Photos by: Alex Owens, Auto Imagery, NHRA
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK – SUPPOSED TO BE A RAINOUT, THAT TURNS INTO A SELLOUT AND AN IMPOSSIBLE RESULT
1 – PROCK THE SPOILER – Don’t be surprised if Cruz Pedregon deletes defending NHRA Funny Car champ Austin Prock from his Christmas card list.
Pedregon was enjoying one of the best qualifying efforts of the season and looked headed toward the No. 1 qualifier position – only to have Prock come and steal it away in Saturday’s qualifying. It was Prock’s second No. 1 of the season and continued a strong qualifying trend for Prock: No. 2 at Brainerd, No. 2 at Indianapolis and No. 1 at Martin.
“This Ford Mustang’s really been turning the corner the latter half of the season,” Prock said. “To roll into the Countdown, munch up quite a few qualifying points, and then to be No. 1 qualifier rolling into the first Countdown race of the year definitely feels good. So, gives us some confidence.”
Drivers came to U.S. 131 with uncertainty, as this weekend is the first NHRA national event it has ever held.
“Today was unknown territory for pretty much everybody,” Prock said. “We were essentially racing in a cloud.
“This place has been tricky. We haven’t seen a track this gripped up this cool all season long. And on top of it, it’s a new facility that none of us have ever been to, or most of any of us have never been to.
“So yeah, pretty cool accomplishment for our team. We’ve been working really hard this year, putting in the hours, thinking about it in the middle of the night and waking up and just going and getting your grind on. So I’m really proud of accomplishing this and hopefully we can turn it into a win tomorrow.”
Prock qualified No. 1 with a field-best 3.859-seconds at 331 mph, knocking Pedregon off the provisional pole and all the way back to fourth place.
Prock is going for his third consecutive NHRA Funny Car title – his first two with JFR – but would be the first with his new team, Bob Tasca Racing. He’s very confident he can make it three in a row.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Prock acknowledged. “We thought that after Gainesville when we didn’t qualify. We know what we’re capable of. It was just working through those battles to get back on top.
“I wouldn’t say we’re quite on top yet, but we’re right there with everybody. And we’re just getting started. We keep learning every weekend. We learned from last weekend in Indianapolis and put those ideas onto the track this weekend and saw a lot of success from them. We ran pretty much in the 80s, all four runs going up and down the racetrack, four runs in a row where I don’t know if very many cars did that this weekend in Funny Car.
“So that’s a cool accomplishment and we’ve just got to keep on keeping on. This is the first step of the weekend and we really need to go finish the job tomorrow. And if we do hold a Wally at the end of the day, we might be in the points lead.”
In an ironic twist in Sunday’s first round of eliminations, Prock will face the driver who replaced him at John Force Racing, Jordan Vandergriff, who just barely qualified in the 16th spot. Another of Prock’s former JFR teammates, “Fast” Jack Beckman (3.862/332.10 mph), and Matt Hagan (3.886/330.58 mph) will start from Sunday’s second and third elimination spots, respectively.
Two other first-round matchups to keep an eye on: No. 7 Ron Capps vs. No. 10 Chad Green, and JFR driver No. 6 Alexis DeJoria vs. No. 11 Hunter Green, Chad Green’s father. If both Greens win their first-round matches, they’ll face each other in the second round.
2 – VALDOSTA SATURDAY – NORTHERN EDITION – There was a bit of deja vu Saturday in Martin, Mich. A little over four months ago, the NHRA Southern Nationals in Valdosta, Ga., faced a similar scenario with an overwhelming percentage of rain forecast.
The National Weather Service estimated rainfall of about a quarter-inch from 2 a.m. through noon on Saturday. It was just enough to throw a schedule out of whack.
When the rain stopped falling at noon, NHRA’s Safety Safari began working on the track. But as many as four hours earlier, NHRA-starved race fans began filing into the waterlogged facility. Traffic began backing up as early as 8 a.m.
Three hours after drying the racing surface, Justin Ashley and Tony Stewart became the first drivers down the track.
3 – NO PLACE LIKE HOME – One day after receiving a special diamond and crystal memento honoring him and legendary uncle Connie Kalitta as two of the top 75 drivers in NHRA history, two-time and defending Top Fuel champ Doug Kalitta sailed to the top of the qualifying standings for Sunday’s eliminations of the Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals presented by MOPAR.
This weekend’s race is particularly significant for the entire Kalitta family as the race is being held at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, Mich., roughly 150 miles from the Kalitta headquarters/home base in Ypsilanti.
“It’s been a good place to grow up and race,” Kalitta said of the Wolverine State. “There’s always something close you can go to. Flat Rock is still huge. Toledo is just down around the corner. It’s just awesome that we’re here in Michigan. … This track, you can tell they were excited to have us back here. They’ve done a hell of a job with getting it ready for us.”
In the final round of qualifying Saturday afternoon, Kalitta and teammate Shawn Langdon got into a pedalfest after both smoked the tires, with Kalitta – a qualifying best of 3.660 seconds at 338 mph – taking the round win.
“It was good,” Kalitta said of his effort. “I knew our hospitality was going to have a ton of people, so I just assumed that the fans would be piling in here, and they were.
“So it was really nice that we were able to get something done in front of them. And this is a new market for us [NHRA] and we definitely want to put on a good show for everybody.”
It’s Kalitta’s fifth No. 1 qualifying effort this season and 71st of his career.
With the track experiencing a light mist in the afternoon, only four drivers managed to exceed 300 mph in the final round, with the majority of drivers falling victim to smoking tires.
Kalitta will face No. 16 Kyle Satenstein in Sunday’s first round of eliminations. Other key matchups include No. 3 Antron Brown vs. No. 14 Clay Millican, No. 4 Shawn Langdon vs. No. 13 Maddi Gordon, and former teammates No. 7 Tony Schumacher and No. 10 Spencer Massey.
4 – FIRST STRIKE CAPABILITY – Matt Hartford made the first big strike in Pro Stock heading into Sunday’s eliminations of the first race of the Countdown to the Championship. Hartford bested the 14-driver field to take the No. 1 qualifying spot, edging out (Nos. 2-6) Greg Anderson, Dallas Glenn, Cody Anderson, Greg Stanfield, and Jeg Coughlin Jr.
With a field-best effort of 6.516 seconds at 209 mph, it came at a perfect time for Hartford, gaining quick momentum to kick off the playoffs with his second No. 1 of the season and seventh of his career.
Having a rough go in qualifying (Nos. 9-14) were former champ Erica Enders, Eric Latino, Kenny Delco, Derik Kramer, Aaron Stanfield, and Shane Tucker, who has his hands full when he faces No. 1 Hartford in the opening round Sunday.
Because weather could be a factor on race day, Hartford is prepared for anything and everything.
“It’s definitely going to be tricky tomorrow,” Hartford said. “There’s a lot of really good cars out there right now and the drivers are definitely on their game. If they’ve been 30s on average at most of the races, they’re zeros right now. So the tree tomorrow is going to be tricky for everybody. I mean, you’ve seen a lot of red lights in qualifying. So do drivers pull back? Do they change their linkage? Are they going to make changes? We don’t know.
“Obviously, I went up there in the final qualifying session and I was really trying to push a tree as hard as I could and be as light on the foot as I could just to try to feel it. And obviously I was way too light on my foot, but that costs us a run. But I think every driver up there has been trying things all weekend to try to see where they’re at.”
While Hartford knows what he has to do, he’s also going to say a few extra prayers beforehand.
The other drivers ahead of Hartford “need to go out,” he said. “Obviously, I am rooting for everybody ahead of me to go out first round and for us to win the race. We have no alliance with any team out here. I have Shane Tucker, who’s not in the Countdown. I can promise you whoever Kenny Delco has first round tomorrow, we are going to be putting as much effort into his car as we are our own to try to make sure that that car can get through first round as well. The only way you win is to get more points than the other guys. So I want to see them all go out.”
Hartford isn’t taking Tucker for granted, particularly since the winner of their first-round showdown gets a bye in the second round – an automatic berth into the semifinals.
“Obviously a big opportunity then with that, after Shane is a bye into the semis with the way the ladder shapes out,” Hartford said. “So, obviously a big opportunity tomorrow.
“I think it’s more pressure because it’s a known fact that if you win first round, you go to the semis, it’s two for one. So that’s just an added pressure, and I think any driver would tell you that first round is the one that’s the hardest every weekend. Once you’re through first round, you relax a little bit more. To me, first round’s harder than a final round.”
5 – DAD’S YELLOW HAT – Ryan Oehler came to U.S. 131 Motorsports Park looking for a strong start to the Countdown to the Championship. He left qualifying Saturday with something his father had wanted for a long time — a yellow hat that goes to the No. 1 qualifier.
Oehler made his first career Pro Stock Motorcycle No. 1 qualifier official when his Friday blast of 6.7190 seconds at 200.80 mph aboard the El Bandito Yankee Tequila EBR survived both of Saturday’s qualifying sessions.
For Oehler, the accomplishment went well beyond putting his name at the top of an NHRA qualifying sheet. It was validation for the horsepower program he and his father have spent countless hours developing away from the racetrack.
“It’s very special,” Oehler said. “My dad is an engine developer and horsepower developer, and this is what he’s wanted. He’s always said, ‘I just want one of those yellow hats.’ I’ve always said, ‘I just want to be in the winner’s circle.’ We got him his yellow hat today.”
The timing could hardly have been better. With the Countdown opening in Martin, Oehler suddenly has a motorcycle capable of unloading haymakers with the category’s established heavyweights.
And Oehler believes what everyone saw Friday night might only be the beginning.
“This really flexes his muscles and shows what we’re made of back home and what we’ve been doing in the offseason to make power,” Oehler said. “It’s going to be scary to see where we’re headed if we keep going in this direction.”
There could be another weapon coming. Oehler said the team has a new engine under construction, and there remains a possibility it could find its way into the motorcycle before the six-race Countdown is finished.
“Whether it’ll be ready during the Countdown or not, it very well could be,” he said. “That could be the secret sauce to a championship run.”
For now, Oehler already has proof the current combination can run at the front.
Angie Smith qualified second with a 6.7377 at 196.51 mph, while Indianapolis winner Matt Smith landed third with a 6.7403 at 197.02. Neither could take away the No. 1 spot Saturday.
And nobody could take Dad’s yellow hat.
6 – PAYING DIVIDENDS – Ryan Oehler spent heavily on his Pro Stock Motorcycle program at the end of the 2025 season, betting that more development, better parts and a deeper commitment could move his operation closer to the class heavyweights.
The return on that investment showed up Friday at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park.
Oehler ripped off a 6.719-second pass at 200.80 mph to take the provisional No. 1 qualifying position at the Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals. More than the number, it was evidence that years spent breaking parts, chasing reliability, and occasionally taking two steps backward to gain one forward were beginning to pay off.
“We’ve been waiting for this for a long time,” Oehler said. “We’ve had two No. 2 qualifiers this season. We just needed a really good quality pass, and that was a textbook pass.”
Oehler said the turnaround really began late last season, when progress on the engine dyno finally started following the team to the racetrack. A 6.75 elapsed time during Gainesville testing confirmed they had found something, even though the combination remained far from polished.
Then came another expensive lesson.
Oehler and teammate Brayden Davis qualified near the front at Charlotte, only to suffer engine failures during eliminations. Oehler turned to rival Matt Smith for advice on the oiling system, and Smith helped point him toward a solution.
“Thankfully this group, the Pro Stock motorcycle class, a lot of unity there,” Oehler said. “Everybody wants to see the whole class succeed.”
Reliability had been Oehler’s biggest roadblock. At one point, he joked that his V-Twin engines might survive anywhere from half a run to four runs, hardly enough durability to build a championship-caliber development program.
The search for durability initially cost performance. Oehler said one combination became dependable but slowed roughly two-tenths, forcing his team to start another climb with the Gen 2 S&S platform.
“And then it was three years of just beating your head against a rock to figure it out because the platform was there,” Oehler said. “You know it’s there when you see success from the other teams with it, but the parts that follow it, the practice of building it, putting it together, the maintenance, everything’s got to jive.”
Now Oehler believes nearly a decade of experience — including the scars accumulated along the way — has finally given his independent operation something money alone cannot buy.
“We’ve had some success and we fell off,” Oehler said. “We’ve come back and we’ve been on that teeter-totter and now I think that we’re right there to put a pedal to the metal and send it all the way for the Countdown. That’s the plan.”
7 – NUMBER OF DRIVERS CLIMBING THE LADDER – Nine drivers in Top Fuel stepped up the qualifying ladder during the Q3 session. Among them, Justin Ashley went from No. 7 to No. 4, and Maddi Gordon improved from No. 14 to No. 8.
8 – TOP FUEL PERSONAL-BESTS-A-PLENTY – Will Smith’s qualifying run that took him from the No. 6 qualifying spot to No. 3 represented personal bests. His 3.706 elapsed time at 335.32 were the best for the driver of the Bluebird Turf Top Fuel dragster who is competing in his first full-time NHRA season.
Top Fuel’s most-decorated driver, Tony Schumacher, also ran his fastest speed with a 338.86 mph pass. Two pairs later, Antron Brown got his personal best with a 338.86. Spencer Massey, a part-time NHRA national event winner who now fields his own team, made his first career run in the 330 range.
9 – THE SHAWN REED EXPERIENCE – It’s been a tough couple of weeks for defending Countdown to the Championship national-event opener winners Shawn Reed.
Just 10 days ago, Reed parted ways with longtime tuner Rob Wendland and handed the tuning duties over to Ryan Elliott.
Reed made his best run in the first session, laying down a 3.801, 333.58, and though he didn’t improve his Q2 pass with a 3.812, 317.57, the run would ultimately be for naught as the pass was thrown out for a supercharger restraint safety violation.
“It’s not easy,” Reed said, after an eight-second shutoff pass. “This stuff is not easy playing with these big boys out here and we’re plugging through. We’ve got a whole new system in place and clutch program and we’re getting there. We’ve already seen signs of what it’s supposed to do, what it’s going to end up doing. Yeah, we got DQ’d last night. It’s just rules, it’s no big deal.
“I mean, the thing shook so hard it broke some blower restraint mounts off and so they DQ’d the run, but it was a slower run anyway, so no big deal. We got leaky motor homes. We got lights that don’t work in the motorhome and you can’t take a shower without turning the [lights] on. All the guys are doing a great job and it’s kind of fun to go racing again.”
10 – SPORTSMAN FIELD NARROWS – Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car completed opening-round eliminations Saturday at the inaugural NHRA Great Lakes Nationals, while Top Sportsman narrowed its field to six remaining cars at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park.
Top Alcohol Dragster delivered an immediate upset when No. 16 qualifier Cheyne Phillips used a .003 reaction time and 5.240 at 276.24 mph to eliminate No. 1 qualifier Shawn Cowie.
Corey Michalek, Jared Dreher, Jeff Chatterson, Greg Hunter, Jackie Fricke, Jamie Noonan, and John Paul Gutierrez also advanced. Hunter defeated Michigan’s Mitch Kalitta, running 5.274 at 274.06 mph after Kalitta rattled the tires.
In Top Alcohol Funny Car, Sean Bellemeur, Shane Westerfield, Christopher Menapace, Phil Esz, and No. 1 qualifier Mick Steele advanced. Bellemeur overcame Bruce Mullins’ perfect .000 reaction time, chasing him down with a 5.479 at 267.86 mph. Westerfield ran 5.456 at 266.11 to beat Tony Bogolo, while Steele advanced on a bye.
Top Sportsman is down to Gerard Milette, Curt Fredrich, Ron Riegel, Michael Chitty, Patrick DeBottis, and Bob Mandell III.
Riegel will face Milette, DeBottis draws Fredrich, and Mandell meets up with Chitty. Mandell’s second-round victory over Dean McIlvain came by just .004 seconds, approximately 14 inches.
Factory Stock Showdown will finish its Great Lakes Nationals race somewhere else.
Rain stopped Friday’s competition before the semifinals, leaving Raymond Nash, David Janac, David Davies II, and Lee Hartman. NHRA moved the remaining rounds to the Midwest Nationals, Oct. 2-4, near St. Louis.
Hartman will race Nash, while Davies faces Janac.
Hartman qualified No. 1 with a class-record 7.558, while Davies set the speed record at 185.72 mph. Points leader Jonathan Allegrucci was eliminated in the opening round by Alex Anderson on a holeshot.
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – THIS IS KALITTA’S HOUSE; MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENTS SHAPE FIRST COUNTDOWN DAY
1 – KALITTA STRONG – Doug Kalitta had already watched his family’s Michigan drag racing legacy get its moment Friday at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park. Then he climbed into his Top Fuel dragster and added an exclamation point.
Kalitta covered the 1,000-foot distance in just 3.682 seconds at 334.82 mph to grab the provisional No. 1 qualifying position at the Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals presented by MOPAR. If it holds through Saturday, the reigning champion will collect his fifth No. 1 of the season and 71st of his career.
“The legacy that Connie [uncle and team owner Kalitta] has created is just really special to be part of,” Kalitta said. “Again, he’s supported me with sprint car racing and drag racing, and, yeah, I owe him. He’s been like a father to me, for sure.”
The run followed a Friday ceremony that honored the Kalitta family during NHRA’s first national event in Michigan in 66 years. Team owner Connie Kalitta was there along with Doug’s son, Mitch, while the presentation also honored the late Scott Kalitta.
For Doug Kalitta, putting his dragster on top afterward was about as good as the script could get.
“To go out and get quick time after all that, so that was just icing on the cake,” he said. “Maybe I should go buy a lottery ticket after all that.”
There was another piece to Friday that wasn’t lost on Kalitta. He arrived in Michigan as the Top Fuel points leader with the six-race Countdown to the Championship beginning, and Kalitta Motorsports promptly put two cars atop the qualifying sheet. Indianapolis winner Shawn Langdon sits second after a 3.698 at 339.37 mph, while Tony Stewart is third at 3.714, 339.62.
“To be honest with you, I was just hoping to get a good solid run in,” Kalitta said.
“When my car is running, it leaves strong and pulls hard. You can tell when it’s on a good run,”
Langdon made sure his teammate didn’t have much room to spare.
“I was really, really happy with that run, and fortunately enough we stayed ahead of Shawn,” Kalitta said. “He was right there, and we got to keep those guys behind us somehow.”
Kalitta estimated the extended family of employees, friends, and guests connected to the operation could number roughly 3,500 this weekend. For a driver competing in an NHRA national event in his home state for the first time, Friday gave that crowd plenty to celebrate.
There are still two days left, and Kalitta knows Friday only bought him a good starting point.
“We’re going to throw down as hard as we can all weekend long and just see if we can get it done,” Kalitta said.
2 – ADJUSTING THE SCHEDULE – Due to potential inclement weather Saturday, NHRA announced an earlier start for Saturday qualifying at the inaugural Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals presented by MOPAR at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park.
The revised schedule moves the third round of NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series qualifying to 11 a.m. EDT, starting with Top Fuel and Funny Car, and followed by Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle. The final qualifying session is slated to begin at 1:30 p.m.
Gates will open at 8:30 a.m.
3 – IT’S A SHOE-IN FOR 2027 – Tony Schumacher has spent the last few seasons working to stay in the Top Fuel conversation. In 2027, the conversation changes considerably.
The eight-time NHRA Top Fuel champion has signed a multi-year agreement to drive for Tony Stewart Racing, replacing Leah Pruett as she steps away from full-time competition to focus on growing her family with husband and team owner Tony Stewart.
For Schumacher, the winningest Top Fuel driver in NHRA history with 88 national-event victories, it provides the kind of long-term stability that has been difficult to find in recent seasons.
“I couldn’t have seen this coming or planned something this good. It truly fell into place as perfectly as possible,” Schumacher said. “Over the last several years, it’s been a building process.”
Pruett returned to competition this season after stepping away following 2023 to start a family. She enters the NHRA Great Lakes Nationals third in the Top Fuel standings and won the New England Nationals earlier this season, her first victory since becoming a mother.
Her departure isn’t being presented as retirement.
“And just to be clear, this is not retirement, and I’m not going anywhere,” Pruett said. “I plan to be every bit as involved with this team as I was the last time I stepped out of the seat.”
Schumacher won’t exactly be walking into a room full of strangers.
He previously worked with TSR crew chief Neal Strausbaugh and car chief Ryan McGilvry, and Schumacher’s long tenure with Don Schumacher Racing included Dodge as an associate sponsor. Schumacher and Pruett were also teammates during their DSR years.
Schumacher’s longtime partners American Communications Construction, Aloha Beauty Lounge, 5.11, and Hollinger will follow him to TSR, joining a sponsorship portfolio that includes Dodge and Mopar.
Stewart, meanwhile, isn’t moving back into his own Top Fuel car. He will continue driving for Elite Motorsports after joining the organization when Pruett returned to TSR’s dragster this season.
“I’m enjoying myself and the rapport I’ve built with Mike Green, Joe Barlam, Richard Freeman, and the group they’ve put together,” Stewart said. “Racing against my own team keeps things interesting.”
That sets TSR’s 2027 driving lineup with Schumacher in Top Fuel and four-time champion Matt Hagan in Funny Car. Schumacher’s first race for TSR will come at the 2027 NHRA Winternationals at Pomona, Calif., Feb. 18-21.
4 – I’M TELLING YOU, WE GOT SPEED – Cruz Pedregon has spent much of the 2026 season insisting his Funny Car had speed. In Friday’s second qualifying session at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, the two-time NHRA champion finally had a time slip that did most of the talking.
Pedregon drove his Snap-on Tools Dodge Charger to a 3.886-second pass at 327.51 mph, putting him atop the Funny Car field after the opening day of the Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals. If it survives Saturday’s two qualifying sessions, it will give Pedregon his first No. 1 qualifier of the season and 66th of his career.
“This was huge. For us, we’re just trying to get our head above water here. We’ve been taking on water pretty much all year,” Pedregon said. “For some reason, I don’t know what it is, with all these different crew chiefs and different cars, we get it going at the end.”
Pedregon entered the opening race of the six-event Countdown to the Championship 12th in points after a regular season that offered plenty of speed but not nearly enough payoff.
Friday’s opening run followed a familiar script when the car dropped a cylinder. Pedregon and his crew didn’t chase the problem with an overly conservative tune-up for the second session.
“The car has had speed. I know I’ve said this quite a few times, it’s fast,” Pedregon said. “But we dropped a cylinder on the first run there, and we thought, ‘Let’s just go out there and run what we think the track will hold.’”
It held plenty.
Pedregon’s 3.886 moved him ahead of J.R. Todd, who finished Friday second with a 3.893 at 334.57 mph. Dan Wilkerson sits third at 3.903, while Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan ended the day 10th.
The performance came after an Indianapolis weekend Pedregon readily described as disappointing. Instead of carrying that frustration into Michigan, his team arrived with six races remaining and a targeted objective.
“Indy was tough for us. Not only was it hot and uncomfortable for everyone, we were just kind of misfiring there,” Pedregon said. “It was just a disappointing race for us, honestly.”
One Friday qualifying run doesn’t fix a season, and Pedregon knows it. For a team trying to make something of the Countdown, however, a 3.886 was a pretty good place to start.
“We’re just going to enjoy the heck out of this night and just see what tomorrow brings, and Sunday, obviously,” Pedregon said.
5 – NO SCHOOL LIKE THE OLD SCHOOL – Matt Hartford had plenty of data when NHRA Pro Stock rolled onto unfamiliar ground Friday at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park. When it came time to decide what the race track would take, some old-fashioned shoe leather helped finish the equation.
Hartford’s 6.516-second pass at 209 mph put him atop the Pro Stock field after Friday qualifying at the Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals. If it holds Saturday, Hartford will have consecutive No. 1 qualifiers and the sixth of his career.
“My crew chief and my team are giving me a great car, there’s no doubt about it,” Hartford said. “If the idiot behind the wheel does his job, we can go out there on any run and run at the top.”
Hartford expected Friday’s second session to produce an improvement. Instead, his car slowed, along with much of the field, leaving the first-session 6.516 untouched.
“Everybody slowed down, and I’m still shaking my head about that,” Hartford said. “And the weather didn’t say that we should have slowed down like we did, but obviously we missed something in that final session up there.”
Hartford has raced at Martin before, but never with a 500-cubic-inch NHRA Pro Stock car. His team studied information from tracks with similar atmospheric conditions, but there wasn’t a thick notebook of Pro Stock runs at U.S. 131 waiting for them.
Sometimes the laptop only gets you so far.
“You go up, and you put your foot on the track, and you go old school,” Hartford said. “Take all the data away from it and say, ‘If this was 20 years ago, what would we do?’”
Crew chief Eddie Guarnaccia provides plenty of that old-school knowledge. Hartford figures Guarnaccia’s racing experience might even predate internal combustion.
“I mean, I think his first race car was a Tyrannosaurus Rex,” Hartford said. “I’m not sure, but he’s just been out here racing forever in Pro Stock since the early ’90s.”
Martin also opens the six-race Countdown to the Championship, leaving little room for a slow start. Hartford’s approach isn’t complicated.
“Our goal is simple: Win the next six races,” Hartford said. “If you do that the points will add up, there won’t be any issues.”
Hartford has also noticed competitors treating his team differently as its performance has improved. He’s fine with the gamesmanship because he remembers being on the other side of the equation.
“They definitely take shots at us,” Hartford said. “I see a lot of gamesmanship against us now that we’ve never seen in the past, which I’m all for it. That’s their prerogative because I can tell you when we’ve not had the faster car, and there’s been most years we have not been a faster car, you have to take your shots where you can. And so I don’t blame people for doing it.”
6 – THE PRICE OF NO. 1 – Ryan Oehler has spent enough time near the top of the Pro Stock Motorcycle qualifying sheet to know that close doesn’t pay the same as getting there.
On Friday at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, Oehler finally put some distance between himself and everybody else.
The veteran rider ripped off a 6.719-second run at 200.80 mph aboard his El Bandito Yankee Tequila EBR, grabbing the provisional No. 1 qualifying position at the Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals. If the number survives Saturday, it will give Oehler the first No. 1 qualifier of his career.
“We’ve been waiting for this for a long time. We’ve had two No. 2 qualifiers this season,” Oehler said. “We just needed a really good quality pass, and that was a textbook pass.”
Oehler didn’t sneak into the top spot. His second run gave him nearly two-hundredths of a second over Angie Smith, a healthy chunk in a class where qualifying positions are routinely separated by considerably less.
Smith sits second at 6.7377, 196.51 mph, while Indianapolis winner Matt Smith is third at 6.7403, 197.02. Points leader Richard Gadson ended Friday in fourth.
The timing works for Oehler, who arrived in Martin sixth in the standings as the six-race Countdown to the Championship opened. More importantly, Friday showed he has a motorcycle capable of running at the front.
“We’ve got going on 10 years of experience now in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. We’ve got a lot of scars to show for it,” Oehler said.
Oehler has been through the swings before, from success to stretches spent chasing the competition. Friday offered another indication the pendulum might be moving his way.
“We’ve had some success, and we fell off, we’ve come back, and we’ve been on that teeter-totter,” Oehler said. “Now I think that we’re right there to put the pedal to the metal and send it all the way for the Countdown.”
7 – ANOTHER PAIN IN THE REAREND – Hunter Green joined a club Friday at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in which no nitro driver wants membership.
Green, in his sophomore season driving a fuel Funny Car, experienced an apparent pinion gear failure just two pairs into qualifying at the inaugural NHRA Great Lakes Nationals. The resulting rear-end failure created a substantial mess and gave Green a completely different perspective on what constitutes an explosion in a Funny Car.
“One hundred percent, you feel the difference,” Green said. “It felt like there’s a giant blender full of nuts and bolts right underneath my ass.”
Green has experienced the usual violence associated with nitro racing, including a supercharger explosion. He said there was no mistaking one for the other once the rear end started coming apart beneath him.
“Whenever your supercharger blows up, I mean, you don’t feel anything. You see a pop in front of your face,” Green said. “This one, you feel everything, but you don’t see anything.”
That last part might have been the most unsettling.
Green could hear pieces underneath the Funny Car as it continued down the track, but he couldn’t see what was happening or where any of the debris might be headed.
“You have that fear, sure,” Green said. “I mean, when you’re still going down the track that fast and you can hear all that chaos going on underneath you – yeah, that goes through your head. Like, ‘I hope something doesn’t come up and stick me or something.’”
Green emerged uninjured. His race car wasn’t nearly as fortunate, and the failure also left NHRA’s Safety Safari with a lengthy cleanup almost immediately after the session began.
Green said he asked his father, veteran nitro racer Chad Green, whether he’d ever experienced anything comparable. He hadn’t.
“It’s a whole ’nother world,” Green said.
Then there was the uncomfortable knowledge that his problem became everybody else’s. With the session barely underway, fans and the remaining Funny Car teams were left waiting.
“I feel bad for the fans because it was the second pair out and they’re having to wait. They’ve come out here for this race and they’re having to wait right away and I feel bad for the competitors,” he said. “It sucks that we were the team that did that and caused that for everybody.”
7B – HAGAN THE HUMAN TORCH – Matt Hagan remembers U.S. 131 Motorsports Park as a good, two-lane racetrack. Back in 2008, however, he probably wouldn’t have known the difference.
Hagan had bigger problems. Mostly, he was trying to figure out how to drive a nitro Funny Car without setting himself on fire.
“I was just trying to learn to drive the car, man. It was ’08,” Hagan said. “Golly, dude, that was cutting my teeth in a funny car. And I was so worried about what the car was going to do to me, much less what the racetrack had for me.”
Those IHRA days at Martin came before the NHRA championships and before Hagan became one of Funny Car’s established stars. Today, he can appreciate what U.S. 131 offered a racer.
“Just how good the surface was. The facility was always great,” Hagan said. “We always ran really well here, and it was pretty parity; the track, as far as left and right lane, was pretty equal. I don’t remember anything being crazy that stood out, where it was like a one-lane racetrack.”
Back then, Hagan wasn’t analyzing lane parity. He was fogging his visor, learning the controls and wondering what the race car might do next.
It frequently answered that question.
Hagan won three IHRA national events in 2008 and finished runner-up in the championship, losing the title on oildown penalties. His description of those penalties is considerably more colorful.
“I was on fire about every other run, man,” Hagan said. “I remember we blew the freaking steering arm off of it. We took the heads off of it, and the crank fell on the bottom of it. And it’s just like, you’re going, like, ‘What in the hell are we doing?’”
Somehow, what looked occasionally like mechanical self-destruction became a career.
Hagan said his father attended those races, providing another incentive to climb back inside and hit the throttle regardless of what happened on the previous run.
“I can’t be a puss in front of him. I got to hit the gas,” Hagan said. “So, it’s kind of one of those things where it was fun, man. It’s still fun.”
8 – MICHIGAN DRAG RACING MEMORIES – Southern California may have been the birthplace of drag racing, but the sport really grew up and spread its wings in the Midwest, particularly in states like Michigan, Illinois, and Indiana.
Michigan has long had a significant heritage of drag racing both on-track and – well, let’s be honest – street racing. To many, Detroit was like Los Angeles East, with plenty of legit on-track and illegal on-street racing.
Numerous drag strips still operate today in the Wolverine State, including Ubly Dragway, Darana Dragway (formerly Milan Dragway), Northern Michigan Dragway, Lapeer International Dragway, Onondaga Dragway and Mid-Michigan Motorplex.
And then there’s U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin, site of this weekend’s inaugural Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals presented by Mopar.
The event marks NHRA’s return to Michigan for a national event after 66 years. The last came in 1960 at Detroit Dragway, a track with a distinction that could probably win you a few bar bets.
Detroit Dragway hosted the U.S. Nationals in 1959-60 before the “Big Go” moved to Indianapolis in 1961, where it remains.
Michigan also produced or became home to some serious drag racing talent. The list includes Connie, Doug and the late Scott Kalitta, plus Shirley Muldowney, Wayne Gapp, Dick LaHaie, E.J. “The Michigan Madman” Potter, and Al Bergler.
No Michigan drag racing history lesson would be complete without Woodward Avenue, the famous route from Detroit toward Pontiac that became synonymous with cruising and street racing. The car culture lives on today through the annual Woodward Dream Cruise.
Now the spotlight moves to Martin.
U.S. 131 Motorsports Park opened in 1962 and has hosted major drag racing events for decades. This weekend, the track finally gets something it has never had: an NHRA national event.
9 – MILLICAN’S GET HIS FIFTH – Clay Millican isn’t a guy who changes crew chiefs very often. In fact, the Rick Ware Racing Top Fuel driver has spent much of his career doing just the opposite.
But with the six-race NHRA Countdown to the Championship opening this weekend at U.S. 131 Motorsports Park, Millican has veteran Rob Wendland calling the shots on his Top Fueler.
The timing certainly gets your attention.
Millican entered the Dodge NHRA Great Lakes Nationals 10th in the Top Fuel standings, 116 points behind leader Doug Kalitta. If there was ever a time for Millican and company to find something, it would be the present.
And Millican wasn’t hiding what the change felt like just before Friday’s first qualifying session.
“Oh, I mean, right at this very moment, we are literally about to roll out for Q1, and I’ve got the butterflies,” Millican said. “I always get butterflies for Q1, but especially right now because things are different, car feels different.”
There’s more than a tuner change involved. Millican also went from a canopy-equipped dragster back to an open-cockpit car.
“I really, really got them because the biggest thing is I want to do a good job as a test pilot on this run right here to give Rob Wendland the best information I can give him,” Millican said. “So I don’t want to be the weak link.”
If there’s a good place for Millican to start something new, Martin isn’t a bad choice. Millican won the IHRA Northern Nationals at U.S. 131 four consecutive times from 2001-04. His 2003 victory was his 26th IHRA Top Fuel win, breaking Don Garlits’ record.
Just driving through the gates this week brought those memories back.
“I came Wednesday actually, and just rolling in here, it puts a smile on my face,” Millican said.
Millican also returned years later to drive Dom Lagana’s dragster at the Northern Nationals after Lagana was badly hurt in a highway crash.
“So I’ve got nothing but respect for the people here,” Millican said. “The Peterson family are amazing. It’s a family-run operation. I love that.”
10 – THE SCRAPPERS TOUCH – It was a week of turnover for Rick Ware Racing as tuning teams for both dragsters were released this week. Slipping in to fill the void, at least for this weekend, are Todd Okuhara and Adem Cave, who tune Jasmine Salinas.
