Ron Capps maintained his points lead in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag
Racing Series Funny Car class following his first-round exit at the
NHRA Route 66 Nationals at Route 66 Raceway Sunday.

Del Worsham, who entered the event second in the standings, also was
ousted in the first round, moving Ashley Force Hood into that spot, but
with Force Hood’s runner-up finish today, winner Tony Pedregon has
jumped into second place and Capps is now (unofficially) 58 markers
ahead of him.

After a morning rain shower, track conditions cooled, clouds covered
the raceway and competition began. Without lane choice as the No. 16
qualifier, Capps faced off against the 2007 Funny Car world champion
and No. 1 qualifier Tony Pedregon in the opening stanza. Capps launched
a tick ahead of Pedregon, and, despite posting his quickest lap of the
weekend, 4.184 seconds at 296.37 mph, he lost to Pedregon, who took the
win by .0818 of a second with a 4.093/303.57 pass.

Ashley Force Hood battled the heat, rain and a host of strong
Funny Cars as she raced to a runner-up finish at the 12th annual United
Association NHRA Rt. 66 Nationals today. In the final she and eventual
winner Tony Pedregon left almost simultaneously but Force Hood’s
Castrol GTX Mustang smoked the tires about 200 feet from the starting
line. Force Hood pedaled quickly hoping to regain the lost momentum but
Pedregon pulled away from her for the win.

Ever since Clay Millican made the proclamation, headed into Topeka,
that his team had reached the point where they needed to make a run at
the points, the MPE/Motorvation Top Fuel dragster has been relentless.

Millican fell one round short of reaching consecutive final rounds when he smoked the tires against Antron Brown.

“That was one hell of an afternoon,” Matt Guidera admitted as he celebrated his first win of the season, his career fourth.

The weekend didn't start out quite so sweet. After the first two rounds
of qualifying Guidera was 14th fastest; not quick enough for one of the
top 12 locked in spots. The team went to work on the motor Friday night
but rain into trouble.

“We had trouble with pulling the valve springs on Friday night. We
actually couldn't get the valve springs out of the motor. We were
sitting there beating on the valve springs trying to get them out and
they just wouldn't budge. So, we ended up having to change motors just
so we could get fresh valve springs in the bike so we would have a
chance to go fast Saturday.”

Jeg Coughlin Jr. has won four NHRA Pro Stock championships by understanding one simple fact of drag racing. One cannot win a race if they don’t get to the finish line.

Coughlin won a class-leading fourth national event in 2009 by winning
the United Association NHRA Route 66 Nationals over No. 1 qualifier
Mike Edwards. The victory extends his points lead over second place
Edwards to 93 points.

"We've been fortunate to go to a lot of finals and win a lot of rounds
this year but we've also had times when we've had to outright abort
some runs," Coughlin said. "Our biggest goal for the weekend was to get
this JEGS.com Chevrolet Cobalt to go straight every run and get to the
finish line under power. We did that, thanks to the guys in our pit,
and this win is really just a result of that effort. It's very
satisfying."

Last year, Tony Pedregon lost a body and most of a chassis during a qualifying run for the Route 66 Nationals,
a race he eventually won.  This year Pedregon was as dominating as he
was last year, it just didn't cost him nearly as much to grab the win.

“We had a good race and run tough opponents all day,” said Pedregon
following an easy win of a tire-smoking Ashley Force Hood. “This win
cost a lot less than the win here last year did. That’s definitely a
good thing. The economy is tough so just like any other business is
feeling the heat, we are too. We are trying to stay competitive and be
the best we can be and use less, and I’m so proud for Quaker State.
Getting to the semi-finals and getting to some final rounds is great -
but it’s really all about winning. We feel confident that we are going
to make the Countdown, we just have to keep doing the work in order to
get there. We want to be in the top five, outside of that we just want
to win races.”

Fifteen years ago seems like yesterday to Spencer Massey.

As a 12-year old, Massey, an aspiring second-generation drag racer,
received a high-five from legendary Don “Snake” Prudhomme in
celebration of what would be the legend’s final national event victory.

That monumental victory came during Prudhomme’s 1994 Final Strike tour.
Little did that kid know that many years later, on a rain-delayed
Sunday afternoon in Joliet, he’d be celebrating a Top Fuel win just
like Prudhomme had done so many years ago. To add icing to the cake,
Massey's first NHRA Top Fuel win came in Prudhomme’s dragster.

“It really hasn’t all sunk in and this season has been a dream,” Massey
said. “I don’t want anyone to pinch me because I don’t want to wake up
from it. We’ve needed to do well and we’ve needed to go rounds.”

Extreme Pro Stock racer Brian Gahm has learned to be flexible and resourceful throughout his championship career. In winning
his second ADRL event of the season, the Lucasville, Ohio, driver had
no other choice but to prepare for two equally important runs on Friday
in Martin.

On one run, Gahm had to gain a solid berth in the race at hand, the
ADRL Summer Drags, and complete unfinished business from the ADRL
Memphis Drags.

“It didn’t mess with me but then again you have, no real choice, you
just have to load it up,” Gahm explained. “If you made a good run, you
got in and you have two more on Saturday. We did a good job of getting
down the track.”

Just weeks after notching his 100th NHRA divisional event win, Top
Alcohol Funny Car ace Frank Manzo scored NHRA national event win No.
80 this weekend at the United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals in
Joliet, Ill.  The Morganville, N.J., racer was joined in the winner’s
circle by Jim Whiteley, Grand Junction, Colo., who wheeled his Top
Alcohol Dragster to his second win in as many weeks.

ADRL Pro Extreme racers Jason Scruggs and Travis Swearingen used
Saturday afternoon at U.S. 131 Dragway to prove that if one cannot be
fast, they

Travis Swearingen fights to collect his 1941 Willys in first round action. (Rogert Richards)

can
still emerge spectacular. Scruggs blew an engine (and front end) to
smithereens in the first round of the ADRL Summer Drags while
Swearingen (and we’re being sarcastic) wrecked several times in two
seemingly-out-of-control passes but just didn’t hit anything.

Both racers will be in Topeka next month, but not before spending a few bucks in cosmetic and other repairs.

Scruggs came to the line in Saturday’s first round of eliminations with
a nearly two year old engine between the fenders of his Garret Race
Cars-built Camaro.