Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways outside of Seattle, Wa.

1 - VAN SANT SLAYS THE GIANT - There’s a strong likelihood that Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Chase Van Sant has no idea who Randy Humphrey is. However, the drag racers, separated for over forty decades, will be forever linked as drag racing’s giant killers.

But unlike Humphrey, who won the 1979 NHRA Mile-High Nationals when the seemingly invincible Bob Glidden fouled, Van Sant flat outran Gaige Herrera, a rider unbeatable for over a calendar year. 

Van Sant made his first career win even more memorable by stopping Herrera, who came into the final pairing with 12 national-event wins in a row and 46 consecutive round wins.

“Man, I don’t know if it’s really set in yet. Honestly,” Van Sant said. “I got down to the big end and saw my win light on, and I was just shaking my head. We were down in the shutdown and Gaige yelled something at me. I don’t know what, but we were kind of side by side slowing down and he was yelling at me and I looked over and he pointed, and I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know if this is real or not. Is the win light real? Is it broken?' That’s what I was thinking.

“I’ve gone up against Gaige, I think, five times and lost all five times, so to cut a light and get away early and outrun the man, it just speaks volumes to how hard this team’s been working kind of silently in the midst of all the drama in Pro Stock Motorcycle at the moment.”

Herrera has shown moments of vulnerability this season, but that certainly was not the case in Seattle, where he entered race day as No. 1 qualifier. But it wouldn’t have mattered to Van Sant, who admitted he raced all day with the aid of proverbial blinders.

“I [really] wasn’t paying too close of attention to anybody else,” Van Sant said. "Honestly, I rolled up into the staging lanes and didn’t even know I was running Matt [Smith] in the semis. So, I was really trying to stay focused and stay in our own lane. I knew we had been close in a lot of the incrementals to Gaige, but mostly I was looking at our camp and what we had going on and we were searching for faster speeds. So when we found that, I knew, and we were running in the low-70s. I just knew, man, we might have a legit shot at this.

“I have no idea what Gaige went in the semis or anything like that, but for me it’s like I rolled into the final round and I was like, 'I just have to do what I know how to do.' I know it’s Gaige and I know the history that’s going on there, but I was just like, if I can focus on myself and get this bike down the track, that’s going to be the best shot we have, regardless of what else is going on around.

Nine months ago, Van Sant was in an ambulance on his way to the hospital in Dallas after skinning his knee down to the bone on the same bike he rode Sunday. He endured a painful rehab and surgery, and for the 2023 NHRA Rookie of the Year, the win is a fitting payback.  

“Jerry Savoie called me a few weeks ago and he’s like, after I went red a few rounds, and he’s like, ‘You just got to have fun. Relax and have fun. You’re trying too hard, and you’ll never get it if you try too hard.' 

“That’s what I did. I went up there and had fun racing my friend Gaige. We’ve known each other for a while and ... when I got hurt last year, we hung out the last several races, and I was pumped for him to win the championship.

"But today, I knew we had a bike that can compete. I just had a feeling going into the final round and was envisioning myself holding the Wally. And I don’t know that I spoke it into existence by any means, but I mean, the good Lord was definitely on our side, and I am just so blessed to be out here.”

2 - TORRENCE BAGS ANOTHER SEATTLE WIN—Kilgore, Texas, might be the home of Capco Racing, but it’s appeared to be Pacific Raceways for at least two seasons. Despite finishing No. 2 in the NHRA’s Top Fuel point chase last year, the only race Torrence, a 55-time winner, has won in the past year has been the NHRA Northwest Nationals. 

Torrence beat Shawn Langdon, who struggled in qualifying but came alive on race day. 

“You kind of start winning these things week in and week out, you take for granted how difficult what would do really is,” Torrence admitted. “The Capco boys did a good job. We came out, we’ve been working on this setup that we have and it’s definitely shown a lot of promise to go out there and throw down when it needs to go fast. We’ve had a difficult time to manage the power that we’re making right now when conditions are subpar, and so I think this weekend was exemplary of what we can do and what we need to do because you had the gamut of conditions today, and through the weekend, but especially today, where somebody can run low E.T. of the weekend, Q or E1, and then, you’re struggling to get it down through there, .96 or whatever won it."

Torrence’s win came in 3.963 seconds at only 279 miles per hour.

“When we were dominant, when we were winning, we could go down the racetrack in any condition,” Torrence explained. “I mean, it could be wet -- we probably could make it down through there -- and that just breeds confidence in you as a driver.”

Torrence’s road to victory included wins over Ron Smith and Langdon's teammate, Doug Kalitta. He had a competition bye run in the second round. 

3 - PROCK WINS AGAIN, THIS TIME FOR A MILESTONE - Austin Prock joined elite company Sunday as he became one of only four drivers to have won in both Top Fuel and Funny Car at Pacific Raceways. 

As if the rookie Funny Car phenom needed any extra motivation, he got it from team owner and teammate John Force, who is on the sidelines nursing injuries sustained at the NHRA Virginia Nationals last month. 

“[John] told me before I got in here, he said, ‘Hold the fort down for me,' and we did just that," Prock said.

Prock didn’t just hold down the fort, he put a force field around it, scoring the quickest runs every round in both qualifying and eliminations. 

“I can’t even put into words all the success that we’ve had,” Prock said. “It’s just been a blur, and I’ve just been hanging on and I wasn’t leaving that great all weekend, but I sure was consistent. I was .067, .067, .069, .069" on his reaction times during eliminations.

Prock now has four wins on the season and holds a commanding 256-point lead with three races remaining in the regular season. That’s almost a 13-round lead over Matt Hagan and Bob Tasca III, the drivers who are tied for second.

“This whole Cornwell Tools team is just doing such a great job and given me an opportunity to go out and compete for wins every weekend, and we’ve been going a lot of rounds lately. I just hope we can keep it up throughout the rest of the year,” Prock said.

“I didn’t drive all that hot this weekend. I was consistent but consistently slow on the starting line, so they did an outstanding job, and they really carried the team. They’ve been doing a great job of that this year, and it sure has been fun.”

 

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4 - JEGGIE WINS ANOTHER - A 68-time professional winner, Pro Stock’s Jeg Coughlin Jr. picked up his third win of 2024, stopping local favorite Dallas Glenn. He posted a run of 6.536 seconds at 209.95 to hand Elite Motorsports its fifth consecutive victory.

Coughlin beat Jerry Tucker, Eric Latino and Chris McGaha to reach the final round. 

“It feels fantastic. It’s just kind of a corny statement, but the team, as a whole, has obviously done very well,” Coughlin said. “We’ve won all but three of the events this year, which is a real testament to our stamina and our abilities. 

“We’ve been struggling with some consistency and we really feel like we’ve turned the corner in multiple ways in the last two or three weeks, not because we’ve won the events, but because the cars have become more efficient, they’re accelerating better, and printing better time slips. A real tip of the hat to our whole crew.”

Racing at his home track, Glenn remained the point leader and advanced to the finals for the sixth time this season and the 23rd time in his career.

5 - CAPPS CRASHES - As a student of the game, Ron Capps knows the inherent dangers of driving a nitro-burning Funny Car. Sunday, the three-time NHRA Funny Car driver was given a reminder.

During the first round at the NHRA Northwest Nationals, Capps’ NAPA Auto Parts-sponsored Toyota Funny Car exploded an engine, sending it first into the right-side retaining wall and then across the track, where it made contact with the left wall. 

Capps was alert, exited the car under his own power, and was examined by the NHRA Medical Team on site before being released.

“I’m fine,” Capps said. “Thank God we got all of the new safety stuff in there because four, five, six years ago, that probably would have been – who knows – especially the head padding.”

Capps gave a shoutout to 17-time Funny Car champion John Force, who a month ago suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury [TBI] in an accident at the NHRA Virginia Nationals that was eerily similar to the one Capps experienced.  

“What John and his team have done have surely made that less on my body,” Capps said. “We were up staging the car and there were some [rain] drops, and I was like ‘Oh, boy.’ But I thought it wasn’t bad enough that we couldn’t run, and I know that Guido [Dean Antonelli, crew chief] was trying to throw down pretty good. 

“It shook loose. I was trying to pedal it and couldn’t get it going. I heard Gary [Densham] over there, and I knew he was a little bit in trouble, but then he started going again. I was looking out of my window and just trying to get it going again – nothing crazy -- and as I rolled in, that last pedal, I’ve been there before. The explosion, the concussion, and then the body is going.”
 
Capps said his team goes the extra mile to ensure the driver/team owner, is protected in the event of a crash like the one he experienced  Sunday. 

“Guido and the guys are great about the padding around my legs,” Capps said. “I think they got it from IndyCar and stuff, and that surely probably kept my legs from getting hurt bad. I just wanted to get out of the car and let my wife know I’m okay. I’m sure she is at home watching on NHRA.com, my family – I love them.”

Capps, who finished runner-up at the recently completed NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, lamented the loss of a car that was starting to hit its stride. 

“I just hate it,” Capps said. “We’ve finally turned the corner and are running great. I just felt so good about today and how we are doing. It will set us back a bit, but we have great race cars. Precision guys will get working on another car – we have got to get to Sonoma and get through it, but it definitely hurt the budget. The owner in me is really bummed, more than the driver.”

 

 

6 - LEE REACHES FIRST FINAL - For the most part, Paul Lee has been a machine in qualifying, but Sunday, he raced with precision accuracy and, as a result, reached his first career NHRA fuel Funny Car final round. Though he came up short, reaching the final round was a milestone. 

“Not a bad day,” Lee said. “One short, but we’re happy. Austin Prock and Jimmy Prock are so far ahead of everybody. We were happy to make it to the final and give them a little bit of a run, but we tried to run fast, and it just smoked the tires and didn’t hold.”
 
Lee, who entered the day as a 1,900-to-1 bet by PlayNHRA oddsmakers, admitted his tuning duo of rookie crew chief Jonnie Lindberg and semi-retired John Medlin were shooting for a high-3.8-second run. 

“We knew that they were going to run that,” Lee explained. “But it smoked the tires. That would’ve been a good race if it had held, but it didn’t. A lot of times it will hold, but it just didn’t hold today.”

Lee was an example of consistency, running a 3.91 and a 3.92 in the first two rounds and navigating a tricky semifinal racing surface with a 3.99 in the semis to beat Blake Alexander. 

Lee’s biggest challenge this season has been parlaying qualifying success into a longer day in eliminations. In Seattle, Lee came up one round short of tying his entire win total of 2024. 

“We’ve qualified well all season, but we just haven’t had any other race day luck at all,” Lee admitted. “You always need a little bit of luck. We’d win with second-low E.T. or third-low E.T., but we just didn’t have any of that. If we race anybody else, we’d have won. You just need some of that luck, and today we had it. 

“Qualifying No. 3 gives you choices. We chose to be the second pair, and we went out there and made our run. And then there was a lot of drama that happened. It was a two-hour round, but we got to do our round and got back to service the car. All that matters. When you qualify well, you get choices.”

Lee’s road to the final round included victories over Jeff Diehl, Matt Hagan and Alexander.

6B - HART’S UPSET VICTORY - In the first race after bringing John Stewart to his tuning team, Josh Hart drove away with a first-round victory over Norwalk winner Antron Brown. 

“I was very pleased with how this team bounced back after Norwalk and performed in qualifying this weekend,” said Hart, a two-time Top Fuel national-event winner. “We added veteran crew chief John Stewart to work with my primary crew chief Ron Douglas, plus we tested in Indianapolis last week. Those changes are starting to pay off this weekend.”

After two days of qualifying, Hart’s R+L Carriers Top Fuel dragster was the quickest for the first qualifying session Friday and the second-quickest for the final qualifying session. The team earned five bonus points for the effort and headed into race day as the No. 8 qualifier.
 
Hart got the jump off the starting line in the first round with a .065-second reaction time. Hart never trailed in the race, pulling away from Brown with a winning elapsed time of 3.742 seconds at 328.94 mph -- almost identical to his quickest run in qualifying.
 
“That was a big win for this R+L Carriers and Burnyzz Speed Shop Top Fuel team,” said Hart after the run. “There are a lot of guys working their tails off to move us in the right direction. I am so proud of everyone on this team that is pulling together to get us moving forward.”

Hart’s day ended in the second round against Shawn Langdon.

 

 

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7 - THE MARATHON FIRST ROUND - There was little funny about Sunday’s two-hour Funny Car first round. There were two crashes and two wall repairs, and if that weren't enough calamity, Mother Nature decided she would add a few sprinkles along the way. 

Following Ron Capps’ explosive wall-bender, Funny Car racer Dave Richards had his date with the wall. Richards launched with Matt Hagan, and  his Versatran Toyota Funny Car took a left and went nearly head-on into the retaining wall. 

“It just happened so fast,” Richards said. “Hit the gas, and I could tell I was starting to spin the tire, and as soon as I let off, I was pointing straight right and just yanking it back left, and there was nothing I could do. 

“I’m fine, thanks to Versatran and Bluebird Turf. They give us everything we need. We’ll be back. We’ll fix the car. We got other bodies. So most importantly, I’m fine, and I’m glad Ron Capps is fine earlier, and life goes on, and we’ll be back next week.”

 

 

8 - TAFC WINNER GORDON GETS MILESTONE AND FIRST WIN - Rookie Top Alcohol Funny Car driver Maddi Gordon became the 100th different female winner in NHRA history, picking up her first national-event victory in the class. 

“This is amazing. It doesn’t get any better than this,” Gordon said. “This is a dream. I’m a brand new driver, and this is amazing. I couldn’t be more thankful, and it just feels great.”

 

 

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9 - THE UNLIKELY MATCH - No matter how well one plays the Drag Racing Bracket Bonanza, the chances that someone picked Kenny Delco to meet Chris McGaha in the quarterfinal round is unlikely, at best.

McGaha has had a season up to this point he’d probably rather forget, winning one round in 10 races and failing to qualify at two. And Delco, who has raced part-time this season, didn’t even have his name included in the NHRA’s media statistics insert.

McGaha beat past national-event winner Deric Kramer on a holeshot, 6.560 to 6.523.

“I could tell it was close, but I was more concentrating on how slick it was down there,” McGaha said. “I don’t know if it’s just our car or us, that was making it feel that way but it was pretty slick. I feel like we could have gone a lot faster, but I guess all those years racing Comp and doing divisional paid off; I learned a lot running on them slick tracks, so it paid off.”

Delco, who admits he’s still adjusting to electronic fuel injection, stopped McGaha’s son Mason, who qualified third and reached the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge. Mason McGaha went -.052 red in the opening round. 

“It’s so hard with this fuel injection,” Delco said. “We’re trying to get a handle on it, but it’s tough. But we got a lot of power. Frank Iaconio builds a lot of power, and it’s up to us now to get it to go fast.”

10 - OVERHEARD - A few entertaining quotes we gathered over the weekend.

“They’ve had to deal with a lot out of these Torrences. We’re pretty high-strung folks.” - Steve Torrence on the patience of his Capco team throughout the team’s year-long victory drought.

“You’ll have to ask Jon O and Todd on that one; I’m just the goon driving this thing.” - J.R. Todd on what his team has done to make the DHL Toyota run well.

“It’s one of those things. It’d be here today, gone tomorrow. That’s how I look at it.” - Pro Stock Motorcycle champion Gaige Herrera said Friday about his incredible winning streak.

“We’ve qualified well all season, but we just haven’t had any other race day luck at all. You always need a little bit of luck.” - First-time Funny Car finalist Paul Lee on converting qualifying success into race day efficiency.

“I could tell it was close, but I was more concentrating on how slick it was down there.” - Pro Stock racer Chris McGaha on his second round win of the season, stopping Deric Kramer on a holeshot.

“Don’t let me get too excited and get too confident because then I’ll start getting cocky. And, hell, we might see old Steve come back every now and then.” - Torrence to NHRA announcer Jason Galvin in the Pacific Raceways winner’s circle. 

“We will keep on investing in the sport. We’ll keep on giving you what you want. Look for it next year because we’re going to tighten the show on Friday night.” - Pacific Raceways' president Jason Fiorito on Friday’s under the lights qualifying coming back in 2025.

 

 

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