2018 NHRA SPRINGNATIONALS - EVENT NOTEBOOK
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SUNDAY NOTEBOOK
BRITTANY EMOTIONAL IN HOUSTON TOP FUEL WIN - Brittany Force could hardly hold back the emotions as she exited her dragster Sunday afternoon.
In one day, the defending NHRA Top Fuel champion managed to erase what has been a season of heartbreak, frustration, and disappointment with four consecutive round wins at the NHRA Springnationals at Royal Purple Raceway, located outside of Houston, Texas.
Force debuted a new dragster replacing the one she crashed at the season-opener and likewise showcased renewed enthusiasm befitting a world champion.
"This is a big win for our team," Force said, as she fought back the emotion. "Everything that we've been through since Pomona ... it was not easy to get back in the car. You dream of this, this is what pushes you. It pushes your team.
"It's because of this Monster team, they've always had my back. This is a big win for us; I am very proud."
Force, who up until this weekend had only one 2018 round win to her credit, stopped an upset-minded Terry McMillen in the final round.
“That emotion is built off of the championship," Force admitted. "It was built off of Pomona this season. Leaving Pomona last season we were on a huge high. We won the championship and that is something every driver dreams about. We were able to do that and then coming out to the opening race of the season at the same track in Pomona it was the ultimate low. It was really tough in Phoenix getting back in that car.
"My guys knew it and for me I didn’t care about winning the race. All I cared about was getting back in the car and making runs. Gainesville was game on and Pomona is behind us. This is a huge surprise because looking at last season we got our first win a lot later in the year. This win is big for us. It puts Pomona behind us and it pushes us towards another championship.”
“I feel great now. I am back in the gym but not 100% back.”
Ironically, Force and McMillen will forever be linked in their careers. It was in 2016, she beat McMillen in the finals of the NHRA Gatornationals to win her first-career Top Fuel race. Two races later, McMillan crashed his dragster in Houston.
Fast-forward to October 2017, McMillen stopped Force at the Vegas-2 event to score his first career NHRA Top Fuel race win. Two races later, Force crashed her dragster in Pomona.
Time heals all wounds.
Force jumped off to a great start, pacing Friday's qualifying sessions. She fell to No. 2 with a 3.701 behind Leah Pritchett, who took the top spot.
Today's victory was not exacty four rounds of smooth sailing. Force, in her first round match against Terry Haddock, experienced a considerable engine explosion in the victory.
“I feel like all the runs were a handful," Force said. "It has been quite a ride all weekend. Every single run it was moving around a lot. It is a good learning experience.”
Force then scored wins over Doug Kalitta and Tony Schumacher before settling into the final round match with McMillen. She launched first on McMillen and led him through the traps with a 3.762, 299.46 to a 3.818, 311.56.
For his part, McMillen qualified in the No. 12 spot with a 3.783 best elapsed time. He then methodically worked his way through his side of the ladder taking out Antron Brown, Billy Torrence and No. 1 qualifier Pritchett.
The victory vaulted Force into the seventh spot in the championship points, with McMillen climbing into ninth.
The victory also ensured each member of the four-driver John Force Racing team has now won at Royal Purple Raceway.
"“That is something special," Force said. "We will all share that. We have all won here. Now this track is really a special place for us.” Bobby Bennett
TODD STAYS HOT, WINS FUNNY CAR TITLE IN HOUSTON - Before Sunday, J.R.Todd had never beaten reigning world champion Robert Hight in NHRA nitro Funny Car eliminations in four attempts.
That’s not the case anymore.
Todd, who pilots the DHL machine for Kalitta Motorsports, defeated Hight in the final round of the SpringNationals near Houston Sunday.
Todd clocked a 3.955-second time at 313.29 mph to upend Hight’s 3.993-second effort at 308.14 mph.
This is Todd’s second national event win in a row as he also won the Four-Wide event in Las Vegas. Todd now has 13 career national event wins - nine in Top Fuel and four in Funny Car. This is Todd’s second season driving a Funny Car.
“It’s nice to have this much momentum early in the season, because we struggled really bad last year,” Todd said. “We didn’t really turn around our season until probably the Western Swing. I feel like we started picking up momentum around Denver last year, and then we fell on our faces again. It’s nice to come out swinging like we are and winning races. That definitely makes Connie (Kalitta) happy and it keeps team morale up. It’s good all around. I didn’t expect to have this kind of success (in a Funny Car) especially this early in the season.”
With his latest win, Todd moved up to sixth in the point standings.
“It is nice to keep moving up in the points,” he said. “It feels like every year I have been out here competing in the Countdown I’ve always been in or around the cut line. Hopefully, we can keep this going, and stay up there in points. That would be nice.”
Todd’s victory parade Sunday consisted of wins over Tommy Johnson Jr., Jeff Diehl, Tim Wilkerson and Hight.
“I’m just happy to get a win,” Todd said. “We show up every weekend trying to get a win and we will take them however we can get them.”
Todd did acknowledge he truly appreciates getting to be a part of the Kalitta Motorsports team, which also consists of Funny Car driver Shawn Langdon and Top Fuel drivers Doug Kalitta and Richie Crampton.
“These guys are all my buddies and we can bounce information off each other and we have each other’s back,” Todd said. “It is awesome to work with a team like Kalitta Motorsports. All the crew chiefs get along and work well together and I think that is a big key to our success, especially with two Funny Cars.”
Throughout qualifying Todd didn’t look like the driver to beat Sunday.
“We couldn’t get our car to run good enough early,” Todd said. “You really needed to find as much power early as you could in the run before you got on the asphalt because you knew it was going to spin the tires out there and there was really nothing you could do about it. We didn’t qualify as well as we wanted to but we went down the track three out of four runs in qualifying. We just missed it there Friday night. We are getting to that point in the season where the night run is crucial just to get your qualifying spot. But, I feel like the runs we made in the heat in qualifying helped us (Sunday).” Tracy Renck
HARTFORD CELEBRATES FIRST CAREER NHRA PRO STOCK WIN - The long, long wait is over for Matt Hartford.
Hartford debuted in NHRA’s Pro Stock class in 2006 and finally in his 80th race in the class he captured his first career Wally Sunday at the SpringNationals near Houston.
Hartford clocked a 6.522-second time at 211.36 mph to defeat two-time world champion Erica Enders’ 6.570-second lap in the finals at Royal Purple Raceway.
“This has been a long time coming,” said Hartford, who made his inaugural appearance in the finals. “I have let the clutch out a few times and I’ve lost way more than I have ever won. We struggled in qualifying and we qualified 11th and we should have qualified third or fourth. The best air was Friday night and we completely missed the setup. We started in the back of the field and had to work our way through.”
Hartford pilots the Total Seal Chevy Camaro. He was a 66th career NHRA Pro Stock national event winner. The Arizona driver on Sunday beat Chris McGaha, Tanner Gray and Jeg Coughlin and Enders.
“We earned this,” Hartford said. “I didn’t leave on any of them. Let’s just make this clear they all left on me. We just did a better job with our car today than the other teams.”
Hartford acknowledged his was considering not competing in Pro Stock this season.
“Over the winter I was done,” he said. “I said I’m not coming back and Richard Freeman called me and said we need cars and you will have good power, you will have as good of power as what we have. The joke in our pits is I have his fifth-best motor, well his fifth-best motor is as good as his best motor. That’s the joke I always tell Richard if I had your real power we could really do something. When you have horsepower, this is fun. When you struggle like I have for so many years and have carnage and don’t have power the fun starts going away.”
Hartford was quick to credit his team for his car’s performance.
“My crew is all part time, they all have day jobs, including myself,” he said. “We are some of the closest-knit people you can bring together. We have a good time out here. To us, this is not work. We have a great time, we go out and we have a nice dinner, we have a couple of beers and we get up in the morning and we’re excited to be here. Without those guys working as hard as they do, I wouldn’t be here. My driving is not why we won today, that is a fact.”
Hartford has competed in three of the five NHRA races this season and had one round win in Las Vegas before this weekend.
“When we left Vegas, we thought we had a really good car setup,” Hartford said. “Our when we came here (to Houston) was to try and go to the pole. Om Friday night that’s exactly what we tried to do, and we made the wrong call. Even though we lost in the semis in Las Vegas, we had a lot of direction that we felt would be beneficial, so we came to Houston and I’m glad I did.”
In the finals against Enders, Hartford knew he had a hefty challenge in front of him.
“I knew I couldn’t leave on her, she is as good as it gets and I’m not that good,” Hartford said. “But, we were able to tune the car and we had enough power to drive around her at the end.”
The next national events on the schedule are the Four-Wide Nationals April 27-29, in Charlotte, N.C., and the Southern Nationals May 4-6 in Atlanta, but Hartford doesn’t plan on being at either one.
“The next race we are scheduled to go to is Topeka (Kan., May 18-20), and there are two races between that race,” Hartford said. “I know I’m going to get a lot of pressure to Charlotte and I’m probably not going to go to Charlotte. It doesn’t matter because the next time we unload that car we know that we have a car that can win.” Tracy Renck
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - NEW NITRO ATOP THE LEADERBOARD; ANDERSON HOLDS ON
Pritchett, the defending event champion, raced her Mopar Dodge dragster to a pass of 3.680-seconds at 326.00 mph. This is her first No. 1 qualifier of the season and eighth of her career.
“We’ve been developing our confidence the last couple of races,” Pritchett said. “To be able to put it on the track is phenomenal. We know we need to be exceptional because our competition is exceptional.”
Pritchett will line up against Terry Brian in round one of eliminations on Sunday.
“This is going to be a new ball game tomorrow,” Hight said. “With fresh asphalt and the sun being out these cars are going to spin. It’s definitely going to be fun. Two of our Chevys are one and two (in Funny Car) which shows we have good combinations.”
Hight will face off against Todd Simpson Sunday morning in the first round.
“I haven’t had great Sunday’s yet,” Anderson said. “I know I’m going to break through one of these days, though. The weather is going to be great again tomorrow. I feel good about it, I’m excited and so far it’s just been a great weekend.”
Anderson will race Steve Graham in the first round of eliminations.
BEEN ONE OF THOSE SEASONS - In drag racing there are no provisionals, just ask 16-time champion John Force.
Force was unable to qualify for Sunday’s eliminations, which is the first time since Charlotte 2008 that he did not advance past the qualifying rounds. He sat sixth overall on the career qualifying records with 221 consecutive events prior to Houston.
“That is hard for me. You earn what you get. We didn’t put it in the show. We couldn’t get to half-track,” said Force. “We have had a lot of problems all year. At least I got my final shot to get in, and I didn’t make it. I will be here tomorrow rooting on Robert, Courtney, and Brittany. I’ll be signing autographs for all the fans.”
Force had not suffered a DNQ since Sept. 13, 2008 when he failed to make the show at the NHRA Carolina Nationals at Charlotte. Saturday’s stumble was just the 22nd of the Hall of Famer's 40-year pro career and his first in the Peak Coolant and Motor Oil Chevrolet Camaro. Force set a drag racing record by qualifying for 395 consecutive events from 1988 until April 2007.
“I am bummed that the boss didn’t get in. That was quite a streak he had going,” added No. 1 qualifier and teammate Hight. “There is nobody better at rallying a team and leading a comeback than John Force. He loves the fight and he will do whatever it takes to get his team back on top. It really isn’t something to worry about because two of our Chevys are No.1 and No. 2 right now. We have good combinations and we just have to duplicate one."
SARGE MARCHES ON - Tony Schumacher ran consistently strong throughout qualifying, landing third with a 3.703, 319.75 best. He earned bonus points in every session.
"The car is fine, the track is challenging, but we need to race on it," Schumacher said. "So we have to learn, somehow, to slow it down a bit and we’re just struggling with that. As we get to race day, it's going to come to us a little bit. It should be building rubber. Our early numbers are just fine. Leah made an exceptional run on that. She was 6-mph faster at halftrack, so they did a great job stepping it up and we just missed it by a little bit – we’re just partially smoking the tires. But it’s all good.
"I’m as comfortable as I’ve ever been going into race day. I think the Army team is doing a great job. We earned a lot of points during qualifying. Now, we just have to win. I’m tired of just getting close. Mike (Neff, crew chief) is tired of just getting close. The whole U.S. Army team is tired of just getting close. It’s time to go out and get it done tomorrow.”
"Another mid-pack qualifying effort which is solid when you consider the weather conditions we were working with," said Crampton, who enters Sunday seeded tenth. "Unfortunately, we are racing Doug in the first round, but as always, it is good to put a Kalitta car in the next round. It should be a good race."
Kalitta was three notches higher at No. 7.
"Decent qualifying effort for the Mac Tools team, but we did not want to race our teammate in the first round again," Kalitta said. "We know what Richie and that team is capable of and we will be ready."
EL GENERAL, EL NUMERO UNO - Jose Gonzalez secured the No. 1 qualifying position Saturday during the E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by J&A Service portion of the NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway. This weekend’s Pro Mod racing, presented by Tige Boats, is the third of 12 events this season.
Gonzalez ran a 5.69-second pass at 257.78 mph in the second qualifying session on Friday to take the No. 1 position. This is his first career No. 1 qualifier at his second NHRA event.
“I’m just happy to be here,” Gonzalez stated. “Honestly, I didn’t think my run would hold. We were just focused on making consistent runs today because I think that consistency is what’s going to win this thing.”
Gonzalez will face-off against Danny Rowe in the first round of eliminations.
KINDA-SORTA HEADED IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION - Tim Wilkerson clocked a best time of 3.925-second at 311.41 mph to move all the way up to the No. 6 position during the final day of qualifications.
"The car is parked outside there, and I shut the door so it wouldn't hear me say this, but it's really showing some good signs," Wilkerson explained. "I don't want to ever brag about the thing, but it's going nice and straight, and the guys are working hard on it. It would be lovely if we could win a round of racing tomorrow."
Wilkerson is in the majority of drivers trying to find a groove in the new asphalt at Royal Purple Raceway.
"The car acts different when the track is good; it's all the header push and how different it is," Wilkerson said. "We just have to learn how to run it. You think about it, we haven't been on an 80-degree racetrack since Pomona. We're still working on it, but after the first run today, looking over it, it was real nice and safe. It looked good. I was trying to go 3.95 and it went 3.96.
"I told Richard [Hartman, co-crew chief] well, now we're gonna try to go 3.90-flat. He asked me if I thought it would do that, and I said I thought so. Well, it would have, but it got through the clutch in the middle and then spun really bad out at the other end. We ended up with a 3.92. If it wouldn't have gotten through the clutch, it would have been real close to a 3.90."
Wilkerson will race Shawn Langdon in the first round.
"There aren't any good draws out here," said Wilkerson, who has one win (2004) in three previous Royal Purple Raceway final rounds. His most recent final here was in 2016, the same year he claimed the Houston pole. "Who do you go up there and say, 'I would sure like to race that guy?' We'll see what we can do tomorrow, but I'm looking forward to it. It could really be a good day."
"This time yesterday, we were sitting up here in the crew chief lounge thinking it was a high probability Saturday would be a complete rainout," Beckman explained. "We had a shut-off run and a run where the parachute fell out, which would have been a good run and still qualified us.
"The fact that the weather held out on Saturday and our car was fourth quickest and second quickest of the two sessions today, it means we did everything right. I am so confident going into tomorrow. I hate using the word 'proud,' when people say, 'I'm proud of my guys,' because they don't work for me and I'm not their dad. I am just really happy to be a part of this group.
We had a great race car to take into eliminations tomorrow."
“When you have great side-by-side racing, even in the last qualifying session, it is fun," Courtney said. "That was a great job by the AAA Texas Funny Car team, and they made an awesome run. They took our No. 1 spot away and bumped us to No. 2, but it is good to know that we have some impressive race cars over here at John Force Racing. My team has given me a fast hot rod all season. It has been great to go into race day with a lot of confidence. Danny Hood and Brian Corradi have done an awesome job with this Advance Auto Parts Camaro. This is a tricky race track, but I have a lot of confidence in this Advance Auto Parts team.”
Courtney has qualified in the top four at every race this year and at 26 of the last 30 races overall. She has one previous win at the SpringNationals coming in 2016. Force will line up against Jeff Diehl in round one.
"A tricky track this weekend," Todd explained. "We have made decent runs, but not what we want to be making, so we have our work cut out for us tomorrow. But tomorrow could also be a matter of survival depending on how the weather is. All-in-all, a pretty good weekend for the DHL Toyota Camry."
Todd races Tommy Johnson Jr. on Sunday.
“We were set up to run a high 60 – that’s what we were trying to run," Brown revealed. "We nuked the clutch out of it, and we need to figure out why that happened. It left the starting line good but literally nuked the clutch out of the car. That being said, we’ll just keep working on it, plugging away at it, figure out what caused it. The power level was good. The car felt really good. It left the line, and it was moving. We just needed some more clutch with it. We just need to figure out how we can make that better and improve on that. That’s all there is to it.”
ANDERSON BRINGS OUT 6.4-SECOND SWAGGER - You would have thought Greg Anderson was back to running carburetors on his Pro Stocker. 
“Really happy with my guys right now,” Hagan said. “They laid down some great runs, and the car has been phenomenal. I’m very confident in what they’re doing. It helps me as a driver to allow me to do what I need to do.”
“It’s been pretty much a whirlwind of a season,” Force stated. “We’ve been running our 2017 car the last few races while we built this new dragster. This was our testing and none of us knew how it was going to go. To come out second run and be able to go to number one is pretty amazing.”
"That was a great run, and we've been hurting parts," Schumacher said following the Q-2 session. "Just trying not to run it through the traps. Mike [Neff] and Phil [Shuler] are doing a great job. We're destroying stuff, and we have to be cautious. Great run, didn't try to run it through the lights but did try to get it down to the end.It's getting better. It was a little rough.
"This morning, the second half [of the track], we were spinning tires and blowing the blower up. Great job. No 1 or No. 2 spot, it doesn't matter where you are at. We just made two great runs today."
"We threw it and it made it," Head admitted. "The race track is so good for about the first 600 feet, but it's so bad for the next 340 that it is challenging.
SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE - John Force has had one of those seasons already, and we're only five races into 2018. As the sixteen-time NHRA Funny Car champions admits, "In the first three races, I had logged more miles in the ambulance than in my race car."
THE TEXAS NO-STEP - Steve Torrence could quit racing today, and he's amassed quite the career. The past NHRA Top Alcohol Dragster champion has won the big races including the NHRA U.S. Nationals Top Fuel title the most coveted title in drag racing as well as the $50,000-to-win Traxxas Top Fuel Shootout. 
Cox was in Houston on Friday, as a special guest of Tony Schumacher assistant crew chief Phil Shuler
"Just hanging out on my off-days," Cox said. "I'm having a good time. Phil Shuler has always extended the invites, and I come and enjoy it when I can. I get to hang out with the pros."
TAKING A BREAK - Del Worsham plans to park his Funny car following this weekend's race, while he searches for additional funding. He has plans for a return to NHRA competition at the Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals, July 27-29 at Sonoma Raceway in California. If funding can be secured in the interim, the team will be ready to compete immediately.
FINDING HER WAY BACK - Erica Enders' back-to-back championship seasons of 2014 - 2015 seem like a distant memory. It's been a struggle ever since. 
WELCOME BACK - Rodger Brogdon, who competed in NHRA’s Pro Stock from 2007-2015, has a new company building aerospace parts, and what better way to get the word out than by drag racing. 
LOOKING FOR A FOURTH - Three-time e3 NHRA Pro Modified champion Rickie Smith is looking for his fourth title. Last month, the decorated doorslammer pilot who has won titles in three different race series, provided himself with a major boost by winning the season-opener in Gainesville, Fla.
