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

SUNDAY NOTEBOOK - RACE NO. 2 IS IN THE BOOKS

BROWN GOES DOWNTOWN - The lingo goes like this: Antron Brown used a 3.793-seconds, 319.82-mph performance in the Matco Tools Dragster on the 1,000-foot Firebird International Raceway course to defeat Tony Schumacher, who had a 3.813, 318.17 blast in the U.S. Army Dragster, and win Sunday's NHRA Arizona Nationals at Chandler, Ariz.
 
"In an all-Don Schumacher Racing final . . . " we say.
 
"Brown was runner-up to Spencer Massey, another DSR representative, in last week's Winternationals final," we add.
 
"Brown denied Schumacher his 68th victory in this fourth time since 2010 that they have met in the final," we say.
 
There's that word again: "final."
 
However, that word just sounds too . . .well . . .  final for Brown's taste.
 
"To get to a second final in a row is a real huge statement for us, and we feel good. But this is just a start," he said.  "And we all know it's not how you start but how you finish. We came up short last year, and we want to keep on plugging away and overcoming adversity to we know what to do when that Countdown starts [after Labor Day]."
 
Brown, the No. 5 qualifier, said he "knew I had the race car behind me to get the job done. But we just needed for everything to fall in place, and it fell in place at the right time. I actually felt real good about our situation going in [against Schumacher], because the last run before we ran an (3.)83, 313 in that left lane. And Brian and Mark [crew chiefs Corradi and Oswald] told me the car actually dropped a hole earlier in the run. And it still ran an .83 with a dropped hole.  We had nothing to lose."
 
Brown is the points leader heading to the next race, the March 8-11 Tire Kingdom Gatornationals at Florida's Gainesville Raceway.
 
Schumacher, the No. 2 qualifier who was making his 111th career final round, was seeking his first victory since the October 2010 Las Vegas race and his fourth at the suburban Phoenix facility.
 
But he has had little luck against Brown. As if  a mark of  0-7 in final rounds last season to assure his first winless season in 10 years weren't frustrating enough, Schumacher was 2-8 against Brown in 2011, and three of those eight losses came in the final round. This just adds to the tally.
 
But Brown wasn't gloating.
 
"I'm just trying to catch up," he said of his rivalry with the seven-time champion. "It's not like we're slaughtering him. We're just winning races. We're winning by a thousandth of a second. The race could go either way. I got to take it as I can get it."
 
Brown has 16 Pro Stock Motorcycle Wally trophies and 16 in Top Fuel, and he said that's proof that Schumacher is winning the numbers game: "I've got 16 Top Fuel trophies. That man's got 67. I'm just trying to catch up. They're an incredible team, and you have to step up against an incredible team. It's just been going our way. So we want to ride it as long as we can."  
 
Said Schumacher, "Obviously we were hoping to finally get to victory lane after such a long time. It was good, close race with Antron. That's the way it always is when we face either of my DSR teammates [including Spencer Massey, who had top speed of the meet 325.37 mph]. Unfortunately, he just got me again," Schumacher said.
 
Brown said, "We have three strong cars, and we bow out against each other. That's what really helps raise the bar at Don Schumacher Racing. We have a good, fun competition with each other, and that's what pushes us to new levels to race with the other guys, because they're coming, too."
 
Brown had to slog through a tough field Sunday. Among what he called "steep competition" Sunday were Terry McMillen, Massey, then top qualifier Shawn Langdon to notch his 400th round win and advance to his second final round in as many races this year.
 
Schumacher had to get past Mike Strasburg, Doug Kalitta, and Clay Millican for another shot at Brown.
 
'We're definitely not going to hang our heads in the U.S. Army team camp," Schumacher said. "We know we have a great race car and we are going to win races this season. Our Army Strong soldiers continually stay focused on the mission, and that's exactly what we're going to do moving forward.
 
"I believe we have started the season strong by advancing to the semifinals and finals in the first two races. I'm really looking forward to the Gatornationals."
 
What Brown found his mind drifting back to were his days as a youngster, when his family raced at the sportsman level, mostly at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park at Englishtown, N.J., and downstate at Atco Raceway.
 
"I remember as a kid underneath the bleachers, playing in the sand, and saying, 'Man, I wish I could race one of those nitro cars one day. It's a big dream for me, where I came from."
 
And because of where Antron Brown is going, that actually is a nightmare for his competition.

WHEN IT'S YOUR DAY ... - Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good. Robert Hight clearly knew the difference headed into the final round at the NHRA Arizona Nationals where his teammate Mike Neff was the better of the two on the property at Firebird Raceway.

“We didn’t have a chance if Mike Neff would have run in the final round like he had been running all day,” admitted Hight. “I don’t know what happened to his [Mike’s] car, but [tuner] Jimmy Prock just made it go down the left lane. We had picked up from the round before. There was a little bump in the lane and that was where we were giving it clutch. I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t have bet on a 4.13 beating Mike Neff in the final round.”

The left lane was a cause for concern all day Sunday for Hight and Prock.

“We had some strong runs going that could have been a 4.07,” explained Hight. “You get to the bump and it would upset it. I had to pedal it in the second round and in the semis, Jimmy slowed it down against [teammate] Courtney [Force].

In the finals Hight rolled to the starting line confident Prock was going to make a race of the final round.

“In the final he told me he was going to pick it up – just didn’t want to give it away,” Hight. “I honestly believed Neff was going to run a 4.07.”

Hight’s 4.139, 307.02 run was enough to drive past Neff’s off-pace 4.168, 309.91.

The victory marked Hight’s first victory in a race that for the second weekend in a row featured a pair of John Force Racing Mustangs and with Mike Neff in the finals. Neff, just like Hight, had been in a final round at Firebird but never won. Until Sunday, no other JFR driver other than John Force had won at Phoenix and he had won eight times.

A week earlier Neff lost in the finals on a holeshot to team owner John Force.

“It’s pretty exciting to have all John Force finals for two weekends in a row,” said Hight. “You’ve got to cherish that because you know it isn’t going to keep happening. It’s really tough to do.”

It might not continue forever, but for JFR, the Phoenix final marked the 37th time teammates have raced in the finals.

Hight’s victory earned the past series champion a berth in the Traxxas Showdown, a race within a race, at the NHRA U.S. Nationals over the Labor Day Weekend, where the winner can pocket $100,000. The first seven positions are seeded by virtue of the first seven winners and the eighth driver will be selected by fan vote.

John Force earned the first berth last week in Pomona.

“What is really neat is I got in that Traxxas Showdown, when you see the first seven winners are guaranteed – that isn’t easy. There’s a lot of good Funny Cars out there and to get it this early is a big relief. ”

Hight has had the best race car at events and not won and at times has not had the best car and walked away as the winner.

“I think it all equals out sometimes,” said Hight. “Looking back on how we did last year, that’s how you’re going to win more rounds. Last year John took us to see the movie Money Ball, and he believed there was something we could all learn from it. It’s about racing smarter. That movie [taught us that it] is not about going out there and setting low elapsed time every round and push the car to the edge. It’s about going out there to get round wins and being smarter about how you do it. Hopefully we can use that theory and strategy and go out there for more round wins.”

During his career Pro Stock driver Jason Line hasn’t had much success at Firebird International Raceway.

That’s hard to believe after this weekend.

Line, the reigning NHRA Pro Stock world champion, had a dominating car for three days, culminating with him winning the NHRA Arizona Nationals in Chandler, Ariz., for the first time.

Line beat his Summit Racing Equipment teammate Greg Anderson in the final round. Line clocked a 6.558-second run at 211.69 mph to defeat Anderson’s 6.570-second run.

“This is a great start to our season,” said Line, who lost to eventual winner Anderson in the season-opening Winternationals last weekend.”It felt like we had the best car at both those races (the Winternationals and Arizona), I just couldn’t quite get it done in Pomona. All in all, it has been a very good start for us. We are excited and we worked really hard over the winter. We had a very good offseason and I think it is showing up.”

This was Line’s 28th national event win in 57 final-round appearances. Line’s 28 wins tie him for seventh place on NHRA’s all-time Pro Stock win list with Darrell Alderman.

Anderson is atop the point standings at 209, one point in front of Line. Line defeated Jeg Coughlin, Erica Enders, Greg Stanfield and Anderson to get to Victory Lane.

“This was a great weekend for us and we finally beat the desert,” said Line, who qualified second. “We had the best car every run except for Q3. We were low all the other qualifying runs and we just had one slip up there. We had a great car. You should win when you have a car like that and we were fortunate to do that (Sunday) even in spite of my driving. I didn’t drive that well (Sunday).”

In the first round against Coughlin, Line had a .078 reaction time, but he was still able to get the win with a 6.549-second elapsed time. Coughlin had a .005 light, but slowed to 7.078 seconds.

“I was late (off the line),” Line admitted. “It is a tough deal. You are racing a guy you know is certainly as good a driver who has ever been in this class, but he doesn’t have a great Hot Rod right now. You do not want to go up there and do something stupid, which I did. My goal was to go up there and be .050 (on the light). A 50 turned into a 70. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if he had not shaken. It would have been very close at the other end. There is no question about it.”

During Sunday’s eliminations, Line won rounds in both the left and right lane, but he couldn’t explain why he was switching lanes.

“They (his team) will not listen to me,” said Line, about whether he has any input in choosing lanes. “They shouldn’t listen to me to anyway. If I did have input, I promise you we would run slower than we do.”

Although Line and Anderson have had plenty of success in their Pontiac GXPs, he is eagerly awaiting the new Camaros they will be driving soon.

“We want to race a car that has a little bit more relevance to it,” Line said. “They do not make a Pontiac anymore. I love Pontiacs, but the day is come and gone. It is not up to us. There is no such thing (as a Pontiac). We want to race a Camaro. We want to duke it out with the Mustang and the (Dodge) Challenger. That’s the way it is supposed to be in Pro Stock.”

Line was unsure when his Camaro will be arriving.

“We plan for an Atlanta (May 4-6) debut,” Line said. “Obviously we are going to go test a car before we just bring it to a race.”

QUICK HITS - SPEED READING RACE RECAP

TOP FUEL

FIRST ROUND

- The right lane was the lane of choice. No. 11 Clay Millican pulled off the only upset of the round, beating No. 6 Dave Grubnic and becoming the only winner from the left lane.
 
- Holeshots decided two of the first four match-ups. Morgan Lucas defeated Khalid al Balooshi (3.83 to 3.80) and three pairings later, Steve Torrence eliminated Brandon Bernstein (3.801 to 3.794).
 
- Spencer Massey recorded the ninth-quickest pass in Top Fuel history and set the track Speed record with his winning 3.769-second, 325.37-mph victory against Cory McClenathan, the man he replaced in the Prestone/FRAM Dragster last season.
 
- McClenathan was making his 400th NHRA Top Fuel start.
 
- Former teammates Shawn Langdon and Morgan Lucas -- the No. 1 qualifiers here and at Pomona, respectively -- will meet in the quarterfinals, just like they did a week ago in the Winternationals.
 
- Tony Schumacher and Doug Kalitta met in the opening round of the season last weekend at Pomona, and thanks to their first-round victories here, they'll do it again in the second round of the Arizona Nationals.
 
- Massey's victory set up a rematch with Don Schumacher Racing colleague Antron Brown in the quarterfinals. Massey defeated Brown at the Winternationals in the final round last Sunday. 

QUARTER-FINALS
 
- Morgan Lucas threw everything at trying to eliminate No. 1 qualifier Shawn Langdon, but the engine in his Geico / Lucas Oil Dragster blew up, tailed a spectacular ball of flame down the track, and left a long, wide, messy swath of fluids for the Safety Safari to clean.

"It's never good to see from a crew chief standpoint that much oil-dry stuff," waiting Funny Car quarterfinalist Mike Neff said. He added that the "track just gets hotter," causing those in line to tweak their tune-ups in the staging lanes.

- The cause of Lucas' molten mayhem was a chain reaction of events. A broken lifter pushed out the head gaskets, causing pressure on the puke tank. That in turn popped the hoses off, and the result was the fireball that halted action for about 35 minutes.- Clay Millican opened the round with a holeshot victory over Steve Torrence. The Parts Plus Dragster driver used a 3.838-second pass at 317.87 mph to oust Torrence, who was quicker and faster at 3.796, 318.99. Again he did it from the left lane, as Torrence had lane choice.

- Langdon's 3.791-second, 318.39-mph victory over Lucas meant that the first two to reach the semifinals are drivers who never have won an NHRA Top Fuel event.
 
- Langdon said his Al-Anabi Dragster "is an excellent race car" and allowed himself to think that "it could be our day." Because his opponent was the former classmate (at Riverside, Calif.'s Jurupa Valley High) who gave him his first Top Fuel ride, Langdon said he did have thoughts about that in the back of his mind as they lined up. "Deep down in my heart I do," he said, adding that he also is thankful the Lucas family agreed to let him pursue his dream and take the Al-Anabi Racing opportunity at the end of last season. "I love that kid to death," Langdon said of Morgan Lucas. "He's been a thorn in my side. This is the first time I beat him."  
 
- Watching the races is Brittany Force, who will take another spin in her Top Fuel Dragster here Monday during testing. She got her first seat time in the new three-rail chassis in January at a South Florida racetrack. John Force said Dickie Venables will be crew chief for that operaton.
 
Brittany Force made two passes and went no farther than 200 feet each time.
 
"I'm hoping to go just a little bit further and see how that feels," she said. "It's a little different. It's definitely a step up from my A/Fuel Dragster, but I'm really excited."

- When Tony Schumacher faces Clay Millican in the semifinals, their pairing represents 13 Top Fuel championships. Schumacher has seven in the NHRA, Millican six in the International Hot Rod Association.
 
- A testimony to the Safety Safari clean-up skills was Doug Kalitta's 3.85-second, 307.65-mph pass in the shunned left lane. Kalitta was first to run on the left lane after Morgan Lucas' massive oildown.
 
- Antron Brown avenged his Winternationals final loss to fellow DSR driver Spencer Massey. Brown had the edge in the left lane, 3.888 seconds at 287.47 mph to Massey's tire-smoking 3.987, 262.74.

SEMI-FINALS
 
- Tony Schumacher pulled another 3.7-second performance from the Mike Green-tuned U.S. Army Dragster, using a 3.797-second, 317.57-mph effort, as Clay Millican gave him no challenge by smoking the tires immediately.
 
- Antron Brown made the final round an all-Don Schumacher Racing party, as he scored the upset of the weekend. Brown, in the Matco Tools Dragster, ended Shawn Langdon's high hopes for a first Top Fuel victory. Brown ran a 3.832-second E.T. at 313.51 mph, as Langdon had a 6.072, battling tire smoke and what appeared to be a dropped cylinder on the Al-Anabi car.   

FINALS

-    Antron Brown once again denied Tony Schumacher a national event victory but at the same time delivered win No. 150 in Top Fuel to team owner Don Schumacher. The teammates left the starting line together  with Brown recording a 3.793, 319.82 to beat Schumacher’s 3.813, 318.17. 

FUNNY CAR

FIRST ROUND

- Jeff Arend celebrated the Kalitta Motorsports team's birthday remembrance of the late Scott Kalitta with a victory in the DHL Toyota over higher-qualified Jim Head, and he did it in the less-than-ideal left lane. Saturday would have been the late Kalitta's 50th birthday.
 
- Victory in the much-awaited father-daughter pairing went to Courtney Force. Famous dad John Force, the points leader with his Winternationals victory, was the higher-qualified driver at No. 5. His rookie daughter started 12th. Last week at Pomona in her pro debut, she outraced Bob Tasca to advance to the quarterfinals.
 
- Todd Lesenko is developing a reputation for being a giant-killer. In his debut for Jim Dunn Racing, with the four qualifying passes there the only ones he ever had made in the Tap It Monte Carlo, he upset top qualifier Robert Hight. At Firebird International Raceway, No. 13 qualifier Lesenko eliminated reigning Funny Car champion Matt Hagan, who started No. 4.
 
- Top qualifier Johnny Gray, who needed one more round-win last season to slip into the Countdown to the Championship field, made sure he didn't waste this first round today. He won over Grant Downing with a 4.084-second E.T. that was second of the round only to Mike Neff's winning 4.072 (against Bob Bode) and a 310.74-mph speed that was the class' fastest of the weekend.
 
- Ron Capps' upset victory over Cruz Pedregon came by a two-thousandths-of-a-second margin. Capps came from the bottom half of the field, at No. 10. Pedregon was No. 7.

QUARTER-FINALS
 
- Robert Hight said he hadn't taken the Auto Club Ford Mustang down the left lane with much luck this weekend, and his trip this time -- as he gave up lane choice to opponent Johnny Gray -- wasn't so pretty, either. But the John Force Racing driver won the tire-smoking pedal fest with a 4.613. Gray officially was disqualified, because his Big O Tires/ Service Central Dodge hit the wall at the top end of the 1,000-foot course. Gray was unhurt -- just annoyed. Hight said he knew his own car was "flying early" and said, "I'm going to take these wins any way I can get them."
 
- Courtney Force, who took the opening-round victory against her father, zipped down the right lane that was hotter than crew chiefs Ron Douglas and Scott Wible had been expecting. Whatever they did to adjust to the effects of the lengthy track clean-up, it was effective. Lensenk smoked the tires around mid-track and Force was in the groove all the way down the lane.
 
"I'm still in shock that I'm out here driving one of these things," she said. It's pretty unreal. I'm having the time of my life."
 
Courtney Force has reached the semifinal round quicker than her John Force Racing team members. Sister Ashley Force Hood advanced to her first semifinal at Atlanta in her fifth race and lost. It took Robert Hight four races to earn a berth in his first semifinal round. That was in 2005, at Houston, and Hight won the event. Mike Neff's first semifinal appearance came at St. Louis in his rookie season, but it was his ninth event. He lost in the final round that day.  
 
- With Mike Neff's victory over Ron Capps, John Force Racing owns three of the four semifinal berths. Courtney Force will square off against Robert Hight. Neff will meet Jack Beckman, the day's lone DSR survivor.

SEMI-FINALS

- Just as it was at last week's Winternationals, the final round will feature two John Force Racing drivers. The common denominator is Mike Neff, who was runner-up to Force at Pomona. For Hight, it was a significant improvement, for he lost in the first round of the season-opener. In earning the shot at Neff, he denied Jack Beckman a chance for DSR to go for a "double-up" victory. Tony Schumacher and Antron Brown carried the DSR banner into the Top Fuel final.
 
- Although Mike Neff was later off the starting line than Jack Beckman, he scored the round's quickest E.T. (4.099 seconds) and best speed (306.74 mph).

FINALS

-    Robert Hight scored his first Phoenix win by defeating teammate and point leader Mike Neff. He won with a 4.139 which edged Neff’s 4.168. The victory extended Hight’s streak to eight as consecutive years with at least one national event victory.

PRO STOCK

FIRST ROUND

- Among the first-round losers were two racers who have combined for 11 series championships. Mike Edwards, the top qualifier who brought in both ends of the Firebird International Raceway record to eliminations, defeated seven-time champ Warren Johnson. Jason Line beat Jeg Coughlin, who has four Pro Stock crowns.
 
- Jason Line cranked out the quickest and fastest pass of the round at 6.549, 211.56.
 
-  Against Line, Coughlin cut a .005 light but had a wiggle out of the groove toward the end of the quarter-mile course and couldn't take full advantage of his stellar reaction time.
 
- No one red-lit.

QUARTER-FINALS

- Vincent Nobile had the unfortunate distinction of having the day's first, and so far only, red light. It came against Greg Anderson.
 
- No. 1 qualifier Mike Edwards, who had been so dominant in his Penhall / K&N / Interstate Batteries Pontiac GXP, got out of the gate first against Rodger Brogdon -- a racer he had a 10-5 advantage over. But Edwards' car developed serious tire shake and he clicked off the engine, as Brogdon sailed effortlessly down the track (but won with one of the round's slowest passes).
 
- Greg Stanfield was nearly perfect on the Christmas Tree against Larry Morgan, with a .001-second reaction time. Brogdon and Stanfield will be trying to break up an all-KB / Summit Racing Pontiac final round. Stanfield will take on Jason Line, and Brogdon will have Winternationals winner Greg Anderson.  

SEMI-FINALS

- KB / Summit Racing got into the "doubles game," as both Greg Anderson and Jason Line advanced to the final round. In Top Fuel, the final round pits Don Schumacher Racing drivers Tony Schumacher and Antron Brown, and John Force Racing rules the Funny Car finals, with Mike Neff and Robert Hight duking it out.

- Jason Line had the best number among the four semifinalists, clocking a 6.556-second E.T. and 211.23-mph speed.

FINALS

-    Jason Line moved into a tie at No. 7 on the all-time wins list by outrunning teammate Greg Anderson, 6.558 to a 6.570. His 28th victory marked tied him with Darrell Alderman on the all-time list and moved him into second place in the points, one point behind Anderson.

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SATURDAY NOTEBOOK -

TURNAROUND CITY - Losing in the first round of the season-opening NHRA Winternationals can sometimes send a team into a tailspin.

Johnny Gray, however, has bounced back quite nicely in his Don Schumacher Racing Service Central Dodge Funny Car following his first-round defeat to Tim Wilkerson at Pomona.

On Friday night, Gray grabbed the provisional pole position at the NHRA Arizona Nationals with a 4.074-second elapsed time at 298.93 mph.

And, no one could top him after Saturday’s two qualifying session at Firebird International Raceway.

“I do not think the track was there (Saturday),” said Gray about the fact he couldn’t beat his Friday night elapsed time. “By the time we got up in the first round, they had some problems and stuff and it was nearly 2 (p.m) before we got a shot at the track. I think we were trying to run a little better and it didn’t work out too good. So, Rob (Wendland, Gray’s crew chief) backed the thing down and got it ready for (Sunday) to kind of see what to do. He said we would run about a (4.)12 and that is what we ran.”

Gray faces Grant Downing in round one today and he is upbeat about what his team can accomplish.

“We are real confident going into (Sunday) that the Service Central Dodge is a really good car to go out there and compete with (Sunday),” Gray said.

Gray returned to driving a Funny Car last season after spending the last several seasons in the Pro Stock ranks. Gray finished 10th in the Pro Stock standings in 2010 and he was 11th in the Funny Car points chase last season.

Gray is no stranger to the nitro Funny Car scene. He raced a nitro Funny Car off and on from 1999 to 2006. Back in 2002, Gray placed a career-best 10th in the nitro Funny Car world standings.

“The car really ran good at the end of last year and we were a runner-up here and we just missed it a hair in the final, so hopefully we can learn from the mistake we made here last year and go ahead and win this thing,” Gray said.

Although Gray is in the No. 1 qualifying spot, he isn’t taking anything for granted Sunday.

“There are no ducks in this field anymore, everyone of them can send you home in a heartbeat,” Gray said. “You have to go out and run hard. Tim Wilkerson is a really good racer and he didn’t make the field. You got to understand that you have to go out there and go for the throat every run because these (Funny Cars) are so competitive anymore that if you do not make a good run, you are not going to be in the show. It’s going to be that way all year. There are going to be some times when some really good cars do not get in the show.”

IT COULD COME IN PHOENIX - In probably the biggest understatement of the season so far by any pro drag racer, Top Fuel's Shawn Langdon said Friday night that he thought with his 3.754-second pass -- the fifth-quickest in NHRA history -- he'd "be OK" throughout Saturday qualifying for the NHRA  Arizona Nationals.   
 
He ruled the 1,000-foot course at Firebird International Raceway at Chandler, Ariz., to claim the second No. 1 qualifying position of his career and the first since the Las Vegas race in the spring of 2009.
 
The Al-Anabi Racing driver said Saturday evening he's confident that even with a fuel drum full of rivals who are capable of winning races this year, his Brian Husen-led team has given him the self-assurance that he can "move forward and hopefully get that first win."
 
Nervous? Hardly. He's in an environment where team manager Alan Johnson recognizes his talent, gives him the resources -- including manpower in a team that has won or collaborated in winning the past two championships and five others with Tony Schumacher -- and lets him do his job.
 
Consequently, Langdon said with authority, "Oh, I'll sleep perfect tonight.
 
"I don't have any pressure," he said. "I don't have anything like that that hangs over me. These guys are so good, just giving me a great race car, giving me that confidence that I need as a driver.
 
"These guys are very accustomed to winning. They know how to win. They make good runs and they walk right off the starting line like that's their job. I'm still trying to process all this stuff. I'm still trying to catch up to these guys," Langdon said. "But I think they're putting me in the right direction. They're definitely giving me a great race car.
 
"It's a good opportunity," he said of this weekend's starting position and his fresh start with the premier team, "and I'm just going to make the best of it."
 
Although Langdon hasn't had this kind of a shot at winning a race in a long time, he said Johnson won't pepper him with a lot of advice on the eve of this second race in the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season.
 
He said he and Johnson have "talked about a lot of things, but that's one thing that I've got to say is he does a great job letting a driver be a driver. He will give you advice when he feels like you need it, but he's not going to over-emphasize or overburden you with all kinds of different things to get you thinking too much."
 
Same goes for the entire team, he said.
 
"That's one thing I've noticed about all the guys over there -- everyone does his job and no one really worries about other people's jobs. It's pretty much like a hand-picked all-star team over there, with all the crew chiefs and the crew guys. They got who the want, and everybody does a great job, so I think  pretty much you just do your job and we should have good results on Sunday," Langdon said.  
 
But he couldn't help reciting the familiar lines -- "I'm just living the dream" and so on -- and "rolling the credits."
 
He didn't hesitate to credit his competitors, as well.
 
"I'm telling you right now that this is going to be the toughest year you've ever seen in Top Fuel," he said. "There are so many good-running cars this year. You have the cars that have run good in the past, but there's a couple other teams that are stepping up: Morgan Lucas Racing and Torrence -- and the Kalittas. They're going to be right up there with the Al-Anabi team and the DSR teams.
 
"I think it’s going to come down a lot more to the drivers. Cutting good lights, keeping the car in the groove, and even shaving a couple thousandths off [the E.T.s] from oversteering the car is going to make a big difference this year."
 
That could be where Langdon, a smart, young driver with two Super Comp national titles to his credit, might have an advantage.
 
"I'd like to think so," he said. "This team does such a great job that I've got all the confidence in the world in them. And you couldn’t ask for anything more as a driver."
 
Except maybe at least that first Wally trophy.

IT'S MY TURN - One good turn deserves another. At least this is the way it seems in the growing Mike Edwards versus Jason Line qualifying rivalry.

Last weekend in Pomona, Jason Line snatched away the No. 1 qualifying position and the track record from Edwards during the so-called advantageous Saturday morning qualifying session.

Saturday’s third Pro Stock session at the NHRA Arizona Nationals was Edwards’ turn of fair play. Edwards not only took the No. 1 seeding headed into Sunday’s eliminations with a 6.536-second, 211.53-mph pass but also nailed both ends of Firebird International Raceway record.

This was the 40th career No. 1 qualifying pole for Edwards and his fourth straight at Firebird International Raceway.

“I like this track,” said Edwards, who has five career pole positions at Firebird International Raceway. “There is something about this desert, my stuff (car) runs pretty good. My guys did an exceptional job this week and we really made four nice runs. This place, I do not know, I can’t really put my finger on it, but we have run good here. Even last fall when we came here and it was 100 degrees, we still ran really good.”

Edwards, who won the 2009 Pro Stock world championship, knows grabbing these top qualifying spots is not easy.

“We hung on,” said Edwards, who pilots the Penhall/Interstate Batteries Pontiac GXP. “Jason (Line) and those guys are all right there with everybody. It is all packed in together and it is just fun to go up there and compete against those kind of guys. But, tomorrow is another day and we will see how that goes.”

Line, the 2011 Pro Stock world champ, qualified No. 2 at 6.539 seconds.

Sunday, Edwards will clash with the legendary Warren Johnson in the first round.

“You can’t overlook anybody, especially a guy (Johnson) who has won way more of these races than me,” Edwards said. “You can’t even have that mindset. It doesn’t matter who you run if they are qualified, they are capable of taking you out. We definitely have to be on our game (Sunday) for sure.”

IT'S A CANOPY! - Many have referred to the Don Schumacher Racing device awaiting NHRA Tech and Competition committee approval as a "capsule," the proper description is "canopy."
 
"It's not a capsule. It's a canopy," Glen Gray, the sanctioning body's vice-president of technical operations, said.
 
"A capsule would encompass the whole driver," Gray said.
 
A capsule would include parts that would run beneath the driver's seat and enclose, encase, surround the driver.
 
Gray said for a component of the car to be called a "capsule" -- which this DSR piece is not -- "it would be kind of a self-contained tub that would be somewhat separate from the car."
 
The Aerodine and DSR engineers have been working with an expert from hydroplane racing, which does protect the driver in an actual capsule. (Think pharmaceuticals, think Jetsons.) Those tubs are capsules. Hydroplanes feature capsules for their drivers.
 
This DSR device, for a couple of reasons, is not designing, testing, or building a capsule.
One reason for not doing that is weight considerations. The lighter the car, the easier it will go quick.
 
Another reason for not incorporating a capsule into a dragster is that it isn’t necessary.

"We have a skeleton around the whole thing . . . in the form of the chassis," Gray said.

EVERYTHING BUT THE KITCHEN SINK - Rodger Brogdon and the crew of the MAVTV Pontiac GXP Pro Stocker had a busy afternoon Saturday. 

The team was forced to make wholesale changes to the MAVTV machine before the fourth and final qualifying session, which is highly unusual for a Pro Stock car.

"We changed the motor, the transmission, the rear end and shocks," Brogdon said. "We threw everything at it. It could've very easily gone a 6.56 or 6.57 (second ET). We knew that, but we just had to get some data out of it, so we just changed it all to be ready for Sunday morning."

As it stands, Brogdon wound up qualifying No. 9 for Sunday's eliminations with a best lap of 6.593 seconds at 209.39 mph.

"We started not too bad, seventh after one session," Brogdon said. "We have the ability to go on the computer and correct our runs. As we ran the second session, the third session, our corrections went slower and slower, so we changed the motor for the last run."

Even after the changes, Brodgon had to do his best to rein his car in to get it across the finish line in Q4.

"If everyone could see that run, they'd go, 'He's got at least a nickel left in that,'" Brogdon said. "It went all crooked, and I had my hands full going through there.

"I went right, and when I was bringing it back, I snatched third gear. It pulled the left-front tire up in the air. I felt like I was in a Pro Mod."
NOT MUCH CHANGE - The top four in the order -- Shawn Langdon, Tony Schumacher, Steve Torrence, and Spencer Massey -- remained the same from Friday throughout qualifying Saturday. Antron Brown made the biggest move Saturday, gaining five positions -- from 10th to fifth -- with a 3.796-second run that was just one-thousandth of a second slower than No. 4 Massey. Brown was the last on the list who clocked a 3.7-second pass this weekend. 
400 FOR CORY MAC - No. 13 qualifier Cory McClenathan will reach a career milestone in Santo Rapisarda's Santo's Cranes Dragster with his first-round appearance Sunday. He will be making his 400th Top Fuel start.
 

SWEET 16 - Top Fuel drivers this weekend number only 16, so a full field with no bumping means all the "Sweet 16" had to do was determine their exact order and pairings.  
 
WORKING HARD ON, OFF TRACK - Picking up the power level in his C&J Energy Dragster was Bob Vandergriff's goal Saturday. He was shooting for a 3.80, but settled into the No. 10 slot with a 3.824-second elapsed time. He'll meet Doug Kalitta in the first round Sunday.
 
"We're trying to pick up the car' performance up a little, trying to get a little more power today and see if our application holds up on the racetrack," he said before heading out for his first run Saturday and third overall.
 
Vandergriff has been setting off-the-track goals and working just as diligently at those.
 
"We're still really working hard on sponsorships for both J.R. [Todd] and Larry [Dixon]. We're trying to leverage some of the relationships we already have with some of the sponsors on my car to get them bigger involved on those cars. But a lot of that stuff is long-term development."
 
Said Vandergriff of Dixon, "He's a three-time champion. He's won 62 events. He's obviously a pretty integral part of our sport. And for him to be sitting and watching, that's not good for our sport. We need to have people like that involved -- not just from a driver's standpoint, but he's a great representative of our sport, family values, just a good person. It doesn't do our sport any good to have him watching and not driving."
 
He called Todd "a good kid" who "fits our program really well from a personal standpoint and a values standpoint. He's somebody we want to get involved. He gives us some unique marketing angles we try to exploit. We're going to run him a few times this year. Hopefully we're going to be able to expand that to 10 or 12 races."
 
He has been working with Todd for two or three years now and said, "We've just been trying to find the right fit."          
 
 DNQs - Alexis DeJoria, Tim Wilkerson, Gary Densham, and Jeff Diehl will miss Sunday's eliminations. Coincidentally, DeJoria's crew chief is Del Worsham, and his dad Chuck tuned Grant Downing to the No. 16 position in the Worsham Family Dodge Charger. So Downing will take on Johnny Gray and his Don Schumacher-owned Service Central Dodge Sunday morning. At last week's season-opener, DeJoria, in the Tequila Patron Toyota, was the lone Kalitta Motorsports racer to reach the quarterfinals; today she is the team's lone driver to DNQ.

.'
 
Bode will start 15th Sunday and meet Mike Neff in Round 1 of eliminations.
 
OUTFITTING A PRINCESS - Todd Lesenko, driver of Jim and Diane Dunn's Tap It Monte Carlo, is from suburban Edmonton, but he has a house here in Scottsdale, so he drove "home" the day after the Winternationals ended. It was just in time to help his visiting 16-year-old niece shop Tuesday for a frilly dress for her high school graduation in June.
 
"She wanted a princess dress. We went and we looked and looked and looked. I think we spent about five or six hours, and it never materialized. What I liked she didn't like. But she had an opportunity to think about it overnight and the next day her auntie Liz [Todd's wife] went with her. She actually ended up buying the dress I thought would look best on her," he said. "I missed my calling, maybe.
 
"The truth be known, I actually do buy a lot of my wife's clothes. It's not my passion, but she's my wife. I'm a buyer, not a shopper," Lesenko said, He found it at a place he didn't expect. Trying to find a travel bag for Liz, he visited the Oakley store -- and, he said, "They had these big, fluffy, frilly dresses. It looked poofy. It looked good on her. It fit everywhere. What are you going to find better than that?"
 
Despite the fact he has caused Competition Plus to use the words "fluffy," "frilly," and "poofy" in a drag-racing article, Lesenko proved he isn't anybody's "shopping soul sister." He explained his shopping strategy: "It's like a wrench or a screwdriver. Or a hammer -- you buy it, it fits your hand, you hit the nail. It works. Why would you shop for that?"
 
Why, indeed? But Diane Dunn said she would go shopping with Lesenko. "He has good taste," she said. "That dress was breathtaking."
 
FUN WITH DUNN - Todd Lesenko said one of the first things Jim Dunn did after hiring him was give him the team "playbook" and a challenge. "Here," Dunn said. "If you know any secrets, let me know." The driver, an automotive technician by trade, said he deferred to Dunn.
 
"I'm so thankful to be part of the Dunn family racing. I'm learning so much and really understanding the whole aspect of drag racing in the NHRA. They've done it forever," he said. "It was really nice to know there was an open book right from the beginning. And away we went."
 
He said he's well aware that Dunn won't hesitate to set him straight if he needs correcting. And that suits him just fine, he said: "I'm pretty good with constructive criticism. I'm a rookie in the business, and I'm really thankful to have a teacher like Jim."
 
Lesenko, a former bodybuilder who weighs 240 pounds and spent plenty of time in penalty box as a hockey-playing youngster, said Dunn indicated "that I could fight the battles for him." He said, "I'm agile and aggressive and I don't give up. You have to be focused and do what you want to do. It's not a practice round. This is life. You get blessed with one life, and you should do exactly what you want to do."   
 
Already this season he has accomplished a lot of things he wants to do. He qualified for the Winternationals -- with not a single pass in the Tap It Monte Carlo -- and from the final spot he knocked out No. 1 qualifier Robert Hight but lost in the next round. In Friday qualifying, the crew corrected an electrical glitch and Lesenko was 11th overnight, faring better than veterans Hight, Jeff Arend, Tim Wilkerson, Gary Densham, and Cruz Pedregon, among others.
 
"I understand the reality of testing to get the clutch working right and the team working right," the Canadian said. "But if you spend that money and you go out in the first race and you don't qualify, well, it’s a double negative. We are fortunate to not test, qualify, and then move on.    
 
"We're still in our infancy stages," Lesenko said. He said in Saturday's first run, "Jim's trying some different stuff with the clutch. He's going to come up with a combination that's a success for the rest of the year. I'm pretty positive of that." With one more session remaining, Lesenko was 13th on the grid, with Alexis De Joria, Tim Wilkerson, Gary Densham, and Jeff Diehl still trying to make the field.     
WISH YOU WERE HERE, HONEY - Both Matt Hagan and wife Rachel might have been saying that to each other Saturday. It's snowing back at his Christiansburg, Va., home this weekend, while he's in sunny and pleasant Phoenix, where temperatures lingered near 70 degrees.

"It's snowing, raining, still cold -- and it's beautiful out here," the Aaron's Dodge Charger driver said. "I've been out of town all week and been staying at a nice resort down the road here that Aaron's has put us up in. We did a partners deal there."

With a laugh he said, "My wife couldn't make it out, and I've been sending her pictures back home -- and I'm getting hate mail back."

 

TO THE DOGHOUSE YOU GO – John Force, commandeering the headset and microphone from ESPN on Friday, walked over to interview newly-christened low qualifier Johnny Gray.

FORCE: “You ran low. Got anything you want to say?”

Gray, with helmet on, and climbing out of the car offered, “Yeah, that was scary.”

Later, when Gray donned the headset and held the microphone for his interview, he was asked if John Force as the interviewer was the scariest thing he’d experienced.

“Nah, my wife just went through menopause recently. That was without a doubt the scariest thing.”

EUREKA! - Cruz Pedregon and Lee Beard found the right tune-up Saturday for the two-time champion's Snap-on Toyota. Pedregon leaped from 19th place in the order to fourth with a 4.129-second blast early Saturday. It was the first real positive in this young season for Pedregon, who lost a final opportunity to make the Winternationals field because of rain last weekend and opened the year with a DNQ. At the end of Saturday, Pedregon was seventh. He'll line up against Ron Capps in the opening round Sunday.
 
Robert Hight of John Force Racing also got his groove back in the first Saturday session, moving up from 15th place to sixth. Hight ultimately was eighth. Ford colleague Bob Tasca will be his first-round opponent Sunday.     
 
KEEPING IT HUMBLE, IN PERSPECTIVE - A fan at Matt Hagan's rope line in the Don Schumacher Racing pit area teased the reigning champion. "Are you somebody important?" he said with a guffaw. Actually, the way Hagan's season has started out, he might not feel all that important. He qualified in the bottom half of the Winternationals field, at No. 9, and lost to DSR colleague Ron Capps in the opening round, then was 10th here at the end of Friday qualifying -- hardly glorious for a racer who closed last season with a victory and the series championship at Pomona.
 
"I think the motto for us is 'Be humble' this year. We've already had a rocky start to the season. We just have to be humble. We know we have the race car. We know we have the team. And I know I can drive it. But we have to take one step at a time and not kind of float away here. We did some great testing down in West Palm [Beach, Fla.], but we have to make sure we put one foot in front of the other and not get ahead of ourselves."
 
He said he's putting the Winternationals in perspective.
 
"It's a long season and that's just the first of many races we have. We wanted to kick the season off right for Aaron's and Mopar and DieHard. But there's a winner and a loser out here, and sometimes you win 'em and sometimes you lose 'em. We want to win 'em all for our sponsors, and sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. We've got a lot of tough competition out here," Hagan said before Saturday qualifying.
 
"We need to move on up today and get lane choice [for the opening round of Sunday eliminations]. It was key last weekend in Pomona. We need to put some numbers on the board so we can distance ourselves a little bit with a really fast race car," he said. "Sometimes it comes down to a one-lane race track, so it’s important to get [lane choice] in the first place."
 
Hagan could breathe a little easier after Saturday's first and the event's third overall session. He improved seven places, to No. 3 in the day's first opportunity, with a 4.114-second elapsed time. When qualifying ended, Hagan was fourth with an appointment to race Todd Lesenko, who’s hoping to pull off an upset like he did the Sunday before.
 
He said crew chief Tommy DeLago has a lot of ideas he "wants to try along the way," but as for himself, he said, "I'm looking forward to just going and running our race car." 

SIDELINED - Grace Howell (6.645 seconds) and V Gaines (6.666) missed the field. Warren Johnson ended up with the 16th and final spot with a 6.626 seconds in the quarter-mile and will face top qualifier Mike Edwards in Sunday's first round.

LINE TAKES NO. 2 SPOT - Mike Edwards denied Jason Line his second straight No. 1 starting position, grabbing the lead in the third overall session and keeping it. Line, the current points leader and 2011 champion, said he thought he might be able to hold onto his provisional No. 1 but said before Saturday qualifying that "there are a lot of other cars [drivers] that are also still looking to make a good run."
 
So he knew he would have to be on his toes, and he was, with a 6.539, 211.10 in the final qualifying chance. -- which was his quickest of the weekend, quicker than his provisional No. 1 time Friday, and quickest of the round.  However, that was three-thousandths of a second too slow, leaving Edwards at the top of the pack. Line will face four-time Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin, the No. 15 qualifier, in one of the more intriguing first-round match-ups of Sunday's first round of eliminations.
 
Whatever happened Saturday, Line said, "Our primary focus is on race day and getting our first win at Firebird Raceway. We still have some work to do to get the car where we want it to be, but we're learning and fine-tuning it with every run."
 

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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK -

NO WAY! REALLY? - With the fifth-quickest elapsed time in National Hot Rod Association Top Fuel history -- 3.754 seconds at a booming 323.12 mph on the Firebird International Raceway 1,000-foot course -- Shawn Langdon proved he can handle one of the most powerful race cars in all of motorsports.
 
"I was very shocked," the Al-Anabi Dragster driver said after grabbing the provisional No. 1 position as the lead changed hands five times in the evening session at Chandler, Ariz.
 
"I'm not taking anything away from the guys. I wouldn't put it past them to put up a 3.75. I definitely wasn't expecting it. Sitting in the car, I was really thinking, 'Man, if we could go a 3.78, 3.79 right now, I would really think that would be good, put us in a good position for tomorrow, put us in the top part of the qualifying order.'
 
"To see a 3.75, that's just a phenomenal run right there," he said.
 
"I don't think there was much left on that run," Langdon said. "I don't think there was a 3.74 in it. They used up everything they could on there."
 
"I really want my first win," he said, "and with that 3.75, I like my chances."
 
Leading the field overnight for the first time in his young career and simply being an Al-Anabi Racing associate, :Langdon said of his two-race experience so far this season, "It feels phenomenal."
 
He said team manager Alan Johnson and crew chef Brian Husen "make the right calls at the right time.
 
"With everybody running fast -- 3.70s -- to pop off a 3.75 like that is a good feeling. I'm just proud to show off their effort that they put out back in the pits," he said.
 
Langdon called the stunning E.T. "a pretty good number" and said he expects to "be O.K." during Saturday's final two qualifying opportunities. Final eliminations will be Sunday.
 
"I think our main focus right now is to get a consistent race car for Sunday," he said, even after faring no worse than third Friday. "We feel like we've got a competitive car."
 
Tony Schumacher, hoping to improve on his No. 2 status when qualifying resumes Saturday, set the Top Fuel track speed record at 324.44 mph.

DEFINITELY NO STYLE POINTS - He didn’t win any style points. If anything he should have scored highly in degree of difficulty.

Johnny Gray wasn’t figure skating but during Friday’s Funny Car qualifying at the NHRA Arizona Nationals in Phoenix, Az. He was doing his fair share of skating at 290 miles per hour.

Gray drove his Service Central/Big-O Tires Dodge Charger to a 4.074-second pass to claim the provisional top qualifying position, beating out a surprising Jim Head, who led early qualifying. If the run holds it will be his second career Funny Car No. 1.

Unsure of whether the car dropped a cylinder or his skills were diminishing, the surety of the run is that he performed a masterful job of driving to prevent a Firebird Raceway strip down the side of his car.

“It was a good run but the car was in a situation I like to describe as the back tires were griping all the way down,” Gray explained. “It was on the edge and every time I tried to pull it over, it would grip a little harder. You know if you pull on it too hard, you’ll pull the tires loose and they’ll start smoking.”

Gray knew he had a choice.

“You either hold onto it and let it drift or yank on it and get smoke,” Gray surmised. “It’s a judgment call and I drove it as far as I could without scraping the cement. It didn’t quite make the finish line but we were close.”

Gray admittedly drove the car a lot further to the edge than last week in Pomona when he lost in the first round largely due in part to a defective slide valve. Had he pushed on that run like he did Friday night’s run at Firebird he would have, by his own admission, “Lit up like Richard Pryor.”

In case you’re wondering exactly what griping tires mean, Gray describes the experience as a feeling in a driver’s lower back.

“The tires are trying to hold on while also trying to cut loose,” Gray said. “It’s like driving on a gravel road.”

Bringing a smile to Gray’s face is the knowledge there’s more to be had on Saturday if the atmospheric conditions cooperate.

“There’s more in it,” Gray concluded.

HE'LL TAKE IT - NHRA races aren’t won on Friday, but reigning Pro Stock world champion Jason Line is happy about where he stands after day one at the Arizona Nationals.

Line clocked a 6.553-second elapsed time at 211.00 mph to take the provisional pole at Firebird International Raceway.

“It’s good, but it will not stand,” said Line, who recorded the time in Friday’s second session. “Somebody is going to go faster. I think there are several cars that haven’t made the type of runs they are capable of making, including ours. (Saturday) is definitely going to be a little faster. But, it feels great to actually be in the tower. I forgot I have never been up here before. It’s kind of nice. I like to visit all the towers at all the tracks. That means you are having a good day.”

If Line maintains the top qualifying spot, it will be his second career No. 1 qualifying effort at Firebird International Raceway and the 26th of his career.

At the season-opening Winternationals last Sunday, Line also qualified No. 1, but was beat in the semifinals by his Summit Racing Equipment teammate Greg Anderson. Anderson, the 2010 world champ, beat Jeg Coughlin in the finals at the Winternationals.

“This season really is a clean slate, but honestly I probably have more confidence now than I have had in a long time just because of that (winning the world championship). Our team is really functioning well as a group and that gives you a lot of confidence. We have great Hot Rods. We still need to refine things, and Pro Stock is about being precise and we still have a ways to go with that, but we are going the right direction. It feels good.”

The track at Firebird International Raceway was scrutinized in the past because of the race surface’s poor condition, but the track was completely revamped prior to the race there last October and it seems to be holding up.

“The race track itself was not bad, which is definitely a compliment,” Line said. “All in all it was pretty good. A pleasant surprise I guess.”

HEY YOU, MR. 15-TIME, CONCENTRATE - John Force almost slipped back into the no-fly zone during Friday qualifying at the NHRA Arizona Nationals. He was two pairs from making a run during the second qualifying session, and fallen from his eighth spot, down to the 11th.

THOSE REMOTE CONTROL CARS AND FORCE - Feeling a bit frisky after winning the Winternationals last Sunday and qualifying in the top half of the lineup early Friday afternoon, John Force visited the Traxxas display in the Manufacturers Midway at Firebird International Raceway and got into a competition with the demo drivers who show off the JFR sponsor company's radio-controlled Revo trucks.
 
He signed autographs for about 15 minutes, then piped up with what he thought was a grand idea.
 
"Do you think you can jump those trucks over me?" Force challenged the Traxxas representatives entertaining the crowd with ramp-to-ramp jumps.
 
They did, as he stood still. Then the upped the ante after a couple of Traxxas successes: "I'll bet you can't hit my hat," he said.
 
So Force tossed his hat into the air to distract them. Impressed that they could pull it off, he gave his hat to one of the young men.
 
Force didn't let it go, though. He asked, "How heavy are those trucks?" They told him about 19 pounds. He promised to return between Saturday's two scheduled qualifying sessions and try to catch one of the trucks mid-air.
 
"Just don't hurt my hands. I need my hands to drive," Force said.As Funny car after Funny Car improved, Force’s primary concern was daughter Courtney’s run. “Is she in? Is she in?” Force wanted to know as he inquired via the radio.

Dean Antonelli, Force’s crew chief and voice of reason, calmly offered, “If you don’t focus on your own race car, you aren’t going to be in.”

Force cut the chatter and ran a 4.139-second pass at 307.51 miles per hour to jump to the second qualifying position. He ended the day as the fourth quickest.

In the exchange with his crew chief Force was reminded of one reason why the wheels fell off of his hot rod last season. He wasn’t focused.

Good thing for Force he regained his focus because he drove his Mustang to the absolute edge of hanging the rods out the side of the engine and making it to the finish line oil free.

“My old heap … I mean that classy-looking Ford Mustang … it went right down and it started to rattle,” explained Force to ESPN color commentator Mike Dunn via the ESPN3.com broadcast. “I thought, ‘What the heck is going on?”

“So I started to pedal it and it came out of it. I thought, ‘Oh no.’ I went back and it was so quick that I think I caught the bottom of the throttle. I don’t even know if it was opening. Right in the lights I was clenching as if it was gonna blow. Evidently I didn’t and we got away with it.”

Last year Force might not have gotten away with it, quite simply
because he wasn’t focused. He was also racing without a real, honest-to-goodness, deliver the smackdown on the competition quality hot rod.

This season he recognized the difference early.

“You gotta have a hot rod, no matter how hard you try,” Force said. “A driver has to have a hot rod. Like Mike Neff said. It’s 75-percent car.”

On Friday night, it was 100-percent Force.

BETTER THAN JETS? - Announcer Bob Frey described the "MAV TV Missile" and "MAV TV Terminal Velocity" jet cars that ran in the post-Top Fuel session as "like being at Sky Harbor Airport -- without the lost luggage."

STAGE STARS TO VISIT WILKERSON - Ever hear of Buck Hujabre? It's pronounced hoo-ZHA-bear, by the way. You haven't? He's an actor with a role in the musical "Jersey Boys" that's playing at the Paris resort and casino on The Strip at Las Vegas. Hujabre also is an avid drag-racing fan. He grew up in Baton Rouge, La., and as a kid loved attending match races in the area. He has become friends with Tim Wilkerson's public-relations representative Bob Wilber. Hujabre shared with fellow "Jersey Boys" cast members some Wilkerson video from the starting line at Norwalk last year, and the whole cast wants to come out and cheer on Wilkerson and experience a Full Throttle Series drag race in person. So he and his colleagues are planning to be special guests of the Levi, Ray, & Shoup Ford Mustang driver at the March 30-April 1 SummitRacing.com Nationals at Las Vegas.

TAKIN' IT OFF-ROAD - Steve Torrence, owner and driver of the Torrence Family / Capco Construction Dragster, said he's planning to go with his team to California's  Imperial Sand Dunes for some off-road bike riding. The 40-plus-mile long, five-mile wide swath of windblown sands are known as "Glamis" to off-highway vehicle enthusiasts. Torrence knows "Glamis" might not be glamorous. He said, "I've wrecked on mud and dirt and sand -- and it all hurts."
 
Torrence's father, Billy, is competing this week in the Super Comp class this weekend. But the Top Fuel leader said his mother, Kay, is the best driver in the entire family.
 
"If you're not a racer, you're the best driver there is," Torrence said, playfully needling his mom. "Once you got out here and make a pass and make a mistake, you've lost all credibility. She's the best race-car driver ever. She's undefeated." He said Mrs. Kay Torrence "can really give me crap," critiquing his decisions behind the wheel.
 
No doubt she's undefeated in the mothering category, too, for surely she had plenty of compliments her baby was No. 1 qualified for a few minutes Friday -- and No. 3 after Day 1 at Phoenix. 

UP TO SPEED QUICKLY - It didn't take Tony Pedregon and new crew chief Mike Guger long to get the American Racing Chevy Impala entry up to speed. Despite completely retooling the car two and a half weeks before last weekend's Winternationals and making only three hits of the throttle with it before the season opened, they appear to have found the right combination.
 
The tune-up that mimics Cruz Pedregon's Toyota started paying off Friday afternoon, as Tony Pedregon took the early No. 2 spot in the order with a 4.142 that was .035 of a second off Jim Head's afternoon pace.
 
"We were happy to get this thing to start," Guger said of opening-weekend uncertainties. After all, they had gone only about 300 feet each time on a Las Vegas racetrack that wasn't ideal at 60 degrees. Pedregon started 13th at Pomona and lost in the first round to Mike Neff.
 
Ironically, in that first qualifying turn Friday at Firebird International Raceway, Pedregon was .013 quicker than Neff. And Cruz Pedregon was struggling, last among the class' 17 racers that session.  
 
By day's end, Pedregon sat fifth, behind Johnny Gray, Jim Head, Bob Tasca, and John Force.
 
Guger said he stepped in just one month ago and undertook the overhaul that he described as "more or less from Square One. It's beena lot of work." With a bit of a chuckle, he said he hasn't gotten a handle on the inventory yet: "I don't even know what's in the trailer, not sure what all we have yet."
 
Jimmy Walsh, Guger said, has been a huge help, doing "a little bit of everything."
 
Guger said Tony Pedregon, who has worked especially hard in the face of the nation's economic downturn, reamins upbeat every day. "He's a totally glass-half-full guy."
 
With funding from American Racing, radio station KLOVE, STP, Armor All, Sious City Truck and Trailer, Herzog, and Wix, Pedregon plans to run all Full Throttle Drag Racing Series events this season.

WHOLE BUNCH OF TF CAREER BESTS - Kalitta Motorsports driver Dave Grubnic's [pictured] 3.803-second elapsed time at 321.96 mph was the quickest and fastest of his career. With that, he vaulted from the No. 13 position to No. 1 -- until Steve Torrence also turned in a career-best 3.788, 321.19 in the Torrence Family / Capco Contractors Dragster. His status lasted until Tony Schumacher and Shawn Langdon came along and Langdon ended up with the low E.T. of the day. Grubnic will enter the final day of qualifying in fifth place.
 
PEP TALK - Parts Plus Dragster team owner Mark Pickens said Friday just before driver Clay Millican warmed up the engine, "When we walk into our shop in the lobby, there's six world championship trophies and 27 of 51 Ironmen and pictures everywhere. There are championship things everywhere." He was referring to Millican's International Hot Rod dominance in the early 2000s.
 
"I want the guys to come in that front door every day," Pickens said, and see that and remind ourselves that we know how to do this. We just need just need to get out there and do it."
 
Millican paid attention and shortly afterward grabbed the No. 2 spot behind early leader Tony Schumacher. Millican recorded a 3.846-second, 316.60-mph pass, while Schumacher ran one-thousandth-of-a-second quicker at 3.845, with a class-best speed, as well, at 319.37 mph.
 
"It's not like they don't know how to win," Pickens said of Millican and the team, some of whom were with him in the IHRA glory days. "If you don't know how to win, it's kind fo hard to get there. But if you've done it, all you've got to do is get a sniff, and you'll find a way to get there."
 
Asked when he thinks he's finally going to earn that first NHRA victory, Millican -- who has had his share of "sniffs" -- said, "Sunday."
 
PRO STOCK RECORDS - Both ends of the track record fell in Friday's opening qualifying session. Jason Line took the tentative top spot with a 6.556-second elapsed time. Ronnie Humphrey, the No. 3 driver in the first qualifier, had the facility's best speed with a 211.16 mph. (Sandwiched between them was Mike Edwards and his  6.557-second E.T. (one-thousandth of a second behind Line) and 211.13 mph (three-hundredths of a second slower than Humphrey).
 
Line shaved three-thousandths of a second off his track record in the second session, taking a 6.553-second, 210.77-mph best into Saturday's final day of qualifying.
 
"It won't stand," he said. He said he knows many of his rivals haven't yet shown their capabilities.
 
In the right lane, next to Line, Mike Edwards stayed No. 2 overnight and eclipsed Ronnie Humphrey's track record of 211.16 mph from the day's opening session, posting a 211.53 in the second chance.   

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THURSDAY NOTEBOOK - GETTING READY FOR THE RUMBLE IN THE DESERT

JUST SAYIN' - After a semifinal finish as top qualifier at the Winternationals, Geico / Lucas Oil / Toyota Dragster driver Morgan Lucas said, "We have a team that's capable of accomplishing anything out here right now. We'll go to Phoenix, and if we make the right moves, we'll run with anybody."

BEWARE OF HUNGRY DRIVER - Baseball philosopher Leo Durocher said as a manager he wanted "some scratching, diving, hungry ballplayers who come to kill you." That sounds a little rabid, so maybe golf star Lee Trevino spoke Top Fuel competitor Antron Brown's sentiments more correctly: "A hungry dog hunts best." Brown said he is hungry. And he's hunting for a championship -- now, not waiting  the Countdown to start after Labor Day.
 
"My team and I are very hungry," Brown, last week's Winternationals runner-up to Spencer Massey, said. "Don't forget that we came within a round of winning the championship last year. We don't want to leave any stones unturned this time around.
 
"There are a lot of cars capable of being good this year," he said. "It's going to be tough, there's no doubt about that. Last weekend definitely proved that. It's like a horse race. You have the ones who get out of the gate real quick, but then you have the Thoroughbreds who come up and sneak around everyone. That's what it could be like out here."

'ONE OF THE OLD DUDES NOW' - Tony Schumacher, in the U.S. Army Dragster, has three victories at Firebird International Raceway. That ties him with Cory McClenathan and Larry Dixon for the most in the Top Fuel class here. Schumacher is in his 16th season but said, "Man, I didn't realize it's been that long. Even though I competed in only four races, I started way back in 1996. I guess I'm one of the old dudes, now. To be honest, it seems like yesterday when I began my pro career. But I totally enjoy what I do. I love the competition and driving for the U.S. Army."
 
He said his dragster "showed consistency. With the exception of one qualifying pass when we smoked the tires, we got down the track without any issues. It's just a matter of tweaking a couple of things, and then we should be golden."
 
He did say, though, that Firebird International Raceway throws curveballs. "That track can be quite challenging," he said. "We'll have to see what the weather gods deal us."

I'LL MATCH YOU AND RAISE YOU - Steve Torrence advanced to the semifinals the past two times he visited Firebird International Raceway near Phoenix. On the eve of this year's race, which reverted to its familiar No. 2 slot in the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series lineup, the Kilgore, Texas, native and owner-driver of the Torrence Racing/Capco ContractorsDragster expressed his eagerness to match that performance and raise the stakes. "Our car seems to run well there. We'd like to carry on our 'tradition' this weekend," Torrence said, "but we want to win at least one more round." Last week he started ninth and lost to Shawn Langdon, despite clocking his best pass that weekend (3.820 seconds at a career-best 320.28 mph). "I was happy with the car's performance," he said, "and I think we have some momentum going into Phoenix."
 

CAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIGHT? - Despite not qualifying higher than eighth and dropping out of the race in the second round, Shawn Langdon loves his Al-Anabi Racing teammates.
 
"Even though we lost the race, our run in the second round at Pomona (3.791 seconds) was our best of the weekend, and with that run in mind, we're going into Phoenix with high hopes. I think we'll get back on track real quick," Langdon said.
 
"And I have all the confidence in the world in these Al-Anabi guys. They're great, they know they're great, and I'm just glad to be a part of this Al-Anabi team, he said. "I love this Al-Anabi team already. If I were to envision myself ever owning a race team, I would run it the way this Al-Anabi team is run. I have all the confidence in the world in this team. They do an excellent job preparing the car, and I feel 100-percent confident sitting in the car every time with my life on the line. I couldn't ask for anything better.”
 
Langdon said his passes improved all weekend long at Pomona, and he credited his team. "That just shows how good these guys are. They don't go backwards -- they go forward," he said. "Obviously, being the No. 8 qualifier wasn't what we wanted so there was a problem. They found it, addressed it, fixed it and we made one of the quickest runs of the weekend in the second round. Alan [team manager Johnson] and Brian [crew chief Husen] were still confident we could have run a couple hundredths quicker than that if we had another run. We are saving that run for this weekend in Phoenix so we can hopefully start the weekend on a high note and have a better weekend."
 
Like Tony Schumacher and others, Langdon counted the Phoenix track as a bit of a riddle. "It can be really good at times with some big speeds coming out of there. It's one of those tracks where you hope for good weather so you can see some 3.70s."
 

FUNNY CAR
 
LOOK OUT - Class rookie Alexis DeJoria, who races the Tequila Patron Toyota Camry, said, "Our new Camry body is fantastic, and the vision in the car is phenomenal. We just need more time with it. We have some really big expectations."
 
After she lost to eventual winner John Force by a mere two-hundredth of a second (4.14 at 310.27 mph to Force's 4.12, 313.44), she demonstrated that she can come on strong. That was the Kalitta Motorsports team's best pass of the weekend.
 
"It was such a close race," De Joria said of her battle against Force, "but I'm so proud of how well we stuck it out. It would have been nice to make it a little further in eliminations, but I think we proved to the fans that we have a solid team and we'll be one to watch this season. If I had to lose to anyone, I'm glad it was to the person who won the whole event."

ALREADY MAKING MARK - Courtney Force has appeared in Funny Car elimination at just one race, but already the Traxxas Ford Mustang driver has a distinction among her esteemed John Force Racing colleagues past and present. She is only the second of eight JFR Funny Car drivers to win her first-round match-up in a debut event. The first was Gary Densham in 2001. He made it to the semifinal round that year at Houston. The six JFR drivers, including John Force, lost in the first rounds of their first events for the team.
 
"It's an honor to be one of the few drivers at John Force Racing to do well at my first event," she said after beating Bob Tasca at the Winternationals. "It was definitely a team effort. I try to take everything I learn from the previous season and everything that my teammates have taught me, including my sister Ashley [Force Hood], and use that to move forward. I think that making it that far was good for us and the guys. They worked hard for it. With all of them being new and having to work together, I think we all handled it well."
 
She said her first pro event "went a little better than expected. We were going in with very modest attitudes, because all parts of our Traxxas team were new: driver, crew members, car, parts, et cetera. Our main goal in Pomona was to get qualified. We got in the field and were able to get past first round, so it definitely was a good weekend for the Traxxas Ford Mustang team."

MAKING FRIENDS - Reigning Funny Car king Matt Hagan was the champion among the gathered racers at Scottsdale, Ariz., this week. He and Antron Brown, whose dragster also carries Aaron's sponsorship, met their NASCAR Aaron's partners Michael Waltrip and Mark Martin.

Hagan, a cattle farmer from Virginia, said he was eager "to know more about Aaron's from the corporate side." Meanwhile, crew chief Tommy De Lago and the rest of the team stayed in suburban Los Angeles to get the Aaron's Dodge Charger ready for the Arizona Nationals.

Hagan also is eager to get past the first round, after Don Schumacher Racing mate Ron Capps eliminated him in the opening round last Sunday.
 

WELL OKIE-DOKIE, THEN - Jack Beckman clearly felt bad about crossing the center line and inflicting damage on veteran racer Gary Densham's car in Sunday's second round at the Winternationals. His Valvoline / NextGen crew deferred loading up their own car onto the trailer and went to Denham's pit to help fix the front-end damage that occurred because Beckman abruptly cut in front of him.
 
"I asked Gary if there was anything I could do to help," Beckman said, "and he said to stay as far away as possible from him."
 
Beckman laughed about that encounter with his longtime friend. However, Beckman and crew chief Rahn Tobler still are scratching their heads about why the Charger acted unruly.
 
"The only thing we can figure is that some fluid got on one of the rear tires," Beckman said. "No human could have turned the steering wheel so quickly to make that move."

AN EXPLOSION . . . COOL! - The ka-BOOM  Jack Beckman heard the day after his too-close encounter with Gary Densham was not the echo of their cars colliding. The Don Schumacher Racing driver and his Valvoline NextGen Dodger Charger crew hung out with Beckman near his home in Norco, Calif. The gang went to a rock quarry to witness a planned detonation.
 
"It was really cool! And it was free!" Beckman said after the perfect guy-hangout-day. Actually, he seldom gets to visit with his own crew, as they operate most of the time from DSR's Brownsburg, Ind., shop.
 
"It was nice because we were away from the racetrack and didn't have to think about racing," he said. "We were just some guys joking around and watching an explosion." And it was perfectly fine, as long as they weren't participating in any way.

MAKING IT POSITIVE - At first, it might sound like Robert Hight was moping about his less-than-enjoyable weekend at the season-opener at Pomona, Calif. And that would be understandable. But he extracted some positives from the mechanical problems and his early exit, and he talked like a racer ready to take his mulligan and move on.
 
"We didn't get the job done in Pomona," he said. "We got behind the eight ball on Thursday when we broke a blower shaft. Then on Friday we were weak on our tune-up and smoked the tires. We made a great run on Saturday in killer conditions, but the rains came in and we didn't get a fourth run. Then Sunday morning we smoked the tires in the first round and we were done."
 
A preseason favorite to earn a second Funny Car title, Hight is a three-time Winternationals winner who's ready to start building a streak of Firebird International Raceway accomplishments.
 
"The only positive I take away from last weekend was our run on Saturday and the fact that we got two JFR Mustangs into the final round to guarantee we started the season with one of my teammates winning the race. We are 1-2 in the points with John (Force) and Mike (Neff) at the top," Hight said.
 
"I have raced well at Phoenix but never won, and I want to change that this weekend," he said, adding that he and crew chief Jimmy Prock will be prepared with the Auto Club Ford Mustang.
 
Hight is a two-time finalist at Phoenix but hasn't reached the final since back-to-back appearances in 2007 and 2008. If he were to win Arizona Nationals, Hight would keep alive his streak of winning multiple races every year he has raced, going back to his rookie season of 2005. He also has led the standings at least once every year.
 
Moreover, he is eager to qualify for the inaugural Traxxas Nitro Shootout, the $100,000-to-win bonus race at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis. John Force was the first Funny Car driver to secure a spot.
 
"I am not putting pressure on myself or my team, but we definitely want to wrap up a spot in the Traxxas Nitro Shootout sooner rather than later," Hight said. "The first seven drivers to win a race are guaranteed a slot, and trust me, there are way more than seven drivers out here that can win. John got the first slot last weekend, and I want to get my name up there beside his."
 
 
PRO STOCK

NEW CAR ON WAY - For Greg Stanfield, it's T minus two races and counting. The only countdown the Bossier City, La., racer has on his mind right now is the one until his new Jerry Haas-built Camaro arrives. He started this season with the same chassis that took him to the 2010 U.S. Nationals victory and a runner-up finish in the series that year -- and a victor at the 2011 season finale. So the current Nitro Fish/Coffman Tank Trucks Pontiac GXP has earned a rest, and longtime supporter Greg Hill, owner of Indicom Electric, is touting Stanfield as a quiet-off-the-track but powerful candidate for Pro Stock champion.
 
"He needed a new chassis and more horsepower," Hill said. "I think he can run in the top five. Greg is one of the best drivers out there. He can compete with anyone."
 
Stanfield, who is planning to debut the Camaro at the March 30-April 1 Summit Racing Equipment Nationals at Las Vegas.
 
"We are looking forward to getting the new car and getting in some testing as soon as we can," Stanfield said. "We'll just keep working on our old car for the next couple of races.
We have done well at Phoenix. We'll get as much out of our car this weekend as we can."

CAN HE RECAPTURE MAGIC? - A number of racers would have been happy to have qualified No, 7 for last week's Winternationals, but MAV TV racer Pro Stock driver Rodger Brogdon said heading into this weekend's Arizona Nationals at Chandler, "Well, we're going to have to qualify better," Brogdon said. "We left a couple hundredths on the table last week. I'm not saying we can go as fast as (Pomona winner) Greg Anderson and those guys, but when they go 6.53, I should be able to go at least .55, maybe .54. We're going to need a better effort in qualifying." Boosting his confidence is the fact that Firebird International Raceway, just south of Phoenix,  is the site of his first national-event victory -- in 2005, in the Comp Eliminator class.
 
"I like Firebird International Raceway," Brogdon said. "It's been good to me."
 
In that 2005 race, Brogdon led the field and defeated sportsman legend David Rampy in the final.
 
"It was a heck of a weekend," Brogdon said. "We had a lot of trouble and hurt a motor, so we had to change a lot of stuff. But we worked hard and out-ran David Rampy, the best Sportsman racer in history. We out-ran him in the finals, so that made for a pretty rewarding weekend, because he's as tough as they get. I'm glad he doesn't race Pro Stock.
"Maybe we can recreate some of that magic this weekend. That would be something."

UNFINISHED BUSINESS - Mike Edwards has been top qualifier for the past three years at Chandler, Ariz. -- and that bugs him. He's frustrated because only once, in 2010, did he complete his dominance of the field.
The Penhall/K&N/Interstate Batteries driver, who is making his 16th career start here, where he earned the first No. 1 position of his career (in 2001).
 
"The last few years, we've had a great combination for Phoenix and have been able to claim the top spot," Edward said. "But to only have one victory is the difficult side to take, because we knew we had the car to beat and just came up short."
 
He said he won't change anything for qualifying from what he has done in the past three years.
 
"We know we have the correct program for Friday and Saturday in Phoenix, so we have looked at what we have done on Sunday and hope that we can adjust a bit better to the conditions on race day and earn yet another Wally -- and, really, the first one in Arizona," Edwards said, alluding to the fact the Phoenix race wrapped up in Gainesville, Fla, in 2010, because of track conditions at Firebird International Raceway.
 
"We want to come out this weekend and correct that little hiccup and actually win the Arizona Nationals in Arizona, so when we come back in next year, we can honestly feel like we are defending our title," he said.

GOES PHAR, HAS PHUN AT PHOENIX - Allen Johnson has reached at least the semifinals four times in his career at this racetrack. That includes a victory in 2005 and a runner-up finish to Vincent Nobile last October, when this stop was part of the Countdown to the Championship. He has qualified well here, too -- No. 1 in 2008 and sixth or better in each of his last four appearances. With what he has shown so far, he said he feels "like we are about 90 percent of where we need to be right now." The Team Mopar / J&J Dodge Avenger driver from Greeneville, Tenn., has the car that for two years in a row has recorded the quickest unofficial pass in Pro Stock history. At Pomona last week, Johnson was fourth in the order but exited in the second round.
 
“We made some pretty good runs at Pomona in our Mopar Dodge Avenger," he said. "The entire team is working very well together. At Phoenix, we are certainly on the right track and just have to do what we did there last year. We don't have to change anything. If we do what we have been doing, we should be fine. We have a great team in place and the main thing is just letting everyone do their jobs. And that includes me doing my job behind the wheel.
 
"Everyone is so close this year, and it's tougher than ever," Johnson said. "You have to do a great job every time you go down the track. We learned a lot at Pomona that should help us this week. We have a good feel for the track in Phoenix and a good set-up, as well."