Attitude's CompetitionPlus.com provides quick hit coverage of the NHRA O'Reilly Fall Nationals hosted by the Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas. Follow along for news and notes from the event.

TOP FUEL

FIRST ROUND

BETTER BRING A BOATLOAD OF POWER – If anyone knows the value of cool air and track temperature in the mid-80 degree range, it’s Antron Brown.

“I stepped on the gas and the track is just really tight out there,” Brown said. “The car actually stumbled and moved hard over to the left and got out of the groove a little bit and shook a little bit. (We) had enough power to muster on down through there. The track is tricky, real tight; it's going to hold some low ET's. We've just got to give it to it.”

HOMETOWN ROUND WIN – Steve Torrence entered the NHRA’s Countdown to 1 playoffs as the ninth seed. The past Top Alcohol Dragster champion scored his second round win of the playoffs at the expense of David Grubnic. Their match represented the first head-to-head competition of championship contenders.

Torrence, of nearby Kilgore, Texas, was excited to win before his home crowd.

“It's huge,” said Torrence, who has won at the Texas Motorplex as a sportsman racer. “We are doing the best we can to represent. Hopefully, we'll go some rounds today; maybe go home with a Wally. It is a great racetrack. As long as I can do my job on the tree, we've got a shot.”

NOT LOOKING AHEAD – Larry Dixon is focusing on the task at hand, even if he’s won 13 rounds in a row. ESPN announcer Gary Gerould reminded him of his winning streak after winning the first round over Scott Palmer.

“You just take it one run at a time,” Dixon said. “Gary Gerould is asking me how it feels, 13 round wins in a row and I am thinking about how to get a win light and lane choice. Fortunately for us, everybody did a great job and we got lane choice.”

MAINTING PACE – Tony Schumacher understands that with every round Dixon wins, his chances of repeating as Top Fuel series champion diminishes. Schumacher beat Mike Strasberg to win the first round.

“People have been telling me all day, 'you gotta keep up.' Keep up with what?” Schumacher said. “We're 160 behind him. We need to make up 80 points on him. They go out and win rounds like that; you're just not going to make it up. All you can do is be a machine. Go out there and do the exact same thing we've been doing all year long. We just don't want our performance to fall off. We know how to win races, how to win rounds. That's what we have to keep doing.”

CERTIFIABLY HOT – Cory McClenathan intends to keep his name in the championship battle as he’s in second place behind Larry Dixon. In the first round, he carded a 3.817 elapsed time to not only beat Countdown qualifier Morgan Lucas but to get an early leg on low elapsed time. His victory pairs him against Doug Kalitta in the second round.

“How about that big orange race car,” McClenathan said as he exited his Fram dragster. “All the folks on this car, they really, really want us to win this championship. We take it one round at a time. When it gets like that, and those guys are running those kinds of numbers, Phil [Shuler] and Todd [Okuhara] are up there saying, 'let's push it.' “


QUARTER-FINALS

DOWN GOES FRAZIER – Headed into the Top Fuel quarter-finals, Shawn Langdon only had 15 round wins all season. His overwhelming opponent Larry Dixon had 12 in a row.

By .009 of a second, Langdon grabbed sweet sixteen and ended the point leader’s run for perfection in the Countdown. Langdon, known for his starting line prowess, snagged .039 off of the starting line. That proved to be the difference in a race where Dixon ran a 3.802 to Langdon’s 3.831.

“We’ll take whatever we can get to get into the semis,” said Langdon, commenting on his win generated on the starting line advantage. “To beat Larry Dixon like that says a lot about our team.”

The win pairs Langdon against Brandon Bernstein in the semis.

GOOD SPONSOR RELATIONS – Brandon Bernstein is intent on proving to sponsor Copart that their decision to extend the sponsorship with Kenny Bernstein Racing was a good one. Not only did he advance to his tenth semi-final round of the season by beating Antron Brown, he also recorded a career best 3.784, 318.09.

“When it runs that good, you know it,” Bernstein admitted. “I knew it was a good one when it left the starting line.”

MR. SPEED – If speed represents horsepower, then defending world champion Tony Schumacher was flexing his muscles in the semis by beating Steve Torrence. Schumacher thundered through the speed traps at 321.96 miles per hour.

MAKE UP GROUND TIME – Cory McClenathan heads into the semi-finals trailing Larry Dixon by a little over three rounds of competition. McClenathan beat Countdown hopeful Doug Kalitta in the second round with a 3.802 at 311.13.

As fate would have it, his scheduled semi-final opponent and teammate Tony Schumacher also ran a 3.802.

“The car was fast early and it held on just enough to get the win light,” McClenathan explained. “We are going to bring it out. We both ran 3.80 and he gets lane choice by mile per hour. To see Dixon go out like that and be able to take advantage of it is huge.”

Schumacher trails McClenathan by 68 points headed into their third round match.

SEMI-FINALS

THAT’S THE WAY IT SWINGS - Seven inches stood for a forty point swing in the Top Fuel championship point standings. Tony Schumacher made sure the pendulum swung his way by taking out teammate Cory McClenathan.

Waiting for the defending Top Fuel champion is the No. 9 qualifier Shawn Langdon. Langdon beat Brandon Bernstein to reach his second career final.

The number nine qualifier hasn’t won in 24 years of Top Fuel racing at the Texas Motorplex.

Ironically, it was the same Lucas Oil car formerly driven by J.R. Todd which ended Tony Schumacher’s reign of terror in 2008.

FINALS

SCHUMACHER WINS - Tony Schumacher won’t go down without a fight in his bid to defend the NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel championship.

Even though Shawn Langdon was first off the line, Schumacher quickly bridged the gap and thundered by for the victory with a 3.838, 320.43. Langdon made a battle of it with a 3.908, 298.67 in a losing effort.

Schumacher’s win, his fourth of the season and the first since winning Bristol in June, is the 66th of his career.

FUNNY CAR

FIRST ROUND

ALWAYS PAY ATTENTION – Recent Charlotte winner Cruz Pedregon was getting ready to do his burnout against first round opponent Paul Lee, when he noticed rain on the windshield of his Snap-on Funny Car. Just before hitting the throttle to do his burnout, he cut one last glance to starter Rick Stewart who was motioning for the drivers to shut off their engines. Lee had already performed his burnout.

Pedregon is glad he double-checked.

“He did me a favor and he raised his arms like this is probably not going down because there is moisture on (the track),” Pedregon said. “I paid attention to him thinking, 'I hope his is not up there itching his underarms,' because I just didn't do the burnout. I figured I hope they shut off now because I was committed; but I was thinking 'man, it's so wet out there I better not make a burnout.' If you make a burnout and they stop, it changes the clutch and heat and all that stuff. We want to go out there as fresh as we can and hopefully everything will work out.”

“The NHRA they do a great job. It's safety first. Yea, we want to beat the other car in the other lane, Paul Lee, but it's safety first. We have enough obstacles with the change in the weather. It got a lot cooler. We don't need help by a wet track. These cars, they accelerate so hard you've got to have every bit of traction and then some. I am glad they made the call and Rick was decisive.

“We like to go out there not having made two burnouts on the clutch.”

FIRST PAIR OUT WORKS FOR BECKMAN – Jack Beckman raced Jim Head in the first pair of Funny Cars.

“You know sometimes better because you’re not sitting and watching the rest of the funny cars and trying to figure out if they are going to shake or smoke,” Beckman admitted, as to why he prefers to go early in eliminations. “Sometimes worse because you’re not sitting and watching the rest of the funny cars and trying to figure out if they are going to shake or smoke.

“I took the early turnout. Here, even at 300 with one chute you can get these things stopped pretty quick. I caught one of the NHRA's scooters in the parachute so I hope there is not a fine involved in that.”

ANY GIVEN SUNDAY – A 4.11 would have paced Friday’s Funny Car qualifying, but on Sunday it sent Jeff Arend packing in the first round. Matt Hagan ran a 4.105 to advance to the second round.

The fickle weather conditions have been tough on the teams this weekend.

“It's tough,” Hagan said. “It was hot, then cold and now it's trying to rain. For this car, one more round. Some more points in the Countdown.”

IT’S ABOUT TIME – Del Worsham’s good fortune train arrived in the first round. Worsham eliminated Ron Capps in the first round by a .009 margin of victory.

Today he was glad to take a ride.

“Yeah, I've lost ten of them to Ron Capps,” Worsham explained. “He's a great friend of mine, but between him and Ashley Force I'm a whipping boy for them. I guess qualifying doesn't mean much; because there it is.”

A TENNIS STYLE CHAMPIONSHIP BATTLE – Jack Beckman jumped to the top of the point lead with his first round victory over Jim Head. A few pairs later John Force regained the lead with his victory over defending series champion Robert Hight. Four points separated the two drivers headed into the weekend.

WHAT’S A BATTLE AMONGST FRIENDS? – Bob Tasca III believes there’s something to be said about racing friends. He raced and beat Tony Pedregon in the first round of eliminations.

“He's the guy you want to race,” Tasca said. “As an up and coming driver, John Force, Cruz and Tony Pedregon, they are the champions of the sport. So you can get up. It's real easy to get up. You better get up or you aren't going to win the race. We got real lucky in that round, this thing had a wicked vibration and I couldn't even see the finish line. NHRA put those big tall orange things up and that is about all I got a glimpse of.”

TIP-TOEING – Tim Wilkerson had quite the ride in the first round knocking off Dale Creasy.

“I was on the radio with my guys asking, 'what do we do and nobody said anything', it was raining all over my windshield,” Wilkerson explained. “Nobody said anything, so I hit the gas and it knocked the tires right off. I was fortunate to get by that run. Creasy should have had me there. Hopefully, we can get our car straightened out. Maybe I can get lane choice with a 5.02.


QUARTER-FINALS

THE HITS KEEP COMING – Del Worsham continues to make a run for a national event victory in 2010. His bid was bolstered with a second round victory over Bob Tasca.

“I’d say this is a good place for us to get healthy this weekend,” Worsham admitted. “We got some help from some old friends and the car is running a ton better.”

The event didn’t start off on a positive note for Worsham who had the mother of all oil downs during first round qualifying on Friday. There was so much oil leaking from the car, race officials decided to remove the car from the track via rollback to prevent any further spreading of oil.

Worsham entered the event tenth place in points, and with the second round victory moved into eight, just seven points out of seventh.

TWO FORDS GO OUT, ONE COMES BACK – John Force won an intramural battle among the Blue Oval floppers. Force eliminated No. 1 qualifier Tim Wilkerson in round two.

“I really wanted to do some damage here,” Force said.

Force is experiencing his best Dallas outing since an accident in the semis of the 2007 NHRA Fall Nationals when he suffered serious injuries which almost ended his driving career.

CLOCK STRIKES MIDNIGHT – Matt Hagan doesn’t mind being the bad guy when it comes to stopping the Cinderella bid of Cruz Pedregon. Pedregon, who scored a monumental victory last weekend in Charlotte, ran square into Hagan’s freight train, which rumbled to low elapsed time of the event with a 4.062.

Hagan credited his oft-overlooked crew chief Tommy Delago with a monster tuning call.

“Tommy Delago is an animal,” Hagan said. “He’s got all of these tricks up his sleeve. I’m just glad to drive the race car he puts underneath me.”

IN A BLAZE OF GLORY – Jack Beckman’s bid to overtake John Force’s point lead leaving Dallas went up in flames, literally, following a second round loss to Ashley Force Hood. As Beckman drove through  the finish line, his car erupted in flames prompting NHRA announcer Bob Frey to proclaim, “Fire in your wheel wells is never a good thing.”

Beckman was uninjured in the fire and exited under his own power through the roof hatch.

Sunday in Dallas was not one of his better days on the job.

“First I knocked an NHRA scooter over with my parachutes and now we catch our Dodge Charger on fire,” Beckman said. “Roger Comstock is not going to be happy that we heat treated the MTS car. If we could have traded that for a win-light, that would have been cool. That’s the biggest fire I’ve ever had.”


SEMI-FINALS

TIME FOR NEW MEMORIES - The Texas Motorplex is a drag strip that will forever be etched in the memory banks of John Force. The 14-time Funny Car champion hopes to change the most memorable moment from a negative to a positive. In 2007, Force suffered a crash following a semi-final win against Kenny Bernstein.

This year, Force beat Del Worsham to advance to the finals.

On the other side of the ladder, Matt Hagan blocked an all Team Force final round by eliminating Ashley Force Hood.

FINALS

HAGAN TOPS FORCE – Matt Hagan made his qualifying position just another number as he drove from the 14th qualifying position to the trophy on race day. By beating John Force in the final round, he moved into second place in the championship point standings, just 15 points behind Force.

Hagan ran a 4.155 at 294.63 to beat the 14-time champion Force, who drifted out of the groove and lost with a 4.491.

The win marked the third of the season and fourth career for Hagan.


PRO STOCK

FIRST ROUND

THE BATTLE – Allen Johnson performed impressively enough to qualify No. 1 in the field. For his efforts, Johnson gained a first round match against Coughlin, the racer just ahead of him in the Countdown points.

Coughlin out-reacted Johnson by .024 and led the first part of the race until his car drifted out of the groove, allowing the No. 1 qualifier to reel him back in for a .001 margin of victory.

HIS BEST WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH – Warren Johnson, a seasoned veteran of Pro Stock, ran his best run of the weekend in the first round against Jason Line. However, so did Jason Line.

Line entered the event as the third quickest, and of the 26 times he’s started in this position, he’s won four of seven national events.

BROTHERLY IN LAW LOVE – For the sixth time in their racing career, in-laws Greg Anderson and Ronnie Humphrey met in the first round. Headed into Dallas, Anderson carried a perfect record against Humphrey.

Anderson grabbed .009 out of the gate and reeled of a 6.597 for the win and at the time, the quickest Pro Stock run of the weekend of the weekend.

HOW DID THAT WORK OUT FOR YA? – Sometimes a racer shouldn’t second guess their decisions. Kurt Johnson found that out the hard way.

Just moments after Anderson’s victory over Humphrey, the quicker qualified KJ swapped lanes to go with the left in his first race against Ron Krisher. Krisher didn’t flinch as he nailed KJ to the tree with a .002 reaction and won with a 6.601.

FATHER NEEDS A BREAK – Johnny Gray just can’t get a break against that boy of his. Shane Gray, in his first year of racing Pro Stock, has raced his dad and won all three times.

Shane pushed the total to four with a win in the first round.  

A FORD WIN – Larry Morgan entered the first round of Pro Stock eliminations carrying the hopes of the entire Blue Oval brigade on his back. The cagey veteran reached into his bag of tricks during the opening round and pulled out a .063 holeshot and a win with a 6.633.

His round win represented the fourth of this season for Ford. He won two of them in the first race of the season.

QUARTER-FINALS

COULD BE BETTER - Mike Edwards was about as apprehensive as a second round winner could be. He dodged a bullet in beating his teammate Ron Krisher on holeshot. The margin of victory was .001 of a second. He won with a 6.598 while Krisher had a quicker 6.578.

“That wasn’t a good run, the car stood up and went to the right,” Edwards said. “We were fortunate to win. We had better tune her up if we want to go any further.”

ODD SCENARIO – Greg Stanfield sat in his Pontiac calmly as all kinds of commotion transpired in the other lane. Jason Line had burnout issues and rolled forward barely crossing the line. He rapidly backed up and did a second and better burnout. Not a good thing to do. By crossed the starting line twice – he violated a major rule.

“I hate to win them that way,” admitted Stanfield. “Jason is a great racer and I didn’t know what was going on, we turned off my radio after the burnout. I didn’t know what was going on over there, if he was broken or what. It’s twenty points and we’re going into the semis.”

MAKING UP GROUND – On his side of the elimination ladder, Allen Johnson had two drivers ahead of him in the Countdown.

In the first round Anderson knocked off Jeggie Coughlin, who was third in the point standings. Then his luck ran out, as he lost a second round battle to Greg Anderson.

Johnson entered the event fifth in the standings. His first round victory moved him into fourth. Coughlin dropped to fifth with two races remaining.


SEMIS

DÉJÀ VU, KINDA-SORTA – The last time Mike Edwards and Greg Stanfield met in head-to-head competition was the NHRA U.S. Nationals final round in Indianapolis. This week, they met in the semi-finals.

Edwards fouled in Indy, and this time Stanfield grabbed the foul start. The defending series champion advanced to his second final round of the Countdown.

“I have struggled and hat’s off to my guys for sticking with me,” said Edwards.

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LADDER – Greg Anderson got the best of the rookie Shane Gray to advance to his second consecutive final round. The final round will represent a battle between the top two racers in the points standings.

FINALS

ANDERSON GETS EDWARDS – Greg Anderson beat a determined Mike Edwards to clinch his second consecutive Countdown to 1 victory. Anderson pulled to within one round of the defending series champion.

Edwards was lightning quick off of the starting line with a .001 reaction time but his 6.612, 208.46 run was no match for Anderson’s 6.585, 209.39.

Anderson now has 65 career victories.


PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

FIRST ROUND

BIG UPSET – Defending Pro Stock Motorcycle world champion Hector Arana’s title defense hopes took a blow in the first round. Unheralded David Hope knocked off the champion, using a .06 starting line advantage to his favor and winning with a much slower 7.128. Arana lost with a much quicker 7.082, unfortunately it was a .111 reaction which did him in.

TONGLET’S TERROR CONTINUES – LE Tonglet, bidding to become the first rookie of the year candidate to win a championship since Gary Scelzi in 1997, knocked off Michael Philips in the first round.

THAT’S A CLOSE ONE – Steve Johnson scored a close win in the first round against Craig Treble. Just how close was it? The margin of victory was .001 of a second.

LOW OF THE ROUND – Andrew Hines scored the low elapsed time of the first round when beat Angie Smith with a 6.593.


QUARTER-FINALS

NOT YOUR AVERAGE FISH TALE - There’s nothing fishy about the performances LE Tonglet has been turning in on his Nitrofish Suzuki. The only undefeated runner left in the Countdown extended his round win streak to 13 with a win over Karen Stoffer.

“We stumbled in qualifying but this Nitrofish Suzuki has been flying in eliminations,” said Tonglet, the leading Rookie of the Year candidate. “

BYE RUN – Matt Smith made good use of his second round “free run” as an uneven amount of bikes produced a second round bye run. He gained lane choice over Andrew Hines by virtue of a 6.961.

LOW ET – Eddie Krawiec obliterated David Hope’s chances in the second round as he ran a 6.899 elapsed time. The win set him up for a semi-final match with the undefeated Tonglet.


SEMIS

WIN-WIN SITUATION - The final round of Pro Stock Bike will be a win-win situation for Andrew Hines and his family’s Vance & Hines business. The engine in Tonglet’s Suzuki is built by Vance & Hines.

“We keep teasing LE and on our Facebook page, someone pointed out the Eagle always gets the Fish,” said Hines of their sponsors Screamin’ Eagle and Nitrofish. “Hopefully we’ll get the fish in the finals.”

Hines believes Tonglet’s success sends a message loud and clear.

“It just goes to show Vance & Hines gives its customers the best available and he’s making the most of it,” Hines said.

Tonglet beat Hines’ teammate Eddie Krawiec on a run where they ran identical 6.969’s. Only .60 separated their speeds.

FINALS

PERFECTION – LE Tonglet continued his bid for a perfect Countdown to 1 by beating point leader Andrew Hines in the final round. Hines rolled the beams early with a -.006 red-light, handing the rookie rider his 12th consecutive round win.

Tonglet entered the Countdown in Indianapolis as the seventh seeded rider and has pulled into second place, just 44 points behind Hines.

He now has five career victories, all of which have come this year.

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