2016 NHRA DODGE NATIONALS - EVENT NOTEBOOK
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SUNDAY NOTEBOOK
‘BLIND’ BROWN PULLS OFF HOLESHOT VICTORY FOR SECOND OF COUNTDOWN - Antron Brown said he virtually couldn’t see his way down the Maple Grove Raceway 1,000-foot course Sunday in the Top Fuel final round of the NHRA Dodge Nationals near Reading, Pa.
That’s a perilous proposition, considering his Matco Tools / Toyota/ U.S. Army Dragster is a 10,000-horsepower beast that jets down-track on an unholy mixture of nitric acid and propane and zips from start to finish faster than anyone could say, “Antron Brown retains his Mello Yello Drag Racing Series points lead.”
Brown has won two of the first three playoff races. So imagine how wickedly dominant the reigning Top Fuel champion is when he can see where he’s going.
Even with an untimely fogged-up helmet visor blocking out just about everything in his line of vision, Brown cut an .066-second light and scored a holeshot victory over Brittany Force and her Monster Energy Dragster. They had identical 3.721-second elapsed times, and he won with a slower 317.34-mph speed against her 324.67. She was an eye-blink slower on the Christmas Tree at .069 of a second, giving him a 0.0033-second margin of victory, or approximately 19 inches.
With the victory, his milestone 60th overall, Brown stretched his lead in the standings over No. 2 Doug Kalitta to 77 points as the Countdown to the Championship action heads in two weeks to the Southwest, at Ennis, Texas, near Dallas.
“I’m not going to lie to everybody – all the credit goes to my team. The Good Lord Above was driving that car in that final,” he said.
The Don Schumacher Racing driver, who combined with Funny Car’s Tommy Johnson Jr.to give the boss a second straight and 60th overall double-nitro triumph, flipped his helmet visor down into place just before he lit the staging light. That’s when he received the shock: “I couldn’t see nothin’. It was pitch white.”
He figured he could navigate the right lane if he could see the blue light atop the tree at least faintly. He lifted the visor for a split-second and thought better of it, taking no chances of some freakish accident that could cost him his vision permanently or worse. So he put it back down, figuring, he said, that “I like to keep my eyes, you know what I mean?”
Brown said, “So I took a chance on it and we went down the racetrack. I just tried to keep it in the center of the groove.” He felt the car drifting to the left but corralled it. “I overdrove the car a little bit. We just cut a good enough light to get that win. That was my worst light of the day. We had some lucky breaks go our way today. We kept our heads down and kept fighting the whole way.”
He was doubly blessed Sunday, for he already had ugly-pedaled his way past a struggling Shawn Langdon in the semifinal for his 10th final-round appearance and sixth in the past eight races. Brown also advanced past JR Todd and Clay Millican.
“This is a hometown race for me. And my grandma and my family are all here, and it felt good to get that win,” he said. “The competition is at an all-time high, and I’m enjoying it. With all the boys working hard, with [crew chiefs] Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald and all these Matco / U.S. Army / Toyota boys, they did a great job all weekend – for having one round of qualifying and to come up here for the car to perform like it did.”
He and Johnson joined Vincent Nobile (Pro Stock), and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) in the winners circle.
Brittany Force reached her fifth final round of the season. She edged Larry Dixon by nine-thousandths of a second, won when Doug Kalitta red-lit (although she didn’t know it at the time and pushed her engine past its limits for a considerable clean-up delay), and rocketed away from mechanically troubled top qualifier Leah Pritchett. Susan Wade
JOHNSON JR. SNARES FUNNY CAR VICTORY AT DODGE NATIONALS - When it comes to talking about who will win the NHRA Funny Car world championship, Tommy Johnson Jr. seems to get lost in the conservation.
That shouldn’t be the case anymore.
Johnson, appearing in his third final round in a row, beat Ron Capps in the finals Sunday to claim the title at the Dodge Nationals.
Johnson Jr. clocked a 3.895-second time at 330.63 mph to edge Capps’ 3.911-second lap at 324.12 mph at Maple Grove Raceway.
“You want to have a strong start, we knew that going into Charlotte (the first race of the Countdown to the Championship),” said Johnson Jr., who pilots the Make-A-Wish Dodge for Don Schumacher Racing. “We started seventh in points and we would’ve liked to be a little higher and then we went from seventh to fourth and runner-up was a good start and then we went to St. Louis and was runner-up again and went from fourth to second. I said I’d be happy with four more runner-ups if we could do that the rest of the way I think we could win the championship. Then you have Capps in the final, who is leading it, and it’s a must-win. You can’t have another runner-up, you have to gain some ground. I couldn’t be more happy with the first three races in the Countdown to three final rounds and a runner-up, that’s getting it done and that’s what have to keep doing to get done.”
This is Johnson Jr.’s second win of the season as he also won at Bristol, Tenn., (June 19). He now has 13 career NHRA national event wins – 11 in Funny Car and two in Top Fuel.
Johnson arrived in Reading second in the points and he will remain in that position, but he’s only 24 points behind leader Ron Capps. The six-race Countdown to the Championship concludes with races at Dallas (Oct. 13-16), Las Vegas (Oct. 27-30) and Pomona (Nov. 10-13).
“Neither one of us (he or Capps) have won a championship and I think you could see how bad both of us want it,” Johnson Jr. said. “It’s going to be a fight, I can tell that right now. It’s not going to be easy, but if we can continue this consistency then we will be all right.”
Johnson Jr. qualified No. 2 and had consecutive round wins over Cruz Pedregon, Mike Smith, Jack Beckman and Capps, the latter two who are his DSR teammates.
“It was a tough track just because the conditions were so good,” Johnson Jr. said. “The track is so tight and you have to be perfect or it doesn’t make it. You get to the semifinals and you think this is going to be tough. I know what those guys have for equipment and their teams and you know if you’re going to win it, you have to go through the best. We pulled in the water box for the semis and I thought 'I bet the boss is happy.' This is good. This is what we planned to do. We all work together really well. Everybody shares information, if you ask the right question they will tell you and if you’re struggling, they will be there to help you. That’s all great until you get to the semifinals and then it is every team for itself, nobody is cutting you any slack.” Tracy Renck
NOBILE ENDS WINLESS STREAK WITH PRO STOCK VICTORY AT READING - Vincent Nobile knew he let a Northwest Nationals national event win slip through his hands.
During the final round for Seattle - which was completed Sept. 3 at the U.S. Nationals – Nobile had a faster car than his opponent Aaron Strong, but handed Strong his inaugural Pro Stock win when he recorded a redlight.
Nobile, who had not won a national event since Chicago in 2014, ended his 56-race drought with a victory over Greg Anderson in the final round Sunday at the Dodge Nationals at Reading, Pa.
Nobile clocked a 6.575-second time with a 209.85 mph to defeat Anderson’s 6.582-second 210.37 mph lap at Maple Grove Raceway.
“This feels so good,” said Nobile, who drives the Mountain View Tire Chevy Camaro, and qualified No. 1 at Reading. “Earlier this week, I said we need to qualify No. 1 and win the race, there was no other option. My guys got it done and we did it. What an amazing day. I just can’t thank my guys enough, giving me a fast race car each lap. In between the rain drops, we got it done. To be able to put the car in the winner’s circle, it was just a great day.”
Sunday’s victory parade consisted of wins of over Drew Skillman, Erica Enders-Stevens, Shane Gray and Anderson. Nobile came to Reading fourth in the points and is now third in the points standings – 83 points behind leader Jason Line - with three races to go to the Countdown to the Championship. This was Nobile’s 10th career NHRA Pro Stock win.
“Even if Jason had made it to the final, we are still in it to win it,” Nobile said. “I didn’t feel too much pressure in the final round. Before each round I just kept telling myself was championship, championship, championship. Now we’re in the Countdown and I’ve won races in the Countdown, but I never been in the position to win a championship and it was a big day for Mountain View Racing.” Tracy Renck
KRAWIEC SCARY-QUICK IN PRO STOCK BIKE VICTORY AT READING - It’s October now.
Maybe it was the dank, gloomy weather that inspired him. Or maybe some Halloween ghouls manipulated the normally friendly, affable Eddie Krawiec.
The Vance & Hines Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson racer began Sunday’s Pro Stock Motorcycle eliminations of the Dodge NHRA Nationals at Reading, Pa., on a rather macabre note.
He engaged in what he called “friendly words in the pits” with first-round opponent Angelle Sampey, a three-time series champion like himself. (It seemed a little strange to begin with that Sampey, who was second in the standings, would find herself squaring off against Kraiwec in the first round. But that’s the spooky result when constant rain limits the field to a single qualifying session.)
What Krawiec told her was “I’m going to cut your head off, and it’s going to be rolling around down there about 1,000 feet when I go through the finish line.”
She’s seldom shocked anymore by tough talk from the men of the sport, but Krawiec punctuated his remarks with a mock-evil sort of laugh when he said such exchanges are “definitely not” new between his camp and the Star Racing contingent.
“I told her what I was going to do to her. I kept true to my word,” Krawiec said. NHRA drag racing, he said, “is about having good friendship and fun out here, but it’s serious business. We’re here to race, and I’m here to get the job done. I was on a mission in the first round. I knew if I went past the first round I could keep the momentum and keep it rolling.”
Krawiec, the No. 2 qualifier, did slash the tree with a nearly perfect .002-of-a-second against No.15 starter Sampey, who had a frightful .101 reaction time.
And he did keep the momentum, mowing down Karen Stoffer and LE Tonglet (his closest challenger in the standings) before ultimately smashing the hope of first-time finalist Cory Reed – who happens to be Sampey’s teammate and the racer she will be partnering with in 2017 in a new Pro Stock Bike venture.
The victory, Krawiec’s fourth of the year, fourth at Maple Grove Raceway, and 35th overall, elevated him from fifth place to second in the standings. As the Countdown drama shifts in two weeks to the Texas Motorplex near Dallas, Krawiec is within 38 points of leader Andrew Hines, the reigning champion and Krawiec’s Vance & Hines teammate.
But Sunday was Krawiec’s day to haunt Star Racing. He used a 6.818-second elapsed time at 193.88 mph on the quarter-mile to bury Reed, who challenged with a 6.958, 186.43 on the Y-Not Racing / Star Racing Buell – and a better launch than Krawiec’s, .015 of a second to .026.
It gave Krawiec his fourth victory in six final rounds and ran his elimination-round record to 31-9 as he starts to take aim at his teammate.
Antron Brown (Top Fuel), Tommy Johnson Jr. (Funny Car), and Vincent Nobile (Pro Stock) also were winners as the Countdown heads into the final three races at Dallas, Las Vegas, and Pomona, Calif.
Reed earned his career-first final-round appearance by knocking off Melissa Surber, Hector Arana, and points leader Andrew Hines. The final round marked the second straight race in which Reed faced Krawiec. The rookie and strong contender for the Auto Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award had beaten Krawiec in the second round at St. Louis in their first-ever meeting a week before.
Certainly a runner-up finish might have been a disappointment, but it showed tremendous progress for Reed. He started his season with a pair of DNQs, red-lit in three other events, and had one more DNQ. So the Colorado racer is improving.
Reed wasn’t upset at all, though.
“I felt like I won, just being in the finals,” he said. “I’m very happy. I got beat in the finals, and I pulled my helmet off with a huge smile on my face. I don’t know if that happens very often.”
He had been jazzed at the thought he eliminated the points leader, Hines, in the semifinals, on a holeshot. Reed had a .019-second reaction time, compared to Hines’ .083, and that made the difference as he won with a 6.909, 187.96 against Hines’ 6.858, 194.24.
“I think the semifinals was the coolest round I’ve won in my rookie season,” Reed said. “I knew I had to get the advantage on the tree against Andrew. When I saw my win light, that was probably the most excited I’ve ever been. I’ve raced Andrew a few times and never won. I’ve gone red by a few thousandths or my bike would have a malfunction against him. It was nice winning that round.”
However, the day belonged to Krawiec. He said, though, that it belonged to the entire Vance & Hines organization.
“This was a big day for all of our team, with Andrew and myself getting past Round 1. When you draw Angelle and Chip Ellis (who entered the event ranked No. 3, just 17 points off Hines’ pace) in Round 1, you don’t say, ‘This’ll be easy. This should be no problem this weekend.’ ”
What he did say stirred the rivalry between Vance & Hines and Star Racing. But what he said on the track might scare Andrew Hines more than anyone else. Susan Wade
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - RAIN A FACTOR ONCE AGAIN AT MAPLE GROVE, FIELDS SET AFTER ABBREVIATED QUALIFYING SESSIONS ON DAY TWO
TOP FUEL
INTRIGUING STATISTIC – Bill Klingbeil, public-relations representative for the U.S. Army Top Fuel team, offered an insightful tidbit. He observed that since the Reading event became part of NHRA’s six-race Countdown to the Championship playoff in 2010, four times the event winner has gone on to claim the championship, including the previous three. The other two eventual champions reached the Reading final.
TORRENCE LOOKS TO MAKE U-TURN – Steve Torrence and his Capco Contractors / Rio Ammunition Dragster have gone backwards so far in the Countdown, from third place to sixth. But he doesn’t seemed panicked by that.
“You can’t win anything without overcoming some adversity. The next two races are critical,” he said, referring to this event and the Oct. 13-16 AAA Texas Fall Nationals near Dallas. “We need to go rounds. It’s as simple as that.” He joked, “We’ve got ‘em right where we want ‘em now. When we started the playoffs, they were back there behind us in the shadows. Now they’re all out in the open where we can see them. All we’ve got to do is start picking ‘em off, and I think we’ve got the ammunition to do it.”
Among Torrence’s arsenal of evidence is 19 straight races in which he has earned at least one qualifying bonus point That’s the longest active streak in either of the two nitro classes. In the 74 qualifying sessions in which he has participated this year, Torrence has been quickest in 29. He was quickest in every qualifying session at Las Vegas, Denver and Sonoma, Calif., and his total of 124 bonus points means he has earned an average of a little less than seven of the maximum 12 points at every race he has run.
He’d set all those aside, though, for a championship.
“I’ve got a great race car and a great team,” Torrence said. “We set the national record with this car (3.671 seconds, at Sonoma ) and we’ve gone to six final rounds with big wins in two of the NHRA majors. We know what we can do. We just need to go out and get back after ‘em .”
KALITTA KNOWS WHAT IT TAKES – Doug Kalitta has made 430 NHRA Top Fuel starts, won 582 elimination rounds (11th all-time), and earned 41 victories (fifth all-time in Top Fuel) in 86 final rounds, and led the field 47 times (13th all-time). He has qualified for the Countdown to the Championship every year since 2007, when the NHRA introduced playoff format, and has assured himself a 19th consecutive top-10 finish. In the playoffs, he has 50 total starts, 44 round-wins, and two triumphs.
So the Mac Tools Dragster driver understands how to win and what he’ll need to do if he is to close the 13-point gap between himself and leader Antron Brown while holding off No. 3-ranked Tony Schumacher, who’s 41 points behind him.
"My team is incredibly focused. This Mac Tools/DeWalt FlexVolt Toyota is running strong and we are limiting mistakes. We are right there and know we have what it takes to compete with all of the other teams out here that are chasing that title.”
Friday’s rainout doesn’t have any real impact on his overall strategy.
“You just have to stay focused on your job,” Kalitta said. “I have a great crew, and their job doesn't change, and neither does mine. You have to be ready to go regardless of conditions.
“At this point we can control our own destiny,” he said, “so we are just taking each race as its own and doing our best. Every race we have left is a little different, and you just have to be prepared. I have the best team and group of people surrounding me, and I am excited to see what we can do."
Said Kalitta, "Each race in this Countdown is important. There are only 24 rounds of racing, so you try to excel at every track. We would like to end this three-race string with a race win and carry that momentum into the final three events on the schedule."
Kalitta has won here at Maple Grove Raceway but not since 2002, and the last time he was No. 1 qualifier was 12 years ago (2004).
The three-time series runner-up has won his first round pairing in 17 of 20 events this season while piling up more round-wins than his 2015 season total Kalitta is the only driver ranked among the top three in the standings after every race this season.
SCHUMACHER STEELS HIMSELF FOR TITLE FIGHT – Tony Schumacher, undeniably brilliant in his timing year after year no matter the composition of his U.S. Army Dragster team, is in championship fight mode.
He rolled into Reading – in his words – “knowing that we have to go out and grab what we want. We had an incredible weekend in Indy leading into the Countdown, but because of a series of events in Charlotte our Countdown started not exactly as planned. But looking at it now, what happened in Charlotte just put the pressure on us to perform in St. Louis and that’s what this U.S. Army team does.
“When our backs are against the wall, when we absolutely have to deliver, this team finds a way. It’s that U.S. Army mentality. I will never quit,” he said. “There is no greater accomplishment than doing something with a group of people fully capable of the moment. That moment is right in front of us. This is what it’s all about. You want to be in this position where the pressure is at its peak.”
Said Schumacher, “I think the results over the years prove the theory that we are at our best when it counts most. Reading is one of those races late in the year when championships are being earned. It’s a unique facility. Old school. Throwback to the early days of drag racing. The speeds and power you produce there are incredible. I know Mike [crew chief Green] and Neal [assistant crew chief Strausbaugh] have really worked hard to make our U.S. Army car perform at its peak in all conditions. We proved that in Indy. Winning the Traxxas Shootout in cooler temperatures and then the next day winning the U.S. Nationals in hot conditions. It’s cool this weekend, and we have a baseline to start with. We have a great race car and incredible team. That’s the biggest factor.”
The five-time Reading winner has no reason to change his strategy.
“We are in the winning business, and that’s exactly what we are focused on doing, Schumacher said. “History shows that, to be the champion, you have to win races. Last weekend in St. Louis, we had an opportunity to win but lost on a holeshot to [Shawn] Langdon. You can break down the Countdown several ways. It’s six races, 24 rounds . . . but heading into Pomona, you have to have at least one or maybe two wins under your belt in order to be in a position to win it all.”
For a precedent, he only has to look back at his 2014 experience here.
“Two years ago, we got off to a great start in the Countdown, winning twice, but then lost in the first round in St. Louis,” he said. But a semifinal meeting here at Maple Grove Raceway with Doug Kalitta, his opponent more than 60 times through the years and the man with the dominant car that year, proved to be a game-changer. Schumacher struck with a .038-of-a-second reaction time to win on a holeshot.
“We came to Reading and, after we beat [Doug] Kalitta in the semifinals, I could see it in my guys’ eyes that they were ready to win a championship. At that moment, I knew we were going to win it.
Will I have that same feeling Sunday if we leave Reading with the Wally? I don’t know, but that’s what I want to find out.”
Historically, Schumacher has dominated at the tracks hosting the final four races in the Countdown – Reading’s Maple Grove Raceway, Dallas’ Texas Motorplex, The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, and Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif. He has earned 19 victories, and all other Countdown contenders combined have captured 13 (five each for Antron Brown and Kalitta, two for JR Todd, and one for Richie Crampton.)
EXPECTING STRONG FINISH – Invigorated by his top-qualifying performance and semifinal finish last weekend at St. Louis, Richie Crampton and his Aaron Brooks-led Lucas Oil Dragster crew are looking to close the Countdown in fine style.
"When the rounds started clicking off in St. Louis, I think we all got that feeling like we were back into our winning groove," he said. "I felt good behind the wheel (leaving ahead of all three of his opponents), Aaron made some great tuning calls for the conditions, and the guys, as always, gave me a great car.
"If we have that same combination again in Reading, I like our chances to break through and finish this year strong."
Even before the team left the Brownsburg, Ind., shop, Crampton had said, "I'm really excited to get to Reading, because I get to strap into one of the few race cars on the planet that can dip into the 3.6-second range when we're at a good racetrack like Maple Grove. And this time through it's really exciting, because we just ran really well on a hot and slick track in St. Louis. So I can only imagine what we'll do with better weather conditions. Reading can be the quickest racetrack on the circuit if the conditions are just right, and the last several times through there we've all been flying. Aaron seems to excel when the weather cools off, so this weekend will be right in his wheelhouse."
Crampton rose two positions in the standings, from 10th to eighth, just two rounds out of the top five.
"Whenever your car's running strong and you go to a place where world-record numbers could be run, that fires you up as a driver," Crampton said. "A lot of times, fans ask if we can tell the difference between a 3.8-second pass and a 3.7-second pass, and believe me, you really can. After making hundreds of passes, you do start to pick out millions of little things that happen, and the sensation of the car really hooking up hard and pulling you down the track in a little more than three and a half seconds definitely feels special."
He’s seeking his first victory of the year.
GRUBNIC FRETS – In the first year of the Countdown, Dave Grubnic fretted for four days, waiting for the Reading results and wondering if he got the eighth and final Top Fuel spot in the playoff. (He didn’t.) Saturday he paced back and forth at Maple Grove Raceway and made no fewer than five trips up and down the race track during a rain delay and the track-drying process. This time he worried as the crew chief for Top Fuel racer Clay Millican.
Many – including Washington State’s Shawn Reed, who sat on the bump spot with an 8.509-second elapsed time, and Leah Pritchett, who was on the verge of sealing the first No. 1 qualifying effort of her career – hoped the rains would come down in buckets again. But Grubnic was thinking, calculating, evaluating strategy with Lance Larsen and the crew, consulting with Safety Safari officials, tidying the racing surface and flinging small bits of junk over the guard wall, and just plain waiting like everyone else.
But he knew Millican would be the first one or in the first pairing down the track once racing resumed. After a three-hour rain delay, Millican pulled up into the right lane. He had to beat Shawn Reed’s 8.509-second time. Millican labored his way to a 4.06-second run, pedaling the throttle and damaging the engine – and oiling the track for another clean-up delay.
“It was a lot of pressure,” Larsen said immediately afterward. “That should pay.” It did. It did so at Terry McMillen’s expense. He waited in line for his final chance, but the NHRA halted racing for the day before he could get an opportunity to get back into the field.
“It was nerve-wracking,” Millican said. “It might not have been the prettiest run ever, but we’ll take it.”
I’M FIVE! – Cameron McMillen, youngest son of Top Fuel racer Terry McMillen, just celebrated his third birthday. But he told everyone preceding his special day that he was going to be five. That’s because he is itching to start driving a Jr. Dragster, and the minimum age to start is five. Mom Cori Wickler said the family had a garage sale in August and in a surprise move, Cameron put his tricycle on the auction block. A shopper asked him why he would want to part with such a fine set of wheels. Cameron told the woman, “I want one that goes faster.” She bought the tricycle. So Cameron now really will be bugging Dad and Mom about a new ride.
FAMILIAR STORY – Terry McMillen is weary of hoping and waiting and agonizing and ultimately being disappointed. But that’s what he got again Saturday. He took the provisional No. 15 spot on the 16-car grid early in the day. But Clay Millican oiled the track, causing a long delay. Terry Haddock, running in the other lane opposite Millican, saw his automatic shutoff system deploy and cut off his engine and throw out his parachutes early on the run. Smax Smith improved with a 5.47-second pass, and Shawn Reed also improved with a 6.83-second blast. That knocked McMillen from the field. But his hopes fizzled with the cold, damp air setting in.
FUNNY CAR
THE TROUBLE WITH DAD – Traxxas Chevrolet Camaro driver Courtney Force has been one of the most consistent Funny Car racers this season, with a victory at Houston, runner-up showings at Denver and Norwalk, Ohio, and at least eight semifinal finishes.
The eight-time overall winner figures she might have had more than eight victories – and some more critical points as the Countdown zips to its halfway stop – if she hadn’t had to face he father in head-to-head competition five times. He defeated his youngest daughter in the finals at Denver, in the semifinals at Phoenix and Sonoma, and in the second round at Las Vegas, and in the opening round at Englishtown, N.J.
“Racing with my dad has been tough this season,” she said, then quickly recognized how much he also has helped her.
“I learn a lot from him,” Courtney Force said, but I definitely want to start seeing those win lights. It is fun to race against him when it is the final round. We don’t like it when it is early on race day.”
The weather cooperated and gave the pro racers an early-afternoon qualifying session, and Courtney Force used it to slide into the top half of the field, barely at No. 8. She was six rungs ahead of her dad on the ladder.
She’ll need every advantage she can get, including qualifying bonus points.
“You look at who we are chasing, and it is a tough group of racers,” she said. “The good news is I have a great team. . . we will be ready [to] start getting some of those qualifying bonus points. If you can start getting some of those points and get a good start on Sunday you can make up some ground. No one is going to win the championship this weekend, but I think we can make up some ground and get right into the middle of this Countdown.”
HIGHT PROGRESSING – Robert Hight and his Auto Club Camaro team stayed at Charlotte after the Countdown opener to test, and he said that investment is paying off. He went to St. Louis and earned his first top-qualifying position of the year. He had the quickest Funny Car in three of the four qualifying sessions.
Hight said he considered that a break-through moment for the team, so naturally he was energized for his chance to get to Reading on a dry racetrack.
“This team really got to work after the Charlotte race. They have been busting their butts all season but we really pulled together in testing and you saw the results in qualifying this weekend. I feel really confident about race day in St. Louis but also about the rest of the races in the Countdown,” said Hight last Saturday at St. Louis.
This Saturday, at Reading, Hight was fifth in the early session, with a 4.690-second pass. He wasn’t in the same tier as Matt Hagan and Tommy Johnson Jr. with their 3.8-second elapsed times or Del Worsham and Ron Capps with their 3.9s. But he was content, although he knew if he had to face Tim Wilkerson, the tentative No. 12 qualifier, he wouldn’t have an easy start to Sunday eliminations.
He still was thinking about St. Louis: “I really thought we were going to win. We definitely had a race car that could have won. These Auto Club guys have done an awesome job since Charlotte. We tested and switched a lot of things on this AAA Insurance Camaro, and we came in and were the No. 1 qualifier. That first run was stout and we just lost a close race in the second round. Breaks are going to start going our way.”
In a fast-forward to the Reading race, which he won in 2011, Hight also looked backward a little bit to the 2015 race, when he led the field after rain doused all but one qualifying session but lost in the first round.
“Last year was just a crazy event. Everyone only got one run, so you were almost guessing on Sunday morning,” he said.
Sound familiar? He hopes that’s all the similarities to then and now.
“We had a tough first round, but that was last year. Maple Grove is a great track where you could see some more record setting numbers. I expect big results from myself and this Auto Club Chevy Camaro team,” he said.
“Anyone still has a chance to win this Funny Car championship. We need to have a good race [Sunday], but I think we can do that.”
Hight is seventh in the standings, 114 points behind point leader Ron Capps.
SEVEN-TIME WINNER STILL FIGHTING - John Force has won at Maple Grove Raceway more times than any other driver in NHRA history (seven). The 16-time Funny Car champion wants to make it 17 with an eighth victory here. If he earns that Sunday, he’ll have Wally trophies from two of the first three events in the six-race playoffs. He won at Charlotte.
The PEAK Camaro owner-driver’s last victory at this facility came in 2013, and it gave him a points lead he would not relinquish.
“I love racing at Maple Grove Raceway,” Force, fourth in the standings and trailing leader Ron Capps by 74 points, said. “Every race is key in the Countdown. We won the first one, but we struggled a little in St Louis. We won a big first round and then lost a close race in the next round. You want to have some momentum for the last three races for sure. This Chevy hot rod will be in the mix. We have made up points on the leaders after Reading and we have had the lead coming out of Reading.
This race is important for sure, but we are going to keep fighting until Pomona.
“These PEAK crew guys have just continued to work together,” said Force, who has 146 career wins. “We made a switch before Charlotte and brought Jason McCulloch over to work with Jon Schaffer and Nick Casertano. It has helped because now you have another experienced set of eyes and hands on my race car. The win in Charlotte was big and gave us a boost, for sure. But now we need to keep winning.
“We can run with the competition now,” Force said. “We are really good on a hot track and I think we can pick it up on a cool track. It will be exciting for sure. The crew chiefs will make the calls and I will get in this PEAK Camaro and do my best. The other racers are fighting for wins too and nobody is going to give you anything out here.”
PRO STOCK
DONE – The Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle classes had to settle on their early-Saturday performances. They didn’t get a second chance. The NHRA declared those fields set while they lingering during another lengthy Top Fuel delay. The Funny Car field had just 16 cars – exactly enough to fill the grid.
STIFF LOWER LIP – Shane Gray, driver of the Valvoline/Nova Services Camaro, has his lip adjusted.
After leaving St. Louis last week perturbed at himself for losing in the semifinal by a mere .002 of a second, he said he said, "It's all good. I just kind of have my bottom lip poked out about it at the moment. I'm mad at myself, but that's just part of it."
The happy part of it for Gray is how he performed Saturday in what looked for most of the day like his only chance to qualify for the Dodge Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway. He nailed down fourth place, just after Vincent Nobile, Jason Line, and Greg Anderson – only four-thousandths of a second slower than Anderson and one-thousandth of a second ahead of No. 5 Chris McGaha.
Gray was the No. 1 qualifier a week ago, and this weekend’s results extended his string of top-half qualifying efforts to 15 races. His semifinal finish last week lifted him from seventh place to fifth.
"Hopefully we can keep this momentum going in Reading," Gray said. "We're also very anxious to make it to a final round and have a chance at another victory. We knew if we could get consistency on our side, then all the other things would fall into place and Dave [crew chief Connolly] has definitely given us that consistency."
He said he enjoys coming to Reading: “Being down in that valley with all the trees around there pumping oxygen out makes it a perfect place for our cars. This is always one of those races where it would be almost as much fun to sit up there in the stands and watch the fireworks, although I do like the view I get inside my Valvoline/Nova Services Chevrolet Camaro a little bit more.”
ENDERS HAS SOME MEASURE OF SATISFACTION – Erica Enders landed right smack in the middle of the pack in early Saturday qualifying, at No. 10. It was much more welcome than the DNQ the two-time and reigning champion had at Charlotte to start the Countdown or the first-round defeat she experienced at Indianapolis and St. Louis in two of the previous three events.
But it certainly wasn’t her best showing ever and wasn’t what she was hoping for in front of her supporters from Dodge, the race sponsors.
"At our last Dodge race this year, we had our best qualifying performance," Enders said, referring to the Mopar Mile-High Nationals at Denver. "Hopefully that translates to Reading."
She and Elite Motorsports / Mopar team haven't had a storied season like the previous two because the team switched manufacturers for 2016 and had to adjust to new rules that ditched the class’ carburetors in favor of electronic fuel injection. Enders was used to winning 15 races and two championships in the past two seasons, but her team is struggling with all the changes.
No matter what, she said she is grateful for the backing from Dodge: "We are appreciative of all of the support from Mopar. They have definitely given us a great team of people and engineers and guys who are passionate about what they do like we are, so it's refreshing to continue to work with people that go the extra mile. It's a cool partnership, and I believe with the group of people we have the sky's the limit. It's just going to take time to build this program.
“We'll continue to work on it," Enders said. "We'll get better. It's a brand-new engine program. I have the smartest, hardest-working guys in the business, so if anybody can figure it out, it's them.
"We are absolutely doing the best that we can with what we have," she said. "It's unfortunate that we are this far behind, but it's just part of it. Our goal at this point is to finish the season with class and put a game plan together moving forward. We will get all of our ducks in a row and continue to work hard and things will swing back our way. We'll get back to where we belong. It's just not in the cards for this season."
JEG LOOKING FOR SOME GOOD FORTUNE – Jeg Coughlin, driver of the Magneti Marelli /JEGS.com Dodge Dart, needs a break. He said he had gone into race day at St. Louis last Sunday with confidence – “probably more than we've had the last couple of races, quite honestly” – but lost in the first round there to Chris McGaha. "We just went out and didn't perform very well personally.”
“I was .012 and .017 [of a second in reaction time] in my qualifying runs and felt great behind the wheel. I just let the clutch out and felt like I was .030 and rolled down through there and saw Chris pulling on us. That was a bummer without question," Coughlin said.
He’s ranked ninth out of 10 championship-eligible Pro Stock drivers – not a position he’s used to.
"Obviously, we know we need to get the jump to be able to turn on the win light on Sunday, at least 9.9 out of 10 times," Coughlin said. And after his St. Louis disappointment, he said he was ready to “move on to a race that's near and dear in our hearts, Reading. I look forward to getting there. It's a fun race."
It hasn’t been all that much fun for most of the racers, with rain leaving everyone only a kamikaze run at a prime spot in the order for Sunday’s eliminations. Coughlin was 14th after the early Saturday session. That left him potentially facing Greg Anderson, a multiple-time champion like himself, as his first-round opponent.
Val Smeland and Drew Skillman followed Coughlin in Saturday’s provisional lineup, and St. Petersburg, Fa., racer Curt Steinbach was 17th, in danger of missing the cut.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE
AND THE LIST GROWS – Maple Grove Raceway has made one more odd memory for Steve Johnson.
For all he knew, he was lucky to be getting one crack at qualifying for the Dodge Nationals. And he never got the chance to take advantage of it. His Slick 50 Suzuki was a little too slick, literally – it leaked fluid all over the track beneath him as he sat at the start of the right lane. He shut off the motor, and the spill needed the attention of no fewer than eight officials to mop it completely. Not only did he have no time at all, leaving him the only one among the 17 entrants off the 16-bike grid, but yet another rain shower came along shortly afterward and doused his chances of getting right back on the track to atone for the leak.
Two years ago, Johnson raced here with a broken ankle that happened in a tree-trimming accident at his Birmingham, Ala., home.
(On a “good-memorable” note . . . Johnson also made an appearance on the York, Pa., FOX TV station and explained to the studio host what it’s like to make a pass on a Pro Stock Motorcycle. “First of all,” he said, “you have to imagine maybe the fastest roller coaster on the planet, then get rid of your seat belts and all safety equipment. Throw that away – that’s for the cars. Then it’s like hanging onto a bullet as it’s getting fired out of a gun. It’s 3Gs, so if you’re 150 pounds, it’s like 450 pounds slamming against you. And you’re going to leave the starting line at 10,000 rpm. The front wheel comes up into the air. You can’t steer with the handlebars, so you’re leaning back and forth on the motorcycle with your feet on the foot pegs. And hopefully the front wheel comes down. And as you go through the quarter-of-a-mile after pushing the shifter five times, hopefully your eyes are closed. Oh – and you have to be on the motorcycle when it crosses the finish line.”)
BROKEN TATER CHIP – Countdown contender Chip Ellis didn’t fare much better than Steve Johnson when he got his rare turn at a pass Saturday. His PiranaZ / Pippin Motorsports Buell went nowhere when the light went green. He rolled a few feet forward. So he took the green light.
“The thing sounded fine when we put it on the two-step,” Ellis said.
He guessed that he was in the same boat as Johnson but said, ‘We’ll be all right.”
But his situation wasn’t like Johnson’s. Because Ellis took the tree, he claimed the 16th and final spot. Johnson wound up with no time.
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - RAIN STEALS THE SHOW ON THE FIRST DAY OF QUALIFYING AT MAPLE GROVE
RAIN WINS AGAIN – A storm front that has hung around Eastern Pennsylvania and much of the upper Eastern seaboard washed out activity for a second straight day Friday at the Dodge NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway near Reading.
Despite several sustained efforts of the Safety Safari track-prep crew and a couple of calls for Funny Cars to the staging lanes, the NHRA decided to halt any plans to get one qualifying session in the book.
Qualifying is set to open Saturday morning with sportsman racing beginning at 8:45 and pro sessions scheduled for 11:15 a.m.and 2:45 p.m.
RACERS RAISE BREAST-CANCER AWARENESS, SUPPORT – The Pink Fund, Tools For The Cause, S.H.E.4Life, and the “Mammovan” are spotlighted in October, starting here at Reading, as Funny Car’s Cruz Pedregon/Snap-on Tools and Alexis DeJoria and Top Fuel’s Antron Brown/Matco Tools and Terry McMillen help fight breast cancer.
Pedregon and Snap-on Tools are supporting The Pink Fund, a non-profit organization that provides short-term financial assistance to cover non-medical living expenses for cancer patients. Snap-on is making an initial $50,000 donation to the organization, along with providing additional donations generated through a Snap-on sales promotion. Pedregon and his team will sport a special paint scheme, helmet, and crew shirts.
Molly McDonald founded The Pink Fund after her own breast-cancer diagnosis. She said, “One in eight women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in her lifetime, and the average breast-cancer treatment lasts seven to eight months. We provide financial support that helps meet basic needs and remove some of the financial burden to help breast cancer patients focus on healing.”
Snap-on will host a tent on the Manufacturers Midway her and at the Dallas and Las Vegas races. Fans will be able to take on a skills challenge, make a dollar donation, and receive a raffle ticket for drawings all weekend. Prizes will include helmets that Pedregon has signed.
Yvette Morrison, vice president of marketing, Snap-on Tools Group, said, “Breast cancer is a national health crisis. A breast cancer diagnosis is devastating for those fighting the disease and their loved ones. Those impacted also face the additional worry of covering everyday financial obligations. Wrapping the Snap-on Funny Car and having Cruz involved in the Midway outreach at three races will help raise awareness of how The Pink Fund provides assistance when a breast-cancer patient needs help with living expenses. Snap-on is proud to support The Pink Fund.”
The dragsters of both Brown and McMillen are carrying specially designed pink livery.
Brown said his sponsor’s Tools for the Cause “is always near and dear to my heart, I’ve seen two women in my family go through breast cancer. It really hits at home. It hits hard. It really means a lot to me that we can represent all the women who are going through it, have been through it, and all of the families that have been affected by it. The pink empowers all of us, and it has a great meaning of women being strong.”
McMillen’s Amalie Oil Xtermigator Dragster will display the names of cancer survivors, fighters, or honored victims. The names come courtesy of a $25 donation to She4Life, Jodi Kramer’s breast-cancer awareness and support organization that spreads the SURVIVE.HOPE.EMPOWER message. It helps breast-cancer-affected families afford the everyday necessities to help them fight the fight. Kramer said she wants “to make a difference in the lives of those who are battling to become survivors.”
Anyone making a $25 donations also will receive a T-shirt, an autographed Terry McMillen hero card, and S.H.E.4Life-branded merchandise.
McMillen also has been selling rides in his tow vehicle during the Reading, Dallas, Las Vegas, and Pomona races for $100 donations to S.H.E.4Life. Saturday’s qualifying slots in the tow vehicle are sold out, as were those for all four qualifying sessions at St. Louis last weekend. The donors will travel through the staging lanes with McMillen, accompany him to the starting line, and ride down to pick him up at the top end of the track and return to the Amalie Oil Dragster pit. Sign-up is at McMillen’s pit.
DeJoria’s hasty return to the racetrack after suffering a broken pelvis gives her another chance this year to continue her “Free Mammograms for the Fan”’ campaign. Fans will have the opportunity to receive a free mammogram at both the Texas Motorplex and The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“Our team will continue to provide free mammograms as long as we are out on the race track,” DeJoria said. “The outpouring of support for this program has been amazing.”
TOP FUEL
PRITCHETT, EPITOME OF POWER? – Leah Pritchett was the talk of Reading, attracting a crowd Thursday night at Mopar’s Mega Block Party at First Energy Stadium. Cameras captured her sitting atop the rear wing of a Plymouth Superbird (which, incidentally was produced only one year -1970, 18 years before she was born). The attention was appropriate for the 28-year-old who will share grand marshal honors for the Dodge Nationals at nearby Maple Grove Raceway with Don Schumacher Racing colleague Matt Hagan.
By the end of this weekend, she wants to leave as more than drag racing’s pin-up girl and grand marshal. The Mopar/Pennzoil Dragster driver wants to leave as the Top Fuel winner in this third of six Countdown to the Championship races.
"I'm not quite sure how I'll be the honorary starter on Sunday when I'm sitting in my Top Fuel dragster,” Pritchett said. Nevertheless, she said, "It's a dream come true to represent Mopar this season, and it was very humbling when Mopar asked me to be help them celebrate their first year sponsoring this Mello Yello event at Maple Grove by being the grand marshal and honorary starter with Matt. Mopar has done so much for me this year and has such a long history in our sport and are the epitome of power and that's what we're going to try to be this weekend."
So far in the playoffs, Pritchett has been a firefighter, literally, for sponsor FireAde 2000 Personal Fire Suppression systems near Charlotte and learned how to make pizza for benefactor Papa John's Pizza near St. Louis. "Having a lot on our plates is something we're used to, and we're pretty hungry right now," she said.
If the showers can move out of the area, she’ll get her fill of Countdown competition. She, along with crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Joe Barlam, wants to hit the 330-mph plateau. The team came close earlier in the month at Indianapolis, posting a 329.75 speed at the U.S. Nationals.
"That's a big deal. We're not quite in that 330 club,” Pritchett said. “I know Todd and Joe and our Mopar/Pennzoil team can get us there, and it could be this weekend. The conditions Reading brings and a great track makes for some insane power. We want to leave with our career best in E.T. and speed."
She’s ninth in the standings, 151 points off Antron Brown’s pace.
DIXON BACK IN SEAT – Australian Top Fuel racer Wayne Newby is back in Sydney, tending to his business after three NHRA races for Rapisarda Autosport International (at Indianapolis, Charlotte, and St. Louis). But three-time Top Fuel king Larry Dixon will slip into the seat of the Santo’s Cranes Dragster for RAI this weekend.
That reunites RAI and Dixon, who last raced for the team in June in Australia at the 2016 City of Ipswich Winternationals at Willowbank Raceway, near Brisbane, Queensland. There he defeated Newby in the final as RAI dominated the event.
“Santo called and said they wanted to run at Maple Grove,” Dixon, a 63-time winner, said. “I was flattered and honored to be asked to race for the Rapisarda team again. Maple Grove is a great venue, and I’ve won here in the past. It reminds me very much of Willowbank Raceway in Australia. This is a great time of the year to be running here. The cars are always fast, and hopefully [ours] will be one of them.”
He’s driving the same car he raced on the NHRA tour in 2013 when he made his debut with RAI.
“I’m looking forward to being part of the Rapisarda family for the weekend and want to do the best job possible. Qualifying well and getting some round wins would be great,” Dixon said.
IF PAST IS ANY INDICATOR . . . – Brittany Force is in fifth place in the standings, just 91 points out of first place. So she’s eager to get back on the track in her Monster Energy Dragster. She has some reason to believe she’ll fare well here, given that she was No. 1 qualifier here last year on her way to a semifinal finish.
“We have had great success in Reading,” she said. “Last year we were No. 1 and raced to the semifinals. The year before that, we had lane choice in the final round and smoked the tires. I look at those races as learning experiences, and I want to get those four round wins on Sunday this year. Brian Husen and Alan Johnson have given me a great race car, and I can’t wait to get [going].”
LANGDON SLOUGHS OFF POOR START – Don Schumacher Racing’s Shawn Langdon is smart enough to understand that finishing well is better than starting well.
"After five first-round losses to start the year, a lot of people asked us 'Does it make you mad? Are you frustrated? Are you upset?' My answer was always no, because I know I have a great team with Don Schumacher and I have great sponsors with Odyssey, Red Fuel, Sandvik and Toyota,” he said. "Things just weren't going our way. When I talked to Don about coming over last year [from Alan Johnson Racing], that was one of the biggest things about my coming here: I knew this was a team capable of winning races and winning championships. I'm happy with how we've progressed, and we definitely have a car capable of winning the championship."
Langdon, last week’s Top Fuel winner at St. Louis in the Red Fuel / Sandvik Coromant Dragster, has improved in two Countdown events from seventh place to fourth and is 77 points away from the lead. That marked Langdon's third victory in three final-round appearances this year.
This weekend, as his car sports the Odyssey Battery colors, Langdon can’t help but think back to 2013, when he won at Maple Grove Raceway en route to his Top Fuel championship. Besides, he just likes the track, he said.
"Reading is one that you see coming up the calendar and you get excited," Langdon said. "If the weather is right, you make a lot of horsepower there and we could see some record runs. It's a unique facility that I enjoy going to and coming off of a win has us even more excited going into this weekend. We just want to continue our success in this fight for the championship."
He has a new cheering section with the folks from EnerSys, whose headquarters is located at Reading. EnerSys is a global leader in stored energy solutions for industrial applications. It manufactures and distributes reserve power and motive power batteries, battery chargers, power equipment, battery accessories, and outdoor equipment enclosure solutions.
BROWN & READING . . . PB & J? – For Antron Brown, driver of the Don Schumacher-owned Matco Tools / Toyota Dragster, this Reading event last year was a pivotal one on the path to his second series crown. He won the first two playoff events, at Charlotte and St. Louis in 2015. Then when he reached the final round here against his DSR/Army teammate Tony Schumacher (who at that time was the reigning champion and his closest competitor in the standings), he knew a victory would virtually ice the title. He defeated Schumacher and went on to claim his second championship.
This year, the Countdown has been more of a mixed bag, with a victory at Charlotte and a first-round loss at St. Louis. Just the same, points leader Brown loves visiting this facility, one the Chesterfield, N.J. native considers a home track. With a successful test session at Gateway Motorpsorts Park in hand, he’s extra-jazzed to be here.
“We always feel good going into Reading, because the conditions get to be so good there. We needed to test on Monday after St. Louis, just to work on some things. We changed a couple of things around. In St. Louis, it bit us in qualifying. We qualified in a bad spot and raced one of the few people who could beat us first round. It made the points a lot tighter and that’s what makes this Countdown so exciting. The plus part is that we still came out with the points lead and we have four races left to win a championship. Our goal is that we can be there at the end, at the last race of the Countdown with a chance to win a championship. Reading is a big race for us. It’s a hometown race for me. I’m just excited to get out there and get after it.”
He’s seeking a sixth victory and hoping to widen his 13-point advantage over No. 2-ranked Doug Kalitta and 54-point edge over No. 3 Schumacher. He has a 13-5 elimination-round record at Maple Grove during the Countdown, having advanced to the final round in three of the previous four years.
FUNNY CAR
BECKMAN ON A ROLL – Jack Beckman, like everyone else, has seen the weather forecast for the rest of this weekend - cooler temperatures, which could result in big racing numbers. But he qualified that: “I'm not the weatherman, and all the nitro teams are going to be faced with the same conditions. When we unload, we'll figure out what the weather has in store for us," Beckman said.
But he’s in a happy spot right now, having won last Sunday at St. Louis to leap from eighth place in the standings to third, only 70 points behind leader Ron Capps.
The Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge driver won here last year, but he said his Jimmy Prock-tuned team needs to focus on this year's quest for his second Funny Car championship.
“I don't know if winning last year is going to be any factor, because we don't know if track or weather conditions will be the same. We definitely don't have the same clutch pack in the car – which has been our Achilles heel most of this year. We've been trying to understand what the car wants and hoping it will incorporate with our tune-up changes. I would say we're cautiously optimistic. We still aren't in a comfort zone like we were this time last year. But we've got the ability to make the changes we need to be successful."
Said Beckman, "Coming off a win, subconsciously, everybody walks a little taller and has a little bit more confidence.
PRO STOCK
LOGICAL STRATEGY – Harlow Sammons Camaro owner-driver Chris McGaha has made the most of his trips to Reading.
“I’ve only been to Reading once – and that was last year when I won,” McGaha said with his trademark laugh. “We only got one qualifying session in before race day, because of the rain. So technically, I’ve only made five laps at Maple Grove Raceway.”
He starts this event 175 points out of first, but he’s confident he can move up from sixth place.
“To win the championship, we just have to keep going rounds and other people above us need to keep losing. That’s how we’re going to win this.”
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE
ELLIS EXCITED ABOUT READING’S POSSIBILITIES– Team owner Junior Pippin underwent successful surgery Wednesday to remove a cancerous spot on his lung. And his rider, Chip Ellis, who won the Countdown opener at Charlotte, said, “There would be nothing more satisfying than to win another race for him. He’s just a great guy and a great team leader. We really have a lot of fun as a team. We obviously want to do well for him because of the struggles he’s had. When we do well, that’s the best medicine he can have.”
Pippin was diagnosed with nasal cancer in 2015 and survived numerous rounds of radiation and chemotherapy to remove the disease. Then doctors found a cancerous spot on his lung.
Ellis has found a championship-caliber motorcycle in the meantime and believes he’s in a strong position to earn his first series championship. He’s in third place, 17 points behind leader Andrew Hines, who is pursuing his third straight title and sixth overall.
That Charlotte victory on the PiranaZ/Pippin Motorsports Buell was Ellis’ first since 2008.
“I’ve never been as excited as I have been now,” he said. “It gave me a lot of confidence and we had a really good race in St. Louis. We’ve been running good, the guys have given me a good bike to ride and it’s absolutely been a lot of fun. There’s a lot of good stuff going on right now at Junior Pippin Racing.”
Ellis said an improved focus during eliminations has made a huge difference. And he knows Maple Grove is capable of delivering top performances, too.
“It’s always fast. The track is good, and the air is good,” Ellis said. “We may see somebody go 200 mph for the first time, and hopefully that will be us. As racers we want to go as fast as we can, and this weekend will give us a good opportunity.
“But we’re focused and trying to do everything right. It always seems on Sunday your mind wants to play games with you. If you can take that out of the game you seem much better off, at least for me. We’re just focused on making good runs,” he said.
