I have been very successful in business, and I’m out here watching my son race, and he is doing an excellent job,” Gray said. “We are trying to build the Pro Stock program. I have my grand kids here, my wife (Terry) here, and my three dogs here and it is hard to get very down. Would I like for my car to run better and be more competitive than it was at the first of year? Absolutely. I guess the best way to put it is at Denver we ran the Alex Lemonade Stand car and if you go out there on Thursday and go visit the hospital and the little kids with cancer, and watch their parents struggle and stuff. Smoking the tires isn’t really all that bad.”

Gray raced a fuel Funny Car off and on from 1999 to 2006. Back in 2002, Gray placed a career-best 10th in the Top Fuel Funny Car world standings.

FOUR-WHEELING - On Saturday, Don Schumacher Racing driver Antron Brown told CompetitionPlus.com he felt the four wins he earned at Brainerd International Raceway in NHRA Full Throttle Series Pro Stock Motorcycle competition would help him earn the victory here in the Top Fuel class.

On Sunday, he backed it up with a Wally.

“It was a great, great weekend out here,” Brown said. “It threw us little curveballs. We were trying to go for the gusto because we wanted that No. 1 spot, but you know what? We waited for race day and Brian and Mark, they really just put their heads down…and they gave me a racecar this weekend that was just incredible.”

Brown defeated teammate and seven-time class champion Tony Schumacher in the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals’ finals after Schumacher smoked the tires at half track. The loss represented the fourth-straight runner-up finish by Schumacher, and continues the winless season for the U.S. Army team.

Schumacher won the first round against last year’s event runner-up Cory McClenathan and then faced two of his biggest rivals, “Hot” Rod Fuller and three-time and defending TF champion Larry Dixon in rounds two and three, respectively. The fact that the U.S. Army-sponsored rail beat two cars with Middle Eastern sponsors was not lost on Schumacher, who mentioned it in his top end interviews after each round win.

Brown, now a 29-time NHRA winner (13 in TF, 16 in PSM) dispatched Terry McMillen in the first round and former Brainerd winner Doug Kalitta in the second. In the semi-final round, Brown and Schumacher took out Al Anabi Racing teammates Del Worsham and Dixon, respectively, to meet in the finals.

While Brown was quick to speak of his respect for Worsham and Dixon and the entire Al Anabi Racing organization, he was even quicker to respond to whether or not beating them on the track was personal.

“Yes! Oh, without a doubt. There’s no love lost there for sure. We go out there and we go out there and race. They’re an incredible race team—they’re No. 1 in the points right now. So when you race them, you’re racing the best and you want to go out and beat the best.”

The real winner Sunday was team owner Don Schumacher. The racing legend also had two cars in the Funny Car finals with Johnny Gray earning his first career class victory over Ron Capps. A visibly emotional Schumacher said this was one of the greatest days of his racing career.

“This is the first time we’ve had two cars in the Top Fuel finals and two cars in the Funny Car,” Shoe said, pointing out that he’s won both Top Fuel and Funny Car at the same event 25 times, but never in this fashion. “Everyone on the team here feels happy and everyone in the shop down in Brownsburg (Ind.). A great team, a great group of people who support these teams and do a helluva job.”

With the win, Brown moves into second in the NHRA Full Throttle Series Top Fuel standings, 136 points behind Worsham, and 73 points ahead of DSR teammate Spencer Massey

The NHRA Full Throttle Series returns to action in two weeks for the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis.

 

 

 

THE RACE ANDERSON COULDN'T LOSE - Greg Anderson is an NHRA Pro Stock star. He has won four world championships, including last season.

Some wins in his illustrious career may be a blur, but his victory Sunday at the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway is one he will remember.

Anderson in his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP clocked a 6.599-second run at 209.26 mph to beat Erica Enders’ 6.614-second effort at 208.10 mph in the finals.

“The whole week has been fantastic for me,” said Anderson, whose hometown is Duluth, Minn. “It started on Wednesday night with just a fantastic ALS fundraiser up in Duluth. I got to see all of my old friends, family and fans. Thursday, we went down and saw the (Minnesota) Twins (play) with a bunch of family and friends and enjoyed the heck out of that. We came and started the race on Friday and it seemed like the cars were great right off the trailer. Jason (Line) and I ended up No. 1 and No. 2 in qualifying and we came into today with a ton of confidence and just everything fell into place for me.”

It was Anderson’s 69th career win and third of his career at Brainerd to go along with his 2003 and 2009 victories. This also was Anderson’s fourth 2011 win and vaulted him into first place in the points. Unofficially, Anderson has 1,208 points while his teammate Line is second at 1,178.

Prior to Sunday’s race, a restoration of the late John Hagen’s Pro Stock Plymouth Arrow was on display which was moving moment for Anderson. Hagen died during an accident during the 1983 Northstar Nationals in Brainerd. Hagen gave Anderson his job in drag racing in 1979.

“To see that deal (Sunday morning) with the old Arrow I used to work on, that was too cool,” Anderson said. “I do not remember much anymore, my memory is kind of shot, but I sure remember that car, and I sure remember working on that thing. To see that thing show up (Sunday) and take the cover of it, it looked just as good as before if not better. It brought back a lot of memories and this is where everything started for me. My father got me started in this deal and he kind of handed me off to John because he and John were great friends. John kind of took care of me and raised me like a second son. I owe it all to those two. If I have any good qualities in me, and I think I do, I can bring it right back to my father and John Hagen. Those were the two instrumental people in forming the way I acted in life. I’m a lucky man. This is just too cool.”
 
On this day, chock full of memories, Anderson was not to be denied regardless of the circumstances he faced.
 
In fact, Enders actually was leading for more than half the race against Anderson before he tracked her down and won. Enders upset Line in the second round with a holeshot.

Anderson and Enders also met in the finals at Chicago July 10 with Anderson winning. Enders was trying to become the first female to win an NHRA Pro Stock national event.

“We had a great race in the final and Erica is doing a fantastic job,” Anderson said. “She is going to win. It seems like every race we have been to lately it has been up to me to ruin the storyline so to speak. That’s my job. I love to win as much as she does. When she does win that first one it is going to mean all the more to her because of how she has had to battle and how she has had to fight.”

With the U.S. Nationals next on the schedule (Aug. 31-Sept. 5) and the Countdown Playoffs starting Sept. 15-18 in Charlotte, N.C., Anderson likes how he and Line are performing.

“Leading up to the Countdown to the Championship it seems like we are peaking and that is fantastic, you could not ask for anymore,” Anderson said. “We have two great chances to go on and try and win a championship this year, and that is all a guy can ask for.”

THEY BETTER GET A BIGGER BOAT - In the NHRA Full Throttle Series Pro Stock Motorcycle semi-finals at Brainerd International Raceway Sunday, top qualifier Eddie Krawiec faced defending class champ LE Tonglet. Krawiec’s ET was quicker than Tonglet’s (6.904 seconds to 6.956 seconds) and Krawiec was faster than Tonglet (194.07 mph to 191.24 mph). But Tonglet caught Krawiec sleeping at the light, leaving the line a full .071 seconds before his opponent, and went to the finals on the strength of  a holeshot. In the money round, Tonglet took the win against Hector Arana, Jr., the Lucas Oil-sponsored rider in the Lucas Oil-sponsored race for his fourth victory of the year.

“We expected ‘Little Hector’ to outrun us and he ended up slowing down to a .96 which was good for us because we were pretty much dead even,” Tonglet said to the media after the Winner’s Circle celebrations. “For him to slow down like that…I don’t know what happened, but I’m glad it happened and we were able to hold (him) off for the win.”

In the opening round, Tonglet dispatched Angie Smith followed by a quarter-final victory over Chip Ellis. The win was especially sweet for the Louisiana native since he bowed out in the first round here last year due to a mechanical failure.

Since that time and after his stunning U.S. Nationals victory, Tonglet’s fortunes have improved greatly, mostly due to his alliance with Kenny Koretsky and his Nitro Fish clothing brand. Even with three good motors and the confidence that comes from financial security from a sponsor, Tonglet was still surprised he was able to top Krawiec on a holeshot.

“We knew we had to cut a light and that Harley was going .80s all day up until that point,” Tonglet said. “My dad tuned up the bike in the trailer to help my reaction time come down and it worked; I cut a .013. Just to do little stuff like that, that’s really a huge help.

“We were very surprised (Krawiec’s RT was so late). We expected him to drive around me and he ran out of track, too! It was just a lucky day, I guess.”

Tonglet moves to third in PSM points, a single point behind Karen Stoffer, who fell in the first round Sunday via a red light, and 52 markers behind points leader Krawiec.

The NHRA Full Throttle Series returns to action in two weeks for the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis.

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QUICK HITS: RACE REPORTING IN RAPID FASHION

CompetitionPlus.com presented by Attitude Apparel provides quick hit coverage of the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals hosted by Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minn. We'll report the race in speed reading format.

TOP FUEL

FIRST ROUND

OPENING THE SHOW – Brandon Bernstein made two drivers very happy – Bob Vandergriff Jr. and Terry McMillen. The second-generation drag racer knocked out the No. 10 ranked David Grubnic.

Bernstein and Grubnic are 1-1 this season. They last raced in Houston where Grubnic won.

The victory clinched a berth in the Countdown to 1 for Bernstein.

LEANING ON IT – Morgan Lucas, unlike Bernstein, made only one driver happy in winning – Terry McMillen. Lucas sped to the finish line with a winning 3.996, 285.11 on a run where he oiled the track but kept lane choice because he had an oildown credit. He did lose three points, however.

Lucas entered the event as the ninth-ranked, and held a 76 lead over No. 10 ranked Grubnic.

Vandergriff failed to capitalize on the Grubnic loss when, at the hit of the throttle, popped the supercharger and ejected the parachute.

Lucas, whose family sponsor’s the event through their Lucas Oil company, lamented the oildown but considered the carnage as a winning necessity.

“Those are race day rules,” said Lucas. “In qualifying, you try to be aware of it and shut it off when you can think of it. But when you’re an idiot driver like me, sometimes you leg it out when you shouldn’t. I’m sorry for the oil and for all those fans out there. I know it’s pretty hot out there right now and I know they want to watch some good racing, but you gotta do what you gotta do to win these things. Every point counts right now, especially with the Countdown coming up.”

GATOR CAN’T SWIM – With Grubnic’s loss and Vandergriff’s failure to capitalize, Terry McMillen joined misery in the Countdown failures. McMillen’s 4.068 wasn’t even in the same ballpark with Antron Brown, who won with a 3.837, 318.92.

HOT ROD SINKS THE FLAGSHIP – Rod Fuller put a .01 of a second on the starting line against the usually-quick Shawn Langdon and in the end that made the difference in a close win.

Fuller scored the 3.868, 321.12 to 3.869, 316.82 decision.

“We were so close; it was like our noses were just going back and forth with each other,” said Fuller. “Shawn’s one of my favorite guys. We grew up Sportsman racing together and he’s one of the best guys. I hate getting in his way in the Countdown and stuff like this.”

Fuller is also racing on his Mother’s birthday. The last time he raced on her birthday, he won the 2005 NHRA Mid-South Nationals in Memphis.

This was the first meeting of Langdon and Fuller.

PICK A LANE – Tony Schumacher opened eliminations by beating former teammate Cory McClenathan. While Schumacher was heavily favored over the Aussie-based Rapisarda Racing dragster, what was peculiar was his victory came in the right lane. Up until this point, the higher qualified teams had taken the left lane with lane choice.

Schumacher raced to victory with a 3.863, 317.05. In situations like this, Schumacher goes with his tuner’s decision.

“Mike goes out on the track and makes a conscious choice,” Schumacher said. “I could hear them talk about doing a lane swap. You watch the cars that go out and win and see what lanes they’re in. They made a great call.”

NO. 1 ADVANCES – Del Worsham ran a strong 3.878, 316.45 to beat Bruce Litton in their first head-to-head run of 2011. Although outmatched performance-wise, Litton kept Worsham honest with a 3.890, 315.54.

KALITTA CLINCHED, MASSEY SMOKES – This weekend has been good for Doug Kalitta as he not only clinched a spot in the NHRA playoffs but also knocked off Spencer Massey.

Kalitta needed only a 3.89 for the victory as Spencer Massey, who earlier this season held a lengthy smokeless consecutive run streak, lost traction and the race.

The victory evened their head-to-head record this year at two wins apiece.

NOT TAKING ANY CHANCES – Larry Dixon had a decided advantage over Chris Karamesines, and beat him with the quickest run of the first round, a 3.844, 320.04, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

“We can’t take Chris Karamesines lightly,” Dixon said. “It’s a good team over there. You gotta go out there—I mean, you’re racing him, but you’re also racing for lane choice. You want to say lane choice doesn’t matter, but you want to be in the quicker car.”


QUARTER-FINALS

WORSHAM ADVANCES – Del Worsham spoiled Brandon Bernstein’s playoff-clinching party by scoring a monumental berth of his own. The Al-Anabi driver scored his eleventh semi-final berth by a 3.851 to 3.971 margin.

RIVALRY RENEWED – For years, Tony Schumacher and Rod Fuller had a strong rivalry. The two resumed their battle in the quarter-final after a few dormant years. The result was the same as it was in most of their meetings back then with Schumacher winning.

By mid-track, Schumacher had Rod Fuller covered with a 3.861, 319.90.

Schumacher is winless this season.

“I just want to win a race,” Schumacher said. “They tell me that these new trophies are pewter, I haven’t seen one in a long time. It’s one of those deals. This U.S. Army car is driving way too good to be getting beat like we’re getting beat. Mike and Neal are doing an amazing job tuning the car and I love driving for the U.S. Army. The soldiers, all the people out here, and the families.”

STRATEGY BACKFIRES – Just moments before their match, Doug Kalitta used his option of lane choice and did so at the last minute, taking the right lane.

Brown ran strong to victory with a 3.850, 317.64.

“This class is intense,” said Brown. “You take it one round at a time. That Kalitta car was mean last round, but you know what? My hats are off right now to Brian and Mark and that Matco Tools crew. This car has been working hard and it’s tough out here to get round wins. There’s going to be some monster rounds in this Countdown right around the corner, but we’re just getting ready for it.”

DIXON ADVANCES – Larry Dixon used a 3.842, 319 to eliminate past Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals champion Morgan Lucas.

 SEMI-FINALS

ANTRON KNOCKS OUT WORSHAM - This was a heavyweight battle between the Don Schumacher Racing and Al-Anabi Racing and Antron Brown never left a doubt who would win. Brown, in his DSR dragster, left the starting line first and led wire-to-wire for the win.

Brown clocked a 3.842-second lap at 317.72 mph to defeat Worsham’s 3.881-second effort.

Brown had a .052 reaction time, while Worsham was at 0.106.

“They (Worsham’s team) are No. 1 in points, so when you take out that team you have done something,” Brown said. “Brian (Corradi) and Mark (Oswald) (Brown’s crew chiefs), that was a great run. My hat’s off to this whole crew.”

Brown has three wins this season at Las Vegas, Atlanta and Sonoma, Calif. Worsham has a career-high six victories this year, his last coming at Seattle.

SCHUMACHER BEATS DIXON – This is another classic match-up between these DSR and Al-Anabi rivals.

Schumacher, the seven-time world champ, clocked a 3.841-second run at 320.81 mph to defeat Dixon’s 3.922-second lap at 297.55 mph.

“Unbelievable man,” Schumacher said. “The DSR cars are just hot. You know the Western Swing really started to prove that we have the machines. We have the cars to go out and win championships. It is a true battle (against Al-Anabi) and you have to win those to be a champ.”

Schumacher improved his career record against Dixon to 40-36.

Schumacher is now seeking his 68th career national event NHRA victory. But, he has yet to win this season, and he has lost in the finals at the last three races in Denver, Sonoma and Seattle. Schumacher last won a national event at Las Vegas this past October.

FINAL

ANTRON KNOCKS OUT SARGE AGAIN - Antron Brown wanted to race his teammate Tony Schumacher in the finals and he got his wish. More importantly, he got the win.

Brown clocked another solid 3.844-second lap to defeat Schumacher who smoked the tires and came in at 5.806 seconds.

Brown now has four wins this season at Las Vegas, Atlanta and Sonoma, Calif., and Brainerd. Brown also beat Schumacher in the Sonoma finals.

Schumacher was seeking his 68th career national event NHRA victory. But, he has yet to win this season, and he has lost in the finals at the last four races in a row at Denver, Sonoma, Seattle and Brainerd. Schumacher last won a national event at Las Vegas this past October.

 

FUNNY CAR

ROUND ONE

HOT STREAK CONTINUES – Tim Wilkerson’s 4.174, 301.00 not only defeated Dale Creasy, Jr., but also extended his round win streak to five.

Wilkerson, who won the Seattle national event, has one now won eight of his last nine rounds of completion.

NAPA KNOW HOW – Ron Capps scored low elapsed time of the first round and the second quickest of the event, trailing only Matt Hagan’s Friday run in beating Jim Head.

RIGHTLANEAPHOBIA – Few things scare a Funny Car driver and in particular, driver Matt Hagan with his linebackeresque stature. This was certainly the case until crewchief Tommy DeLago informed he’d be in the right lane for his first round race against two-time series and No. 16 qualifier Tony Pedregon.

The Freightliner/Diehard-sponsored team followed teammate Tony Schumacher’s lead and chose the right lane, going against the grain of the popular first round lane choice.  For Hagan, he hadn’t been down the right lane all weekend.

"That right lane just scared me," Hagan admitted.

UGLY, JUST UGLY - In a race where NHRA announcer Bob Frey described, “I haven’t seen that much tire smoke since Friday night at the Zoo,” Mike Neff needed only a 4.71 to beat Robert Hight, who smoked and limped to a losing 5.18.

The victory made Neff the last remaining Team Force car remaining in competition. The last time Neff was the lone survivor of the first round was Chicago and he won the event.

Neff admitted after their race his team prepares differently for racing a teammate.

“There’s some pressure off knowing that if you do lose, at least your teammate is going on,” said Neff. “But we’re both just frustrated. Neither one of us have been running like we’ve wanted to. To go out there and both smoke the tires, we’re both disappointed in that. We just want to see our cars run good and it hasn’t been going that well for us this weekend. Definitely nothing to get too excited about right there.”

KEEPS HOLDING ON – Johnny Gray won the first round but refuses to give up in his quest for a playoff spot. He defeated Jeff Arend.

“The car is coming around,” Gray said. “The Service Central/NTB car is getting better and better every weekend. We’re starting to go some rounds here and stuff. I gotta look at it like this, if we don’t get in the Countdown, we’re definitely gonna have a lot of fun jacking with these guys that didn’t let us in the Countdown.”

WHO LOTTA SHAKING GOING ON – Bob Tasca III ran a 4.178, 299.86 to beat Paul Lee on a run which he described as a rough ride. Tasca shook the tires during the winning run.

CRUZ BEATS FORCE – In a rematch of the 1992 NHRA Funny Car series championship, Cruz Pedregon knocked off the 15-time champion John Force. Force was off of the starting line first, but then his engine smoke became as prevalent as the haze coming from this tire smoke enabling Pedregon to run away with the 4.153 win.

CONSISTENTLY COMPETITIVE – Team owner Roger Burgess told CompetitionPlus.com in an interview on Friday that his R2B2 Funny Car team driven by Melanie Troxel was rapidly approaching consistently competitive status. Sunday’s first round victory over Jack Beckman proved his point.

Troxel ran a 4.195 to advance to her fourth quarter final round following five consecutive DNQs to open the season.

“I’ll tell you … this team really needed that one,” Troxel said. “We’ve really seen our performance come around here these last half-dozen races. We just didn’t have the consistency. We got down the track three times out of four in qualifying so we knew we finally had a racecar. This team is pulling deep trying to salvage something from this season and we’re finally seeing that come around.”

QUARTER-FINALS

COSTLY WIN – Matt Hagan mortally wounded an engine in beating Melanie Troxel in the second round.

Not only did his 4.158, 277.77 win cost him an engine, but the subsequent oil on the racing surface cost him ten points and lane choice in the semi-finals.

“It was pretty loud,” Hagan said. “I’m sure the boss might not be happy with that. I think it dropped a hole back there and it just came loose. But that’s the cost of doing business, I guess. But we’ll get this thing turned around; we won that round, right? We’ll get this thing turned around and go another round. That’s one thing here at DSR, we got plenty of parts, plenty of help, and we’re just trying real hard to get this thing to go some rounds.”

INSPIRING WIN – Ron Capps will be the reluctant beneficiary of Hagan’s loss of lane choice as he beat Mike Neff to eliminate the final remaining John Force Racing entry.

Capps won with a 4.215 all the while battling a car hell-bent on crossing the centerline.

“That’s that sprint car/late model experience coming into play,” Capps said. “Because at half track, we blew the No. 8 [cylinder] out and you can see the wet pipe. I had it turned—I had my knee moved out of the way as far as I could go with the wheel and it should’ve been over in his lane. I don’t know how it didn’t go over in his lane. On top of that, I could hear him outside my window. Thank God Tim Richards builds the power he does.”

HOPE STILL FLOATS FOR GRAY – With two races left in the 2011 NHRA regular season, Johnny Gray needs a bona fide miracle to earn a championship playoff berth. Gray entered Brainerd 95 points behind No. 10 Bob Tasca.

Gray used a 4.198, 303.71 to end Cruz Pedregon’s day.

Tasca did help his cause by running a 4.138, 302 to end the strong run Tim Wilkerson has mounted in the last three races.

“Yeah, we’ll go out and see what we can do with this thing,” said Gray, of his upcoming race with Tasca. “They’re running good, they’re a great team. We got a little bit of a rough start at the beginning of the season. We’ll go out and see what we can do here. If we can get him, we can take a round and if we have some luck at Indy, we could climb our way in. We’ll just see what happens.”

SEMI-FINALS
 
GRAY MOVES ON – This has been a roller-coaster season for Johnny Gray. Gray, however, has had memorable weekend in Brainerd as he advanced to the finals by defeating Bob Tasca III. Gray clocked a solid 4.159-second run at 303.50 mph to defeat Tasca’s 4.198-second lap.

“We have had some problems and we have been working on it,” said Gray, who pilots the Service Central Dodge Charger for Don Schumacher Racing. “The guys are doing a great job and the thing is just coming around what can I say.”

Gray is making his second appearance the finals this season, losing in the finals to Robert Hight at Las Vegas in April.

CAPPS DEFEATS HAGAN – Ron Capps is picking up speed in NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger.

Capps, in his DSR machine, moved into the finals by defeating his teammate Matt Hagan in the semis. Capps came in at 4.137 seconds at 306.46 mph to edge Hagan’s 4.145-second run at 302.62 mph.

“I was on the radio down here saying we either need more downforce in the rear or more front-end downforce,” Capps said. “That’s Tim Richards’ horsepower right there man. It is so fun to drive. You are driving with your rear end. You are just kind of out there trucking back and forth. That was fun.

FINAL

GRAY FINALLY WINS – All the ups and downs of Johnny Gray’s season were forgotten Sunday.

Gray, a veteran racer, had been to seven NHRA national event final rounds –three in Pro Stock and four in Funny Car - and never won.

The eighth time he did.

Gray clocked a great 4.113-second run at 307.02 mph to beat his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps. Capps had a 4.134-second run at 307.37 mph.

Gray was making his second appearance the finals this season, losing in the finals to Robert Hight at Las Vegas in April. Capps was making his third appearance in the finals in 2011. He lost at Norwalk to Mike Neff and won at Sonoma against Tim Wilkerson.

 

PRO STOCK

FIRST ROUND

KRISHER FALLS – No. 10 in the Pro Stock points Ron Krisher failed to distance himself from No. 11 Larry Morgan when he fouled against Erica Enders.

Also fouling in the first round was Shane Gray, the ninth place point earner, but with one race left in the regular season is an unofficial lock into the playoffs. The beneficiary of his foul was Greg Anderson, who would have been tough to beat with a 6.582.

On the other end of the reaction time spectrum, No. 12 in points Ronnie Humphrey was tardy with a .199 and paid the price in losing to Allen Johnson’s 6.618.

WJ DENIED AGAIN – Rodger Brogdon once again denied Warren Johnson a round win. For the fourth time in 2011, Brogdon defeated WJ in the first round.

THE LONE ONE LOSS – No. 5 qualifier Kurt Johnson was the only top half ladder entry to lose in the first round, losing on a holeshot to Greg Stanfield, 6.623 to 6.608.

MISSED OPPORTUNITY - With the guy ahead of him in the points eliminated early and the one behind him a first round runner-up, Larry Morgan needed only to beat Mike Edwards to make a move in the points.

Morgan gave up .04 on the starting line and in effect, cut his chances to get into the Countdown to 1.

Edwards advanced with a 6.610.

WELCOME TO THE NFL … EH … NHRA – Canadian Mark Martino qualified for his first race of the season and for his efforts, gained a first round match against the top qualifier Jason Line. Line took it easy on Martino with low elapsed time of the round, a 6.580.

MOPAR BATTLE – Vincent Nobile ran a 6.615, 208.62 to advance to the second round at the expense of V. Gaines, who pulled the front end and lifted shortly into the run.

QUARTER-FINALS

YEP, YOU GOT BEAT BY A GIRL – Jason Line was the pride of Wright, Minn., after qualifying No. 1 at the hometown race. One day later, the men-folk might have to talk to their favorite son.

Line was on the losing end of a race against Erica Enders which was determined by .0008.

Enders was .031 quicker on the starting line, Line was the .031 quicker in performance.

COMPLETING THE BRACKET – Houston runner-up Rodger Brogdon used a 6.596, 208.10 to chase down a quicker reacting Greg Stanfield. Brogdon advances to the semis where he will race Enders.

Both Enders and Brogdon use engines from Victor Cagnazzi and are pitted alongside one another.

LOW ELAPSED TIME TIED – Greg Anderson laid down a 6.580, 209.33 to eliminate Allen Johnson. He’ll race Vincent Nobile, who advanced on a Mike Edwards foul.

SEMI-FINALS

CHAMPION ANDERSON FLEXES HIS MUSCLES – Greg Anderson is the reigning Pro Stock world champ, used another great lap at 6.60 seconds at 208.68 mph to beat rookie Vincent Nobile. Nobile registered a 6.640-second run at 207.85 mph.

“The final at Brainerd obviously means the world to me, and this KB Racing Team,” said Anderson, a four-time world champ, whose hometown is Duluth, Minn. “I know probably most of the people in the grandstand want to see Erica (Enders) get that win light, but I’m going to have to do all I can possibly do to keep that from happening.”

Anderson and Enders met in the finals at Chicago July 10 with Anderson winning.

ENDERS ROARS PAST BROGDON – This was a battle of Victor Cagnazzi-powered cars.

Enders got the win light with a 6.613-second lap at 207.78 mph. Brogdon had problems almost immediately after the line and slowed to a 14.761 seconds.

“I can’t say enough about this ZaZa Energy Chevy Cobalt and my entire team,” Enders said. “Going to the final, I can’t thank God enough. Give him all the glory.”

Enders is trying to become the first female to win an NHRA Pro Stock national event.

FINAL

ANDERSON DENIES ENDERS AGAIN – For the second time this season, Greg Anderson, the reigning Pro Stock world champ, and Erica Enders met in a final round and for the second time Anderson won.

Anderson in his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP clocked a 6.599-second run at 209.26 mph to beat Enders’ 6.614-second effort at 208.10 mph.

Enders actually was leading for more than half the race before Anderson tracked her down and won. This was Anderson’s fourth win of the season.

Anderson and Enders also met in the finals at Chicago July 10 with Anderson winning.

Enders was trying to become the first female to win an NHRA Pro Stock national event.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

FIRST ROUND

REALLY QUICK – Only .002 separated the quickest two winners of the first round.

Hector Arana Jr. nailed down a 6.885 to beat Justin Finley. His winning run tied the low elapsed time of the weekend.

Eddie Krawiec ran a 6.887 to get by a quicker reacting Michael Phillips.

THE RED-LIGHT FACTOR – There were four red-lights in the first round of eliminations. Interestingly, of those foul starts, three were registered by riders who went on to score the quicker run in losing.

Matt Smith wasted his quickest run of the weekend, a 6.89, in losing against Gerald Savoie’s 6.958. Smith fouled by .002.

David Hope went -.012 red and wasted a 6.93, losing to Steve Johnson’s 6.980.

The misfortunes continued for Karen Stoffer, when she forfeited a 6.90 second pass in fouling to Andrew Hines, who won with a 6.925.

MOVING ON – Chip Ellis [Mike Berry], L.E. Tonglet [Angie Smith] and  Hector Arana [Jim Underdahl].


QUARTER-FINALS

IN A BIG WAY – Hector Arana Jr. stepped up in a big way to defeat Steve Johnson. The Lucas Oil-sponsored rider stepped up with the best of the weekend, recording a 6.881, 194.86 .

KEEPING PACE – Eddie Krawiec, who ran within .002 of Arana, wasn’t as fortunate in the second round as he ran a 6.890, 194.60 to beat Gerald Savoie.

HIS ONE LUCKY ROUND – If it weren’t for the finish line, L.E. Tonglet would have been sent packing in the quarter-finals against Chip Ellis. Ellis grabbed .028 on the starting line but at the stripe, Tonglet caught him, scoring a margin of victory measuring .007.

ROUND OUT – Andrew Hines rounded out the quarter-finals by running a 6.927 to prevent an all-Arana final round by defeating Hector Sr.

SEMI-FINALS

ARANA JR. CHASES DOWN HINES – Andrew Hines had a great reaction time on his Harley-Davidson at .014, but Hector Arana III chased him down.

Arana III, despite a .083 reaction time clocked a 6.893-second run at 194.66 mph. Hines came in at 7.006 seconds at 190.48 mph.

TONGLET’S HOLESHOT GIVES HIM WIN – LE Tonglet, the reigning world champ, used a holeshot to beat Eddie Krawiec in the semifinals.

Tonglet came in at 6.956 seconds at 191.24 seconds, while Krawiec had a faster elapsed time of 6.904 seconds. The difference was Tonglet’s .013-reaction time, compared to Krawiec’s .084 reaction time.
 
FINAL

TONGLET SHINES AGAIN – What a difference a year makes.

A year ago, LE Tonglet had his Pro Stock Motorcycle break in a first-round loss to Mike Berry at Brainerd International Raceway.

Tonglet fixed the motor and went on to win a world championship as a rookie.

Sunday, he came full circle by defeating Hector Arana III in the finals of the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd. Tonglet on his Nitro Fish Suzuki clocked a 6.954-second time at 191.27 mph to defeat Arana’s 6.961-second effort.

This was Tonglet’s fourth win of the season.

 

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SATURDAY NOTEBOOK -

THE HICK GOES TO THE TOP - There will likely be a party in Wright, the small town with a population of 127 located 70 miles outside of Brainerd, Minn.

One of their own, Jason Line, drove his way to the top of the Pro Stock ladder during the final day of qualifying at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals hosted by Brainerd International Raceway.

“I’m thinking they’ll be pretty proud,” said Line, who now lives in Mooresville, NC. “They might not make it Jason Line Day but I might end up with the key to the city sometime. There will be a celebration but I don’t think it will be too wild, there’s a large elderly population there.”

Line’s 6.581 was tied by teammate Greg Anderson but his faster speed of 206.26 won the tiebreaker, eliciting a round of applause from the geriatric Wright residents in the grandstands.

“It’s a cool thing because when you go there because you realize just how proud they are,” Anderson said. “Most of the people from Wright are here. They don’t know much about drag racing but they have a grand time here.”

Drag racing provides an acceptable entertainment value for the town without a red-light, which according to Line, recently lost its bar to fire. According to Line, it’s common for every town, no matter the size, in Minnesota, to have at least one bar.

Line believes the town bar will likely be open despite the fire.

“Now they have to drink outside,” Line said. “They are still repairing the inside. You haven’t lived until you’ve been to Wright. I am proud to be from there.”

In addition to nailing down the top spot, Line’s elapsed time secured the track record. Line believes the track over the course of the weekend has been great.

“The track is great and the winters in Minnesota are generally tough on it,” Line said.

WORSHAM IN HIS HAPPY PLACE - Twenty years ago, Del Worsham was a young nitro Funny Car driver at Brainerd International Raceway who wanted to earn a place in the Big Bud Shootout. For that to happen, he needed two things — he needed to qualify no lower than No. 2 and for Tom Hoover to qualify in the bottom two. Worsham qualified first, Hoover finished 16th, and Del got his spot in the Big Bud Shootout.

Fast forward to 2011 and the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at BIR and Worsham continues to do what he’s done all season and that’s drive 1,000 feet down a drag strip really, really fast in a Top Fuel dragster. The 3.808 second ET he ran in Q3 was nearly a full .02 seconds faster than teammate Larry Dixon’s second-place effort.

A six-time winner this season and a lock for the top spot when the Countdown to 1 begins at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C., next month, Worsham is still taking nothing for granted. The California native is focused on earning every point possible both during Sunday’s eliminations here and in two weeks at the US Nationals in Indianapolis.

“I don’t think we’re going to overlook one point, if you want to know the truth,” Worsham said during a press conference after the final round of qualifying Saturday. “That last run, we smoked the tires, but it wasn’t because we were out there trying to see how far this thing is going to go. I’m sure (team owner) Alan (Johnson) knows what he’s doing, I know he knows what he’s doing. He’s just checking out the parameters, seeing what’s out there so tomorrow we can go out there and have a great day.”

Like Dixon’s title run last year, Worsham and his Al Anabi rail are having a banner year, with this being his fifth No. 1 qualifier of the season. And like Dixon in 2010, Worsham knows it’s a team effort.

“I’ve said it all year about these guys at Al Anabi, Sheik Khalid, Alan Johnson, Brian (Husen, crew chief), their team and the job they do, they just keep making me look good.”

Eliminations are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. local time Sunday. Worsham faces No. 16 qualifier Bruce Litton. Spencer Massey, who held the provisional pole coming into Saturday’s qualifying, earned a track record with a 323.04 mph pass. The Don Schumacher Racing driver faces Doug Kalitta in E1 Sunday.

 

 

HAGAN NAILS SECOND NO. 1 - Matt Hagan secured his second No. 1 qualifier on the strength of Friday’s 4.101-second lap at 303.57 miles per hour lap. He races Tony Pedregon during Sunday’s final eliminations.

“It really doesn’t matter who’s in the other lane, who we have to race,” explained Hagan. “We know Tony, who’s fighting for a spot in the playoffs, will go out and try anything he can to beat us, but we just have to race the race track, race our race.

“That doesn’t mean we’ll take Tony or any other driver lightly, it just means we have to remain focused on doing our job without worrying about somebody else.”

Sunday’s first round race will be the first meeting this season between the two veteran drivers who are on different paths as the regular season evolves into a six-race Countdown to 1 playoff for the Funny Car championship.

Hagan comes into this race a solid fifth in the Funny Car standings, Pedregon 12th, with the top 10 drivers at the conclusion of the next race (Labor Day weekend in Indianapolis) qualifying for the playoffs.

“Even though we’ve already clinched a spot in the Countdown, this is an important weekend,” said the Christiansburg, Va. native. “Tommy DeLago (crew chief) is still perfecting our setup and getting ready for the playoffs.

“And we’d really like to get a win under our belts. The team has been doing a great job, giving me a great race car – we’ve just not gotten to the winner’s circle. I won’t talk about luck because we haven’t had any this year, so we won’t look to be lucky; we’ll just work hard to earn our successes.”

NOTHING BEATS A HARLEY ON SATURDAY - On Friday, former NHRA Full Throttle Series Pro Stock Motorcycle champ Eddie Krawiec broke Brainerd International Raceway’s class ET record with a provisional pole run of 6.885 seconds. That time held Saturday and the Harley-Davidson rider also picked up the track’s PSM speed record with a 195.17 mph run to keep the top qualifier for Sunday’s 30th Annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. It his seventh career pole and his first of the 2011 season.

“Both were pretty good laps,” Krawiec said in the press box after qualifying. “The track worked really good for us this morning. We went some 1.04 60 foots which is good for us. In fact, it’s rare. That’s a team record for us. The second lap was a 1.05 again, so we’ve got our bike working right. We’ve got a good set up, a good tune up given the track and the overall weather conditions here. It just couldn’t be any more exciting.”

Krawiec understands that other than some bonus points, earning top qualifier doesn’t provide four round wins on Sundays. Having said that, though, it’s still a nice way to cap off a Saturday at the drag strip.

“We’ve lost like three No. 1 qualifiers this year in the fourth session,” he said. “Like everybody says, it doesn’t really mean much to be the No. 1 qualifier, but it’s good bragging rights. We’re excited. We’re just glad to get a No. 1 qualifier for the Screamin’ Eagle team this year. We’re pretty happy to be up here.”

The two days of qualifying had two distinctive feels with Friday being cool and overcast and Saturday featuring warm temps with lots of sunshine. The ability to run well both days and find the right set ups each time the track’s attitude changed gives Krawiec and his team confidence they can race deep into eliminations on Sunday.

“Friday night’s session is more of the glorified run for us to go out there and try to get low ET,” he said. “We ran low ET this morning, which obviously shows for the overall package that you have a good first round set up. I ran a good second round here that I actually had to correct. I bet you I scrubbed off a couple hundredths of a second, too. I bet I could have ran every bit of a .91 on that lap.

“So it definitely gives me good confidence going into race day that we have a good tune up.”

Eliminations at BIR are scheduled to begin Sunday at 11 a.m. local time.

TWO FOR R2B2 - A second Funny Car is in the works for R2B2 Racing, and likely the driver will be Leah Pruett-LeDuc, but don’t expect it to come any time soon.

“It’s not imminent, but it’s our objective,” said R2B2 team owner Roger Burgess, who stopped into the Brainerd event for Friday before headed back home to Atlanta. “We have a competitive car but not a consistently competitive car. It all goes back to the chassis and the car we had earlier in the season. John and Aaron have been able to do some amazing things to get this old chassis [to work right]. John Force was kind enough to sell us one of his.”

Burgess said the chassis on the Funny Car Melanie Troxel drives is the same one they’ve run all season. He added the team has a second they plan to test soon and a third they’ve recently purchased from John Force Racing and the Eric Medlen Project.

Burgess believes the primary team finding it’s groove is of utmost importance before expansion comes up for consideration.

“You will hear that winning isn’t the most important aspect of maintaining a sponsor, the hospitality is excellent but if you can’t generate excitement,” said Burgess. “You’re not really doing what we promise our sponsors.

“Our team isn’t ready right now to put a second car out. We’re not [fully] competitive right now. When we become competitive and we hope to do that soon, there’s a good chance you’ll see two R2B2 cars.”

Burgess might even have a trick up his sleeve.

“You might see me license in a Funny car before it is all over with,” Burgess said.

 

THE GREAT SCALEHOUSE CAPER - Jason Hughes is one of those behind-the-scenes guys in the NHRA Pro Stock pits.

Hughes is the truck driver for Pro Stock racer Allen Johnson and while he prefers anonymity; coming back from the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle, Wash., he gained more attention than he hoped or longed for.

Hughes spent seven hours in a scale house outside of Sturgis, South Dakota catering to the demands of a state DOT official unsympathetic to the uniqueness of race trailers.

The typical Pro Stock hauler is vastly different than the commercial transport vehicles in that it carries three single wheel axles on the back.

“I pulled into the scale house and they said I was overweight,” explained Hughes, who in addition to the standard load was carrying two extra engines for the NHRA’s Western Swing. “They went on to say I was overweight on the rear.”

Hughes said the majority of the scale operators are lenient with the race teams because of the nature of their purpose. Every once in a while, various states will impose legislation against the style of haulers such as Utah and Florida did years back.

Hughes was told he’d have to pay a $900 fine to which he didn’t argue with. He figured he’d pay the fine and move on. If only it were that easy.

“Then they told me I had to pay the fine and fix it before I could leave,” said Hughes. “So I moved the race car forward, moved everything as forward as I could, went back across the scale, still overweight. Did that about 5 or 6 times, finally I unloaded the whole upstairs of the trailer, put all the stuff up in the lounge, put the cars as far forward as I could and I was still overweight.”

A beleaguered Hughes finally saw a friendly face in an unfriendly situation. Robyn Crosby, a member of the NHRA’s Safety Safari, had a few issues of her own. The NHRA Full Throttle Series truck had blown a tire prior to the scale house. She had to wait five hours for someone to come fix the tire. So in the meantime, with the official weary of Hughes’ plight, and quitting time rapidly approaching, a plan was concocted.

As the official said, “What you do beyond my scale house is out of my jurisdiction.”

Hughes and Crosby drove the team’s PT Cruiser and their Dodge Durango hotel car to a truck stop, dropped one of the cars. They rode back to the scale house, weighed Hughes hauler which passed this time. Crosby followed Hughes to park the rig at the truck stop. He provided her with a ride back to her repaired rig and drove back to the truck stop where he loaded his support vehicles into the race trailer and moved down the road seven hours later.

“I think next time, I might just take another route home,” Hughes confirmed.

 

 

 

WHATEVER FLOATS YOUR BOAT - Terry McMillen and Johnny Gray may race Top Fuel and Funny Car, respectively, in the NHRA Full Throttle Series, but this weekend, they’re in a boat. The same boat, as a matter of fact.

Both drivers are 11th in class points with only two races to go before the Countdown to 1, the NHRA’s Pro playoff series, begins at zMAX Dragway. While McMillen is less than one round behind Kalitta Racing’s David Grubnic, Gray has a steeper hill to climb. The Don Schumacher Racing driver must make up 95 points on tenth-place Bob Tasca III if he has any hopes of title contention in 2011.

The precedent has been set, though. Two years ago, John Force Racing’s Robert Hight had one of the worst seasons of his career on the track and came to US Nationals weekend needing to make the finals to get into the Countdown field. He did just that. He then went on to race six of the strongest events of his life and took home the Funny Car title. Gray hopes he can replicate that effort this year.

“I’m a never-give-up kinda guy,” Gray said Friday after a strong sixth-place qualifying effort. “I think we fight until the bitter end and if we get in, we get in. We’re going to have to be kinda like Robert was, we’re going to have to have some luck and we’re going to have to run good. We seem to be plagued with little problems right now, but the car’s coming around from the way it was running.

“We’ll see if we can get the Service Central car in the Countdown and if we don’t, we’ll hold our head up and we’ll just go at the last races there and just go at all those guys with a vengeance and really try to screw up their day.”

While the chances are long for Gray, the top ten is just outside McMillen’s reach. A relative newcomer to Top Fuel, the Indiana native has improved every year since his 2007 debut. Although his ’11 season has seen its hills and valleys, McMillen said his team must stick to their game plan if they have any chance to make the Countdown.

“I think we have to do the same thing we’ve been doing that has gotten us to this point,” he said while signing autographs for fans outside his pit area. “If we change right now, I think it could either take us backwards or maybe move forward, but I have to believe we’re here because we did things the way we know how and not making mistakes. I think we need to stay on that course and I think we’ll be fine.”

This year, the final race of the regular season is also the sport’s biggest race—the US Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. There is enough pressure on a driver just to win the Big Go, much less try to earn a berth into the Countdown as well. Both Gray and McMillen, though, like the setup and embrace the challenge.

“I like it a lot better,” McMillen said. “There’s no place like racing Indy. That’s where everything is. It’s our Daytona 500 of drag racing. There’s no better place to settle who’s going to be in the top ten for the Countdown than there.”

Gray agreed. “Indy’s been pretty good to me, I’ve run pretty good up there. I look at it like this: it’s an opportunity to go win another race and yeah, I’d like to win Indy.” 

ON THE UPSWING - It’s safe to say it’s been a challenging season for Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Angie Smith, especially in recent weeks. Things were looking good for the North Carolina native in Joliet after she locked herself in the show with a strong first day qyualifying effort. But then, a flurry of gremlins attacked her Buell, tuned by her husband and former class champion, Matt Smith.

She was unable to get down the track on Saturday and lost to defending champion LE Tonglet the next day in the opening round of eliminations, another instance where she was unable to cross the finish line under power. The next race, Denver, saw her miss the cut completely. Enough was enough.

“We stayed over and tested in Denver on (the day after the Nationals) and everyone thought we were crazy for testing in Denver because nothing you learn out there applies to any other race track,” she said after Friday’s qualifying at Brainerd International Raceway, where she is solidly in the field for Sunday’s eliminations with a 6.995 ET. “Obviously, we learned something; we worked on me and not the motorcycle. I think we got everything fixed. We’re making really straight, really good runs down the race track now.”

She and Matt focused on her riding style and, while not making a complete overhaul, made enough of a crucial change that the results were immediately noticeable. When the tour hit Sonoma, Angie won two rounds before bowing out in the semi-finals.

So now at Brainerd, there is new confidence in her abilities to race her Buell down the track and earn more round wins. While she is mathematically capable of earning a spot in the Countdown (13th in points, 77 markers behind tenth-place Hector Arana Jr.), Angie is not making a title run her focus.

“The top ten is way, way, way far back for me,” she said. “I’m not even thinking about it. It would take a stellar performance in both races (Brainerd and Indianapolis) to get in (to the Countdown to 1). I’m taking the attitude of, if it happens, it happens and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t.

“We finally turned the corner and we’re making good runs. If it doesn’t happen, we’re going to focus on making good runs and going out there to be a blocker for Matthew.” 

 

 

 

 

 

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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - 

WELCOME BACK, FOR NOW - That will show the media guy.

On Friday afternoon, awaiting qualifying for the Lucas Oil Nationals, Funny Car racer Matt Hagan was approached by a member of the media. The reporter asked, “When are you going to come see us?”

Hagan didn’t immediately get the point the writer was trying to make and offered, “I’m here all the time.”

Hagan didn’t understand the reporter was suggesting it had been a while since he’d been a part of the regular media press conferences which accompany those drivers who won or qualify No. 1.

The last time Hagan had visited the NHRA media center was in March during the NHRA Gatornationals when he scored his first No. 1 qualifier of 2011. The five-month absence may have seemed like a long time to the media but to Hagan, the dry spell seemed like an eternity.

“You don’t know how bad I wanted to come up here and talk to ya’ll,” Hagan said Friday evening to reporters in the Brainerd International Raceway media center. “We really want to dominate for everyone who supports us on this Freightliner car. It’s a tough field and this Funny Car class is no joke. There are no easy races out here. There are no games. Races are literally decided by thousandths of a second instead of hundredths.

“When you go home and think about this, you have to give a lot of credit to these crew chiefs. They deserve a lot of credit.”

For Hagan, his tuner Tommy Delago put the perfect spin on the engine for his driver to lay down a 4.101, 303.57 to edge second quickest Bob Tasca III’s 4.149, 299.00.

“Tommy Delago has put a good car underneath me and that’s the kind of confidence we need headed into the Countdown to 1,” said Hagan.

Hagan entered the weekend fifth in the regular season points standings on the strength of two runner-up finishes and three semi-final appearances. Last season he battled John Force to the wire for the championship and ended 2010 as second best.

“The combination Tommy has been working on is coming along,” Hagan said. “It still has a long way to go. It will be wonderful if it sticks, just depends on if Saturday is a cloudy day. For what we’re seeing on our graphs and what Tommy is doing on this race car, it’s really showing a lot of promise.

“We expected this car to come out and set the world on fire. We’ve been trying a completely new combination from the [injector] hat down. It’s just taking some time to get a handle on it. We’re creeping up on it and it’s showing promise.”

SPENCER TO THE TOP - It was a tale of two race tracks Friday at Brainerd International Raceway for the first day of qualifying for the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals. The NHRA Full Throttle Series Top Fuel class saw sunlight and tire smoke in Q1, but the second round was overcast and cooler and the times reflected it as Don Schumacher Racing’s Spencer Massey finished the day atop the qualifying list with a track-record ET of 3.835 seconds at 322.58 mph. It was a huge improvement over his teammate Tony Schumacher’s first-round P1 ET of 3.907 seconds.

“The cloud cover came and the track cooled off and that meant we could actually apply the power to the racetrack,” Massey said in the media center immediately following Top Fuel qualifying. “The first run, we actually made it down and we didn’t smoke the tires. I was watching everybody out front go down there and smoke the tires. On (the second) run, I was sitting back in the car and the guys were saying, ‘What’s Worsham going to run? He’s going to run an .83,’ and I said, ‘.82 with a six is what we’re going to run.’ I missed it by a little bit, but hey! It’s still No. 1.”

Schumacher was barely edged out of the top spot by a mere .001 seconds in the second round and enters Saturday’s Q3 with a provisional second spot. The seven-time champ raced his DSR teammate and four-time Brainerd Pro Stock Motorcycle winner Antron Brown in the final pair of the day. Given the strength of their respective rails, there was the real possibility Massey could have been knocked off the top spot. A team player, the young Texan said it didn’t matter who the No. 1 qualifier was, just so long as it stayed in-house.

“In my opinion, it didn’t really matter because we knew that there was going to be a Don Schumacher Racing car in the No. 1 spot,” Massey said. But, team loyalty only goes so far.

“Obviously, I like it a little bit better when I’m No. 1 because I like being No. 1. It’s always great when I get to talk to you guys in the pressbox. It’s an accomplishment, it’s fun, it’s awesome, hopefully we can hold on to this through tomorrow.”

On the outside looking in for Saturday’s round of qualifying, scheduled to begin at 11:45 a.m. local time, is Doug Kalitta (19th) and Terry McMillen (18th), who is currently 11th in class points and is battling for the final spot in the NHRA Countdown to 1. Locked in for Sunday’s eliminations are Bruce Litton (12th) and “Hot” Rod Fuller (11th). 

 

 

A FRIDAY TRADITION - Friday qualifying might just be a formality for Mike Edwards.

The past NHRA Pro Stock champion will generally make a strong run during provisional qualifying, and regardless of how strong the run might appear to be, Edwards generally concludes his opening quote with, “It’s not going to hold.”

Edwards usually looks ahead to Saturday’s 11 AM third qualifying session and bases his statement on experience. This is the run he deems as the most advantageous atmospheric conditions of the entire race weekend.

The Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., was no different for Edwards as he went to the top with a 6.595 elapsed time at 208.55 miles per hour. His run was .002 quicker than Greg Anderson who ended the day as No. 2.

“We didn’t make a good run in the first session, but that second one was nice,” said Edwards. “Hopefully we can build on that tomorrow. This [No. 1 qualifier] is premature because this certainly won’t hold. Tomorrow will be much faster.”

Traditionally Edwards has been accurate more times than not. In three of his provisional No. 1 qualifying efforts this season, he has been bounced from the top spot during the favorable session.

“The air is so much better,” Edwards explained. “The track is really, really good. I really don’t think the track will be any better here on Saturday morning, but the air will.”

Edwards said improving conditions and capitalizing on them is the key to success.

“You just have to make the right adjustments at the right time,” Edwards said. “These cars are so close from No. 1 [qualifier] to No. 16. It’s so competitive out there. Races are decided out here by as little as .001 of a second. If you make the right adjustments at the right time, you might squeak in there.”

And for Edwards, making those adjustments doesn’t include drifting drastically outside of the basics.

“As inconsistent as we have been this year in struggling with this chassis, we are just trying to get this car dialed in better,” Edwards said. “I’m more comfortable than I used to be, but not where we should be. It’s going to take consistency. If someone can get consistent, there’s a good opportunity here. There are so many good cars out here.

“Anybody in the top ten [of the Countdown to 1] can catch fire in Charlotte and win this thing. It’s so close.”

If the run lasts through Saturday’s two sessions, it will mark Edwards’ fourth No. 1 qualifier this season.

KRAWIEC NAILS TRACK RECORD - A mere five points behind NHRA Full Throttle Series Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader Karen Stoffer, former class champion Eddie Krawiec went to the top of the charts at Brainerd International Raceway Friday with a track-record ET of 6.885 seconds at 194.63 mph. Stoffer is in the show for Sunday’s 30th Annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals here, but is looking to improve her position, currently 11th (6.999 seconds, 189.42 mph).

The weather for Friday’s qualifying was a refreshing change from conditions in years past. Cool temps with overcast skies provided a nearly ideal race track for the PSM class and Krawiec, with two wins this season, was able to take advantage.

“When you come here, you’re not used to having really good conditions, the cool air, good air, the barometer isn’t all that great,” Krawic said, addressing the assembled media. “If you look around us, there’s trees, which means there’s oxygen and a lot of green grass, so that’s definitely a good thing for us naturally-aspirated guys.

“The most important thing is going out there putting together a good package and getting from A to B and finally, we’re starting to do that with our Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson.”

Krawiec’s teammate, former PSM champion and defending event winner Andrew Hines finished the day third on the charts (6.916 seconds, 192.96 mph). Krawiec said the data from this race last year was very helpful in getting the tune up right for their Harley-Davidsons this weekend.

“We definitely had some good tune ups here last year that worked,” he said. “Andrew’s bike obviously showed it. I struggled a little bit here last year, but all in all, we have a good setup, I think, for this track.”

In recent years, Krawiec and Hines have won four of the last seven class titles, but the V-Twin domination is being challenged by the likes of Stoffer, Micheal Phillips, former champ Matt Smith, and defending titleholder LE Tonglet.

For Krawiec, however, that’s just fine. “It’s great because the best rider of the weekend wins,” he said. “We may have the best bike sometimes and we may not be the best rider. I had the bike to beat, probably, in Sonoma, and I screwed it up and went red and threw it away.

“For a rider, the cream of the crop will rise to the top. You get everyone on an equal bike, there’s no better racing for the fans, for the racers, for everybody.”

While Hector Arana III finished Q2 in second (6.898 seconds, 192.49 mph), his father, 2009 champion, Hector Arana, isn’t locked into Sunday’s eliminations after a 15th-place run of 7.065 seconds at 190.43 mph. Two-time US Nationals champion Steve Johnson is also on the outside looking in with an ET of 7.063 seconds, good enough for 14th position.

Pro Stock Motorcycle qualifying resumes Saturday at 11 a.m. local time.

STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND - Todd Berrier admitted a certain style of racing was making him a little dizzy, so he decided to take in a drag race to get himself straightened out.

Berrier, who was a part of Kevin Harvick’s 2007 Daytona 500 victory, decided to come out to take in a weekend on NHRA Full Throttle Championship Drag Racing at Brainerd International Raceway.

Berrier, who was replaced as crew chief for Jeff Burton recently, needed a horsepower fix this weekend. As he put it, “After being on the road for nearly every day for 17 years, and then being home for a few weeks I needed to get out of the house.”

Berrier is at this weekend’s Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., as a guest of Pro Stock team owner Victor Cagnazzi. Many have described the NHRA’s Pro Stock division as the drag racing equivalent to a NASCAR Nextel Cup car.

For Berrier, spending time as a guest grunt in the Cagnazzi compound has revealed to him, drag racing carries many similarities to NASCAR racing.

“It’s all the same,” Berrier explained. “It’s still a group of assembled guys who must pull the rope in the same direction. Everyone has a job. The first thing you notice is the manpower. In one you can have up to 25 people and over here you learn to do it with five or six people. Over here one person can stop the show unlike what we are doing over there.”

This weekend’s excursion is not the first time Berrier has been to the drags. He’s spent a couple of hours, here and there during races over the years. Brainerd marks the first time he’s been a part of an entire weekend of drag racing.

Berrier usually fields a fair number of questions regarding the complexity of serving as crew chief in the vastly different styles of auto racing. Given the opportunity to switch a NASCAR crew chief and NHRA Pro Stock crew chief duties, Berrier believes the straight-line tuners have the better chance of success based on the infrastructures associated with many of the Nextel Cup teams.

“I’d say if you took Dave Connolly and put him over there, and with the same support staff, I think he would probably do better than just plugging me in over here,” Berrier said. “That part of the job has changed so much.

“It’s politics. Managing people, budgets and trying to figure out all of that with a company of about 400 people. Over here you have six people and you are part of the equation. A crew chief over here is like a car chief over there.”

Over there, Berrier admits, the majority of the participants all love drag racing because of the genuine love of fast cars which make noise. He confirmed there have been talks among the leading team owners from time to time about fielding professional drag racing operations.

“Richard Childress and I had conversations about it,” said Berrier, noting Childress’ friendship with Bob Vandergriff Jr. “With the downturn of the economy it’s all about marketing strategies. If there’s ever any way to cross reference things and get to more people, that’s what matters the most. Marketing today requires creativity.”

And to Berrier, drag racing is awful creative.

 

 

GRANDPA FORCE NOT THINKING RACING? YEAH RIGHT - Contrary to popular belief John Force didn’t order the construction of a new Junior Dragster with the announcement of new grandson Jacob John Hood.

The 15-time NHRA series champion has longed for a male member of the Force family after fathering four females. Now his longtime wish has been granted.

Force wants it known, if you think just because Jacob John was born a male into this famous drag racing family, he isn't going to press the kid into drag racing.

“I never do that although people accuse me of doing it,” Force said. “I’m excited to have a grandson. He’s a beautiful baby.”

Jacob John was born early Thursday morning and weighed 7 pounds, 13 oz. and was 20.25 inches long. His name was a combination of father Danny Hood’s middle name of Jacob and both grandfathers share the first name of John.

“I think they named him after Danny and his dad, I just happened to be there by accident,” Force said.

Force described daughter and licensed Funny Car driver Ashley Force Hood as a “trooper”.

“She had the baby just a little past midnight and Laurie and I went to the hospital in the morning and walked in the room and Ashley was sitting in the chair with the baby. It didn’t look like she had - had a baby. I thought they laid there for a day or two. Then she told me, ‘Dad, I didn’t even yell.”

Force said Danny confirmed the statement.

“Just like her Momma,” Force explained. “Only thing my wife ever yelled about was for me to get out of there. And, I did.”

Force smiled when he recalled the only person in the family who appeared unhappy the baby was male just happened to be granddaughter Autumn.

“She wanted another girl … said boys are yucky,” Force said. “She’ll learn to love him though, and it won’t be long before she’s out dragging him around the track.”

Force said he hugged Danny and told him “Thank you.”

Thank you for what?

“We didn’t even talk racing,” Force said. “I wanted to thank him for helping to bring a beautiful baby into the world. I didn’t even ask Ashley if she was coming back racing. This is their time. I like a mix of boys and girls.

“In the early days of racing, I always felt like in the old days that you needed a boy to drive one of these cars. Now I’ve seen how good Ashley was and Brittany and Courtney, I’m going to be pretty old when Jacob’s ready to drive.”

It’s a good thing Force isn’t thinking about the kid driving.

 

 

 

WHO ARE YOU? – Sit out four races and you become an afterthought.

Jim Head had a few stares when he rolled through the gates at Brainerd International Raceway for his first race since a self-imposed vacation following a first round loss at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio.

He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t absent in protest.

Head just wanted to go fishing.

“I spent fishing in Montana as well as the Turks and Caicos Islands,” Head confirmed. “I am building a home in the islands and I spent time fishing and working on the house.”

Fishing and jogging, two of Head’s favorite activities, usually inspire creative ideas. Not this time.

The weekend was about leaving life’s pressures behind and relaxing.

“We almost didn’t remember what we’re doing out here,” Head said, smiling. “We did a match race last weekend and proved we didn’t know what we were doing.”

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THURSDAY NOTEBOOK - GETTING READY FOR THE RACE

REMEMBERING HIS MENTOR – Every time Greg Anderson heads to Brainerd Raceway, the trip evokes memories of his mentor John Hagen, a Pro Stock racer who provided his first big break in Pro Stock drag racing. Hagen was killed in a qualifying accident during the 1983 NHRA Northstar Nationals race.

Anderson met Hagen while racing with his dad Rod in NHRA competition. When his dad retired from drag racing in 1979, Anderson was afforded the opportunity to help on Hagen’s team. For four years they traveled the country together.

When Hagen died, it left Anderson wondering if racing was really where he wanted to be.

“John Hagen, was like a second father, picking up where my father left off,” said Anderson.  “He not only gave me my start in Pro Stock racing, he also taught me a lot about racing and life.  For example, like my dad he showed me the importance of hard work and treating people right, lessons that have stayed with me today.  I almost walked away from the sport after his passing in 1983, but a perfectly timed offer from Warren Johnson brought me back, and I’ve been blessed ever since.

“I think of John every day, and have stayed close with his family since we lost him, and they come to Brainerd every year to see us.  His wife Gerry is doing great, as are his sons David and Michael.  They have grown up to be tremendous people, and I am so proud of them all.  One of my favorite racing memories was presenting them the Wally in 2003 after my first win in Brainerd.  That meant the world to me, just as it did in 2009 when I gave my dad the trophy after my second Brainerd win, because, let’s face it, I wouldn’t be here without them, and I thank them for getting me involved.”

RELATED STORY: GREG ANDERSON, THE APPRENTICE

OPPORTUNITY’S KNOCKING - After struggling early in the season, Funny Car fan favorite Tim Wilkerson couldn’t get a lucky break. Now that good fortunes are falling his way he plans to hang on to them with a death grip.

"We made some hay there, on the Swing, and you better believe that's something we feel good about," Wilkerson said. "But, we're not spending a second living in the past. Winning Seattle was great, for me, for LRS, and our team, but it's been in the history books for almost two weeks now and it doesn't give us any kind of head-start in Brainerd. Just like everybody else, we'll get to work trying to get qualified and then we'll focus on winning the first round.

"Our goal is to keep it up, keep the hammer down, and keep picking up some round wins, because every spot in the Countdown is important. Yes, we all know you can win the championship from the 10th spot, because Robert Hight did it, but I'd bet you a dozen doughnuts that 20 years from now, if you look back at all the champions, he's likely to still be the only one who's done it from the bottom spot. I think that was just a case of one of the fastest cars in the class needing some time to come around, and they peaked at the right time.  They might've gotten in tenth, but that was not a tenth-place car or driver."

Wilkerson left the NHRA Route 66 Nationals mired in 11th place in points following another first round loss to former teammate Bob Tasca III. Headed into arguably the toughest part of the NHRA tour, the three-race Western Swing, his prospects of success appeared gloomy at best.

A funny thing happened to Wilkerson, he began winning and it started with a single round win in Denver. Then he reached the finals in Sonoma and not only won Seattle but leapt into the ninth spot in the point standings. With a 141 point cushion between himself and No. 10 runner Johnny Gray, it’s suffice to say logically that he’s locked in a place for the playoffs with two races remaining.

THE PIZZA MAN DELIVERETH – Rod Fuller will be back in action this weekend with the Yas Marina Circuit/DIGIORNO Top Fuel dragster.

Fuller most recently drove his way to the semi-finals in Denver.

“I’m very proud of the team and, you know, we’re accomplishing what we set out here to do; we’re improving with every pass down the track and the whole team is just really moving forward at a Top Fuel speed,” said Fuller. “I’m excited to see what we can do in Brainerd for the Lucas Oil Nationals.” Fuller said.

Fuller will be making four appearances the Wednesday and Thursday before each event he participates in at select Wal-Mart locations.

SERIOUS COMPETITION - The most import drag races at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals might not be staged on the asphalt of Brainerd International Raceway. For many race fans, the competition they’ll be paying close attention to will be the "Rickshaw Nationals" staged in the track’s campground, also known as The Zoo.

If you’re unfamiliar this style of racing, a rickshaw is essentially a two-wheeled cart which seats one or two passengers and is human-powered.

This year’s event will feature one of the drivers from the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

Melanie Troxel, along with some of her R2B2 Racing team members, will participate in the annual rickshaw event.

"We're coming to Brainerd looking for two big wins," said Troxel. "We want to win the Lucas Oil Nationals, and we want to win the rickshaw race over in the 'Zoo.' Those are our goals."

The campground draws in the tens of thousands of partiers and residents each year.

"Brainerd is the craziest race of the year, without a doubt," Troxel said. "It's one of those deals that has to be experienced in person to truly understand and appreciate. The fans up there live for this race and they support it like nothing else. The Zoo has grown into this legendary campground party and all the drivers and crew people love to go over there and party with everyone. It's very unique and a whole lot of fun.
                             
"A couple of our crew guys are fired up for the rickshaw race. Chris (Abbott) is going to pull the rickshaw with me in it. He's probably the most fit guy on the team and he's been dragging Charlie (Mitchell) around the shop training for this. He says we're going for the win so I'm behind it 100 percent."

Oh yeah, she’s also racing her nitro Funny Car and lately she’s been doing well under the guidance of Aaron Brooks and John Medlen.

"We're constantly refining our set-up," Troxel said. "It's been frustrating at times because we're working so hard, but we know you can't expect overnight miracles. Aaron (Brooks, crew chief) and John (Medlen, vice president of R&D) have made some fairly big changes in the last few weeks and we're close to putting a new chassis into service as well so we're hoping to pick things up down the stretch.

"Our focus remains on winning races. We have Brainerd and Indy left before the playoffs start and we want to make as much noise as we can. Our desire to succeed hasn't changed one bit and I'm as proud of this group as any I've ever worked with in the past."

ALL ABOUT JOCKEYING – Pro Stock racer Allen Johnson has earned a berth in the NHRA’s Countdown to 1 playoffs and this weekend will be all about improving his seeding.

“We need to be consistent and fast right out of the box,” said Johnson. “Every qualifying run is important and we have to make sure we put down good runs each time we are on the track. Brainerd is a high altitude type of track, kind of like Denver, and that lends itself to our Mopar HEMI® engines. We’re looking to go there and continue our strong qualifying, go to the finals and make up a round or two to get into the top-four in points.”

Johnson ranks sixth in the points, just two out of fifth. He’s less than two rounds out of fourth with two races remaining.

“We’re pretty solid right now, so we’re not going to try anything too much out of the ordinary at Brainerd or Indy,” said Johnson. “We are focused on the next two races and winning rounds so we can hopefully move up those two spots in points. We want to hit our stride from here on out. Starting at Brainerd we are pretending that the Countdown has already started and we are going to turn up the wick. We have to make good decisions each and every round and make sure we don’t make any mistakes.”

History has been favorable to Johnson’s bid to gain ground in the points. He’s reached the semifinals at Brainerd in two of the last three years and three times overall in his career, as he seeks his first final round appearance and overall victory at the venue.

STILL SEARCHING - Since departing Seattle two weeks ago, Tony Schumacher has been bombarded with the same question over and over again from family and friends.

“They keep wondering when we are going to get over that last hurdle,” said the seven-time world champion after losing in three straight final rounds. “Of course, my reply is it will happen – that it is only a matter of time.”

Despite dropping close final-round encounters in Denver, Sonoma, Calif. and Seattle, respectively, Schumacher is enthused by his U.S. Army team’s performance as it looks ahead to this weekend’s Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals here at Brainerd International Raceway.

“For sure,” he said. “We have been running as good as we have all year, which is critical as we get closer to the Countdown to 1 (playoffs). We are going to go up to Brainerd and go after that first win of the season.”

Dating back to the 2010 fall Las Vegas race, Schumacher has now gone winless in 15- consecutive events. For Top Fuel’s winningest driver, that statistic has not been a burden in any way.

“I know how terrific my race team is,” said Schumacher. “I also know we are going to win our fair share of races this year.”

The memories are still etched in Bob Bode’s mind.

On Aug. 15, 2010, Bob Bode, a part-time Funny Car driver on a limited budget, stunned the racing community by capturing an improbable victory at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., by defeating Jack Beckman out of the Don Schumacher Racing stable.

“I have been racing my Funny Car 11 years, and I can’t really remember a lot of the races because so many of them run together,” the 59-year-old Bode said. “But, I can re-live that one (Brainerd last year) in my mind round by round almost minute by minute. It was just that great of a day and it is embedded in my brain. I will remember it until I’m old and gray.”

Bode will make a return to the site if his greatest NHRA accomplishment when he defends his title at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals Aug. 18-21 at Brainerd International Raceway Track.

“Nobody would have even put us on the odds charts last year,” Bode said. “Maybe we will at least be on the bottom spot of the (odds) chart this year. Can it happen again that we win? I think so because it is a good race track for our tuners. I would like to see it happen and a lot of it depends on pairings. We have a good enough car to do it and now we have to see if we are smart enough to do it.”

Bode has competed at seven races this season, the last being at Chicago July 7-10 when he lost to Melanie Troxel in the first round after smoking the tires. Bode’s best 2011 performance came when he lost to eventual champion Jeff Arend in the semifinals at Houston May 1.

“We do not go on that Western Swing, it is too brutal for us,” said Bode, whose team is based in Elk Grove, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. “Last year, we were kind of off leading up to Brainerd and our chassis and tune-up just works at Brainerd. We have had some good weekends there. It fits our style, and we are amped up and ready to roll into Brainerd fresh after we took the Western Swing off.”

Bode’s remarkable 2010 Brainerd run was even more impressive considering he had never been to a Funny Car final round since he began competing in the class in 2001.

“I remember when we were getting the car ready and we were thrashing it, and the guys on our crew had never had to get a car ready for four rounds in a day,” Bode said. “Then, I thought as we pulled the car into the staging lanes that we had no problems with where we are headed because win or lose we have never got this far. Beckman had the hot rod to beat. He was running low numbers every round and was flawless. We figured we would just have him earn the win. The next thing you know we were in the winner’s circle.”

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