by Bobby Bennett, Jerry Bonkowski; Photos by William Swanson, NHRA
FINAL NOTEBOOK -SMOKE > DUST, FAST JACK GOES BLUE COLLAR ON ‘EM, AND JUST WHAT JUSTIN ASHLEY NEEDED – BETTER RT’S
1 – FORGET THE DUST STORM, LOOK OUT FOR THE SMOKE – Route 66 Raceway was enveloped by a dust storm Friday. Two days later, it became a Smoke show.
NASCAR Hall of Famer Tony “Smoke” Stewart continues to have an outstanding start to his second full season in the NHRA Top Fuel ranks, earning his second win in the last three races at the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Peak.
Stewart covered the 1,000-foot drag strip with a winning time of 3.777 seconds at 329.10 mph to Ashley’s effort of 3.818, 324.12. Stewart earned a special silver Wally winner’s trophy, commemorating the 25th NHRA spring race at Route 66. With the win came a major bonus for Stewart: He inherited the NHRA Top Fuel point lead over Shawn Langdon by three points.
Perhaps the biggest surprise of Sunday’s final round was Stewart’s reaction time. Ashley is considered the top leaver in the sport and had a reaction time of .042 seconds. Stewart, who admits he isn’t the best leaver, shocked himself with his own reaction time of .048.
“It’s proof that it can snow in July, I guess, or hell’s freezing over, one or the other,” Stewart said with a laugh.
But like his prior racing exploits in IndyCar, NASCAR, sprint cars, sports cars and pretty much anything that has four wheels, Stewart is very serious about his drag racing exploits – particularly when it comes to racing opponents like Ashley.
“When you race Justin, you’ve got to forget who you’re racing,” Stewart said. “You’ve just got to run your race. As soon as you try to do something different to catch up to him is when you’re going to make a mistake.
“I just need to do my deal the same way that I’ve been doing it the whole way.”
While there were a number of skeptics when Stewart first announced that he was going to go drag racing three years ago – the first year was getting his feet wet in the Top Alcohol Dragster class – he’s clearly muzzled his critics.
“I think finally I get to take myself serious, too,” Stewart said. “After Vegas we said we’re gaining on it and we have been. We’re making progress and here we are.”
But Stewart can also be his own worst critic. It’s been an admitted character flaw he’s had his whole life, even with all the success he’s had. He revels in Sunday’s achievement, but still remains cautious that good can turn bad in a heartbeat.
“It’s hard to not consider yourself a contender at this point,” he said. “I mean, there’s a lot that can happen. There’s a lot of racing left.
“But I’m just extremely proud of our team for the progress we’ve made and where we were a year ago this time and where we are now.”
Stewart is currently the hottest driver in the NHRA Top Fuel ranks, having reached the final round in each of the last four national events and coming away with two wins and two runner-up finishes.
He earned his first Top Fuel victory three races ago at Las Vegas. The Las Vegas win was in a four-wide event, while Sunday’s win at Route 66 was on a traditional two-lane track.
In doing so, Stewart won a trifecta of sorts for the second time: In Las Vegas, he has wins as a driver at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in a NASCAR race, on LVMS’s dirt track, and the NHRA race last month.
Now he’s done the same in Chicago, winning in NASCAR at Chicagoland Speedway across the street from Route 66, as a team owner on CLS’s dirt track, and now as a Top Fuel driver at Route 66.
While Stewart admitted he had to put on his usual tough guy persona in the final, he got emotional after his victory.
First to meet him with a big embrace at the top end of the drag strip was his 87-year-old father Nelson. Then came a congratulatory kiss and hug from wife Leah Pruett and the couple’s newborn son, Dominic.
“I love it,” Stewart said. “I was almost 50 when I got married finally. So, I was late getting married, I’m late having a child, but it was worth the wait.
“I mean, Leah was absolutely worth the wait. I’m very superstitious; I have been my entire racing career. And when we were going rounds at Vegas, I didn’t want to see my son. Like I hadn’t seen him all day. And I’m like, I’m not breaking the string.
“And I went in before the semis (today) and saw him and they said, ‘Hey, don’t get soft seeing your son.’ So I had to stay tough, but it is so cool to share it with my dad, who’s 87 now. And Dominic is six months old today, or yesterday, actually.
“As soon as we can teach him to sleep, he’s going to be awesome. But everything else about him is great. But, God, he can’t sleep worth a shit.”
Stewart reached the finals duel against Ashley by defeating, in order, Terry Totten, Shawn Reed, and four-time Top Fuel champion Steve Torrence.
Meanwhile, Ashley advanced by beating Brittany Force, reigning Top Fuel champion Antron Brown, and Doug Kalitta.
Stewart will go for his third win of the season in the next event, the NHRA New England Nationals, May 30-June 1 in Epping, N.H.
“I’m extremely encouraged about the rest of the season,” Stewart said. “And it’s no guarantee that it’s going to stay this way, but to be six races in the season and leading the points, we’ve got a lot to be proud of.”
2 – BLUE-COLLAR BADASSERY – A lot can happen in a year, just ask Jack Beckman.
This time last year, Beckman attended the NHRA Route 66 Nationals as a spectator and found a comfortable spot on the stadium-style pit-side bleachers.
“I came out to this race last year to see my buddy Chris King drive his nitro Funny Car, and I sat in the grandstands up there and I enjoyed the race,” Beckman admitted. “I had no concept I’d be back sitting inside John Force’s car getting the trophy and seeing you guys from the podium up here. It’s beyond words.”
Beckman, now the full-time driver for John Force’s Peak Chevrolet Camaro, picked up his fourth win for JFR since joining the team last August.
Beckman won an all-John Force Racing final, beating teammate and defending series champion Austin Prock. The former Super Comp champion who graduated to fuel racing in the early part of the 2000s, held .14 at the green, and led all the way to the stripe. He stopped the timers with a 3,935, 325.77, to beat Prock’s quicker and faster 3.933, 329.02. They are 3-3 in head-to-head meetings.
Beckman recalled his exchange with Prock following the run.
“That kid has been the class of the field,” Beckman said. “That young man has such a future here. I’m enjoying my time while I have it. I don’t know how I did it.”
Beckman was quick to point out that Sunday’s victory was squarely for the 623 Old World Industry employee names on the hood of his Funny Car. He can relate to them because after he lost his ride at the end of the 2020 season, he resumed working as an elevator repairman.
On a weekend where Beckman battled dust storms, high winds, a car that refused to start multiple times, and a broken fresh-air hose prior to the final round, he believes this race was as close to blue collar as it gets.
“On Wednesday, we went to Old World Industries to Peak’s headquarters and I got to meet Tom Hurwitz, the owner, for the first time, and he told me why he put his chips on John Force and it was about passion,” Beckman said. “We just talked about having that burning passion that makes you want to work hard and put in the hours there. And all the employees came out, and we put all 623 on the hood of the car – to watch the looks on their faces and to have them take pictures of the car.
“Tuesday, I go back to fixing elevators. I’m going to tell you this, Urban Elevator is cool. My weekend gig with JFR is the greatest that it ever gets. One of my friends in the elevator trade said, ‘You know most of us never get a shot at our dream. You’re getting your second shot at it right now,’ and I’m going to ride this as long as we can.”
3 – IT’S GAIGES HOUSE AND DON’T FORGET IT – Route 66 Raceway is Gaige Herrera’s home track and nobody – even if your name is six-time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Matt Smith – comes into Herrera’s house thinking they’ll steal a win.
A resident of tiny DeMotte, Ind., about an hour from Route 66, Herrera defeated Smith to take the win in Pro Stock Motorcycle in the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals Presented by Peak at Route 66 Raceway.
Herrera is now 6-1 lifetime in final-round battles with Smith. It’s also Herrera’s 23rd career win in NHRA PSM competition, including the last three events at Route 66.
“None of this feels real to me, honestly,” Herrera said. “It’s hard to keep track because there’s been so much in such a short time, so much that I would never have expected. I’m still in awe about this, just living the dream and riding it out.
“Everyone’s chasing me and I grew up watching Matt and Andrew (Hines), all those guys battling it out. So to have my name up there with them is very incredible.”
Herrera took home the commemorative silver Wally winner’s trophy by covering the quarter-mile in 6.777 seconds, 198.90 mph. Smith was faster at 199.02 mph, but was a little slower at 6.805 seconds. The race was over almost from the start as Herrera grabbed the hole shot with a near-perfect reaction time of .005 to Smith’s .024.
“It ain’t too bad for a rental bike, so if anyone rents it, they’ve got a great hot rod,” Herrera laughed.
While Herrera takes on all challengers, he gets up a bit more motivated when he squares off against Smith, particularly in a final round. They’re rivals on-track, but friends off it.
In a way, Smith, the six-time PSM champion, is doing Herrera, the two-time PSM champ, a favor by racing against him.
“Me and Matt always go back and forth and try to do something to get into each other’s heads,” Herrera said. “We push each other to do better. It’s all fun with Matt, he brings out the best in me. Me and him both know we’re on our A game against each other.”
Herrera enjoyed a first-round bye, then took down John Hall and Chris Bostick for the right to face Smith. Smith took down Wesley Wells, Jianna Evaristo, and Steve Johnson.
Although his postrace interview with the media was light-hearted, Herrera’s face grew serious when asked about what makes him and his team so good.
“We’re deadly,” he said of Vance & Hines and all the people that surround him. “It doesn’t matter what bike we got, we figure it out and it’s going to go to the top.
“Andrew (Hines and) me are a deadly combo. I mean the whole Vance & Hines crew, the guys back at the shop, it’s a whole deadly operation. And it showed today, it showed this weekend.
“We rolled out a bike that we thought was messed up, and it goes out there and goes No. 1 and wins the race. So it just goes to show we got some fast hot rods, and it’s not just one.”
4 – REDEMPTION FOR WRIGHT – Mason Wright celebrated his first victory of the season at the Congruity NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series, defeating J.R. Gray in the final round at Route 66 Raceway. This win comes two years after he crashed at Route 66 Raceway.
Wright earned his second career win in NHRA Pro Mod when Gray went red in the final. Wright posted a solid run of 5.734, 251.25, in his Chevrolet Camaro after qualifying No. 1 with a time of 5.676, 253.66.
His consistent performance throughout eliminations helped secure the win, as he took down competitors Chip King, Mike Stavrinos, and Ken Quartuccio, all while maintaining times in the low 5.70s.
“You can’t take any of these teams lightly. The team carried me the whole way today,” said Wright, who moved to fifth in the standings.
Gray reached the final round for the second time this season after defeating Derek Menholt, Billy Banaka, and Kevin Rivenbark. With his performance this weekend, Gray vaulted to the points lead, with teammate Stavrinos in second and Rickie Smith in third.
The Congruity NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series returns June 6-8 during the Super Grip NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol (Tenn.) Dragway.
5 – THE WIND MAKES A DIFFERENCE IN QUALIFYING, ELIMINATIONS – They call Chicago “the Windy City.” Given that Joliet, Ill. is a Chi-town suburb, 40 miles away from the big city’s downtown area, it’s not surprising that wind is also an atmospheric condition that can create havoc at times.
Like this weekend’s NHRA race at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet. The track has been open since 1998 and has seen a lot of different – and sometimes even crazy – things, but nothing like what was witnessed during Friday’s first two qualifying runs of the weekend.
On Friday, the Joliet area was overwhelmed by crosswinds that gusted as high as 25 mph, significantly impacting drivers in all major classes in attendance at the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 Route 66 NHRA Nationals.
The class that was most affected Friday was Pro Stock Motorcycle. Crosswinds were so bad that out of a degree of caution, NHRA decided to limit the bikes to just one qualifying round Friday, but made up for it with three shots Saturday. As if the 25-mph gusts weren’t enough Friday, the area was enveloped in a massive dust storm, which according to some reports hasn’t been seen in these parts since the 1930s.
Fortunately, Saturday’s conditions were much better. Wind at about 15 mph was still a concern, but unlike Friday’s crosswinds, Saturday’s gusts were a tailwind, being an advantage to pretty much every driver out there, lowering times and boosting speeds to several Route 66 track records.
The wind was “definitely in your head,” Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon told CompetitionPlus.com. “It’s not bad when it’s open the whole way and it’s just a constant wind.
“Where it gets difficult at certain tracks, and this being one of them, is where if it’s a solid crosswind and then you have grandstands that block it to where it opens up, because then it’s just from zero to a 30-mph gust like that.
“It’ll kind of feel like driving a motorhome down the freeway. It’s going to move you around a little bit. You feel it. But it’s more of just you react to it, and then in the shutdown area is where all your thoughts come in like, ‘Oh, man!’
“It’s definitely something that you consider, you think about. For me, I’m always in the water box and one of the last things I do before we fire up is I look at the flags just to double check and see the direction” of the wind.
With Funny Cars having unique aerodynamics, John Force Racing driver Jack Beckman said Friday’s crosswinds became a major concern because those vehicles are as susceptible to crosswinds as Pro Stock Motorcycle riders.
“If you’re at the starting line looking downtrack, the wind was blowing significantly from right to left,” Beckman said. “That flag’s 30 feet off the ground. It was standing straight up and then some.
“But we don’t run 30 feet off the ground so you don’t know if the wind’s going to be that intense down low, and there’s never a run I’ve made in nitro Funny Car where I’m like, ‘I’ll just hold the wheel with a couple fingers here, or I can look in the stands.’
“The rough one for me was Q2 Friday afternoon. There was so much dust on the track, we backed the tune-up way down. This thing was loud inside the car and it was moving around but it wasn’t ET-ing great. I think we ran a four flat on that run, but that’s about all the track had to give out there on that run. So, wind is something that we don’t have control over, but there’s a steering wheel in the car for a reason.”
Top Fuel driver Doug Kalitta pointed out how different the conditions were from Friday to Saturday.
“I think it was about as weird as you can get as far as the differences,” Kalitta said. “I don’t think I’ve ever been to a place that actually had a sandstorm next to the track when the last two cars were going down it.”
Kalitta followed Funny Cars in Q2 on Friday and noted how Ron Capps, who ran just before him, struggled to hold on to his car because of the strong crosswinds.
“Well, Q1 people were asking me if the wind affected me and I said, ‘We didn’t get far enough for the wind to affect me.’ I was just like an idiot out there all over the lane. Capps was in the left lane and got up against the wall. I don’t know if it was because of the wind or what have you, but sitting in the car, I couldn’t tell.
“Funny Cars are definitely entertaining. They keep you on your toes as a driver, and they never do the same thing twice. Then you add in these wind gusts and just makes it that much more challenging. But it was definitely a ride.”
Kalitta rocketed to the top of the qualifying ladder Friday, so while the wind concerned him, it really didn’t affect his dragster.
“I told myself I’m not going to let this thing get left once we get past the grandstands and cost myself the run because of that,” Kalitta said. “So as it’s going, I start putting some wheel input to the right, maybe a little too much, because once I got over there I’m like, “Oh,” then I had to correct it back to the left and back to the right. But I held on.”
6 – THE NEW MATT HAGAN APPROACH – When team owner Tony Stewart decided to make a change on Matt Hagan’s Funny Car after last season, it was a total shock.
Stewart released crew chief/tuner Dickie Venables, who had been a major part of Hagan’s success for the last several years, including leading Hagan to three wins and three runner-up finishes en route to a runner-up finish in the 2024 Funny Car standings.
Even with the success Hagan had last season, two things appeared to have been the basis for Stewart parting ways with Venables. First, obviously, was losing the NHRA Funny Car championship to John Force Racing’s Austin Prock, and second, there was inconsistency in the performance of Hagan’s car, which was deemed unacceptable.
While Venables promptly landed on his feet, taking over tuning duties for Kalitta Motorsports’ J.R. Todd, Stewart hired Mike Knudsen to fill the vacancy.
“Dickie always had so much experience,” Hagan said. “He’s seen so many race cars and racetracks and different things, so you never really got to throw your two cents in there, you know what I mean?
“And so when it’s watching that new plant grow, man, it’s just one of those things where it’s exciting because he’s excited and it’s something new. It’s nothing to take away from Dickie by any means, but when you have new blood in there, it’s kind of like, man, you see a guy that just gets the opportunity – and opportunities out here are very few and far between.
“I’m proud of Tony that he allowed it to happen. And Dickie’s doing great over there (at Kalitta Motorsports). … I didn’t think that the change was going to hurt Dickie in any way, shape, or form, but you have to take a real gamble with a new guy.”
Through the first six races of the 2025 NHRA schedule, Hagan and Knudsen are starting to jell, but there is a definite difference in tuner styles. To use baseball parlance, while Venables tuned Hagan’s car to go for a home run almost every time he stepped up to the plate, Knudsen’s philosophy is more about not swinging for the fences, but to go for extra bases in an attempt to improve consistency.
“Yeah, Mike’s mentality is to go down the racetrack,” Hagan said of Knutson. “I don’t think he’s going to be the next Jimmy Prock or anything like that. He’s like, ‘Hey, man, let’s go down the racetrack. Let’s give ourselves a shot here.’
“His first thing on Fridays is go down and then kind of swing for the fence Friday night. And it’s kind of bit us a little bit here in this earlier deal because a lot of times we’ll go down on Friday and we’re middle of the pack and then we miss it on Saturday.”
Since making his NHRA debut at the 2008 U.S. Nationals, Hagan has become one of the most dominant drivers in the Funny Car class. In addition to four NHRA Funny Car championships, the Christiansburg, Va., resident has amassed 54 career wins (44 in Funny Car), 93 career final rounds, 52 No. 1 qualifiers and has failed to qualify only four times in 362 races.
In Sunday’s race, Hagan’s season-long consistency got him to the semifinals, where he fell to eventual runner-up Austin Prock.
7 – AS IF HE NEEDED ANY MORE OF A STARTING-LINE EDGE – Justin Ashley, who has one of the best career reaction-time averages in Top Fuel history, felt there was room for improvement in his reaction times. The driver who allegedly beat Nostradomus on a holeshot wanted to be even brutal on the starting line.
“It was a pretty simple change,” Ashley explained. “I think everyone is different and everyone has their own driving style. For me, whether I’m driving the Top Fuel dragster or my Toyota 4Runner at home, I just prefer to be a little bit closer up to the pedals and the wheels, so all we did, we left the pedal angle the same, but we just moved it about a half-inch closer, which just makes it a lot more comfortable for me. I like the knee-bend aspect of it. I’m getting a little bit more there.”
Ashley said he wasn’t sure if the change has made a difference, but he is more comfortable in the cockpit.
“Mike (Green), Tommy (DeLago) and the team, they’re great with making any adjustments that I want to make, so thanks to them for doing that and yeah, so far so good,” he said.
8 – AN INTERESTING FUNNY CAR SECOND ROUND – At first glance, the second round appeared to be a Murderers Row, with each match promising a-race-to-end-all-races.
The first pair featured No. 1 qualifier Jack Beckman against Chad Green, who one round earlier had run low elapsed time of the event with a 3.866. Inexplicably, Green left .360 too early to hand the victory to Beckman, who battled his own issues.
Next was a match between the drivers atop the standings heading into the event. Paul Lee left .006 before the green and Prock advanced and held on to his lead.
That meant two red lights in one round Sunday – and there had been only two in the first five races of the season in the Funny Car ranks.
9 – LONG-TIME FOR A WIN – Veteran Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Geno Scali brought out his old bike and snagged a first-round win against Angie Smith. Said Scali, “a bike that was 20-something years old with the same bottom end.”
Scali met up with Chris Bostick, who had beaten Kelly Klontz to score his first round win since October 2023 in Dallas.
“I gotta thank Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior first,” Bostick said. “I can’t believe it’s been this long since we won a round.”
Bostick didn’t have to wait nearly as long for his next win, as he stopped Scali to earn his first semifinals berth, winning 6.901 to 7.024.
10 – DRAG RACING PEOPLE SAY THE DARNDEST THINGS – “He left so early that he saw the future.” – NHRA announcer David Freiburger on Chad Green’s -.360 red-light against Jack Beckman.
“Drag racing is a lot harder than people think.” – Tony Stewart. after beating Steve Torrence to reach his fourth consecutive Top Fuel final round.
“You get kicked so many times in the groin and you finally realize it hurts.” – Cruz Pedregon on his team’s issues with a clutch program that hampered his program early this season.
“He’d been driving pretty good, and he asked if we could make a little change in the cockpit to the throttle pedal and stuff. So we did that from the last race to this race and … huh. Seems to be working pretty good.” – Crew chief Mike Green, after driver Justin Ashley beat Brittany Force to the finish line – but it was the .018 to .047 reaction-time battle that got everyone’s attention.
“We just had to kick some Canadian butt … just kidding. We just gave them a tariff, and we got that win-light.” – Shawn Reed’s crew chief Rob Wendland, after the team beat Canadian Dan Mercier in the first round of Top Fuel.
“I get to cut my hair now, I won a round.” – Reed after beating Mercier.
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK – KALITTA DOMINATES SATURDAY’S RACING, BECKMAN TOPS FUNNY CARS, MORE U.S. 30 MEMORIES
1 – #2FAST2TASTY KALITTA HEADLINES TOP FUEL PORTION OF SPECIALTY RACE – The NHRA and Mission Foods ought to just change the name because once again, a Kalitta Motorsports Top Fuel driver has captured the special race within a race held during Saturdays at national events.
On Saturday at Route 66 Raceway, Shawn Langdon picked up his third #2Fast2Tasty title this season, beating motorsports icon Tony Stewart.
“It’s just being a part of a great team, honestly,” Langdon said. Team owner Connie Kalitta, he added, “sets the way for us and gives us all the resources and gives us everything that we feel like we need to have to be competitive out there. And then, you have (General Manager) Chad Head that sets everything up and navigates through keeping budgets right and keeping the sponsors happy, and then having great sponsors that give us the proper amount of money to be able to go spend to buy all the right good equipment, and Brian Husen on my team and Alan Johnson on Doug’s team, and then them just putting together great teams with a great crew.
“We have, across the board between the two teams, I feel like we have, hands down, one of the best crews out there. These guys are flawless, don’t make mistakes. Great team chemistry. Just a great group of guys. And, obviously, winning fixes a lot, and winning solves a lot of problems. But regardless, we have a great group and we have a great foundation at Kalitta Motorsports.”
In the Funny Car portion of the special event, Matt Hagan scored his first win since Matt Knudsen took over as crew chief on his Dodge Funny Car. He beat former teammate Ron Capps in the final round.
“What a great race,” Hagan said. “I could hear him over there, just couldn’t see him. I love Ron Capps. Capps, me and him go way back (close to 20 years), and it’s one of those things where I went over and talked to him when he’s putting his stuff away and he’s like, ‘Hey, we got to do this more often.’ I was like, ‘Absolutely, man.’
“Got lots of love for him and that team and him being the team owner over there and just seeing him excel and all the things that he’s been so driven to do out here in NHRA.”
Hagan pointed out Knudsen has won before while filling the role as crew chief, although he wasn’t officially named to the role. Apparently another team had made a push for him, as Tony Stewart Racing named him as the chief tuner.
“It’s one of those things where Mike Knudsen decided he was going to be a crew chief, whether it was going to be here, or there, or somewhere else,” Hagan explained. “We, as a group, collectively kind of tried to push Tony (Stewart) in the direction of, ‘Hey, we need to let this young gun have a shot.’
“Tony is a good leader because he sat down and listened to everybody. We haven’t won a (national event) yet (with him), but we kind of have. I mean, I’ve won three races with Mike and nobody knows about it. We won Dallas and he was tuning the car last year, and then Dickie was sick two times and we won both of those times when he was sick. So we’ve got some history a little bit, but we need to get that one in the books where Mike’s making all the shots and doing all the things, but our morale, our group of guys that are coming in, they’re just happy to be there.”
Two-time reigning NHRA champion Gaige Herrera won the Pro Stock Motorcycle portion of the challenge and also took the top qualifying spot with his Q3 showdown with Charlotte winner Matt Smith.
2 – TRUTH IN ADVERTISING – There is truth in advertising – at least in “Fast” Jack Beckman’s case.
Beckman, in the Q3 session, posted a shot of 3.859 seconds, 332.75 mph, to blast to the top qualifying spot, which held even when his car wouldn’t fire for the Q4 session. Running that quick and fast on Route 66 Raceway came as a pleasant surprise for the multi-time NHRA champion.
“You’ve got to go back to yesterday and remember Chicago doesn’t get run on,” Beckman explained. “This is the only track that gets nothing. Even Pomona gets two races a year, and without Pro Stock, that was extra pro tires that weren’t going down the racetrack this week. And so everybody’s had to reel the cars back yesterday, and then today happens and the track temperature goes down 20-something degrees. We still can’t treat it like a Chicago night session five years ago when this track was used year-round there.”
Beckman said his team went deep in the team’s logbook for the right tune-up headed into Saturday qualifying.
“You got Cunningham, Fabrizi, and Hood, and they just start looking at runs like, ‘Okay, it looks like it’s this weather conditions, it looks like it’s this track conditions, here’s what we’re going to put in it,’” Beckman explained. “Let’s go out. And it does exactly what they said it was going to do. As a driver, that is so awesome when they call their shot and the car goes and posts that number on the board.”
It is much to the chagrin of the personable Beckman when it doesn’t work right and the car won’t start.
“I don’t want to speculate,” Beckman said. “We got a mag switch right here. So, our procedure is we’ll tow up to the starting line. Fuels off. They’ll windmill the car with the mags grounded out with physical wires on the coils and the switch off. And then once we get the call to run, I’ll turn the ignition on. It arms a little MSD box there and they’ll squirt it with gas in the injector to prime it, spin it over, pull one coil, pull the other coil wire.
“When you look at the faces in there, when nothing happened and Tim Fabrizi kept cranking it. Danny Hood sprayed some more in once he was sure it wasn’t flooded, and maybe it needed more and nothing happened, we stopped. I shut the ignition off. (Bob) Tasca had already done his burnout. We still had time. We windmilled it over again with the mags grounded out and went through it all again and nothing. They’ll go back there. I don’t know if it’s going to be a battery pack or something failed. Well, it’s an electronic issue in there. We had no ignition and I’m going to look at the silver lining part. There’s no point in throwing helmets. If that would’ve happened tomorrow, you’re done.”
Sunday’s first-round Funny Car pairings:
1. Jack Beckman vs. 16. Dave Richards
2. Paul Lee vs. 15. Buddy Hull
3. Matt Hagan vs. 14. Blake Alexander
4. J.R. Todd vs. 13. Cruz Pedregon
5. Bob Tasca III vs. 12. Daniel Wilkerson
6. Ron Capps. vs. 11. Alexis DeJoria
7. Austin Prock vs. 10. Bobby Bode
8. Chad Green vs. 9. Spencer Hyde
3 – KALITTA STEPS UP ON SATURDAY – Doug Kalitta will be the man to beat in Top Fuel in Sunday’s eliminations of the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Peak at Route 66 Raceway.
Kalitta will face No. 16 qualifier Lex Joon in Sunday’s first round. Joon came into Saturday’s final qualified 17th in the field, but his solo pass was enough to put him in the final 16-driver field for Sunday, knocking Will Smith out of the show.
“Yeah, mostly just the track being cooler and being able to really get after the car,” Kalitta said about Saturday’s two final rounds of qualifying. “And everybody else has definitely stepped up today as well. I think Tony (Stewart) was right behind us with a .67, I think.”
Route 66 is known for super-tight fields, and this weekend’s Top Fuel qualifying lived up to the track’s reputation.
“Everybody’s real tight here,” Kalitta said. “The track (has) come in good. … You know how it is out here, but now it’s so far, so good.
“We’ve been doing good on Saturdays and qualifying good. I’m definitely focused for tomorrow and just trying to go as many rounds as we can, hopefully get to the final and have a shot at an opportunity to win this thing. That’s where we’re at.”
Kalitta and teammate Shawn Langdon, who will start No. 3 Sunday, have dominated the #2Fast2Tasty Top Fuel specialty race-within-a-race thus far this season. Of the five #2Fast2Tasty races that have been contested this season, Langdon has won three (including Saturday) and Kalitta has won two.
“Connie (team owner Connie Kalitta and Doug’s uncle) has always given us everything we need and he’s hardcore, he’s a hardcore drag racer,” Doug Kalitta said. “So obviously with his support and Chad Head (Kalitta Motorsports general manager), he’s worked tirelessly at everything about all the fine details of what we’re doing and including the people that are tuning our cars.
“We’ve assembled a hell of a crew, (consultant) Alan Johnson and then Brian (crew chief Brian Husen) over there tuning Shawn’s car, that has proven to be a good deal. And then getting Mack Savage back, I started with Mack for years, years ago … just all the people and obviously the support from all our sponsors.
“Out here it’s just an incredible team effort and the sponsors and everything else that it takes to be able to afford these things and do what we do. So it’s just a big team effort.”
Sunday’s first-round Top Fuel pairings:
Doug Kalitta vs. 16 Lex Joon
Tony Stewart vs. 15 Terry Totten
Shawn Langdon vs. 14 Kyle Wurtzel
Antron Brown vs. 13 TJ Zizzo
Justin Ashley vs. 12 Brittany Force
Steve Torrence vs. 11 Spencer Massey
Shawn Reed vs. 10 Dan Mercier
Josh Hart vs. 9 Clay Millican
4 – EVEN WHEN THE CONDITIONS BLOW, HERRERA PROSPERS – NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Gaige Herrera endured Friday’s 20-mph-plus wind gusts, a dust storm and only one qualifying session due to the conditions, qualifying a very uncharacteristic 14th.
But Saturday was a totally different story for the two-time defending PSM champion.
Herrara and his RevZilla/Mission/Vance & Hines Suzuki roared back through the field to pass Angie Smith, Friday’s provisional No. 1 qualifier, to take the top spot heading into Sunday’s first round of eliminations in the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Peak at Route 66 Raceway.
Being the top qualifier, Herrera will have a solo bye run in Sunday’s first round, as PSM does not have a full 16-rider field – there are only 15 riders in the class for this weekend’s event.
“It’s been a crazy weekend here in Chicago with the weather and everything … but NHRA and everybody worked their butts off and we were able to get four qualifiers (rounds),” Herrera said after Saturday’s events.
It’s not the first time that Herrera has come from that far behind in early qualifying to take the No. 1 spot. He mentioned two races in Charlotte where he was the 16th qualifier one day and rose to No. 1 the next.
“I wasn’t too upset about it,” Herrera said. “It basically just gave me the data I needed to move forward. That’s why I was able to come out today and basically run very consistent, nice, straight passes.
“You never want to start at the bottom of the sheet, but as long as you know what happened and what caused it, you can always move forward, and it gives you that more confidence going into the next day.”
In addition to earning his third No. 1 qualifier in as many races this year, Herrera had a bonus Saturday, winning the #2Fast2Tasty PSM battle over Matt Smith. They are now tied after the two #2Fast2Tasty races for PSM this season.
There was also a bit of local pride for Herrera. He’s a resident of tiny DeMotte, Indiana, about an hour from Route 66 Raceway, which he considers his home track.
“We don’t get to race here as much as we’d like,” Herrera said. “This is a beautiful facility. … The surface is very good here, it’s almost better than most that we run on.”
He’s hoping the home-field advantage, so to speak, helps him deliver another win Sunday.
“All in all, the bike and me were very consistent running,” Herrera said about Saturday’s three qualifying rounds. “I think I ran .71, .72 and .73, so you can’t be mad about that. We’ve got a lot of momentum going into tomorrow for race day.”
Sunday’s first-round Pro Stock Motorcycle pairings:
Gaige Herrera, bye
Matt Smith vs. 15. Wesley Wells
Richard Gadson vs. 14. Lance Bonham
Angie Smith vs. 13. Geno Scali
Kelly Clontz vs. 12. Chris Bostick
Ryan Oehler vs. 11. Steve Johnson
Jianna Evaristo vs. 10. Chase Van Sant
Mark Ingwersen vs. 9. John Hall
5 – SMOKIN: STEWART GETS HIS PERSONAL BEST – It’s a safe bet to assume Tony Stewart likes his cool-weather tune-up on his Top Fuel dragster.
Stewart not only recorded his personal best with a 3.679, 332.43, but also won the first round of the #2Fast2Tasty Challenge over Antron Brown.
“That’s definitely the fastest we’ve been able to run,” Stewart said. “The Safety Safari has done a great job with the track, the weather has thrown some curveballs. Yesterday was windy and dusty, today it’s cool and got a lot of grip. We can put up a lot of big numbers today.”
6 – LEE CONTINUES HIS STREAK – Funny Car racer Paul Lee has continued his strength-in-numbers tour, and this weekend’s was probably the hardest fought of the six races this season. Despite battling a severe case of the flu, Lee ran a 3.866 in the Q4 session to end up second headed into Sunday.
Thus far this season, Lee’s McLeod Funny Car has two No. 1 qualifiers, now two No. 2s, a fourth and a fifth.
7 – FLAPJACKS, NITRO STYLE – If NHRA Top Fuel driver TJ Zizzo ever decides to make a career change, he has a great future in being a pancake chef.
Okay, that may be making light of something that is a serious effort for the Lincolnshire, Ill. resident, owner and driver of the Rust-Oleum Top Fuel dragster team.
Early Saturday morning, before the second day of qualifying for the Gerber Collision & Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals, Zizzo donned his apron, fired up his grill and – along with a dozen helpers – began making over 1,000 pancakes. Zizzo invited all fans, fellow drivers, NHRA officials – basically anyone who was hungry and on the grounds at Route 66 Raceway – to enjoy the free pancake breakfast.
Known as “TJ Zizzo’s Nitro Cakes Breakfast,” he has made the feed a tradition at Route 66 Raceway, his home track. In fact, Zizzo has been making pancakes for anyone with a great appetite for both drag racing and pancakes at Route 66 for the past 12 years.
“Twelve years I’ve been doing this and loving every second of it,” Zizzo said with a broad smile.
When asked what inspires him to continue the delicious event every year, Zizzo, who is in his 34th year of drag racing, said it was his way of giving back to the NHRA community.
“The fans, that’s the only thing that inspires me,” he said. “I do this because I love the fans and I love the sport.
“Originally, I did it for the media and I said, ‘You know what? Fans are as important, if not more important, than the media.’ That’s why I do it.”
It’s not like Zizzo can go to the local grocery, buy a couple of pancake boxes, some butter and bottles of syrup and start cooking.
On the contrary. His pancake tradition takes several weeks of planning and preparation. Zizzo and his team of helpers get to the track before daylight; light the grills; make sure the plates, cutlery and napkins are put into place; bottles of syrup are available… and then, a long line of hungry folks start to form before the 7:30 a.m. opening of Chez TJ.
Zizzo gave credit to all his friends and employees who have helped his pancake initiative over the years – and helped him become a better pancake maker, as well.
He said his pancake-making skills have “improved because I’ve had so many people wanting to help and they do a way better job than I do. Now I just serve them. I used to make them and all that stuff, and now I just serve them.”
While he doesn’t know how many pounds of pancake batter he went through Saturday morning, Zizzo does know one very important statistic that shows how popular the annual event has become.
“Pounds? I don’t know about pounds – but we served over a thousand today. A thousand pancakes,” Zizzo boasted. “It’s a lot of pounds.”
8 – THE CHICAGO FUNNY CAR KID SHOWS OFF – When second-generation Funny Car driver Bobby Bode accepted the invitation from two-time NHRA world champion Del Worsham, he knew not only was he getting in a car capable of winning, but he would also receive valuable lessons along the way.
Friday, amid challenging weather conditions, Bode drove to the provisional No. 1 qualifying position. The run didn’t hold but the experience was plenty enough for him.
It also enabled Bode, a Chicago-area driver, to show off his Worsham tutelage.
“It feels really good,” Bode said. “We’ve never been No. 1 after a session. So, for a team like us, it’s pretty incredible. But I don’t want to say what just happened, that’s what I call when preparation meets execution.”
Bode considers the preparation-meeting-opportunity one of those Worsham lessons.
“Some of this wouldn’t happen without Del,” Bode admitted. “He’s helped not just me as a driver, but all the maintenance and working on the car. He’s helped so much. So yeah. He actually texted me right after and he said, ‘Dang, Bobby. Nice job.’ That was pretty cool.”
The lessons keep piling up, whether he’s driving Worsham’s Funny Car or the family’s, and as Bode sees it, being a sponge is in his best interests.
“When I got to race with Del, I always learned something new,” Bode said. “He has so much knowledge. And just hanging around someone like that, you’re bound to get smarter. So he helped me a lot with just how the car goes together, little stuff and the clutch and fuel and everything, it’s turned out pretty good for me.”
9 – BRING ON THE FIXERS – Cruz Pedregon unveiled his new “Makers and Fixers” paint scheme on Friday. The new scheme featured images of essential workers, encouraging fans and crew members to share their stories.
Those who were in attendance certainly had a story to tell after the Q2 session when an engine explosion caused a fireball and split the Dodge Charger carbon fiber body in two.
10 – SCARY MOMENT IN SUPER STOCK – Veteran Super Stock racer Larry Hodge lost control of his car in the third round of eliminations Saturday and struck the retaining wall before the car flipped on its roof and slid to a stop. He was alert and exited the car on his own power. Hodge was examined onsite by NHRA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Surface before being released.
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – J.R. TODD TRUSTS THE PROCESS EN ROUTE TO CHICAGO PROVISIONAL; THE WINDY CITY LIVES UP TO ITS NAME
1 – TRUST THE PROCESS – On a windy Friday in Joliet, Ill., J.R. Todd rode to his first provisional No. 1 of the season, and the first since Dickie Venables took over as his crew chief.
Todd’s 3.982 elapsed time at 326.71 miles per hour didn’t come in the most optimal conditions, but the fact that it came was welcomed, and gave him more confidence to trust the process.
“This year, trusting the process was not as tough as it has been in the past,” Todd said. “I don’t want to say that we didn’t have hope in years past. It’s just, it’s like, ‘Man, what are we going to do to turn things around?’
“Where now we made a change, we brought Dickie in and he made a lot of changes on the car that we hadn’t run in the past. So I told myself, ‘It’s going to take some time to get this dialed in.’”
There were other differences in the combination Venables brought in that had to be compensated for, such as Todd’s weight differences from his tuner’s previous driver, Matt Hagan.
“People don’t think that makes a difference, but it does when you’re the crew chief,” Todd added. “I mean, that’s above my pay grade, but what he’s going through and having to figure out is, I told myself it might take half the season; it might take all season. We hope it doesn’t, but it may. But I think that there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”
Todd is trusting the process this season, but he definitely threw in his driving expertise to nudge it along on a day where drivers faced a crosswind upward of 28 miles per hour.
“People were asking me if the wind affected me, and I said, ‘We didn’t get far enough for the wind to affect me.’ I was just like an idiot out there all over the lane.
“(In Q2), the pair in front of us, Capps, he was in the left lane and got up against the wall,” Todd said. “I don’t know if it was because of the wind or what have you, but sitting in the car, I couldn’t tell. So I told myself, ‘I’m not going to let this thing get left once we get past the grandstands and cost myself the run because of that.’
“As it’s going, I start putting some wheel input to the right – maybe a little too much, because once I got over there, I’m like, ‘Oh,’ then I got to correct it back to the left and back to the right, but held on.
“Funny Cars are definitely entertaining. They keep you on your toes as a driver, and they never do the same thing twice. And then you add in these wind gusts and it just makes it that much more challenging. But it was definitely a ride. And I didn’t expect that to hold up, but with this wind, it’s making it tricky with the track conditions. The glue kind of dries out. But it’s the same for everybody.”
2 – KALITTA TOPS THE TOP FUEL FIELD – Remember the theme song from the movie Ghostbusters, where Ray Parker Jr. bravely proclaims “I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghosts!”
On Friday at the Gerber Collision and Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals, no one could’ve blamed Doug Kalitta if he said or thought to himself, “I ain’t ‘fraid of no gusts!”
In spite of a nearly 20-mph crosswind that pushed across the drag strip near the finish line, Kalitta bravely piloted his dragster through the wind and an unusual dust storm that would affect some other classes. Pro Stock Motorcycle, for example, had its second qualifying session scrubbed by NHRA officials due to unsafe conditions.
The former Top Fuel champion went 3.788 at 326.24 mph in the second round of qualifying to take the top spot.
If Kalitta’s time holds up in Saturday’s final two rounds of qualifying, it would give him four No. 1 qualifying spots in this season’s first six races, and also his third consecutive No. 1. In the two races that Kalitta didn’t end up No. 1, he hasn’t qualified lower than fourth.
“That was definitely interesting,” Kalitta said, of the wind and dust. “There was a big dust cloud off to the side, but thankfully it stayed off the track until we were done. It was definitely blowing pretty good. The car left good and it actually felt like it might shake the tires, but it didn’t. It made a solid run.
“When I got down track I was definitely getting pulled to the left and steering, just trying to pull the thing back to the right. So normally you don’t really feel that with my car, but on that run it was pretty much a direct crosswind. The bikes, everybody out here is just hanging on trying to get these things down there, but I’d have to hand it to the bike guys. I mean, they have probably got the award for today being able to run down through it with those things.”
Weather conditions for Saturday will likely be about 15 degrees cooler, and wind should not be an impediment the way it was Friday.
“I know it will be different tomorrow, but I’m happy with the way we ran,” Kalitta said. “Thankfully, we have been good with both our cool and hot weather set-ups. I trust that AJ (Alan Johnson, crew chief) and our guys will figure it out.”
It was a Kalitta Motorsports sweep of the first day of qualifying as Kalitta’s teammate, J.R. Todd, captured the provisional pole in Funny Car.
Justin Ashley is second in Top Fuel thanks to a pass of 3.805, 329.34, and Brittany Force is third on the strength of a 3.833, 327.03.
3 – ANGIE SMITH MAKES THE MOST OF WINDY SESSION – Angie Smith is on a mission. The better half of NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader Matt Smith captured the provisional pole in Friday’s PSM qualifying in the Gerber Collision and Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Peak Performance at Route 66 Raceway.
Smith got an assist from Mother Nature: an unusual dust storm enveloped much of the drag strip, forcing NHRA officials to cancel the second round of qualifying because conditions were unsafe.
“It was a really smooth run, and I knew that there was four other competitors behind me that could bump me off the top spot,” said Smith, who turned in a time and speed of 6.797, 199.29. “But I knew when I let the clutch go, I knew the bike 60-footed really well and it was a good run. They did tell me at the end of the track I went .79 and I didn’t believe them.
“I thought they read the time slip wrong because it felt like a slow run, and usually the slow runs are the fast runs. So, all in all, it was a good run for the conditions. We’ve had some significant wind today and for my bike to go straight down the track and go 6.79 for the number one spot, it was pretty cool.”
Like the other 14 riders entered in the event, Smith and her Denso Auto Parts Buell had to navigate strong crosswinds near the finish line that approached 20 mph.
“We can make several adjustments to the front axle for things like that to make it go through the wind. You can point the bike a certain way to make it drive in the wind. That’s kind of out of my forte of things to do. That’s kind of Matt and Michael’s (crew chief and fellow racer Michael Ray) job on this team, and they knew what they were doing.
“I had the easy job of letting the clutch out and shifting the bike and going through the finish line. So, I didn’t really feel it. I did feel the wind in the shutdown area. I just had to pretty much stay focused on what I was doing and not be relaxed and just execute what I know to do when we have windy conditions like this.”
Because of the surprising dust storm limiting the bikes to only one session Friday, NHRA officials plan on giving PSM riders three qualifying sessions Saturday – weather permitting.
“I know that weather will be significantly different than what it was today,” Smith said. “Very hot today. Very windy today. I believe that it’s going to be similar (Saturday) to what we’ll see on Sunday.
“Everything that we change for today, we’ll have to change back for tomorrow. It’s going to be, I think, 15 degrees cooler, so our bikes will run faster tomorrow, so it’ll be good.
“Route 66 has always been one of my favorite tracks. Basically, because on the starting line you can throw everything at it and it takes it. So, it’s been one of my favorite racetracks. I’ve been to several semifinals here and so it would be really, really awesome to park it in the winners circle on Sunday.”
Smith came into this weekend in fifth place in the Pro Stock Bike standings, 110 points behind her series-leading husband.
“When you’re No. 1, there’s always room for improvement. Nobody makes a perfect run in this world. So, we’ll go back and see what we’ve got to do tomorrow to make our bike more weather friendly for the weather conditions that are coming in.”
Richard Gadson is second with a 6.824, 199.52, with Chase Van Sant third after going 6.880, 196.27.
4 – THAT BLOWS – The wind never let up all day Friday, and at 5:30 p.m., the National Weather Service issued a dust storm warning for the area surrounding Route 66 Raceway. As the nitro divisions ran, the track faced steady 24-mph wind gusts.
Even before the warning, concerned Pro Stock Motorcycle racers elected to pull out of line and return to the pits, opting to give the wind a chance to die down and planning to run after the fuel session. With the winds increasing to 28 miles per hour, the teams elected to run three sessions Saturday.
Despite the massive downforce caused by the fuel cars, NHRA paused Funny Car and Top Fuel’s Q2 session to prep the track again from the massive amounts of dust that blew across the top end and shutdown areas.
5 – GADSON CONQUERS BUNKER HILL – Ricky Gadson has a competitive spirit that cannot be squelched, even on his off-weekends.
“I came to the realization that since I started riding on this team and racing Pro Stock Motorcycle, I used to ride every week,” Gadson said. “I rode a lot, and I realized that last year, I kind of felt like I lost a step from how comfortable I used to be.”
This year, Gadson made a vow to begin riding more on his weekends off. The format didn’t matter to him. Bracket racing or heads-up grudge, he was determined to throw his leg over as many bikes as he could in his idle time.
When Bunker Hill (Ind.) Dragway announced a major bike race between the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte and this weekend’s Route 66 Nationals, Gadson knew he needed to act on the opportunity. Bunker Hill’s Motorcycle Mayhem paid $10,000-to-win for both bracket classes. Gadson wanted to support Bunker Hill’s owner, Terry McMillen, and his wife, Cori.
“My grandfather bought Jake Krawiec’s old Hayabusa, and we went out there and won two classes, doubled up the first time,” said Gadson, who hadn’t bracket raced since 2017.
“It felt good,” Gadson said. “It was a good rhythm, it was a good exercise, it was a good competition. It taught me a lot as far as consistency, got me back in the groove on that, and I just figured that would give me a little momentum coming here.”
For a racer who is acclimated to running all-out to the finish line, running on a dial-in presented its unique challenges.
“I’m not a guy that holds numbers, and I’m pretty good at reading a weather station and reading the conditions,” Gadson said. “So I pretty much dial what I run. And the bike, when you set the bike up to be consistent, as long as I’m consistent, it runs what it’s supposed to.”
Gadson put on a clinic of consistency, making all his runs within a 3/100ths between Friday and Saturday’s victory.
“I think that’s about 30 runs it took for me to win the whole deal,” Gadson recalled. “It’s definitely a different deal, but still a lot of the same principles apply. Consistency, trying to do the same thing every time, and it’s really no different.”
And no, he didn’t break out once during the event.
For those who would look down upon bracket racing, Gadson is quick to point out that it’s just as major league as the NHRA in terms of competition.
“This is the major leagues of bracket racing,” Gadson said. “You got Joe Klemme, you got John ‘Spooky’ Markham, you got the Fisher family, Doug and Tyler Fisher, which are my family. And so you just go from the major leagues of heads-up racing to the major leagues of bracket racing.
“It’s all the same. You still got heavy hitters over there. I didn’t take any of those guys lightly at all. I figured they really had the advantage, being as though I haven’t done it in so long. It was a good time. It was fun.
“I think we had almost 60 entries in one class and 54 in the other class. So it was 20 rounds of racing I had to go through or more to win the race.”
6 – CRUZ’S NEW LOOK – Cruz Pedregon debuted a new “Makers and Fixers” paint scheme this weekend designed by his primary sponsor, Snap-on,. The car features images of essential workers, encouraging fans and crew members to share their stories.
“It’s important to Snap-on and to us as a team to shine a light on the professionals who keep race teams, and the world, running every day,” Pedregon said. “Their stories are truly remarkable, and we want to pay tribute to those who make and fix things critical to us all.”
Snap-on is celebrating 105 years of providing tools, equipment, and diagnostics to technicians worldwide. The company has supported drivers at the track and NHRA fans both in attendance and watching the broadcasts.
7 – U.S. 30 DRAGSTRIP – WHERE THE GREAT ONES RUUUUNNNN!!!! – If you’re a veteran drag racing fan – OK, that means you have a few years of mileage – and love grassroots drag racing, surely you must have heard legendary announcer Jan Gabriel tout what was one of the best drag racing facilities in the Midwest, U.S. 30 Dragstrip.
Sadly, after roughly 30 years of operation starting in the 1950s, the legendary track closed in 1984. Sure, it’s been 41 years since the roar of engines were heard at the Hobart, Ind., facility — and no, it was not in nearby Gary, which is about five or more miles away – but memories are forever.
One person who has some great and fond memories of U.S. 30 both as a driver and fan is NHRA Funny Car driver Dale Creasy Jr.
“Yeah, we raced there,” Creasy said. “My dad (Dale Sr.) raced there. I bracket-raced there for 15, 20 years before I started doing this. We were out there three days a week. That was the place to go at that time.”
Creasy is from Beecher, Ill., literally a quick burnout from where U.S. 30 was located and about 40 miles south of downtown Chicago. It was Creasy Family Motorsports’ home track and they loved racing there.
“It was an old school racetrack,” Creasy said. “I mean, it had guardrails, it had all the stuff you needed, but it wasn’t up to today’s standards.
“But back then the cars weren’t going as fast as they’re now. So it was fun. I mean, it was a lot of big nights. There was never a night, for Wednesday or Friday, that there weren’t 200 or 300 bracket cars there every night.
“And all the people! We had a good time, and some of them are even still out here.”
Creasy climbed the sportsman ranks at U.S. 30, but didn’t drive a nitro Funny Car until the mid-1990s, roughly a decade after the track closed.
Many of the Funny Car greats in the 1960s, ’70s and into the ’80s raced at U.S. 30 until the track closed, stars like Don “Snake” Prudhomme, Tom “Mongoose” McEwen and Raymond Beadle, owner/driver of the famous “Blue Max.”
“It was the place to go in our area, the southern Chicago area,” Creasy said. “They’d bring in Pro Stocks every now and then, Grumpy (Jenkins) and Don Nicholson. It was cool to see.
“I didn’t know anything other than them, what an icon they were going to be in the sport at that time. But growing up and watching them over the years, the people that I watched, the Funny Cars themselves, the Funny Cars you’re watching now, we were watching them when they weren’t nostalgic.
“They were the Funny Cars of the time. So to me, it’s like just looking back in time when I see nostalgia cars, they’re all painted, all had names on them. And it was a different era.”
Creasy’s home track now since it opened in 1998 is Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, a 47-mile commute.
“I like coming here,” Creasy said. “I can go sleep in my own bed at night, and it’s just nice to be here.”
8 – LEAVE THE SPIDERMAN ALONE – Top Fuel Motorcycle icon Larry “Spiderman” McBride has found himself at the center of a distressing misinformation campaign to tarnish his reputation in the drag racing community. Known for his dedication to being the best person he can be, McBride recently addressed unfounded allegations, which he describes as clickbait scams prevalent in today’s digital landscape.
In one instance, a false report claimed McBride embezzled $4.2 million in sponsorship funds, while another sensationally announced that he died in a fiery crash. “False news, that fake news on Facebook, it’s crazy,” McBride said Friday morning at Route 66 Raceway, where he was preparing for his first run at the NHRA Route 66 Nationals. “Anyone who knows me knows it’s false. To say I’ve embezzled that kind of money is just incredible. Maybe if it said $4.20, I could understand, but not $4.2 million.”
The first article, attributed to an obscure website, falsely claimed that McBride was under investigation for misusing sponsorship funds in a multi-state probe, citing a non-existent publication. Just days later, a separate story falsely reported his death. “The particular story came out on Wednesday, and then I died on Friday in a fiery crash,” he said.
McBride shared that friends and fellow racers reached out to confirm his well being, including Ricky Gadson, who was understandably alarmed. “It’s not right for people to be that bored in life and try to destroy somebody else’s life,” McBride stated. “For someone to put that out like that absolutely blows my mind.”
Fortunately, McBride’s long-standing reputation in the sport allowed many to dismiss the reports. “I’ve been doing this for 46 years, with some sponsors for over 30 years. This hurts not just me but the sport as a whole,” he emphasized.
Drag racing is McBride’s sanctuary, a place where he can escape from the pressures of life. “When I come here, I don’t watch TV, I don’t know what’s going on with the news, and I don’t care,” he said. “All I care about is being at the race track. This is my happy place.”
As McBride prepares for further competition, he remains hopeful that the community will continue to rally behind him and the sport he loves.
9 – FATHER KNOWS BEST – PRO MODIFIED EDITION – There wasn’t much coaxing needed to encourage Mike Janis Jr. to follow in his father’s footsteps in Pro Modified racing. Mike Janis Sr. just smiles because he couldn’t be more proud of his son, who would rather grasp a wrench than don a driving suit.
The elder Janis had always been drag racing, running Modified Eliminator before running Top Sportsman, and stepping onto the main stage of Pro Modified in the early 2000s.
“I was about 16 years old when we started running Pro Mod – like, heavy full-time Pro Mod,” Janis Jr. recalled. “We always ran it back in the ’90s. Two-thousand-one was our first full season with the blower car. Two-thousand was our first year with the blower car, and since then, we never really looked back, and it’s been great ever since.”
The elder Janis, working alongside his son, won three IHRA world championships. Getting to do it with Mike Jr. has been priceless.
“It’s a great feeling,” Janis Sr. said. “We work together every day and he’s doing a great job tuning the car. I kind of stepped back from all that years ago and just let him kind of take over the reins of tuning it and making the calls. I just got to learn how to drive again. Keep cutting good lights and see what happens.
“We work together all day long, so he does everything. I mean, I know him to a T, what he’s doing. I mean, we think alike. I mean, it was the same way with my dad, I worked with him for years. It’s a good bond. I love it.”
Janis Sr. said he’s glad his son focused early on the tuning aspect of racing as opposed to driving.
“You never want to hurt your kid,” Janis Sr. explained. “And could he have done it? Absolutely, yeah. He’s ridden some good snowmobiles, fast ones, and done great. But he’s happy with his family doing what he’s doing. You never want to hurt your family. So, I mean, everything was going good. There’s going to be a time where I can’t do it and he’ll never drive, he’ll hire somebody else and get it done that way. It’s all good.”
Janis Jr. admits driving never intrigued him as much as making a car go fast.
“I think it was just something I was always interested in once I got a handle on, just figuring out the metrics of everything, and it just was very interesting how fine these cars really are,” Janis Jr. said. “(Tuning’s) just a real challenge, and just something I took a real liking to and a real love to at a young age.”
9B – MY BOY, HE’S A LOT LIKE ME – Rashid Al Balushi, the 17-year-old son of past Pro Modified champion and Top Fuel racer Khalid Al Balooshi made his NHRA driving debut. He came out of the gate swinging, scoring the second-quickest lap of the day, a 5.760, 247.75.
10 – THE PRO MOD FIGHT CLUB – Six-time UFC champion Randy Couture is getting closer to fulfilling a long-held dream of being a NHRA drag racer.
Couture has partnered with SCAG Racing and is going through NHRA licensing protocols to drive a Pro Modified car. He expects to make his debut behind the wheel of a beautiful 1937 Chevrolet at the NHRA Virginia Nationals in June.
Even though Couture isn’t racing this weekend, drag racing fans will get a sneak preview of his new ride: It’ll be on display throughout this weekend’s Gerber Collision and Glass Route 66 NHRA Nationals.
“The car hasn’t looked better,” Couture said. “I’m very, very excited to be in Cat’s Eye Gold, back in orange and black, back to my wrestling roots at Oklahoma State and Oregon State university, where I both wrestled and then coached. Excited to be with my new team here, SCAG Racing. I’m learning some new skills and tickling that competitive bone by going Pro Mod racing. I’m very excited about the opportunity, and I think it’s going to be an amazing year.”
Becoming a professional drag racer is the latest addition to Couture’s lengthy and varied resume that includes being a UFC Hall of Famer, actor, commentator, and former U.S. Army Sergeant.
SCAG Racing’s parent company, Metalcraft, is located in Mayville, Wisc., about 175 miles from Route 66 Raceway. SCAG will host several hundred employees, dealers and distributors in attendance to cheer on the SCAG Racing team and meet and hang out with Couture.
