Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minn.

 

1 - BLAKE ALEXANDER WINS ANOTHER ONE - Blake Alexander looked like the driver to beat Friday. He did Sunday, too – and it turned out that he was.

Alexander, who has won races as a Funny Car and Top Fuel driver, picked up career win No. 4 by outrunning Matt Hagan in the final round. Sunday’s win produced a much better result than three weeks ago in Sonoma, Calif., when he exploded an engine, destroying the body of the Jim Head Racing Mustang.

“It honestly feels a lot different than the last race. Like I said, (Sonoma) was the hardest race I've ever had in my career,” Alexander said. “And then to come here and have one of the best races I've ever had in my career, I don't want to sound arrogant, but I know, when I'm on, that I'm one of the top guys out here. And I know when I'm not on, just like anyone else, that I can be a problem for my race team. So, I'm trying to keep it tight; four straight runs every single time. And saying that is really easy to do and doing it is really hard. As you saw, a lot of people today were cracking under the pressure.” 

Alexander is competing with other drivers, such as Paul Lee, who must finish Indy in the top 10 in points to earn a Countdown to the Championship berth. 

"I don't pay attention to it at all, and I really didn't know much about it until I got here this weekend," Alexander said. "Obviously, I'm very well aware of it now, and I'm happy to be in the thick of it. I really consistently think that the less I think about everything, the better things will happen for me as a driver,” Alexander said. “So, I'm trying to keep everything – the outside noise – down. And each run … (I envisioned) that I was making a test run and no one was here, and it was just me in the car.”    

2 - JUSTIN ASHLEY WINS HIS SECOND BRAINERD TITLE - Second-generation racer Justin Ashley was trying to find his place in the drag racing world seven years ago. Then a rookie Top Alcohol Dragster driver, Ashley scored his second national-event victory as a driver for Randy Meyer. 

It's safe to say now that Ashley has since carved out his own niche. Sunday marked his first Top Fuel win at the facility outside Minneapolis-St. Paul, when he stopped Shawn Langdon in the final round. He now has 14 wins at the highest level of drag racing competition. 

“Everything that we've done throughout the entirety of the regular season so far has been done with an intent and purpose. We want to win each and every race that we go to, but, ultimately, it's about positioning ourselves well for Indy and beyond,” Ashley said. “We broke out a new car this weekend for the first time, and kudos to (crew chiefs) Mike (Green) and Tommy (DeLago). Man, they did an amazing, amazing job with a brand-new car. It went up and down the racetrack every time – at least that's what it felt like. I know it did (Sunday). There's just something about a new chassis that feels great. So, just an awesome job all the way around.   

"This class is so difficult, it's so tough. The margin of error is so small, so when you're able to be consistent like that, it just increases your chances of winning. It's one of those sports that, on any given Sunday, anything can happen. It's so hard to run in such a tight window like that, but this team came through and got it done."

Ashley led the race with Langdon from start to finish, recording a 3.745-second run at 329.34 mph to score his first win since April. The Brainerd win moved him to third in the points standings.

3 - DALLAS BREAKS THE STREAK - Pro Stock racer Dallas Glenn needed a victory in Brainerd to get his program on the right track heading into the Mission Foods Countdown to the Championship. It was an added bonus for him that he ended a six-race winning streak by rival Elite Performance. 

Glenn, who went 6.613 at 206 miles an hour to defeat Mason McGaha, scored his third win of the season and the 11th of his career. He also successfully defended his Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals Pro Stock title. 

Glenn beat Aaron Stanfield in the semifinals to eliminate the final Elite car in competition. Stanfield has run roughshod over the Pro Stock class in the last few races and has beaten Glenn along the way.

"He's beaten up on me, I think, two of the three finals that he won," Glenn said. "It was definitely good to get by him, and that was another really great race for the fans on that one. With me being the last (KB Titan Racing) guy standing after first round and, I was like, 'Okay, we definitely need to go everything in here. Just because five of us went down first round doesn't mean we got to be out of it.’”    

Though Glenn contributed to the loss of the KB Racing team in the first round by stopping Eric Latino, he battled relentlessly to stay in competition. 

"The last win that I got was in Chicago, which happened to be a race that I'd won the previous year," Glenn said. "So I was definitely looking forward to this one, especially after the three final-round losses that I had, and I was like, 'Okay, now this is a track that I won at last year. It's a good-luck charm, to try to capitalize on that.

"Looking forward is, I haven't won any of the next races coming up, so I'm going to have to try to change my luck for those races. But last year was so crazy that I was just riding the wave."

Glenn heads into the NHRA U.S. Nationals as the points leader. 

 

 

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5 - 1986 INDY ALL OVER AGAIN - The NHRA raced this weekend in Brainerd, Minn., but for a moment, it looked like the 1986 NHRA U.S. Nationals all over again. J.R. Todd rolled to the starting line in the semifinals sporting a Ron Capps NAPA Auto Parts Toyota body, albeit with a few DHL Toyota decals. 

Those who have been around the sport for more than a couple of decades were teleported to 1986 when Billy Meyer disintegrated a Ford Tempo body in qualifying at the Big Go. He then received a loaner body from Kenny Bernstein, when both drivers were part of a Ford factory team.

In this instance, when Todd suffered his second engine explosion of the  weekend, damaging his Toyota Supra, he was effectively out of the event. But it was Capps, the newest kid on the Toyota block, who remembered how much his factory teammates helped him transition from another manufacturer.

"There wasn't even a decision to be made, as we are all Toyota," Capps said. "We even looked into if we could just bring our back-up chassis down to [Todd’s team] that was in the trailer. There's a few things I have different on my car, like my brake handle. J.R. is a great driver, and he can adapt. Unfortunately, there are differences between our car, the one of Del Worsham [driven by Alexis DeJoria], and the Kalitta's and the Toyota bodies on the chassis."

It was a community effort as Capps and Worsham's teams jumped into action with the Kalitta team to keep Todd in the event. 

"When you are Team Toyota, you do what it takes to make it work," Capps said. 

Todd made a race of it in the semifinals, leaving on Matt Hagan, but the lead disappeared by the time they passed the Christmas tree and Hagan powered away. 

"I can't thank everybody enough," Todd said. "Ron Capps ... it's great being part of Team Toyota. We are one big family. These GR Supras are not interchangeable between the teams’ chassis, so they had to work on that NAPA body to make it fit on our chassis. Del Worsham and his team were helping us out, and there were other teams. 

"The Yella Fellas [DHL team], I always give them props for busting their ass, but they have had one hell of a weekend. They definitely deserve to go out in The [Brainerd] Zoo and get tanked tonight.

"We have a lot of work to get ready for Indy."

Todd admits that even though he knows there’s camaraderie between the Toyota teams, he initially believed the quarterfinal incident ended his weekend.

"That's why I threw my gloves," Todd admitted. "I had watched the win light come on, and with damaging two bodies and I wasn't sure there was chassis damage. My guys don't quit until it is over with. Dragging it back up there [to race] was almost like a victory in itself. Once I saw Hagan driving away, I just shut it off because I didn't want to blow another body up. Hopefully, we can go to Indy and redeem ourselves, start making a move when it counts." 

 

 

6 - CINDERELLA, MEET IDA - Ida Zetterstrom, the FIA Top Fuel champion, made her American debut as a driver for Joe Maynard's JCM Motorsports team, and it looked like a combination of Cinderella and Ron August Jr. from the NHRA Sonoma Nationals. 

Zetterstrom qualified last in a field of 14 dragster entrants, but just like August, she took out the No. 1 qualifier by beating Steve Torrence. The victory was a two-fer because the short field got the second-round bye run – a perk that was thought to be all but guaranteed for Torrence.

It didn’t work out that way. Zetterström logged the quicker reaction time – 0.073 seconds to Torrence’s 0.112 – and held off his 3.750, 321.35 with a 3.773, 320.81 of her own.

“That was definitely a big matchup for us,” Zetterström said. “I can't lie and say I didn't have any nerves. I was definitely nervous, but I had a lot of trust in our team. I went in there trying to do my normal routine, and it paid off. We won on a holeshot. We still wanted to go a little quicker and faster. That run was important for me. It built confidence for us."

Zetterstrom could have easily had a final-round berth if not for the clock striking midnight on her Cinderella bid. She left ridiculously too early, -.335, . 

“Obviously, the day didn't end the way we wanted it to,” Zetterström said. “I've never gone red before. For some reason, my foot went before my mind told me to. That was a surprise and felt kind of embarrassing, but we will look forward. We still made a solid pass to get data.”

 

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7 -  THE STEWIE FACTOR - Josh Hart’s Top Fuel team has made major improvements since he failed to make the field at the NHRA Norwalk Nationals. Even though NHRA's Countdown to the Championship rules will qualify Hart for the playoffs, he's been fighting for a top-10 berth. Hart's semifinal finish in Brainerd now gives him three round wins since bringing veteran John Stewart in to work with Hart's crew chief Ron Douglas.

“This was a good weekend, but I want to get more win lights,” said Hart, racing for the third time at Brainerd International Raceway. “We have a great team, and we have made great strides over the past three races. We are going to test tomorrow and put ourselves in position to win the U.S. Nationals and make a serious run for the Top Fuel championship.”

Hart entered eliminations as the underdog in the first round but dropped No. 5 qualifier Jasmine Salinas. He then showed dominance over No. 12 qualifier Clay Millican in the quarterfinals before dropping a close race to eventual winner Justin Ashley.  

“We had a good day and we are going to get better starting tomorrow with testing,” said Hart. “We are going to pull out a brand-new dragster and make some runs. I think there is some magic in this new car, and we just haven’t been able to get our current dragster to cooperate. This crew is working so hard, and we need to do everything we can to race for this championship.”

8 - THE REALITY OF THE PARTICIPATION AWARD COUNTDOWN BERTH - Two of Top Fuel's front-running dragster drivers, Brittany Force and Jasmine Salinas, are in danger of missing the Countdown to the Championship because they must be in the top 10 in points. They each missed an event because of health issues related to their racing fathers.

Force is 10th in the points with an 88-point lead over No. 11 Josh Hart. She missed the NHRA Norwalk Nationals following a crash involving her father, 16-time Funny Car champ John Force. 

Salinas missed the first race of the season because the timetable was much later for her to graduate from Top Alcohol to Top Fuel. However, when her father, Mike Salinas, fell victim to medical issues, she was thrust into the role of driver for Team Scrappers racing. She is 13th in the standings, 123 markers behind Force.

 

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9 - THE BRUNO FACTOR - Bruno Massel picked up his 20th career sportsman national-event victory when he knocked off Travis Gusso in the final round of Competition Eliminator.

"This place has always been so special to me," said Massel, who defended his Brainerd title of 2023. "We came to this race for the first time when it debuted in 1982, and it was always the one my family came to."

Massel said a massive factor in the victory was his friend Mark Stockseth, an investor in Outlaw Beer, which was his sponsor at Brainerd.

"I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him," Massel said. "I've got a beer company as a sponsor. Life couldn't be any better than that.”

Massel's crew chief for the weekend was Top Fuel racer Cody Krohn.

What was more impressive for Massel was not just in winning. It was in winning,m and then jumping into his dayjob as FOXSports pit reporter. 

"I still haven't figured out how to make it a delicate balance," Massel admitted. "It's like I'm a bull in a china shop trying to make it all happen in the same weekend. It's a lot going on. And I do a ton of research ahead of time for weather and all that stuff because I'm also tuning my car.

"If it was the Pro Stock car, I just hop in and drive. But with my stuff, I'm putting the tune-up. I'm following the ladder, doing all that stuff, and trying to do the Fox broadcast. So when Monday comes after a weekend of racing, I'm beat. Like I need the day off, I got nothing left in the tank. But it's just an incredible opportunity. It's like, how can you not want to do both? If you're getting the opportunity to do it."

Massel believes the support of his boss at NHRA's broadcast, Steve Reintjes, makes it all work.

"He is just tremendous," Massel said. "They give me some good leeway here and there when needed if we're in a bind, or late rounds, or something. They'll let me slip by and ensure I can get my job done in the race car. They value the fact that they got somebody out there racing, and is still connected, and is still active in the sport. They realize that it's important to have somebody on the TV side still out there doing it and fighting the good fight."

10 - WHAT FOLKS ARE SAYING - "We want to dedicate that run to Jim Head.” – Bob Tasca III co-crew chief Aaron Brooks said after displacing Head's driver Blake Alexander following the run that took Tasca to No. 1 in qualifying. It was short-lived as Austin Prock swiped the top spot from Tasca. 

"I think I probably need to drag Mom and Dad out to more races.” – Bruno Massel said after revealing his parents were in attendance for his most-recent victories. 

“The car came back from the broken rear end in good shape, but the driver didn’t.” - Steve Torrence, reflecting on Saturday's mechanical failure and getting upset in Sunday's first round.

“It wasn’t even a decision. We’re all Toyotas." - Ron Capps on loaning his spare Toyota body to Kalitta Motorsports after a second engine explosion wiped out their inventory of Funny Car bodies. 

“For some reason, my foot went before my mind told me to. That was a surprise and felt kind of embarrassing." – Ida Zetterstrom on her semifinal red light against Shawn Langdon. 

 

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