Photos by NHRA
Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA New England Nationals from Epping, NH..
FORCE, TODD, ANDERSON PREVAIL; SPEED MARKS FALL IN TOP FUEL; DRAMA PLENTIFUL IN ALL PRO CLASSES
1 – SEMIFINAL SCARE FOR BECKMAN – Going against Spencer Hyde for a spot in the final round against J.R. Todd, John Force Racing’s Jack Beckman survived a sudden and serious crash just after the launch. His PEAK Chevrolet Camaro shook the tires, lurched left, and slammed hard into the opposite-lane wall closely behind Hyde. The right-rear tire popped off on impact, only one indication of the extensive damage to the car. Beckman stood atop the car and signaled to the crowd that he was unhurt. NHRA Chief Medical Officer Dr. Phil Surface released Beckman after examining him on site.
Beckman said, “It started to shake. I pedaled, and it was one of those deals where when these things shake violent enough, your vision kind of shuts down for a second. And as soon as I pedaled it just hooked left – and you’re a passenger at that point. I’ve seen a lot of those, and, clearly, I’d like a redo on that. And I wouldn’t have pedaled that way. But sometimes these things just do some really unpredictable stuff out there, and that was one of them.
“It’s a shame. That was a great race car, and that’s a lot of extra work for us, especially with our first back-to-back [races] of the year,” he said. “But we will unload our spare, which was last year’s race car, so we’ll be ready to go for Bristol [next weekend]. I mean, as a driver, this is the last thing that you want to do. And we had a car that could win the race. [We] struggled a little bit today, and that one, it kind of reared its head again and just lost traction. So, we’ll go to work.”
Beckman, the Chicago winner, was seeking his second straight victory. Had he won that semifinal round, he would have replaced JFR teammate Austin Prock as the points leader. Prock, the No. 1 qualifier, lost in the opening round to No. 16 starter Buddy Hull.
2 – KEEP AN ERASER HANDY – Top Fuel racers took turns resetting the New England Dragway speed record this weekend. They did it seven times, twice in the first round of eliminations Sunday and once in the semifinals. Winner of the scramble was Brittany Force. She topped Doug Kalitta’s 338.34-mph Sunday-morning performance just three pairings later, barely missing the 340-mph mark with her 339.87. She made up for that in her semifinal match against Kalitta with the second-fastest pass in NHRA history at 341.42 mph. Force had set the fastest clocking, 341.59 mph, in April at Charlotte – and she posted yet another 340 in the final round (340.39) in defeating Tony Stewart.
3 – FORCE BACK IN FORCE – Top Fuel points leader Tony Stewart was seeking his third victory in his fifth straight final-round appearance. But he knew that would be a tough task against Brittany Force, who twice during eliminations Sunday already had reset the track speed record and registered the second-fastest pass in Top Fuel history. “We’ve got our hands full here,” he said. Boy howdy. Stewart came within seven-thousandths of a second of halting her day’s domination, but she clocked yet another 340-mph blast to hold him off.
Cheering her on to win the specially designed buoy trophy from New England Dragway was her father, John Force. He claimed the most recent of his NHRA-leading 157 victories at this event one year ago and has been sidelined because of injuries he sustained last June 23 at the Richmond, Va., race. She said her second victory here – she won in 2017 – “is just a big one. His last win, the last time I stood in the winner circle with him, was here at this racetrack. So, coming into this racetrack, I wanted to win here for him. This win right here is dedicated to him.
“Everything he’s done over the last year, it’s been really tough,” she said, choking back emotion, “and we’re so proud of him. And I’m just happy to have him out here with me. I need him out here with me. He’s my biggest support system.” She thanked her Monster Energy team “for standing by us. I knew we’d get back to this winner circle. I’m so proud of all these guys. We got back to the winner circle here in Epping.”
The victory was the 18th of her career and tied her with the legendary Shirley Muldowney for most Top Fuel victories by a woman.
Stewart, who extended his points lead, said, “Brittany deserved to win the race. They threw down in the semifinals and made a pass that got them lane choice in the final, and that definitely helped them. We fell a little short in the final. Brittany and Grubnic [her crew chief, Dave Grubnic] did a great job today. It was impressive to see how great they ran. I was baffled by it, so it was cool to see big numbers like that and be part of it. We all want to win every time we go up there, but having two wins under our belt helped to soften the blow a little bit.”
4 – TODD’S FUNNY CAR WIN MEANINGFUL – Funny Car rookie Spencer Hyde and veteran J.R. Todd had a lot riding on their final-round duel.
For Hyde, it was the chance to make a statement for himself and for Jim Head Racing. After all, Head had said that this is the best team he has had in 45 years. And Hyde, with only 43 runs in the 2020 Ford Mustang, had used only his fifth start to knock off Matt Hagan in the opening round and reach his first Funny Car final.
Todd’s motivation ran even deeper emotionally. Not only did Todd want to rebound from Saturday’s significant engine explosion that kept his DHL Toyota Supra crew working into the wee hours of the morning to give him a new car for eliminations, he also wanted to honor the memory of fallen racer Scott Kalitta and toast new tuner Dickie Venables. The entire Kalitta Motorsports organization dedicated the weekend to remembering Scott Kalitta with a seafood spread, and salty and sentimental stories about the two-time Top Fuel champion.
Todd claimed his first victory in 448 days – since his Gatornationals triumph that opened the 2024 season 26 races ago. He more than made up for his team missing the annual Lobsterfest, and he even got to take home the “Lobster Lounger.” That’s the rocking chair made from lobster pots that was at the center of the fun and gimmicky “No. 1 ‘Clawifier’” contest during Friday night’s qualifying session.
“This whole weekend is about Scott, because we celebrate Scott in true Scott fashion,” co-crew chief Jon Oberhofer said. “We blew the thing up Saturday night, and even though we didn’t qualify No. 1, we still get [the chair]. Got everybody a lobster. It’s really important. The guys are just so badass here. They battled back. We started the thing up after that blow-up, and there was not one loose line, not a drip of oil, nothing. Everything was good. The guys did great all day. It’s just a pleasure to be here and finally win this race.”
Relaxing in the Lobster Lounger, cradling his Wally trophy, Todd – who had said drag racing will test one’s patience – said, “You want to talk about patience? I pretty much ran out on the starting line. I flinched probably three or four times and did everything but red-light. The tree comes on and I’m like, ‘Oh s—, I’m late.’ I never saw him. Next thing you know, I’m over by the wall and I ain’t lifting until the win light comes on. And sure enough, it came on. But this is for [Scott]. We had the celebration last night in Scott’s honor. There’s a handful of us in the lounge last night, telling some stories that can’t be repeated. And this one’s for him. I got to thank Connie [team owner Connie Kalitta] for giving me the chance to drive his car. And my guys, they’re the best in the business. I say that all the time, but I truly believe that I have the best crew out here. They dig deep and work their ass off, and they deserve this.”
5 – ANDERSON WINS CLASSIC PRO STOCK CLASH – Pro Stock-savvy New England Dragway fans saw a classic Erica Enders-Greg Anderson / Elite Motorsports-KB Titan Racing match-up: their 59th overall meeting and 12th in final rounds. He has made four finals in five Pro Stock class appearances this season, and he turned this one into his 109th victory.
Anderson set the elapsed-time record at the Epping, N.H., quarter-mile at 6.469 seconds in the HendrickCars.com Chevy Camaro in the final round. He also became the most successful NHRA Pro Stock racer at this facility with three victories, breaking a tie with Enders, who still is one victory away from her career milestone 50th.
Even though Enders was runner-up Sunday, she said her performance represented “a very important turnaround that Elite Motorsports needed” after watching Anderson and his KB Titan Racing team ruling all year. Dallas Glenn and Anderson have three victories apiece in the six Pro Stock races now in the books. But Anderson moved ahead of Glenn in the standings as the series heads to Bristol, Tenn., next weekend (June 6-8).
Amid the hoopla about his own achievements, Anderson gave credit to the Elite team: “They’re back in the game. That’s what this class is about. No one gives up.”
6 – PROCK STUMBLES – A string of improbable results marked Sunday at Epping, N.H., and reigning class champ and points leader Austin Prock’s first-round exit ranked among the most startling. Actually, it was his third opening-round defeat this season, but Prock said his loss to Buddy Hull left him “frustrated.” He said, “We all are. That was the last thing I was expecting, and I guarantee you that was the last thing my team was expecting. We don’t blow the tires off at the hit. I can’t tell you the last time it did that but got it to recover and it just wasn’t enough. So we’ll regroup and go to Bristol. But this stinks, for sure. We had a great race car this weekend. The weather conditions were falling into our favor to go to another final round, and we screwed it up. So it’s a shame for our partners.” Prock shifted his focus to Top Fuel teammate Brittany Force and Funny Car mate Jack Beckman, saying, “At least Brittany’s going on [to the quarterfinals]. Hopefully Jack can do the same for John Force Racing and carry the torch.”
Hull’s boss, “Big Jim” Dunn, knew his team had gotten lucky. Dunn said of Prock, “He made a mistake, and we profited from it.”
Meanwhile, Hull was less celebratory than usual. Instead, he was emotional, remembering Jim Livingston, the former Woodburn (Ore.) Dragway operator who passed away Friday. “I can’t cry here,” Hull said, calming himself. “That’s my wife’s grandpa, Jim Livingston. [In the] drag racing community, everybody knows him. He owned Woodburn Dragway up there in Oregon. So sorry … I get choked up. Anyway, God bless Jim.”
Quebec business mogul Dan Mercier, the No. 11 starter, started the surprises in just the second pro pairing of the day, knocking out No. 6 qualifier (and No. 2-ranked) Shawn Langdon.
7 – BREAK-OUT FOR BURKART – Headlining Dana Hard’s Northeast-based privateer Funny Car team, Phil Burkart capped a successful weekend with a first-round upset over fellow Northeasterner Bob Tasca III.
It was Burkart’s first round win in 16 years – since the 2009 Finals, when he advanced to the final round but lost to Robert Hight.
Burkart said his goal Sunday morning was “to get down through there, A to B, and just make a good, clean run out here [in this] first race with me in the car and all that.” He said, “All Dana Hard’s crew that they’ve put together … Mike Smith and Jay Lewis, they’ve done a great job and all the crew guys throughout the whole weekend. The car’s bolted together right. Makes my job easy.”
In the quarterfinals, the happy story ended. “The Hard Guys” 2018 Mustang had a hard time on the burnout, refusing to go in reverse. Even Dan Wilkerson, who had been eliminated, pitched in and pushed Burkart’s car back to the finish line and off the track, guaranteeing J.R. Todd a free pass into the semifinals.
8 – REMEMBER THAT, KIDS – Perhaps it was an omen. In the first round, a couple of hours before his semifinal accident, Funny Car ace Jack Beckman, the 2012 dispensed some advice: “Kids, if you want to grow up to be a Funny Car driver, some days it starts with the first three letters, and it is fun. There’s other days it starts with the first two letters.”
9 – ‘I’VE BEEN CORRADI’D BEFORE’ – Neal Strausbaugh might have earned a new nickname: “The Corradi’d Kid.” After dismissing current and four-time Top Fuel champion Antron Brown and his tuner, Brian Corradi, in the semifinals, Tony Stewart’s crew chief indicated he wasn’t buying any of Corradi’s aw-shucks kind of talk. Strausbaugh said, “You never know racing Brian Corradi. He comes up here smiling about, ‘Oh, I don’t know if we can go down the racetrack in the left lane.’ But I’ve been ‘Corradi’d’ many times before in the past. So, great drag race. Just glad we ended up on the right side of it.”
10 – ENDERS MAKES STRIDES – Pro Stock’s Erica Enders, who secured her first victory with Elite and tuner Chase Freeman in 2017, had wanted so desperately for a number of reasons to win this event. It would have checked the box for her career 50th victory (counting her early-career Super Gas win). It would have delivered on her long road back to a final round. (“It feels like we haven’t been in a final in 27 years,” she said.) It would have been a terrific birthday present for crew chief Mark Ingersoll, who recently returned to the dragstrip after recovering from a double lung transplant. And it would have been her first victory of the season. She said, “We lose a lot of races we should win, and it rarely works out that you win when you shouldn’t.” While she was hoping for the latter, she nevertheless stepped up to break the streak of all-KB Titan final rounds.
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK – KALITTA RULES IN TOP FUEL AS SPEED RECORDS FALL, SECOND RAIN DELAY FOOLS SOME TEAMS, NO ONE IN PROCK’S ZIP CODE, CODY COUGHLIN’S PRO STOCK LEAD HOLDS
1 – SPEED DERBY – Doug Kalitta used his victory over points leader Tony Stewart in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge final Saturday to grab the No. 1 qualifying spot in Top Fuel for the NHRA New England Nationals. The Mac Tools dragster driver posted a 337.2 mph on the 1,000-foot course with a 3.670-second elapsed time that knocked Antron Brown from the lead. Brown and Kalitta had recorded identical E.T.s – 3.697 seconds – and Brown trumped Kalitta on speed (337.07 mph) in Saturday’s early session.
But Kalitta reclaimed No. 1 as he became the fourth driver Saturday to surpass the race track speed mark (335.57 mph) that Brittany Force established last June. Kalitta’s performance paid off, but Justin Ashley (336.99) and Force herself (336.40) also eclipsed the 2024 feat.
2 – UH … OOPS – The brief rain delay as evening set in – the second stoppage of the day – proved a bit tricky for some teams. Blake Alexander’s Funny Car team gambled that the rain would not let up and that officials would declare an end to the day’s activity. The team began tearing down the Pronto Dodge Charger to prepare for Sunday’s eliminations. And when the rain quit and the Safety Safari got the track dried, Alexander’s team didn’t have time to reassemble the car. In the Pro Stock pits, all but about three teams reportedly had to retrieve their cars from the hauler when the message to get to the staging lanes came. Officials did wave off the opening round of eliminations for the Super Comp class later Saturday because of weather-related safety issues.
3 – KABLOOEY – J.R. Todd had track to himself when Blake Alexander couldn’t answer the call for the fourth and final Funny Car qualifying session. And he got all the attention all right, but for all the wrong reasons when his Kalitta Motorsports DHL Toyota Supra suffered an engine explosion around half-track.
Todd said, “It happened pretty early in the run. It’s uncommon for one of these things, but yeah, usually it’s spinning or has holes (cylinders) out when it blows up like that. That’s unfortunate, especially for the guys. We got Lobster Joe back there, cooking up a big feast for everybody, and now the guys got a lot of work to do tonight. Hopefully, we can salvage that PBRC (Precision Built Race Cars) chassis for tomorrow and unload another GR Supra and dig deep and come out of here with the trophy. That’s the plan.”
4 – IN HIS OWN ZIP CODE – Austin Prock’s 3.860-second elapsed time Friday was enough to hold off the Funny Car competition and give him his second No. 1 starting berth of the year and 20th of his career. The John Force Racing driver said his Cornwell Tools / HendrickCars.com Chevy Camaro has “been giving us a little grief” all weekend. Just the same, he said Friday night’s run was “a good rip.” Prock said his Q4 effort was “the smoothest it has (been) all weekend” on the launch. “So that’s very comforting from my standpoint in the driver’s seat. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow. I think the conditions are going to be the same, and nobody was really in our zip code all weekend. We were the only car to go in the mid-eighties. So hopefully we can put four of those together tomorrow.”
5 – CODY COUGLHIN SCORES FIRST-TIME TOP START – The Pro Stock class had a first-time No. 1 qualifier: Cody Coughlin. The former circle-track racer from a family of drag racers almost didn’t know what to say when he was presented the yellow hat that’s awarded to top qualifiers. “It means a lot. I’m going to go ahead and put it on,” he said. “We’ve got to perform tomorrow, but this is really exciting. Being my sixth drag race ever and to get any type of award is exciting. The guys at KB Titan are really phenomenal, doing a great job. So hopefully we can back up the speed performance with elimination performance tomorrow.”
6 – ALL KINDS OF DRAMA – Jack Beckman won Funny Car in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, but it was anything but routine. After defeating Cruz Pedregon in the first round to move to the final against Matt Hagan, Beckman encountered all kinds of drama before he beat Hagan by 12/1,000ths of a second to earn the $10,000 winner’s share and extra Countdown points. Before the final and after his warm-up, the crew of the Peak Chevy Camaro had to replace the motor – but that wasn’t the end of his troubles.
Here’s how Beckman described them: “Got up here (to the starting line), started raining. They sent us back to the pits. We thought it was over. I put all my stuff back in the lounge and (they) said, ‘Nope. Roll back up there.’ We roll back up. It starts raining a little bit. They’re like, ‘Nope, you guys are going to run. Suit up.’ Hop in the car. It won’t start. Switch gas jugs. It fires up. I shortened the burnout up. I apologized to Matt. I was a little slow going into stage things. Felt like it dropped a hole on the run. It was pulling hard left. I got the wheel cranked all the way, right? I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t see him. And it is for Mission Foods points. We’ll stay on at this run.’ Good teams run all right, great teams run good when the chips are down. That was a pretty good play on words for Mission Foods. But the chips were down, and the Peak squad came through with flying colors. We’ll take the money. Thanks, Juan Gonzalez. Mission Tortilla chips. This is awesome.”
7 – BURKART’S BACK – Phil Burkart hadn’t made a run in competition since the 2022 Reading, Pa., race, and he hadn’t made an A-to-B pass in quite some time. But with veteran driver Mike Smith helping tune Dana Hard’s “The Hard Guys” 2018 Ford Mustang, Burkart clocked a 4.14, 303.30 effort to take the No. 15 spot on the 16-car grid. And the Northeast-based team was elated enough to opt out of the final qualifying session.
Burkart said “a year’s worth of work” went into that pass.
“They’ve really been putting this car together. Small team come out here and to make a good run like that, kind of a checkout run,” he said. “It felt really good. I was told ‘bring it past half track. If everything feels good, run it to the finish line.’ So that’s what I did. I guess I was probably a little bit late on the ‘chutes. Only one ‘chute came out. Got a little tight down here with the brake, but it was all good.”
Smith said it was a marked improvement from “last year, with me running cones over and banging off the wall. That right there, that’s about as cool as it gets. A lot went into it.”
8 – HARTFORD HAS LUCKY CHARM BACK – Matt Hartford beat Dave Connolly in the final round of Pro Stock’s Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. It was Hartford’s second victory this year in the bonus event, and he recorded low elapsed time of the Q4 round in his Total Seal Chevy Camaro. He said he doesn’t know where he finds such extra performance from his car, but he had to be thankful his crew put in an extra effort to get the car back on the track.
“We had our car loaded up, because we didn’t think we were going to get this run in. I’m glad that the weather cleared,” he said.
Hartford said, “We were down a man yesterday, so it was only three of us, so that was a lot of work. But between my wife (Amber) and Eddie (crew chief Guarnaccia), they busted their butts yesterday.” Crew member Adam Bastion, who was missing Friday, was back in the Hartford pit Saturday, and the driver/team owner said, “Adam’s back now. He brings us luck every time he shows up. This is the third time we won this Mission deal, and it’s really special for us. What Mission does putting this on for the sport, I hope it continues for a long time. And we just want to keep racking up the points.”
8B – THE PAUL LEE STREAK CONTINUES – Quietly in the background of inclement weather and top-speed runs, Funny Car racer Paul Lee continues to amass quite the qualifying record. He has not qualified any lower than fifth in 2025.
Lee ended Saturday’s qualifying with a best 3.891, 329.18, putting him in third in the qualified field.
Lee’s qualifying track record now stands at two No. 1 qualifiers, two No. 2s, a third, fourth and a fifth.
9 – PUSTARI’S CAR UNCOOPERATIVE – Rit Pustari’s dragster was confusing him Saturday. First, it wouldn’t kick into reverse during his burnout during early Saturday qualifying. Then, once the team got him and the car back to the starting line, the car wouldn’t roll forward. He was pushed off the line, giving Dan Mercier a solo pass in the next lane. Pustari decided not to tackle the fourth and final opportunity to improve his time. So with the Top Fuel class a car short this weekend, Pustari settled for the 15th and final slot in the line-up. He’ll face No. 2 qualifier Tony Stewart in the first round of eliminations Sunday, while No.1 starter Doug Kalitta has an automatic pass into the quarterfinals and a date with the winner of the Ida Zetterström-Steve Torrence match.
10 – LET’S GO, BRANDON – Brandon Foster has stepped back from his Pro Stock pursuits and sold his equipment to Elite Motorsports, opting to focus on his business interests in Oklahoma. However, he has said he’s open to coming back and driving the car for Elite at an unspecified time. He had been working with Pro Stock champion Jim Yates, who is helping another Brandon, Brandon Miller, driver of the K&H Equipment / Right Trailers entry.
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – ‘LOBSTAH’ FRIDAY FOCUS AT NEW ENGLAND NATIONALS, CODY COUGHLIN’S FORTUNES TURNING AROUND, ALEXANDER PAYS RESPECTS TO JOHN FORCE, WHO ARE TONY STEWART’S CURIOUS NEW ‘TEAMMATES’?
1 – ‘LOBSTAH’-MANIA HITS NEW ENGLAND DRAGWAY – Taking its cue from the Stampede of Speed at Texas Motorplex, where Friday night’s No. 1 qualifiers straddle a saddle until a quicker driver comes along to replace him/her or until securing the provisional lead, New England Dragway at Epping, N.H., has teamed with NAPA to offer an entirely new “pinch-me” moment.
The “No. 1 Clawifier Award presented by NAPA” made its debut Friday at the NHRA New England Nationals, not with a saddle but rather with a special rocking chair made of lobster pots. It awaited drivers at the top end of the track. As qualifying unfolded during the “nitro at night” second session in the Top Fuel, Funny Car, and Pro Stock classes, drivers jockeyed for a seat in this unique chair and the prize of one large lobster. Winning teams were awarded lobster dinners.
Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel), Austin Prock (Funny Car), and Cody Coughlin (Pro Stock) were the inaugural recipients of the “No. 1 Clawifier Award presented by NAPA” as part of this year’s 12th edition of the New England Nationals.
Moreover, Sunday’s event winners will receive a special New England Nationals lobster pot buoy trophy, along with the Wally trophy at the seventh of 20 races during the 2025 Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season. And the Funny Car winner will go home with the so-called “Lobster Lounger.”
2 – CRUSTACEAN CRAZE – Not since Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” or maybe the National Hockey League debut of the Seattle Kraken has a sea creature or crustacean been in the spotlight. But “Larry The Lobster” got a lot of attention Friday, being introduced to some of the quickest performers on the property as they took turns in the “lobster-pot chair.” Provisional Funny Car leader Austin Prock made hilariously horrified faces when he was handed the live lobster to hold until his time in the chair ended. (That was reminiscent of the moment years ago when a super-fan of Prock’s boss, John Force, presented Force with a live lobster in a grocery bag during an encounter at the Funny Car icon’s rope line.) But Brittany Force volunteered to hold onto Larry – then said she was “kind of freaked out” when the moment of truth arrived. Funny Car’s Ron Capps was game to hang onto Larry and even mocked giving it a kiss. Capps thrust it at Prock several times, to Prock’s dread. (However, that might have been preferable to what Capps also did while the two posed for pictures. Capps poked his finger in Prock’s ear. Melted butter and a Q-tip, anyone?)
3 – EYEING A LOBSTER TROPHY – Pro Stock racer Cody Coughlin hadn’t had any good luck all this rookie season – until Friday evening’s qualifying session. In his first two appearances, he failed to qualify, and at his next three, he lost in the first round. But sixth time was the charm for the latest in the drag-racing Coughlin family to compete in the pro ranks. He closed the opening day of qualifying as the class leader. And maybe it was fitting, considering he declared himself “an ocean-creatures fan.” Coughlin, who was atop the order with a 6.537-second elapsed time at 210.28-mph speed out of the KB Titan Racing compound, said when given Larry The Lobster to hold after earning his team a lobster dinner, “This is my first award of any kind.”
He said he switched from circle-track racing to drag racing because he “grew up at the drag races. Drag racing has been in my life for a really long time.” He said of Pro Stock cars in particular, “I always thought they sounded cool, kind of like an F1 car when you shift them.” And he said he chose to race for KB Titan rather than Elite Motorsports, where uncle Jeg Coughlin Jr. and cousin Troy Coughlin Jr. have found a Pro Stock home, because, “I’ve looked up to Greg Anderson for a long time – my whole life, really.”
Cody Coughlin is hoping to keep the family name in the winners circle. Last year Troy Jr. won the event. When Cody first held Larry The Lobster, he said he wished he could make a trophy out of him. Then when he found himself the tentative No.1 qualifier, he said, “I am going to get something that resembles a lobster and make a trophy of it.”
4 – ALEXANDER-FORCE CONNECTION – Blake Alexander’s Funny Car career has a John Force tangent to it, especially at New England Dragway. Alexander figured twice into Force’s 157th and most recent victory, last year at Epping. He faced off against Force in the final round in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge that Saturday, then fell against Force in the second round of eliminations Sunday as Force went on to win the event. Force went on, after defeating Buddy Hull and Alexander, to win the event with round-wins over J.R. Todd and Austin Prock.
“It was always a thrill to race against John Force, the NHRA legend,” Alexander said. “I’ll always remember that weekend. I’ve always driven a John Force Racing-built Funny Car, too.”
He said he and teammate Chad Green “have improved our cars’ set-ups. Chad has been running good numbers in recent races, and we can do the same. I always have fun at Epping because of the track’s history and [how it] reminds me of the old drag racing days.”
5- NEW TEAMMATES? – Two weeks ago, Tony Stewart prefaced his Chicago tirade against anonymous critics by saying, “I have trouble opening up and being honest and letting my emotions go, but I took a lot of crap when Leah decided to make the change to get out of the car. I had shoulder surgery at the same time, and so I couldn’t do anything for literally six weeks. And I sat there and spent way too much time reading stupid people’s comments, and I let it get the best of me for a while.” However, he said, “At the same time, it was my motivation. These idiots don’t realize the more they talk s–t about me, the more they motivate me to be better. It’s like that’s my best motivation. So I encourage ’em: Keep doing it, keep coming, keep coming at me. The more you come at me, the more I’m going to prove you wrong. The more you’re going to make me work harder to prove you wrong. So they’re my best teammates.”
His teammates last weekend were the other IndyCar on FOX commentators for the Indianapolis 500. He said, “It was great to be back at the Indianapolis 500. Obviously, I would love nothing more than to be one of the 33 drivers behind the steering wheel and participating in the race. But to have the opportunity to participate on the broadcast team with FOX and really be inside of it and see what’s going on was a true honor. I literally had a blast on Sunday. I thoroughly enjoyed working with everyone, and a lot of people on the FOX team were people that I’ve seen and known for a long time and worked with for a long time. I even got to work with former teammate Danica Patrick, and I really enjoyed working together with her again. It was a great experience, and hopefully we’ll have an opportunity down the road to do it again.”
6 – KING OF NEW ENGLAND – Funny Car’s Matt Hagan comes into New Hampshire with four career victories at New England Dragway (in 2017-19 and 2022).
He’s the all-time leader in New England Nationals victories, with four in the past seven trips to the Northeast facility north of Boston. Hagan has won 74.1 percent of his two-car match-ups at New England Dragway (20-7). The only other track on which he has a higher winning percentage is Texas Motorplex, where he has a 36-11 record for a winning percentage of 76.6.
Peculiarly, none of the drivers Hagan beat at Epping still are competing in the class. In 2017, he defeated Courtney Force. In 2018, Hagan bested Tim Wilkerson. And in 2019, Hagan defeated Shawn Langdon, and his 2022 triumph came against Roert Hight.
Hagan is third in the Funny Car standings, but he said, “Third in points is great, but they all get reset at the end of the season. We’re all there in striking distance. We just have to figure out these Force cars [John Force Racing entries]. They are tough to beat. They were tough last year, and they’re going to continue to be tough. I’m excited about our momentum. We just need to pull down a win and get that monkey off our back. It’s coming soon.
“The biggest thing right now,” he said, “is we are going rounds and making good decisions on the racetrack. We’re not smoking the tires a lot, and we’re giving ourselves the opportunity to win a lot of the time. I think the confidence is growing with Mike Knudsen [crew chief], Phil Shuler [co-crew chief] and Alex Conaway [car chief]. As a group, they’re making great decisions and there’s a lot of good chemistry. It’s exciting that Tony [boss Stewart] is coming off a win in Chicago, so that brings a lot of momentum to the table.”
7 – LOOKING FOR MORE – Doug Kalitta is looking for back-to-back Epping victories. Last year he won from the No. 1 starting position, and Friday night he was the provisional Top Fuel leader.
“It was definitely nice to check that one off the list last year,” he said. “We went to the semifinals in Chicago so close to the final; it’s been nice. Going to these races each weekend, it’s definitely nice knowing you have a good-running car and a shot at the win. It’s all a guy could hope for.”
In the season’s first six races, Kalitta has four No. 1 qualifiers, including each of the last three. He also has two victories in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge. And Friday he earned the New England Dragway No. 1 “Clawifier” Award by NAPA. The racetrack will ship a lobster dinner to his Mac Tools team.
New England Dragway is a Team Kalitta favorite for another special event, Eddie’s Lobsterfest – a New Hampshire staple for the organization. After two-time Top Fuel champion Scott Kalitta passed away in a 2008 racing accident at Englishtown, N.J., the team debuted this event in 2009 in memory of Scott. It’s named for one of Scott’s nicknames. When NHRA stopped racing at Englishtown, Eddie’s Lobsterfest moved to New England Dragway.
Doug Kalitta said, “We’re doing our annual Lobsterfest to honor my cousin, Scott, on Saturday. So that’s always a great event. We get a good turnout. Connie [team owner Connie Kalitta, Doug’s uncle and Scott’s father] really enjoys doing it. It’s a small, niche community, and a lot of these guys that raced with Scott are still out there. So it’s a good opportunity to get everybody together.”
He called New England Dragway “an interesting place” and said, “It’s a little off the beaten path but [has] an incredible history of what they do there.”
8 – JUNE GOING TO BE GRUELING – The New England Nationals begins in May and ends in June. And Funny Car veteran Ron Capps said, “It’s that time of year we all talk about. When we see the New England Nationals on the schedule, we know we’re at the point in the season where we’re going to have quite a few races back-to-back, and it all kicks off in Epping.”
The Mission Foods Drag Racing Series will make June stops at Bristol, Tenn.; Dinwiddie, Va.; and Norwalk, Ohio, before the month is out. Nineteen days later, the final four events of the regular season will kick off at Seattle.
Alexis DeJoria, the Funny Car racer out of the JCM Racing camp, said, “Epping marks the start of four races over a five-week span. It’s a grueling time of year, but can also be a great opportunity to refine your program and make sure you’re well-situated, points-wise, heading into the second half of the season. With back-to-backs like this, you get into a mode of consistency and progression, and for us, I feel like we’re doing really well. So this will be a chance to build on that.”
Reigning Top Fuel champion Antron Brown said he’s “looking forward to getting back into the points chase during these June races. We’re third right now, but looking to get back to that No. 1 spot. We know these next five weeks will be grueling, but we’re focused. This will be a crucial part of the regular season where you can make some big points moves. We want that regular-season championship trophy. We’re right in the hunt, in the middle of it all, and we’re looking to grow and continue to improve.”
9 – #2FAST2TASTY SET FOR SATURDAY – The Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge bonus race offering cash and equally valuable Countdown points to be applied at the start of the six-event playoffs is set for Saturday. In Top Fuel, Steve Torrence and Tony Stewart will race each other, and Justin Ashley will meet Doug Kalitta. In the Funny Car class, Matt Hagan (the Chicago winner two weeks ago) and Austin Prock will start off, and the winner of that pairing will race the winner of the Jack Beckman-Cruz Pedregon match.
10 – NOT WORRIED ABOUT STREAK – New England Dragway, hosting its 12th NHRA event, is one of the only places Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon has not earned a victory. The Kalitta Motorsports driver isn’t too obsessed with his record here. He said, “Every track is a little bit different in its characteristics. There are so many variables, and a lot depends on the power you make, the clutch application you apply, and how your car runs. Certain tracks like your setup, but others don’t. I’ve driven for multiple teams at this point, 15-16 years into my career. I guess it’s just how the cookie crumbles.”
Langdon yielded the points lead at Chicago to Tony Stewart, but he said, “We just move on. We just missed it in the second round at Chicago; not a big deal. Unfortunately, we lost the points lead, but we’re only two points behind, so we can possibly regain the lead in qualifying. We move on to Epping and try to really hit these next races hard to hopefully regain the points lead and hopefully get a couple of wins. You can always count on making good power at Epping, because the air is typically pretty good.”
