2011 NHRA FALL NATIONALS - EVENT NOTEBOOK
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SUNDAY NOTEBOOK -
RUN FORREST RUN! -
For the record, Vandergriff ran a wining an inglorious 4.243-second elapsed time at 239.44 mph in a tire-smoking pedalfest that for a few seconds prevented the crowd from having any idea who won."We've lost finals every way: wheel stand . . . Rotors in backward in the blower . . . just any way we could beat ourselves, we've lost. You get to questioning it. But we've got a great bunch of guys with us. I finally got the crew I've been looking for.
LOVELY, JUST FOR MAMA - It started with the rat trap and ended with his first victory of the year.
Michael Phillips, Pro Stock Motorcycle rider of The EDGE Pain & Performance Chips Suzuki, likes playfully to call himself "the bad boy of the class." And he was a bit cheeky Sunday, sneaking over to Hector Arana III's hauler, laying out a rat trap, then triggering it to snap shut and scare his on-track rival.
Phillips grinned at his prank in the pits. But it really was difficult to tell whether the wide smile under the cowboy hat was for that or because he upset the favored rookie Arana to win the AAA Texas Fall Nationals and claim his career seventh triumph in 15 final rounds. Maybe it was because he talked his 70-year-old mother, Aline, into coming to his particular race from her home in Baton Rouge, La.
In the end, the "bad boy of the class" admitted he really is "a Mama's boy,' saying of her presence, "It was sweet." He had invited her to come but she kept saying no, reminding him that she needed to stay out of the sun and that the Texas Motorplex would be scorching-hot. He said his hauler and RV were air-conditioned, so Friday morning, just before qualifying began, Aline Phillips "popped up at the racetrack."
She saw him break his misfortune of three straight first-round losses and win from the No. 14 spot in the lineup.
She saw him eliminate series champions Hector Arana and Eddie Krawiec and rookie U.S. Nationals runner-up Jerry Savoie to reach his fourth final of the season.
She saw him improve from 10th to seventh in the Countdown standings as the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series moves to Reading, Pa., this weekend for the Uni-Select Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway.
She saw him outrun Arana with a 6.979-seconds, 194.46-mph pass to the No. 1 qualifier's 7.010, 192.30 aboard the Lucas Oil Buell.
She saw him beat the 22-year-old Purdue University College of Technology student from Milltown, Ind., the one he teasingly called "this young whippersnapper." He beat the younger Arana in their only previous meeting, at Houston, so she saw him run his mark against the up-and-coming star to 2-0.
"We struggled. I just couldn’t get this bike to run to the 330(-foot mark). That's been my problem ever since last year," Phillips said. "My truck got broke into and I had some guys take my bike. Once I got the bike back, I never could get it to run good 330 times again. I've just been struggling with that, just trying different stuff, moving weight around on it. It still hasn't come around, but the bike's still been running strong from the 330 foot to the other end. I'm just trying to get the combination right from the starting line to the 330 foot."
Once Phillips does that, he said, his competitors had better look out. He said he was going to update some of his equipment, especially in the ignition and timing departments, before he heads north to Pennsylvania. That doesn't guarantee him the third race of the playoffs will be any easier, he said.
"It's never easy. You've got a lot of talent out there. You've just got to be smart and be on your game," Phillips said.
He said he has been wanting to hit the 200-mph mark and even has had a promise of bonus money from co-crew chief Robert Simmons if he can do it. Aline Phillips didn’t see that happen this weekend, for the team decided, "Let's just try to win the race. We just need to win. Don't worry about the money."
But Phillips said he had that longing to go 200. "We went back and forth, back and forth. . . . had a big ol' deal about it. We just threw that aside. we’ll just have to get it another time."
Besides, Mama taught her Michael not to be greedy.
Arana advanced past Jim Underdahl, LE Tonglet, and Matt Smith -- all top-eight Countdown drivers and the latter two series champions. To strengthen his bid for the Auto Club of Southern California's Road To The Future Award that's presented in November, he ran his final-round record to three races (pulling him within one final round of rookie rival Vincent Nobile of the Pro Stock class).
More important, he entered this race as the No. 6 Countdown driver and left as No. 3.
When Phillips defeated Eddie Krawiec May 1 at Houston to reach the final round, he said he wanted "to do something lovely."
He did that Sunday, saving his best effort of the season for his mama to see.
SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST SUNDAY - Cruz Pedregon realized after his first round loss in Charlotte that a change of strategy was necessary if he was to have a chance at the 2011 title. The two-time series champion’s intuitions were correct as he not only won the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals
but also pulled within seven points of the championship point leader Mike Neff.
Pedregon, on Sunday in Dallas, looked more like a methodic prize fighter than the bruising street fighter who leveled the field in Denver with an unheard of 4.07 run in the mile high altitude.
“Charlotte was a good example, we were just going up there swinging,” said Pedregon. “We are like a boxer trying to land the big punch and we were just missing and falling on the ground so to speak. We were just taking shots and we really never got on track and had a good showing. We raced Hagan tough in the second round but we didn’t really have our good car.
“So we came here with the mindset that it’s going to be hot and it’s going to be tricky. Let’s just really buckle down and forget about low elapsed time and that strategy worked out for us. That’s the way we need to race the rest of the year, we learned a valuable lesson. I think at the end of the day those records and those number one qualifiers are great but man it sure is better to go rounds on Sunday.”
Pedregon opened his day with a single when first round opponent Todd Simpson was shut off after the burnout. He ran a 4.239 to beat a tire-smoking Johnny Gray in the second round and then limped across the line with a 4.50 to beat Melanie Troxel, before besting Ron Capps to take the win.
On a day when Pedregon’s Snap-on Toyota ran a mild job more times than not, Pedregon’s said his confidence was exactly where it needed to be on race day.
“This car was just so good all weekend,” Pedregon said. “I think this is the best race car I’ve ever had, with the exception of one out of eight runs. We slipped up in the semis against Melanie. The track was hot; about the hottest of the weekend and we got a little bit aggressive with it on a few runs.”
Sunday in Dallas, Pedregon felt as if he had no other choice than to swing a little harder while keeping a close eye on a racing surface which had been gobbling up aggressive tuners all day long.
“Coming into this event, Neff and Hagan were four and a half rounds out -- to me that’s an eternity,” said Pedregon. “I hoped that if someone took them out early and we could go some rounds, forget winning, just go more rounds than them we could kind of get back to reality.
“They went out and the track conditions did their part so we cashed in. Somebody asked me earlier what I think of the Countdown, I love the Countdown. Six races is long enough to yield a good average, whoever comes out of this is going to deserve it whether it’s us or them or whoever. When it’s time to go to the banquet that guy is going to be the champ because there’s hot, cold all these different tracks.”
For now, Pedregon is only looking to next weekend’s event in Reading where he’ll likely face a new set of conditions. He’ll also look back and remember Dallas, a survival of the fittest kind of event.
“We were still aggressive but not quite as aggressive,” said Pedregon. “We felt very confident going into the final. I kind of saw some things where we could have been aggressive but there were parts in the track where you really couldn’t be aggressive. We were aggressive but we knew we couldn’t run a 4.10 or a 4.09 so we thought we’d just run.”
Pedregon did just that. He ran right over the field and right back into serious title contention.
ABNORMAL ACTIVITY - Jason Line believes about the only thing that wasn’t wacky about the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals is the quickest car on the property won the event.
However, since he was the one with the fastest car and the No. 1 qualifier, the end result was something clearly out of the normal.
Five times prior Line has started race day from the No. 1 seed and all five times he fell short of the winner’s circle.
On a Sunday when the contenders were falling like flies, Line tiptoed through a minefield of uncertainty to deliver the big win for the Summit Racing-sponsored KB Racing.
“It was a huge win for us and I guarantee you there’s no one who could possibly be happier than me right now,” said Line, who with the victory picked up his fifth win of the season.
“This was a big day for us and the fact we actually get to get it done, and I’ll tell you, I felt like garbage all day long. This was the worse that I had driven all day long. I finally managed to pull myself together for the final round and we made a great run at the same time.”
Nailing the top spot and falling short of the win, Line will attest, can have a more detrimental effect than squeaking into the field and losing later.
“To have that kind of a car and not win, you feel like you are letting your guys down,” Line said. “Whatever confidence you have at that point, it just gets drained out of you. It’s a big deal to win from the No. 1 spot.”
But it wasn’t easy for Line, who had a front row seat back in staging as Countdown players, most noticeably teammate Greg Anderson [Chris] McGaha along with Vincent Nobile [Steve Kent], Mike Edwards [Larry Morgan], Allen Johnson [Kurt Johnson], Rodger Brogdon [Erica Enders] and Ron Krisher [Ronnie Humphrey] were all sent packing early.
“I knew I couldn’t lose again,” Line admitted. “I struggled focusing all day. Watching everyone lose in front of me, I hated that. From now on, I need to go up front, it’s tough to watch that happen. It puts pressure on me.”
Knowing he had an opportunity to put points between himself and the field was of little solace to Line, whose confidence was less than solid on Sunday.
“I’ll be honest I was s******g rocks all day,” admitted Line. “I was scared to death. All I could think about was losing to Warren and he hadn’t won a round all year and I had to race him. All of the top qualified cars were going out. All I could think about was, ‘why wouldn’t I be next on the list. Somehow it worked out in our favor and I’m so happy I can’t stand it.”
A good measure of what did pull Line through in the face of adversity was inspiration. Line admittedly was racing for team owner Ken Back, who is still in the rehab stages of a severe stroke, as well as team publicist Jon Knapp.
Line dedicated his victory to Knapp, who has only been to one the last three events while undergoing treatment for an unspecified illness.
“He has a tough fight ahead of him,” said Line. “Other than my wife, he’s probably one of my biggest supporters. He’s one of a kind.”
And, so was Line’s victory.
QUICK HITS - RACE REPORTING IN RAPID FASHION
TOP FUEL
FIRST ROUND
WHODA THUNK? - As track announcer Alan Rinehart pointed out, few would have thought a 92-degree racetrack in only the second match-up of the day would be the right conditions for anyone post low elapsed time and top speed of the weekend. But 
Spencer Massey said, "That's not what [FRAM-Prestone Dragster crew chiefs] Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler thought." Massey, the Don Schumacher Racing star and Fort Worth native who considers this his home track, did just that, at 3.835 seconds with a track-record 324.05 mph.
GETTING BETTER - Larry Dixon was the only dragster driver besides Spencer Massey to run both quicker and faster in the first round than he did in qualifying. In the Al-Anabi Dragster and running in the next pairing than Massey and Shawn Langdon, Dixon posted a 3.859-second E.T. at 322.73 mph, better than his No. 5 numbers: 3.888, 313.51.
HOT ROD TOO HOT - Terry McMillen, bumped from the field in Saturday's first qualifying session, rejoined the field in his final chance and declared, "We're racin' on Race Day! Woo-hoo! We've got a chance!" Hot Rod Fuller threw a wet blanket on that celebration, using the mojo from his cheering gallery of friends and sponsorship colleagues from C&J Energy Services, Wal-Mart, and Nestle / DiGiorno to beat McMillen with a 3.901 to a 3.955-second E.T. that would have beaten points leader Antron Brown. Said Fuller, "I'm going to have some fun racin'."
POINTS LEADER 'UPSET' WINNER?!? - It might sound weird to say that points leader Antron Brown survived the opening round on an upset victory, but that's what the Matco Tools / Toyota Dragster driver did from the No. 11 starting position. No. 6 Doug Kalitta had lane choice but lost traction. Brown did, too, but recovered to clock a 4.095, 270.00 victory.
SCHUMACHER'S STRATEGY - Top qualifier Tony Schumacher, whose first-round victory run was faster at 320.20 mph than was his best qualifying speed, said after defeating Scott Palmer, "It's going to get hot. The crew chiefs have to be smart, and we have the smartest bunch of guys working on the U.S. Army car. You don't have to run low E.T. You just have to get there first."
CAN'T LET HEAD TURN - Brandon Bernstein certainly is proud of his father, Kenny Bernstein, who was honored Sunday morning not only for sharing NHRA Legend status for this race with Raymond Beadle and Texas Motorplex owner Billy Meyer but also for his announcement that he and John Force both will be inductees for the International Motorsports Hall of Fame's Class of 2012. But, Brandon Bernstein said, he had to approach this second event of the Countdown to the Championship as "another drag race." He said, "We put all that aside." It's a good thing he did, for he needed every ounce of energy he could find to advance to the second round past fellow Texan Steve Torrence, who was eager to show well in his debut as a team owner-driver. Bernstein won, 3.900 to 4.004, to earn a match-up he'll again need to concentrate heavily. He'll take on Larry Dixon in the quarterfinals.
QUARTER-FINALS
'MEANS THE WORLD - Brandon Bernstein, No. 7 in the standings after Charlotte, helped his cause in the Countdown, eliminating Larry Dixon in the second round of action at the Texas Motorplex. "It means the world to me," the Copart Dragster driver said after winning with a 3.930-second, 314.46-mph pass. "That is the top-top-top team out here, and he's a great driver."
ATTRITION - Six of the 10 Countdown drivers were sidelined Sunday by the end of the quarterfinals, and No. 9 Morgan Lucas failed to qualify.
GIANT KILLER - Countdown non-participant Bob Vandergriff struck a staggering blow to Del Worsham in the first round at Charlotte, and he continued his upset ways in the second round here. He upset No. 1 qualifier Tony Schumacher, denying the U.S. Army Dragster driver another shot at his first victory of the season and hurting his chances to break out of the fifth spot in the playoff order.
GOING BACKWARD - Del Worsham lost his nearly season-long points lead and slipped to No. 3 in the standings with a first-round defeat at Charlotte last week. The Al-Anabi / Toyota Dragster driver's luck didn't get much better in Texas. Spencer Massey eliminated him in the second round. That marks the first time in six races and only the second time in 10 races that he failed to reach at least the semifinals. With that, both Al-Anabi cars were gone from contention. What's worse for Worsham, the NHRA fined him $1,000 and docked him 10 points for oiling down the right lane.
MASSEY READY - Spencer Massey, the only Top Fuel driver to win from the left lane in Round 2, said he was ready for anything after watching Hot Rod Fuller, Tony Schumacher, and Larry Dixon -- the latter two among the top five Countdown drivers -- lose in his lane ahead of him. After beating Del Worsham, Massey said, "Al-Anabi, Del Worsham -- this is what it's all about. It was another good run. He's killer on the tree, and this car's killer." He was referring to his own FRAM-Prestone Dragster.
SEMI-FINALS
IT ENDS AT 15 – Earlier in the season, Massey had a streak of smokeless runs which exceeded 30 but those runs didn’t necessarily equate to victories. For Antron Brown, he’s had some really good runs, some ugly ones and others where he squeaked out a victory in the last 15 times he pulled to the starting line. The one thing these runs had in common we’re that they lit the win-light.
Massey ran a 3.917, 315.54 to end a weekend for Brown where his team appeared to struggle.
The win also put Massey into the point lead.
REVENGE IS SWEET – Bob Vandergriff Jr. believes he has 12 good reasons why he needs to take out the newly christened point leader Spencer Massey, who beat Antron Brown to advance to the final round. Vandergriff eliminated Brandon Bernstein in the semi-finals.
“I’ve been in this position before,” said Vandergriff, whose chances for a Countdown position were dashed with an early loss to Bernstein. “I think I am just going to go over there and punch Spencer in the mouth so he can’t come up there in the final round and race. I need to figure out how to win one of these d*** things.”
FINALS
YES!!! - The 14th time is the charm for Bob Vandergriff Jr.
Vandergriff ran a tire-smoking 4.243, 239.44 to outrun Spencer Massey for his first title since entering the Top Fuel ranks seventeen years ago. He celebrated the momentous occasion by jogging down the track in full firesuit to the starting line.
In winning, Vandergriff became the 41st winner in the history of NHRA Top Fuel.
FUNNY CAR
FIRST ROUND
THE HAGAN TRAIN ROLLS – The same Matt Hagan train which steamrolled Charlotte last week was conspicuously missing over the days of Dallas qualifying. A little before Noon CST, the Diehard Express came limping through and picked up point leader 
Mike Neff, his final round victim in the Charlotte event.
In reality, Neff missed the train as Hagan thundered by on a holeshot victory with a 4.172 to 4.151 decision.
Hagan wasn’t really sure if the victory could be categorized as a holeshot win.
“Not sure if it was or not, us Funny Car drivers are not gentlemen, sometimes we jab them in there [staging],” Hagan said.
The victory will likely ensure Hagan leaves the event as point leader.
“Mike Neff, he’s Superman … this win was huge,” said Hagan. “He’s one of the best out here. He’s got his hands full and a lot on his mind as well. This was a huge, huge win for our DSR team. The chips have been down all weekend. We’ve been battling and struggling to make this thing go down the race track. We’ve been fighting a gremlin in the clutch department.”
JUST SHUT UP AND DRIVE – Usually the second quickest car in the field isn’t in the first pair down the track. This tradition changed in Funny Car as Johnny Gray’s team accepted the challenge and scored the win with a 4.173 to beat Paul Lee.
Gray admitted he had no input in the decision.
“I just do what I am told, get in, sit down … shut up and hold on,” admitted Gray.
HE IS HIS BROTHER’S KEEPER – Moments before Jon Capps and Countdown qualifier Jerry Arend staged, NHRA announcer Bob Frey proclaimed that Jon Capps could be the sleeper in Sunday’s eliminations. For at least one run, Capps made him look like a betting genius by using a 4.237, 291 to take out Countdown qualifier Jeff Arend.
“That was a big round,” said Capps, who is being tuned by Paul Smith this weekend. “I almost feel as a tall as Alan Reinhart. It’s great to be out here and I never know when I will get a chance to do this again. It’s special.”
Capps did his older brother Ron a favor by providing wiggle room as his sibling carried 22 points over Arend headed into Dallas.
For his part, Ron took out Tony Pedregon in the first round with a 4.186.
THE GORILLA IN THE OTHER LANE – Cruz Pedregon soloed to a first round victory when opponent and No. 16 seed Todd Simpson broke on the burnout. Pedregon, the No. 1 qualifier wasn’t taking any chances on lane choices as he soloed to a 4.160, 281.
Pedregon, who is No. 4 in championship points, made the point clear on Friday, that he planned to pick up every available point he could over the course of the weekend.
“It’s not anticlimactic, I have King Kong in the other lane regardless,” Pedregon said of how approaches a single. “It might make you feel better [knowing it’s a single] but you still have to go down the track.”
TROXEL CONTINUES ROLL – For the team which failed to qualify for the first third of the season, the In-n-Out-sponsored Toyota driven by Melanie Troxel continues to make the past a distant memory. In the first round, she took out the No. 4 qualifier Robert Hight, who smoked the tires and lifted early.
“There’s obviously a lot of people out here racing with an agenda, and in the Countdown and we are here to ruin their day,” Troxel said. “We are now showing our potential. Even though we are in only our second year of this sponsorship, we are growing and learning. We are coming of age and trying to live up to the great expectations. We haven’t shown what we are capable of but we are about to.”
BECKMAN GOES LOW – Jack Beckman used to a 4.148, 309.63 run to score low elapsed time of the first round and eliminate the No. 10 Countdown seed Tim Wilkerson.
“That wasn’t a big first round match up … it was a HUGE one,” said Beckman. “Anytime you can get a Countdown car with only so many rounds left, it’s huge.”
DOWN GOES JFR – If Bob Tasca III had his druthers, he’d have raced against a Mopar, Toyota or a Chevrolet. Instead his 4.175, 300 eliminated John Force, the last remaining member of his three-car team and ensured Tasca as the final Ford left in competition.
QUARTER-FINALS
CAPPS BEATS GRAY – The left lane which has appeared so strongly in the first round of competition drew the attention of Johnny Gray, who had lane choice in the quarter-finals against teammate Ron Capps.
Gray smoked the tires early and often as Capps sped away with a 4.228, 301 victory. Capps unofficially moved up to fifth in points with the win.
NO SECOND GUESSING – Cruz Pedregon didn’t have any second guesses about the left lane despite watching Johnny Gray lose his race because of tire smoke. Instead his Toyota went right down the track with a 4.239 for the win.
“I had thought about it [changing lanes] but I asked my guys about it because I am just sitting in the car,” Pedregon said. “The lanes are pretty much even; I don’t worry about buying too much into lane choice.”
HE AIN’T HEAVY … HE’S MY SEMI-FINAL OPPONENT – Jon Capps, for as long as he could remember, dreamed of racing his brother Ron on the big stage of the NHRA series. For the first time since either entered nitro racing, they earned the right for the chance to race in the competition.
Jon advanced to his first-ever semi-final round by knocking off first round low elapsed time runner Jack Beckman with a 4.311. Moments before their race, Beckman made the call to change lanes from the left to right.
TROXEL THE SPOILER – Melanie Troxel, after taking out Robert Hight, said she intended to play the role of spoiler in the Countdown. In two rounds of competition she managed to take out two of them and used a 4.425 to end the strong run of Matt Hagan.
“We [as a team] are about as excited as Texas is about having an In-n-Out Burger here,” said Troxel. “Nobody needs these wins more than this team.”
SEMI-FINALS
YES, IT WAS UGLY – The Funny Car semis produced winning elapsed times which wouldn’t have qualified for the sixteen-car field.
Cruz Pedregon’s Toyota dropped cylinders and smoked tires en route to a 4.501 to beat Melanie Troxel.
In a battle of the brothers, older sibling Ron Capps smoked the tires and pedaled his way to a 5.143, 156 victory over Jon, who smoked the tires early and often in the match.
Surprisingly, Pedregon’s 4.501 was enough to gain lane choice.
“We got greedy on the clutch,” Pedregon admitted.
Capps nearly scraped the wall and admitted his dirt track oval racing was a help in this instance.
“I was afraid I was going to have to get out and fix my car,” Ron said. “It was like driving in the Prelude.”
FINALS
MOVING ON UP - Cruz Pedregon fulfilled his wish to gain points while the leaders fell early by stopping Ron Capps in the finals. Pedregon moved into third place in the championship points, just seven away from leader Mike Neff.
Pedregon scored his 29th career victory with a 4.200, 302.48 to outrun Ron Capps’ 4.270, 293.66.
“It doesn’t win a championship for us but it puts in the middle of it,” Pedregon said of the victory.
PRO STOCK
FIRST ROUND
NAILBITING TIME – Normally Jason Line doesn’t sweat running the No. 16 qualifier, although he’ll readily admit anyone can win from any spot in the Pro Stock class. The No. 1 qualifier watched lightning strike multiple times as nearly all Countdown 
qualifiers were struck down in the first round by non-championship teams.
Line returned a sense of normalcy as he ran a 6.611 208 to eliminate Warren Johnson.
Greg Stanfield, last year’s Countdown surprise, beat V. Gaines on a holeshot.
DOWN GOES THE COUNTDOWNERS – No.’s 1, 5 and 7 were the only championship contenders left in competition as Greg Anderson [Chris] McGaha, Vincent Nobile [Steve Kent], Mike Edwards [Larry Morgan], Allen Johnson [Kurt Johnson], Rodger Brogdon [Erica Enders] and Ron Krisher [Ronnie Humphrey] were all sent packing.
No. 9 ranked Shane Gray failed to qualify.
BEAUDREAU ROLLS AGAIN – The likeable Steve Kent, whose Cajun background garners him the Beaudreau nickname, strapped a .007 light on the kid Vincent Nobile and led him to the finish line for a 6.64 to 6.66 decision.
Up until last weekend’s Charlotte semi-final finish, Kent hadn’t won a round. He’s gotten three in four rounds of competition.
QUARTER-FINALS
MAKING HAY – For a racer who had an excellent opportunity to put some distance between himself and the rest of the championship field, Jason Line’s actions against Greg Stanfield nearly cost him. Line spotted Stanfield .05 on the starting line and came within a .014 of a second of blowing his chance.
Line ran Stanfield down with a 6.624 to beat Stanfield’s 6.685.
“Obviously I’m a bit nervous,” Line said. “This is a tough position to be in. It’s great to be here in this position.”
A GOOD DAY IN TEXAS – Erica Enders understands one simple scenario. If SHE HAS A GOOD DAY IN Texas, the points will follow. Thus far Enders, who could move up with a final round appearance, moved one step further with a 6.649 to beat surprising semi-finalist Chris McGaha.
“I’m happy to be back home racing here in Texas,” said Enders. “But we have our work cut out for us. I am so stoked.”
ANOTHER SEMI IN THE BAG – At worst, Steve Kent can tie his career-best finish – a semi-final appearance. Kent advanced to the semis when Ronnie Humphrey fouled. This was a lucky break for Kent who shook the tires and lifted just shy of third gear.
Kent races teammate Erica Enders who took out his other teammate Rodger Brogdon in the first round.
SIX IN A ROW – KJ scored his sixth round win in a row with a 6.654 to beat Larry Morgan.
SEMI-FINALS
THE ROLL CONTINUES – Kurt Johnson scored his seventh consecutive round win by knocking off Erica Enders with a 6.658, 207.82.
“It’s just a lot of work,” said Johnson of the turnaround his team has made. Johnson hadn’t won a race in three years when he won Charlotte last weekend.
“We have had a new chassis and for the last three years, we have come to the races wondering if we could do this [win] again.”
A REMATCH IS IN ORDER – Jason Line defeated the upset-minded Steve Kent in the semi-finals for the second event in a row. He lost lane choice in the final round.
“I didn’t like that lane anyway,” said Line, jokingly. “We’ve had a good day points wise. We just need to finish this one off.”
FINALS
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED - Jason Line moved into an all-time wins [26] tie with Lee Shepherd at eighth by beating Kurt Johnson in the final round.
Line avenged a final round red-light by beating KJ off of the starting line and leading him across the finish line with a 6.633, 208.46. For his part, Johnson ran a 6.663, 207.85 in losing.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE
FIRST ROUND
OH, MAN . . . - Hector Arana leaned back on his Lucas Oil Buell, threw his arms up to the sky in some mixture of "Why me?!" and "What is going on?!" frustration. His bike had failed to fire at the starting line. Then Arana quickly waved up his crew with a starter, for NHRA rules allow a restart, time permitting. By that time, though, Michael Phillips was off and running down the right lane to a 6.960-second, 196.10-mph solo victory. Phillips will take on points leader Eddie Krawiec.
"It's really disappointing," Arana said, a much more deflated racer than the one who whooped it up Saturday that he was "going to party" after his son, Hector III, qualified No. 1 and he grabbed the No. 3 spot.
"I thought everything was fixed but something else happened. We've been plagued with a lot of [mechanical trouble]," Arana said. He said of his bike, "It just quit. I don't know what happened."
GOING RED - Matt Smith eliminated Shawn Gann, but both of his teammates, including wife Angie Smith, red-lit. Michael Ray was seven-thousandths of a second too early on the launch, and Angie Smith fouled out by a mere two-thousandths of a second.
TOUGH BREAK FOR ELLIS - Jerry Savoie and his White Alligator Racing Suzuki advanced past Chip Ellis, who cut an .007 light but saw his bike break early in the first Pro Stock Motorcycle run of the day. Savoie, who triggered the war of words with the Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson contingent at Indianapolis and Charlotte, will face Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson rider Andrew Hines in the second round.
STAKES RISE - Karen Stoffer got a freebie against the red-lighting Michael Ray in the first round, but the stakes rose when she learned in the final pairing of the round that in the quarterfinals she would face Matt Smith. Stoffer is No. 2 in the Countdown standings, and Smith entered No. 3, just 53 points behind her.
QUARTER-FINALS
COUNTDOWN RIDERS FALTER - Six Countdown riders were eliminated before the semifinals, including the top two (Eddie Krawiec and Karen Stoffer) and top-five participants Andrew Hines and LE Tonglet.No. 3 Matt Smith was the only top-five survivor of the quarterfinals. Nos. 9 and 10 -- Jerry Savoie and Michael Phillips, respectively -- advanced to the Final Four.
HOLESHOTS - The bike quarterfinals got started with holeshot victories from No. 14 qualifier Michael Phillips and No. 10 Jerry Savoie. Phillips, riding a Suzuki, eliminated points leader Krawiec with a 7.016-second pass at 191.81 mph that was slower than Harley-Davidson rider Krawiec's 6.984, 192.25. Krawiec's Vance & Hines teammate Andrew Hines, the No. 2 starter, bit the dust in the next pairing, as Savoie clocked a 6.968, 188.86 to Hines' quicker and faster 6.961, 192.49.
SAVOIE SAVORS IT - After defeating Andrew Hines, Jerry Savoie couldn't resist taking a shot at the Screamin' Eagle / Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson team, which saw V-Twin rider and points leader Eddie Krawiec drop out in that round, too.
Savoie kept the Suzuki riders' mouthy feud with the Harley-Davidson riders going, saying that his answer to what he wanted to eat for lunch was "a lot of chicken!"
SEMI-FINALS
IT’S THE ROOKIE – Hector Arana Jr. said in Indianapolis with his victory that he wants to throw his hat into the Rookie of the Year ring and since Indianapolis has done just that. The second-generation bike rider advanced to his second final round of the season on a single when Matt Smith’s bike wouldn’t start.
“We are good for the finals, got real aggressive. The bike shot me towards the wall. I could have rode it out but I knew we had the win already,” Arana said.
PHILLIPS BEATS SAVOIE – In a week where parity has been questioned, Michael Phillips ensured his Edge Pain & Performance Chips Suzuki would be a representative of the brand in the finals. He outran Jerry Savoie for the final round berth.
FINALS
THAT’S JUST LOVELY - The final round was a battle between a Suzuki and a Buell.
Michael Phillips scored his first Pewter Wally and seventh career victory with a 6.97, 194 to beat Hector Arana Jr. Arana was the first off of the line but lifted early with a 7.01
The win represented the 50th manufacturer victory for Suzuki.
SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - QUALIFYING IS IN THE BOOKS
TO THE TOP HE GOES - Tony Schumacher hasn't won a race this season, but what bugs him more is that with his performance Saturday at the AAA Texas Fall Nationals, he has led the field as many times as he has won -- 67 times.
TIME TO GAIN GROUND? - Cruz Pedregon had a plan and he stuck to his guns on Saturday at the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals hosted by the Texas Motorplex outside of Dallas.
The two-time series champion, after nailing down an impressive provisional No. 1 qualifying effort on Friday evening, said he planned to use Saturday’s two qualifying sessions to hone in his consistency for Sunday’s eliminations.
Pedregon only garnered one bonus point in the third and fourth qualifying rounds but remained within .02 of the quickest cars all day. Ron Capps proved to be the quickest racer on Saturday with a 4.19.
“This weekend I am so happy and it’s almost hard to put into words,” Pedregon said. “It’s one thing to make a great run but it’s another to come out and make good, respectable runs in the heat. I’m hoping this will show well for us tomorrow. We’ve been good at making one or two runs during a race and then fizzle out.
“Credit the team because we make good decisions. We tried to hang in there and Billy Meyer’s Texas Motorplex still has plenty of grip.”
Pedregon has experienced success at the Motorplex with wins in the fall events in 1992 and 1994.
“It’s been a dry spell for us and I remember coming here in the McDonald’s car and later the Joe Gibb’s car and punched it in the winner’s circle a few times,” said Pedregon. “But it has been a long dry spell for us here. This is probably one of the best cars I’ve brought here. It’s the same game plan as always but this time we are going to try like heck to close the deal. There’s a lot of competition and some interesting match-ups that have points implications that could be good for us but we have to do our part.”
Pedregon faces No. 16 Todd Simpson in the first round but promises to keep an eye on the key Countdown to 1 match-ups; Mike Neff versus Matt Hagan, Jack Beckman versus Tim Wilkerson and John Force versus Bob Tasca III. If Pedregon wins his match, he could meet the winner of the Tasca and Force meeting.
“The biggest thing is you have to stop the top two [point earners] because they can go late rounds. With Hagan and Neff racing one another in the first round, that’s a good thing for us. It’s not too late [make up ground] but you don’t want to lose any. At this point, I’d rather be the one getting chased than the chaser.”
TESTING WHILE ON TOP - Jason Line drove his way to a fourth consecutive No. 1 qualifier on a day where he admittedly wasn’t the fastest car in qualifications.
Mike Edwards, who procured six points, while running in conditions which mirrored what is expected for Sunday was fastest in both rounds Saturday at the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals.
Line maintained the top spot on the strength of Friday’s 6.553, 210.60, a run which snagged both ends of the Texas Motorplex track record.
“I thought maybe there was a chance the run wouldn’t hold, but it did and it worked out fine,” Line said. “We’re pretty excited about getting the four in a row. That’s cool and we have a good car headed into Sunday.”
Good car or not, Line realized on Saturday that Edwards had grabbed away a lion’s share of the momentum procured on the first day.
“Mike ran a lot quicker than I thought he was going to run,” Line said. “He ran really well. For the first time in a while we haven’t got the best car headed into Sunday.”
Line can probably blame his Saturday results a decision to rest on Friday’s laurels with his car, while remaining on the aggressive course with teammate Greg Anderson’s car. Line admitted his team used the cushion from Friday to test a few unspecified things for Sunday, none of which, he believes worked.
“Greg’s yes, but mine we tested a little bit on something,” Line said when asked if he tested on Saturday. “It’s a possibility but clearly not the same direction as Greg. That’s the luxury of running good on Friday you can test things you normally wouldn’t.
This marked the sixth 2011 qualifier for Line and the 23rd of his career.
HERE'S A LESSON - School is back in session for Hector Arana III.
But the engineering student at Purdue University's College of Technology at New Albany, Ind., was the teacher in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class Saturday at the AAA Texas Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex.
Aboard his Lucas Oil Buell, Arana earned the fourth No. 1 spot of his rookie season with a track-record 6.828-second elapsed time and a 196.02-mph top speed. He'll meet Jim Underdahl in the first round of Sunday's eliminations.
It doesn't matter who he will face first, though. Said the 22-year-old, "I need to beat 'em all. I there to beat them all."
His dad, Hector Arana, will start from the No. 3 spot and go against Michael Phillips, who used the final qualifying session to register the fastest speed of the meet so far at 197.22 mph.
Although Arana III said his team is "just doing our routine," [reparation for this race was a bit different than usual. While he flew home from last week's Charlotte event, attended school all week, and flew in to Dallas Thursday night, he hasn't spent a lot of time with his bike. His dad, his brother Adam, and crew chief Dan Gonzalez worked on motors "Gracie" and "Charlotte" and prepped the two bikes.
"It sucks they're on the road," Arana Jr. said earlier this week. I wish them all the best in getting everything together."
They took his good-luck wishes and parlayed them into a bike that the younger Arana said "finally came to us. We found a tune-up and we're back to where we need to be."
He swiped the top spot from Friday leader Andrew Hines in the third overall qualifying session Saturday. "We just did a couple of little tune-up adjustments," he said.
He said, "The power was always there. We were just kind of lost coming off the starting line, but we fixed that, and we're back on the pole."
Arana's approach to eliminations is simple: "staying consistent and having good reaction times."
Overall, he said, "We're just doing our routine and everything is falling into place."
MILLER FINDING KEY TUNING HINTS - Bill Miller said some of the credit for Troy Buff's pleasantly surprising mid-pack run (that was at the top of the Top Fuel chart for awhile Friday) in the BME / Okuma Dragster goes to "somebody older and wiser." In
this case, that's Connie Kalitta.(Actually, he first bluffed, "We got lucky. That's all. Trust me -- just got lucky. No skill involved whatsoever.")
"After the Bristol blow-up, Connie said it's got too much compression in it, and I agreed," Miller said. "I kind of knew it did, anyway, but sometimes you need reassurance from somebody older and wiser, you know? That means somebody who's blown up more stuff than you have. But I'm slowly catching him."
Turning more serious, Miller said, "So I lowered the compression and slowed the blower back down and fiddled with the clutch a bit. Now the engine's back on the other side. It's just much happier." He said running on a clean track was an advantage. "We were the first car on a freshly scraped track, so there wasn't any clutch dust. There wasn't any oil or residue. And that helps. A lot of guys don't like running on that, but I do. It definitely didn't hurt me."
He said this newfound performance doesn't mean he is abandoning his research-and-development approach to Top Fuel racing.
"My deal is coming out here, trying to learn things. You've got to try it or you don't know. What we're doing is running the car the way I think it should be run. It's like [Dale] Armstrong told me once: 'you’re not out here because you think you're dumber than the rest of these guys. You're out here because you think you're smarter than the rest of these guys.' The car's the great divider," Miller said. "It tells you whether you are."
He confirmed that his mission hasn't changed. "This is an R&D project for me: learn a lot of things, test a lot of things," he said. "There's no way you could compete with the Al-Anabi cars or the Schumacher [Don Schumacher Racing] cars or [Brandon / Kenny] Bernstein."
Challenged that he surely thinks his mind is as sharp as Al-Anabi / Toyota team manager Alan Johnson's, Miller said, "We might be equal in intelligence, but the man has about a zillion world championships, which means that for every run I make, he has 50."
Buff closed Friday's first day of qualifying in seventh place -- but enjoyed being second-quickest for awhile. "It was cool to qualify No. 2, " he said, "but it was good for only one hour." He predicted he'd stay in the middle of the pack, and he was right-on. He'll race out of the No. 9 spot, starting against No. 8 Bob Vandergriff.
Buff, of Spring, Texas, said Top Fuel fans and rivals can expect to see more of his improved performance. "I think we're onto something good. It's working. It's not hurting itself. That makes it easier for me. I have more confidence in the car. It makes my job easier."
He joked that he might not want to become too good, saying the BME / Okuma team would be skipping next week's Uni-Select Auto Parts Nationals at Reading, Pa. --"unless we win here. Actually, if we win here, I'd probably lose my job, because Bill would probably retire."
Miller, Buff, and the Carson City, Nev.-based team will be at the Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Pomona, Calif., events.
TORRENCE IMPRESSIVE - Steve Torrence raced Friday for the first time since mid-May, at Atlanta, but already by the end of the opening day of the AAA Texas Fall Nationals he had broken his streak. His brand-new Capco Contractors Dragster already was
filled with "worn" parts. He arrived with all brand-new equipment and parts for his start-up operation, his own team."Everything is new. Even the smallest thing you can think of is brand-new, even the fuel jug. We had nothing - just a checkbook and a cell phone," Torrence said. "We've come a long way in a short period of time. My hat's off to every guy on this team that [crew chief] Richard Hogan and Brian Shipman have put together. John Force, Alan Johnson, and Morgan Lucas also have helped us get to where we're at.
"I couldn't be more pleased with the way everything has turned out -- where we're at, the shop location, the guys working on the car," he said. Oh, and the No. 11 spot he occupied overnight Friday.
The Kilgore, Texas, native's return to the racetrack was impressive with his 3.999-second elapsed time at 301.67 mph on the 1,000-foot course (despite losing the blower belt at 800 feet) at the Texas Motorplex, his "home" track. "We didn't run very well on our second run. The engine dropped a cylinder and we slowed down (to 4.019, 299.77). But we did go down the track on both our runs, and we stayed in the top 12."
Torrence slipped to 13th by the third session and remained there, but he nevertheless was pleased, he said, with his first outing as a team owner.
"I like controlling my own destiny," he said. "Growing up, I wanted to drive a Top Fuel dragster, just to drive one." He said he wasn't sure he ever would, "let alone have a family-owned team. To be able to go to the shop in Indy (Brownsburg, Ind.) and say, 'This is all our stuff' . . . nothin' beats that."
He even has a John Force Racing connection to inspire him.
"I rent space from John Force, and it's unbelievable. Who better to have a shop from than the King of Drag Racing?" Torrence said. "Everything is right at your fingertips. Anything you need you can get instantly." His shop is connected to the Eric Medlen Project building -- "My front door looks at Morgan's [Lucas'] shop."
He said he hasn't had a chance yet to sit down and visit with Force, "but anything that we've needed, his guys have been right there to help," Torrence said. He said Force never has inquired about the logistics of running a dragster, perhaps contemplating fielding a Top Fuel entry. "I'm not going to say I know a whole lot about it," he said, "but we've got one, so we could go from there." He said he's :not fir sure" if Force ever would be interested in a Top Fuel operation but "that'd be awesome. Those guys have dominated Funny Car for so long. It'd be a good thing to have them over here, but I don't know, if I had to race them."
Torrence has something in common with Force besides shop space. He is adamant about his entire operation looking professional in every tiny detail. "Professionalism has to be there," Torrence said. "This isn't all smoke and mirrors. You have to have professional people, the best you can have, to be on your team to be competitive with Schumacher [Don Schumacher Racing's three dragster teams], Alan Johnson, and these guys.
"We've made an emphasis on a nice, clean, classy look -- something a potential sponsor wants to be a part of," he said. "The appeal has to be there."
Plans are for Torrence to skip the Reading, Pa., event next weekend but show up at the final three races of the season, at Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Pomona, Calif.
"We're going to make the second Western Swing," Torrence said. "We still have a lot of things we've got to get finished at the shop. We're taking the rest of the season to get our feet wet and get the car ready to run next year. We're going to come out next year swinging. We'll be ready to run the whole season."
FAST FRIENDS? - No. 1 qualifier Tony Schumacher and Hot Rod Fuller were the only Top Fuel racers to post 319-mph speeds so far this weekend. Schumacher still owns the year-old Texas Motorplex speed mark of 321.96 mph.
BROWN DOWN ON LIST - Antron Brown, who swiped the points lead from virtual season-long dominator Del Worsham last weekend, officially will make his worst start of the year Sunday when he squares off against Doug Kalitta in the opening round of eliminations. But he isn't flustered.
"Today we had two solid runs, getting down the track in conditions much like we'll see on race day. We were on a 3.90-3.91 run in the second round when we blew a sparkplug, so we ran it on seven cylinders. Overall, we are in very good shape for race day," Brown said.
He qualified at 3.947 seconds, 311.63 mph.
"Lane choice might be a factor here, but we just have to go out and do our own deal," he said, referring to winning six of seven races this year, including the previous three and four of the past five.
"We have to go out and race our race, regardless of who's in the other lane and what lane he or she may be in. We're in a war against every Top Fuel team, even those not in the Countdown, because they want to beat those of us who are. When our helmets go on, we're heading into battle and I have no friends, no teammates. When the helmet is off, I'll root for my teammates."
BROTHER VS. BROTHER - The third qualifying session saw some side-by-side family performances. In the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, Hector Arana III took over the No. 1 position while running alongside his father, Hector, who for a moment was No. 2 until Andrew Hines shaved nine-thousandths of second off his Friday time and knocked him to third. The Capps brothers ran next to each other in Funny Car qualifying, and this time Friday sensation Jon Capps took a back seat to Ron Capps, the quickest of the session on the 120-plus-degree track at 4.190 seconds (at 298.14 mph).
Jon Capps lost traction and clocked a 7.172- second E.T. at 85.32 mph. But his crew chief, veteran driver and tuner John Smith, spoke beforehand about the "fun ride" Jon Capps said he took Friday to occupy the No. 1 spot for awhile and settle in at No. 3 overnight. "We're going to try to come out and be a spoiler," Smith said. Whether they do any damage to Countdown drivers awaits Sunday's eliminations, but at least the Paul Smith-owned team should win an award for the most dapper crew. The team members sported Blues Brothers-style fedoras on the starting line rather than traditional baseball caps.
For the record, Jon Capps remained No. 3 in the lineup following that run, and Ron Capps still was seventh. That's how they stayed on the final grid, both in the top half of the field. Jon Capps will take on a dangerous No. 14 qualifier in Jeff Arend, and Ron Capps will meet Tony Pedregon in the first round.
Ron Capps, making his 11th start from the upper half of the ladder, said of Sunday's literally sizzling-hot match-ups, "If you don’t have lane choice, you’re in a heap of trouble."
NOT AN UNHAPPY OUTING - Tequila Patron Toyota driver Alexis DeJoria began the weekend and her Funny Car career as the No. 8 driver and had hung onto the 14th spot Friday night. But she slipped to the bump spot following Saturday's third overall qualifying chance and ended up missing the cut. She said she wasn't discouraged, though. Asked how disappointed she was not to make her first race, she said she was "not exactly" disappointed.
"Just to be racing out here on my birthday and with Kalitta Motorsports," she said, was a successful and memorable start to her pro career.
"We're a brand-new team," she said, proud of herself for mastering her first pedal job in the final qualifying session. "I had one shot. I wasn't trying to be a hero or anything," she said after her car acted what she called "squirrelly." She kept it in her lane, learning one more task this weekend.
Terry Haddock, who makes his home in Temple, Texas, these days, also failed to qualify.
WELCOME TO NITRO - Alexis De Joria sat in her Kalitta Motorsports pit Friday and slashed her right hand into the air, high above her head.
FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - ROUND TWO OF THE COUNTDOWN GETS UNDERWAY
FULL STEAM AHEAD - Del Worsham put the NHRA Top Fuel class back in more familiar orbit Friday night at the Texas Motorplex.
The Al-Anabi Racing / Toyota Dragster driver had posted a disappointing, backsliding performance last Sunday at Charlotte, and the whispers already had started: What's wrong with Del Worsham? Too bad he lost his big chance at a championship.
That's not what Worsham was saying to himself. He wasn't reeling. His team wasn't in a panic.
He was disappointed, for sure. But he kind of shook his head and said, "Everybody forgets we won Seattle and finished runner-up in Indy. We had one little burp there last week and all of a sudden we are cast out. I don’t think so.
"I think they showed this is a tough team," he said of his crew. "They held together and I made a great run. I'm looking forward to the next five Sundays."
Said Worsham, "I never really lost any faith in the team and their ability to get it done. It could have happened to anybody out here. Until this whole thing plays out, I don’t think any of us will know.
"I’m pretty sure, I can’t be positive, but in my mind I don’t think any of this will be over until Sunday in Pomona," he said. "At that point, we will all know who will be the Full Throttle champion."
He knocked Winternationals winner Morgan Lucas aside in capturing the Gatornationals trophy in March and led until last Sunday at Charlotte's zMAX Dragway. He 's no worse than third entering this event.
Worsham started the weekend 38 points behind leader Antron Brown and gained three valuable points, while Brown got none Friday as he was mired overnight in 14th place.
Was he surprised at Brown's fate Friday? No. Does he expect Brown's unfortunate circumstances to continue? No.
“Not really. It could happy to anyone out here. We smoked the tires first round in Charlotte. He smoked them here twice today. It isn’t that uncommon," Worsham said. "But don't kid yourself. He's going to come back strong. Anyone who thinks he won't come back strong on Sunday is pretty much fooling themselves."
Still, he'll enjoy his own happy fortune.
"To lead a session like that where it comes with bonus points . . . combined with No. 1 qualifier and with the weather, this could possibly stand. That gives you a couple of extra points," Worsham said.
"Also, we had a pretty disappointing first round in Charlotte. This is a good rebound and everyone on the team did a really good job," he said. "To rebound like that, and pull it together . . . Brian [crew chief Husen], Alan [team manager Johnson], and the entire Al-Anabi Racing team, I can't say enough about them."
Of that tentative top spot, Worsham said, "This is an amazing place to be. If you would have told me at the beginning of the season that I was going to be less than two rounds out of first place going into the second race of the Countdown, I would have said to give it to me now.
"To be leading nearly all season and to come out of Charlotte in second place and lose that cushion we had was a bummer," he said, insisting he'll take his cue from his crew.
"I think this is a tough team that has won championships before that can dig really deep. They know what they are doing," Worsham said. "They have been here before. I haven’t. I’m just going to follow their lead."
They took him right to the top of the order Friday, so that sounds like a pretty smart bet.
SHADOW DANCING - The reporter asked Cruz Pedregon if he felt lesser running in the shadows of the larger funded mega-teams fielded by John Force and Don Schumacher. Without a moment to think, the two-time NHRA series fired back with a response.
“They bring a lot but I feel they bring no more than we do. If you look at the average elapsed time, we have probably been the best team out there. I know Hagan had a stellar weekend but I will put our car up against anybody out here. We don’t have the depth [they do] but I don’t worry about that. What we do have is experience and you can’t buy that. We have a lot of that and they can’t outwork us. We don’t feel there are any issues there.
“All it takes is for one good car to mow through the field and hopefully it’s ours.”
Friday at the Texas Motorplex, Pedregon mowed through the fuel Funny car competition en route to the provisional No. 1 qualifier at the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals with a 4.086 second elapsed time at 307.86 miles per hour, a full .045 ahead of Johnny Gray, one of those drivers Pedregon was supposed to be in the shadows of.
There are moments in 2011 when Pedregon has appeared unbeatable and other times when he appeared he was two steps behind the competition. Admittedly, Pedregon hasn’t been far off of the mark although looks could be deceiving at times.
“I feel we can get on a roll,” said Pedregon, referencing his 2008 series championship. “This has been one of those years where we feel we haven’t had our best stuff. When we get beat on race day there’s always some kind of issue that happens. Hopefully we can put it together on race day. It gets tiring because we have established that we have a fast car. We just need to be fast when it counts. That’s our goal. We want to make four runs, so that’s why we need to go down the track every time. We just get tattooed from time to time.”
Don’t expect any upper deck shots during Saturday’s qualifying as Pedregon isn’t focusing on homeruns. He’s preparing to base hit his way through Saturday and hopefully right into the winner’s circle.
“Tomorrow will slow us down a bit because it’s important to go down the track, even if it is slow,” Pedregon said. “We’re going to tuck our shirt back in and button it up to the top because we want to race smart, something we didn’t do the last few races.”
Pedregon grabbed the lion’s share of points with 6, followed by Matt Hagan and Gray with 2 apiece and Jon Capps and Tim Wilkerson taking a single point.
“If we are going to climb back in this championship thing, we are going to need every round we can get,” Pedregon said. “The team did their job. I can’t thank them enough. I know I mention sponsors a lot we all do. But, I really have a good team behind me; we are just trying to make every run count.”
Pedregon admitted Friday’s effort was a strong run.
“This was reminiscent of Denver,” Pedregon said. “I actually took a sneak peek at the finish line. [On that run], it felt smooth, didn’t shake or wobble one bit. We were watching the track temperature and it was dropping ever so slightly. I would say on that time, we were going on the aggressive side. There’s times when we go up there and the car will run on its own. We were pressing a bit because it was cooling down.”
SELF-PRESERVATION - Jason Line prides himself in being a good teammate. If a round needs to be won or a world record secured he’ll drive to the edge of the envelope to ensure the objective is achieved.
On Friday evening in Dallas, he was being a little on the selfish side but not in a bad kind of way. Line is on a mission to capture a second career NHRA Full Throttle Series championship and the last few races have served as his calling card.
No offense to his KB Racing teammate and defending series champion Greg Anderson, but Line wants to take the title in 2011.
“There’s a lot of focus here right now and we want to win a championship right now,” said Line of his Summit Racing Equipment sponsored team. “I’m usually content hanging around in Greg’s shadows but I want to win the thing this year. I’m not tired of Greg winning. I’d kind of like to do a bit of it myself. As long as we are winning, we are still in business. I’d like to win some more races. I’d like to win another championship for myself. That’s the goal and we are going to do what it takes to make it happen.”
Friday night, during first day qualifying at the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals, Line raced his way to both ends of the Texas Motorplex track record with a 6.553 second elapsed time at 210.60 miles per hour. The 2005 Pro Stock series champion gobbled up six bonus points for his efforts while Anderson procured four. KB Racing’s third car, driven by Ronnie Humphrey, grabbed a point in the first session ensuring the trio would take 11 of the 12 available points on the first day.
As impressive as Line’s performance appeared to be, he admits there was more to be had on the pace-setting run.
“That one had room for more,” said Line. “The driver report card on that one, he gets a B at best. But great job from the team; both of these Summit cars are bad to the bone right now.
At the end of the day, Line offered no apologies to the competition for leaving barely a crumb for their championship aspirations.
“We got all of the points,” said Line. “That’s a really good thing. It’s all you can ask for I guess. All three of our cars are good, better than good. It gives you a little latitude to do things you wouldn’t be able to do [on Saturday]. I think we learned a few things on that run and I hope it will pay off tomorrow.”
The added notion Friday’s performances will hold throughout Saturday qualifying bodes well for the KB Racing team as they attempt to ratchet up the combination and swing for the fences.
“I think there’s a good chance it will hold,” Line said. “If it holds it will be four in a row, something I’ve never done before. If it gives us a little advantage, that’s good. Even if it is a little one, that’s really good in this class. You’ve done something.”
On Friday night, Line and his team did plenty.
CHEW ON THAT - Andrew Hines said Friday after taking the early Pro Stock Motorcycle lead for the AAA Texas Fall Nationals, "This is a statement year for us now. We want to come out here and win this championship again."
With a track-record 6.859-second blast on the Texas Motorplex quarter-mile that bumped teammate Eddie Krawiec to the provisional No. 2 spot, Hines made a declaration, all right.
If through two final sessions Saturday they stay where they are, the Screamin' Eagle / Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson duo will have their first 1-2 qualifying effort of the season.
And Hines picked up where Krawiec left off in standing up for the team to critics who say the Harley-Davidsons have an unfair advantage and have bikes they permit no one else to own.
"The critics can chew on crow right now," Hines said. "Luckily we have two great V-Rods going into this Countdown. Eddie had a great bike in winning the race [at Charlotte]. I had a great one in Indy -- had a little bit of a mishap with the transmission -- and we are out here going for blood.
"Our Eagles are soaring right now. We are soaring high, and we're out here to prove a point," Hines said. "Eddie and I have had a chip on our shoulders the last few races. We are tired of people saying stuff here and there. We’re gunning for the top 1 and 2 spots."
Hines said the recent controversy just has him more stoked.
"It fuels my fire, having people talk about us in the background. It’s out of jealousy for the main part. People want what we got," he said. "They come up with all different scenarios about what is going on with rules and things like that. We play by what the NHRA gives us. I don't see anything in the rulebook that says we have to sell our stuff. We're just out here doing what we do."
What he and Krawiec did was continue to dominate.
"That was one of the best runs I've made in a long time. Matt [Hines] has clutch dialed in nice, so we are able to learn a lot from our high-speed video camera that we got earlier this year. We made some changes to our wheelie bars. We are really starting to notice. It's something that has really been a long time coming. We’ve always been able to run up front but not with good 60-foots. Now we are putting the whole package together. We are starting to turn some heads out there."
He said he liked Friday's conditions at NHRA Legend Billy Meyer's Texas Motorplex -- and hopes they get even hotter so no one will solve the sometimes-tricky quarter-mile course.
"The conditions aren't really that much dissimilar than they were in Charlotte last week. The only difference is the temperature is up a little bit and we’ve got sun out. The atmosphere is right in the window where we can go out and have fun," Hines said.
“I hope it gets a lot hotter," he said, breaking into a grin. "I’d like that 6.85 to stick for low E.T. of the weekend. Having another No. 1 qualifier would mean a lot to me. I’ve chased my brother for a long time and he has a lot of No. 1’s. Luckily he’s tuning me to these things, too.
"The track is really good out there for the conditions," Hines said. "We’ve been working with some track prep guys out here in the pits and they are giving us insight into what is going on between rounds so we have some insight to what is happening from run to run. It’s working real well and you are starting to see that in the consistency of our 60-foots. "
He said he's using the Pro Stock car team of Jason Line, Greg Anderson, and Ronnie Huphrey as a model.
"We’re looking up to those KB Racing guys. They're putting up all kinds of crazy numbers out there. We want to be like them," Hines said. "Some want to be like Mike. We want to be like KB Racing."
Hines tested the Monday following the Charlotte event, but it was late in the day there at zMAX Dragway -- on his fifth pass -- that he found what he was looking for.
"I'm really happy with the bike right now. The testing really paid off. We tested on that Monday, and we were smoking the tire like a Funny Car. That's what we did the first three runs," Hines said. "We were able to figure it out and swap bullets. Hat's off to my crew guys. On Monday between runs we did a 55-minute engine swap."
“On our fifth pass, we were able to hit a home run at the end of the day -- a 1.06 [60-foot clocking] and a 6.86. Those were equivalent numbers to what Eddie was going," he said.
"I came in here with a lot of confidence. Knowing that we were able to make changes and see changes in the clutch set-up we have is a testament to how good my team is and we always try, we never give up. We always strive to be the best we can. It’s frustrating when we don’t perform as we should."
That isn’t the case right now. And finally Hines is catching up to Krawiec's performance level this season. He acknowledged that it has been a bit frustrating to try to keep up with his teammate.
"You have to go out and try and qualify No. 1 -- and the second quickest bike is sitting 10 feet from mine. It’s a little tough, Hines said. "To go out there and qualify 1 and 2 is huge for our team. You don’t do that very often, and it seems lately we’ve had a lot of 1 and 3s, things like that. One and two looks real good.”
He gave much credit to his brother, Matt Hines, who like him is a three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion.
"Matt's got a handle on this clutch. He knows what he's looking at with the data. He's done a great job. This thing kicked me in the pants on that run. It’s a freakin' rocket out of there! It was a great run."
ON HIS OWN, HOLDING HIS OWN - Copart Dragster driver Brandon Bernstein represents the lone single-car Top Fuel organization in the Countdown, and as team-owner father Kenny Bernstein said, "We've got our hands full."
The No. 7-ranked driver said his team simply has to do the best it can with the quality resources it has. Those assets helped Brandon Bernstein to a 3.882-second, 315.27-mph blast that lifted him to the tentative No. 3 position in the order Friday.
"That's all you can do," he said. "The multi-car teams definitely have an advantage. We're proud of being the only one-car team in the Countdown. We've performed quite a bit with these guys and we can run somewhat with them. Obviously they can get more data and they can make better decisions because they have four or five crew chiefs to pull from.
"We don't have another car. We're just trying to do the best we can with our one-car team, trying to make the best adjustments for the conditions. Our crew chiefs just have to make good decisions," Bernstein said. "There's a lot of pressure on all of us drivers to be on their game as well as the crew chiefs who can't afford a misstep. Everything is on the line from here on out, and you have to bring your A game."
His dad said, "I think the best crew chief out there has been Dale Armstrong, and even Dale got lost at times. That's how hard it is."
A fan Friday asked Bernstein and Texas Motorplex owner Billy Meyer, both NHRA Legends in the spotlight at this race along with Raymond Beadle if the NHRA might lift the restriction on a single team fielding just four cars in one category.
"I hope the hell not!" Kenny Bernstein said. "I think we're in trouble with multicar teams. They have half the field." He said a more liberal rule could result in only two or three team owners comprising the whole of NHRA competition."
Meyer agreed, saying that if the sanctioning body were to consider such a move, "You'd have to take computers off the cars and not let them have any data collection."
Theories and hypothetical aside, the Copart team has enough on its plate this weekend to consider. Both father and son said they consider this a "home race," of sorts, although Brandon Bernstein lives in suburban Indianapolis, near the Brownsburg-based race shop, and Kenny Bernstein lives n Southern California.
But Kenny Bernstein spent his formative years in Lubbock, Texas, attended college in Arlington in the Metroplex, and began his racing career in and around Dallas in the 1960s, while building several businesses in his early adult years. Brandon Bernstein grew up in the Dallas suburb of Farmers Branch and was a standout soccer player at Dallas Jesuit High School. He earned a degree in kinesiology at Texas A&M (where Pro Stock driver Erica Enders has attended classes).
So this is a special event for the family, for several reasons, not the least of which is it's a place where each has won. Brandon Bernstein was the 2006 Top Fuel winner, three years after his dad won here in the dragster class. Kenny Bernstein also won here in a Funny Car in 1986.
"We always enjoy racing in Texas," the younger Bernstein said. "Not only do we have friends and family in the area, it will soon become headquarters for Copart. We want to perform well for Copart, their new neighbors, and all the sponsors and fans that support us. On Saturday we are entertaining several hundred Copart employees. They are always dressed in Copart blue and they give us a lot of incentive to dig deep and perform well. We will also have many of the Copart executives in the house throughout the weekend."
And, he said, "We are overdue for a win."
He said, too, that he never tires of seeing his father honored as a motorsports legend. "It's cool. Dad is being honored as one of the NHRA Legends during the 60th Anniversary celebration. He will also be giving the command to start engines on Sunday. I know he always asks, 'Drivers are you ready?' -- and you bet I'd better be ready! It's going to be kind of cool to see that on Sunday."
INCREDIBLE STRETCH - The Al-Anabi / Toyota Dragster tandem of Del Worsham and Larry Dixon have led the Top Fuel standings for 33 of the past 35 races. And a Toyota driver has led for 36 events, including current top dog Antron Brown and Morgan Lucas, who won the season-opening Winternationals.
MAJOR IMPROVEMENT - Tony Schumacher, the seven-time champion and come-from-behind artist, is winless this year in the U.S. Army Dragster, but he showed Friday that he's still as dangerous as ever. He vaulted from the No. 11 spot in his first qualifying chance to the No. 2 rung on the ladder Friday night.
HOT KALITTA - If Doug Kalitta had any jet lag, it didn't show Friday afternoon in the opening qualifying session. The owner of an airline and an air-ambulance service in Ypsilanti, Mich., Kalitta flew to Dallas to attend Wednesday's pro-career kickoff party for Funny Car teammate Alexis De Joria. But he flew back to Michigan, saying he "had a pile of work" to attend to before returning for the AAA Texas Fall Nationals this weekend. He said before his first run, "It's going to be hot." It was, with the track temperature in triple digits, but he and his Kalitta Air Dragster were the hottest ones on the all-concrete track. He took the early lead with a 3.917-second pass at a track-record 316.52 mph speed. Brandon Bernstein still owns the track elapsed-time mark at 3.784 seconds. Kalitta is lurking in sixth place with his early time.
LANGDON LEAPS INTO TOP HALF - Shawn Langdon has qualified No. 5 twice (at Topeka and Denver) and No. 6 three times (Pomona, Gainesville, and the first Charlotte race). If he can hang onto his early No. 6 spot through the next three qualifying sessions, he'll have one of his best starts this season in the Lucas Oil / Speedco Dragster. Langdon ran a 3.990, same as Spencer Massey, but Massey slipped into the No. 5 slot because his 300.73-mph speed was faster than Langdon's 290.44. He slipped to No. 10 on the provisional grid with two more opportunities Saturday to improve.Langdon entered the event, saying he was optimistic because "Dallas is a place where I've had a lot of success in the past. We're not out of anything right now when it comes to the championship, but we've got to start making things happen. It's going to be put up or shut up time real soon."
He said he expected the hot conditions to work in his favor, and he was right.
"It tightens up the pack a little and things like getting an edge at the starting line become a bigger deal." And Langdon, eighth in the Countdown order, is one of the Top Fuel class' best "leavers."
"We need to keep at it," Langdon said. "We need to change things, shake things up. It's never too late in the season to get better."
CRUZ MISSILE - Cruz Pedregon had a little extra inspiration as he blazed to the early No. 1 Funny Car position Friday with a 4.183-second elapsed time at 290.01 mph in the Snap-on Tools Toyota Solara -- then swiped the position back at the end of the day with a 4.086, 307.86.
The two-time Funny Car champion and his crew visited with flight-crew members at Naval Air Station Fort Worth JRB Thursday for a primer about launching fighter jets. David Lane, USMC Ret., who's a Snap-on Tools franchisee, joined Pedregon in orchestrating a "mock crew swap" this weekend. Lane's military service included time as a CH53 helicopter crew chief. So the military personnel had their own "field trip" Friday, coming out to the Texas Motorplex to watch what it takes to prepare a 7,000-horsepower Funny Car for competition.
In his first venture at NAS Fort Worth, Pedregon spent some time in F-18 and parachute virtual-reality simulators and learned about night-vision goggles. He and the crew participated in a pre-flight walk-through.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE - Staggering statistics are nothing new to two-time Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon -- drag-racing statistics, that is. But a sad and surprising statistic caught his attention: that 46 children each day are diagnosed with cancer.
In an effort to make a difference, Pedregon and wife Andrea -- whose 2010 "NHRA Full Throttle Real Housewives" calendar sold 1,500 copies and raised $40,000 for melanoma research at Indiana University's Melvin and Bren Simon Cancer Center -- are spearheading a second calendar for charity.
This year, the "NHRA Full Throttle Real Families" calendar will benefit children's cancer research through Indiana University's Simon Cancer Center. The project, which will accept online pre-orders at www.tonypedregon.com as early as October 1, is scheduled to arrive before the Christmas season.
Among the drag racers and their families participating in the "Real Families" calendar are Kenny and Sheryl Bernstein, Brandon and Tracy Bernstein, Larry and Ali Dixon, Robert and Adria Hight, Forrest and Charlotte Lucas, Morgan Lucas, Bob Vandergriff and fiancee Marisa, Del and Connie Worsham, Ron and Shelly Capps, John and Laurie Force, Danny Hood and Ashley Force Hood, Cruz Pedregon and girlfriend Stacy Eads, Bob and Therase Tasca, Jeg and Samantha Coughlin, Erica Enders, Shane and Amber Gray, Jason and Cindy Line, Vincent Nobile, the Hector and Grace Arana family, Eddie and Annemarie Krawiec, and Matt and Angie Smith.
In previous racing seasons, the Andrea Pedregon Charity Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, has used trackside auctions to benefit Locks of Love (for wigs for disadvantaged children with long-term hair loss) and Smile Train (providing enough funding for 86 surgeries for children with a cleft lip and/or cleft palate).
"With the overwhelming support from our first calendar, I felt we could once again reach out to the NHRA Full Throttle fans, teams, and sponsors for support for yet another good cause," Andrea Pedregon said. "They have proved time and time again I can count on them."
And Amber Kleopfer Senseny, senior associate director of development for the Simon Cancer Center, said the medical center appreciates the drag racers' efforts. "During this difficult economic time when research dollars are incredibly scarce," philanthropic gifts are critical to ensure promising research is not delayed due to lack of funding."
But conditions were good enough Friday for Beckman to stake himself to a No. 5 spot in his first run with a 4.229-second E.T. in the in the Aaron’s Dream Machine/Valvoline NextGen Dodge Charger. Though his performance improved in the night session with a 4.165, 304.67, he ended up sixth as Johnny Gray, Jon Capps, Robert Hight, and Mike Neff leapfrogged him for top-five slots overnight.
"I made my Funny Car debut here in '06 and, besides the runner-up finish in 2009, I've not had much success," Beckman said. "I think Dallas owes me something, and I'd like to collect this weekend."
Citing Matt Hagan's shining performance at Charlotte -- in what he called "a monster day" -- Beckman said his whole Don Schumacher Racing team is more confident. That, he said, "makes us a tough car to beat." Beckman is third in the standings.
BATTER UP - Robert Hight, an avid baseball fan who has studied the success habits of several Major League Baseball leaders, came to Dallas at the end of last month to promote this event. And while he was here, he watched the American League champion Texas Rangers. He met with Rangers pitcher C.J. Wilson and compared notes about their respective playoffs.
They agreed that in both sports it isn't who comes out of the gate on fire but who is in the lead when it counts -- at the end of the season.
"Talking with CJ was really interesting. There are a lot of similarities between pitching and racing," Hight said. "You have to concentrate so hard in both disciplines, but you also have to have a very short memory. As a pitcher, if a hitter hits a home run off you, then you have to forget about that right away and not let that affect your next pitch. It is the same in the Countdown," Hight who dropped from third to fifth in the standings with a less-than-outstanding performance at Charlotte last weekend to start the NHRA Countdown.
"We did not have a good race in Charlotte, but I have forgotten about that," the Auto Club Ford Mustang driver said. "We tested on Monday, and now I am looking at the AAA Fall Nationals as a chance to get bonus points in qualifying and going rounds on Sunday.”
Hight, who entered only 10 points behind fourth-place Jack Beckman, didn't fare well Friday in the first qualifying session here for the AAA Texas Fall Nationals. He was 15th among the 16 entrants, while Beckman landed a top-five spot.
But Hight fixed that in the evening session, roaring back with a 4.154-second E.T. that was enough for the tentative No. 4 position, just two-thousandths of a second behind surprise No. 3 Jon Capps. That moved Beckman don to sixth place, at least until Saturday.
Never during his tough stretch did Hight talk as if he felt he had been striking out.
“I love racing at the Texas Motorplex for a couple of reasons. It is the first super track, so there is some history. I have won that race a couple of times [2006 and 2009], and it is a great feeling because the Texas fans are so great. This is also my sponsor’s race, so I want to give the AAA Texas people a great show and bring them into the winners circle with my AAA Texas Ford Mustang."
He said he also wanted to perform well in front of NHRA Legends Raymond Beadle, Kenny Bernstein, and Billy Meyer. "These guys are the real deal when it comes to Funny Car, and I want to make them proud of our class. We have some of the baddest hot rods at John Force Racing, but also the class is really tough."
IMPROVING OVERALL, WITH RELISH - Melanie Troxel put her In-N-Out Burger Toyota in the middle of the pack, at No. 9 with a 4.326-second, 276.69-mph pass, in the first qualifying session but others -- notably Jon Capps, Johnny Gray, and Robert Hight -- stepped up and pushed her down to No. 15 in the evening run.
Still, she said Aaron Brooks and John Medlen and the crew have made a "meticulous effort" to fix any lingering glitches in her R2B2 Racing car and she anticipates making some noise at these last five races of the season.
"We've got a good chance to win a race before it's all done," Troxel said. "We're going to keep picking away at the performance of the car. We've got one of the best cars out here. We just need a little more consistency at this point. We're solving one problem at a time."
Her only regret, she said, "It's unfortunate it didn't come together sooner and we're not a contender for the championship, but I think we'll play a role on how things hammer out in the class the rest of the season."
“Yeah I think so,” Johnson admitted. “The other car was just giving us a fit. We couldn’t figure it out. We’ve got a great crew and [chassis builder] Rick Jones has worked with us to get it figured out, but the car acted like it was possessed. We just felt like we needed to make this move and [Jerry] Haas makes a good car. We’ll just have to see if we can make the rest of the season be a mutually good thing.”
Matt Smith, who doesn’t have an animal in the fight, other than his potent Buell, is steering clear of the War of the Wild Kingdom.
“We’ve found some power, once we get the tune-up right this thing will go to the top,” Smith said. “I’ve managed to stay out of the controversy. There’s alligators and lizards … and we are just trying to do our jobs. We need to find a sponsor so we can continue out here.”
Eddie Krawiec, who has been aggressive in both his challenges to critics and the racing surfaces he’s faced lately, grabbed both ends of the Texas Motorplex track records with a 6.867, 195.79 to open qualifying.
Jason Line, still smarting from a final round loss in Charlotte, became the man early in Pro Stock with a 6.565, 211.20.
In Charlotte, he was unqualified headed into the final day of qualifications.
JOHN, PAUL, RINGO, GEORGE AND RONNIE ... RONNIE? - Ronnie Humphrey knows his role within Pro Stock’s KB Racing operation; best categorized to well-known team drivers Greg Anderson and Jason Line as the infamous fifth Beatle was to John [Lennon], Paul [McCartney], George [Harrison] and Ringo [Starr].
And, just like the legendary unnamed Beatle, Humphrey's purpose is to make his teammates stronger.
In his back-up role, Humphrey, brother-in-law to series champion Greg Anderson, has cobbled together the finest season of his career – 11th, just one spot shy of a Countdown berth.
“It was a heartbreaker and a goal at the beginning of the season,” Humphrey admitted. “It just wasn’t meant to be, so we will capitalize on the next six races and try to win a race.”
With five races remaining, Humphrey has a clearly defined role in one of three different scenarios. He’s to either help Anderson defend his crown, assist Line in winning his second career title and while doing either the first or second secure his first NHRa Full Throttle Pro Stock win.
To achieve his goals, expect his Genuine Hot Rod Hardware-sponsored machine to stand squarely in the way of those seeking to dethrone the KB Racing kingdom.
“I am dangerous, and one of those guys you never know what he is going to make happen,” Humphrey said. “Our three cars are fast and we will capitalize on all three before this season is over with.”
Humphrey believes there is a misnomer which suggests his car is well behind Anderson and Line in terms of performance. He says this is simply not true.
“We are all team cars and the cars are equal,” Humphrey said. “The key is putting the package together on race day. For whatever reason, I have been struggling this season. I think me and the starting line have come to some sort of an understanding.”
Humphrey scored one semi-final finish, reached the quarters four times and secured the one pole position during the 2011 season. In finishing out 2011 and preparing for 2012, Humphrey has discovered an important key to better performances.
“I have quit thinking and I just react,” admitted Humphrey. “Every day is a great day and I have had some great experiences this year. I am blessed, no doubt about that. I’m just a common guy, one who wants to have fun and win a race.”
SAY IT TO MY FACE - Eddie Krawiec isn't backing down from any comments he made last Sunday at the O'Reilly Auto Parts Nationals at Charlotte.
But he is offering to buy lunch for any disgruntled fellow Pro Stock Motorcycle competitor who has the decency to confront him to his face about concerns he and Harley-Davidson teammate Andrew Hines have an unfair advantage.
"There's always trash-talking in the pits. The problem is nobody has the courage to say it to anybody's face," the points leader said Tuesday in an interview with WFO Radio.
"It's wearing me out," Krawiec said. "It's wearing my teammate Andrew out. I'm done with it. I've had enough of it.
"What that means to me is they're cowards," he said. "If you have a problem, you come to me, say it to my face, [and] Ill respect you for it. I may not agree with you. I may not like what you have to say, but I'll respect you for saying it. I don't care -- I'll buy you lunch. Come on down and sit with us. But stop saying it behind our backs and letting us hear it second-hand."
Krawiec said Jerry Savoie's "screaming chicken" poke at Harley-Davidson's "Screamin' Eagle" brand is nothing new.
"That name came about years back. A few guys did a joke, and they're no longer out here racing. The name sort of went away. You didn't hear it for awhile. All of a sudden it's coming back," he said. "I think it’s a little disrespectful of Harley-Davidson, and we just don't appreciate it. We deal with Corporat eAmerica, and Harley-Davidson is a great partner. And we have to represent them well. But when there are individuals out there trash-talkin' our sponsor, I feel it's part of our side to defend them."
His answer to it all was simple: "We've told everybody, 'Hey -- you can trash-talk us in the pits all you want. We're going to trash-talk you on the track. Let's go.
"I feel we did that this [past] weekend," Krawiec said as he prepared for the AAA Texas Fall Nationals at Ennis, south of Dallas, at the Texas Motorplex. "Obviously the tabls will turn. We'll get our butts whipped every once in awhile. And the drama will start back up again. And everybody will hammer us that much more.
"But, "he said, "we're out here to race. We're out there to win. We want to win every single race. We want to pull out of our parking lot and pull back in with a Wally. It doesn't always happen. Sometimes the rider messes up. Sometimes the bike messes up. There's a lot of things that factor into it. But you;ve got to leave your home with that attitude, that you're going to win."
Besides, keen competition is something the fans have been craving.
Or as four-time nitro-class champion Gary Scelzi said in the most recent segment of The"$#^! Sceli Says" CompetitionPlus.comAudio.com program, "People in the stands and the viewers on TV are not stupid. They know when you're p-----. They know when you're hiding. They know when you're being to corporate."
Emotion is the hot commodity. "That's what people want to see," Scelzi said. "I want to see when you're p-----. I want to see when you're genuinely happy. I want to see emotion, even if it's a man crying. I want to see what you feel."
And Eddie Krawiec wants to hear it staright-up, man-to-man, face-to-face.
"We all know each other. We all know what we're here to do. And we all know what we're about," the biker said. "But we all let our angry side show, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. As long as people don't go over the top and aren’t being disrespectful, I don't see a problem with that. Showing emotions is a good thing.
"I am who you see," Krawiec said. "I'd rather you know my position, where I stand."
He said pulling up to the starting line against someone you have an intense rivalry makes the action keener for the racers and the fans, especially if the fans know what's going on behind the scenes.
"We hate to lose. But losing to somebody we hate makes it much worse," he said. "I don't want to put it that way: hate. I don't want to say we're all friends back here back here in the pits. We all say hello to each other. We have respect for one another. But there are certain individuals you hate to lose to. If they beat you, it stings that much more. You even want to whip your teammate's butt every single time."
Which begs the question for Krawiec . . . Have you said that to Andrew Hines' face?
CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? - Steve Kent didn’t have a difficult time determining which was more surprising, getting a cell phone signal at 6,000 feet above Louisiana or reaching the semi-finals of Pro Stock at the recently completed O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals.
The freshman NHRA Pro Stock driver, who runs as a part-time teammate to Rodger Brogdon, was quick with his response.
“Oh it was getting to the semi-finals,” said Kent, who admittedly was a passenger on his private plane and not a pilot after answering his phone. “But this phone doesn’t ring when it gets up here, so it caught me off guard.”
What impresses Kent and those who witnessed his near run to the final round, is the sportsman racing veteran and Pro Stock novice hadn’t won a round of competition to this point. He drove his Charter Communications entry to two round wins on Sunday.
For Kent, he takes his racing very serious but on the same token, if he isn’t having fun, he refuses to partake. Pro Stock has proven an expensive but very fun chapter in his drag racing career to this point.
“We just simply have a good team here,” Kent said. “Don’t let the fact we only run a partial schedule fool you. This team has the power just like these other full time cars out there, we just don’t follow the full schedule and that’s all that keeps this team from being championship contenders.”
When Kent isn’t running his 6.5-second Pro Stock he doesn’t have to look far for something to occupy his time. The trucking company owner who hunts big game in his spare time, and is by his own estimation, an adrenaline junkie, races a six-second Competition Eliminator entry, a Super Stock/AH Hemi Shootout car and also dabbles with a Stocker in his spare time.
The seat time elsewhere instilled confidence as the round wins began to pile up in Charlotte.
“I’d say on a 1 – 10 scale of confidence level, we were up there about a 10-and-a-half,” said Kent. “Winning does that to you, you just kind of settle into a groove and it comes natural, just like walking. We have had success in the sportsman classes and when you get in those round-robin situations, you don’t think, you just react.”
On the same token, don’t think it’s only the competition which drives the Lottie, La.-based driver, who in addition to his driving, admits he can cook up a monster of a Cajun meal at the end of each race day. This characteristic attracts the people, and is a big part of what keeps him coming back to the races.
“We take the races serious and I can’t obviously race the whole season for work purposes, but we are just as serious as the next team over,” Kent said. “We are serious as we can be without losing the fun element from what we are doing. We do it for the love of it.
“I meet customers and this racing is good for the morale of the company. And, it’s the friends and family who get excited. I must have had about 100 calls from the race. If I win in Dallas, I might have to shut my phone off for a few days.
“I think I’m going to lose my signal as we climb into these clouds.”
And, Kent did, which was no surprise.
IT IS A NEW CAR AFTER ALL - Free of sponsor graphics, NHRA Full Throttle Pro Stock driver Allen Johnson unveiled his new Dodge Avenger Thursday during technical inspections for the AAA NHRA Fall Nationals in Dallas.Johnson will run a Jerry Haas Race Cars-built chassis under his Mopar Dodge Avenger, utilizing the same combination that his rookie teammate Vincent Nobile, who is No. 3 in the Countdown, does. Johnson had a chance to shake down the new car earlier this week, before heading to Texas for the second round of the six-race NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoffs.
“The car seems to be more consistent and forgiving,” shared Johnson of his new Haas
According to Johnson's publicist, "With the rush to prep new graphics for his new chassis, Allen’s Mopar Dodge Avenger will be without graphics for the first day of the Dallas event. New Mopar graphics will be installed on Saturday, so his car will be back to its full Mopar glory by Sunday race day, at the latest."
THURSDAY NOTEBOOK -
TOP FUEL
ADDITIONAL SPONSOR FOR FULLER - Hot Rod Fuller's Yas Marina Circuit / DiGiorno Pizza Dragster will carry primary sponsorship this weekend from C&J Energy Services as a cosmetic twin to Bob Vandergriff's dragster. Houston-based C&J Energy Services provides hydraulic fracturing, coiled tubing, and pressure-pumping services to the oil and gas industry in Texas, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. So because this is the heart of its territory, it saw the marketing value of sponsoring two 7,000-horsepower machines.
It's also a sort-of home for Fuller, who grew up in Rogers, Arkansas. "We're really close to home here, and I raced here a lot during my sportsman career," he said, referring to the Texas Motorplex. "Dallas has a great facility. The track is awesome and overall, they always have a successful event weekend. I've been to two finals rounds at the Fall Nationals, and I hope I can win this one for C&J Energy Services, Yas Marina Circuit, and DiGiorno Pizza. We will have many friends and family here this weekend, as well as DiGiorno Pizza and Wal-Mart guests coming from Northwest Arkansas."
Fuller warmed up to the hometown fans this Wednesday with Wal-Mart visits at Midlothian and Waxahachie and Thursday appearances at Wal-Marts in Corsicana and Ennis, home of the racetrack.
TOYOTA RULES - Toyota-sponsored Top Fuel drivers have won 14 of the first 17 events this season. Del Worsham and Antron Brown have combined for 12 (with six each), and both Morgan Lucas and Larry Dixon have won once. The Worsham-Dixon tandem has won 18 of the previous 36 Top Fuel finals.
NOT LEANING ON LAURELS - Spencer Massey, a Forth Worth native and resident, said he isn't going to consider his past success at Ennis as any kind of n advantage, especially because his first triumph at the Texas Motorplex was the 1998 Junior Drag Racing championship. In the Top Fuel class, he reached the semifinals in 2009 in his lone Top Fuel appearance here. "My past results here or at any other track really don't mean much," Massey said. "This is a whole new year, a whole new team with a focus on winning the championship, something I dreamt about during my (2009) rookie season but seems much closer to a possibility now."
He spoke of his situation in the FRAM / Prestone Dragster as a duel between himself and fellow Don Schumacher Racing driver Antron Brown, as fewer than three rounds of racing separate the top five drivers. "It seems like we've been battling Antron all year for our position in the standings, and now we'll be battling him and the likes of [Tony Schumacher], Del Worsham, and Larry Dixon for the championship. But this week we're at my home track, and I’m really ready to take them on."
FUNNY CAR
TEXAS TOUGH - Showdowns and fights are part of Texas' colorful lore, and Bob Tasca III, a "city-slicker" from Rhode Island, wants to add to the rich drag-racing history by making up for his first-round loss to Tim Wikerson last weekend. That Charlotte race, he said, "was unfortunate, but we can withstand one first-round loss. You can't withstand two or three if you want to win a championship." The Motorcraft / Quick Lane Ford Mustang driver said he feels he must "put this thing in the finals or take a win. We'll be very focused on taking the trophy in Dallas. It's a great facility, a great place to race. Clearly the conditions are going to be a lot warmer than we saw (last) weekend. We've got a lot to be proud of, but we've got to do some damage in Dallas."
LISTEN UP, PARDNER - Johnny Gray isn’t a Texan. He's from next door in New Mexico. But he talks tough like a Texas cowboy. "I said all along, the way this Service Central hot rod is running now, if we didn't make the Countdown, we were going to cause problems for the cars which did and which had hurt us earlier in the season when we were struggling," he said. "Well, we ruined (reigning champion) John Force's first attempt to defend his title with a first-round win in Charlotte, and we plan on doing similar things this week in Dallas." Moreover, Gray said, "Winning the race would really allow us to make the point that this car is one which needs to be reckoned with now and next year!"
He won at Brainerd for the first time in his Funny Car career. "I'm having a great time driving this car and am very appreciative of Don Schumacher and the folks at Service Central," he said. "I love driving a Funny Car, and they helped make it happen. I'm glad we were able to put this car in the winners circle this year and plan on doing it again."
PRO STOCK
ERASING CHARLOTTE MEMORIES - For Greg Anderson, driver of the Summit Racing Pontiac, nothing beats an unfortunate performance on the racetrack than going to another one right away. "Quite honestly, I'm glad we're racing on back-to-back weekends, so I don't have to wait to redeem myself." Anderson, the top-seeded driver entering the playoffs who surprisingly dropped out of the Countdown opener early, in his hometown, said he knows he has extra pressure this weekend near Dallas.
"Fortunately, several of my fellow competitors suffered similar fates, so the damage was not as bad as it could have been," the reigning Pro Stock champion said. "But we still dug ourselves a little hole, so it's very urgent that we go to the Motorplex and have a big weekend. We are far from hitting the panic button, but after last weekend in Charlotte, I'll admit this Summit Racing team has a little extra pressure to perform this weekend in Dallas. As I've often said, you can't win the championship in the first race, but you can go a long ways towards losing it, and losing in the first round is often a death blow," he said.
STANFIELD ENCOURAGED - The news has to get better for Greg Stanfield. The Nitro Fish/Coffman Tank Trucks GXP driver said, "I don't think we can go any slower." The Bossier City, La., racer who was runner-up in last year's final Pro Stock standings, said he thinks he has begun to zero in on the problem. "We worked on the motor and ran it on the dyno. It says that we have good power," Stanfield said. "Maybe we have a problem somewhere in the car." He moved into seventh place but in terms of points fell farther behind pacesetters Jason Line and Greg Anderson.
LOVES HER HOME STATE - If being comfortable with surroundings has any significant effect on performance, count on Erica Enders this weekend maybe to reach that milestone of becoming the first female to win a Pro Stock final round.
"I love Texas. There's no place like Texas on the planet," the Houston native and driver of the ZAZA Energy Cobalt said. "To go back home and be in front of friends and family is great. ZaZa is a Texas company, and we'll definitely come out swinging there. All the ZaZa guys will be there, and we'll have them all right there in the pit in our hospitality area."
Enders, who lives in New Orleans, and her Charlotte-based Cagnazzi Racing team will have to battle the Texas heat and the idiosyncrasies of the Texas Motorplex. That opens up the race to the Pro Stock team that adapts the best. "It's a very narrow groove," she said. "There's no margin for error and no driving around there. You have to stay in the groove if you want to do well. It's anybody's race."
NO MALICE FOR DALLAS - It has been 20 years since Larry Morgan won at Dallas, but he's not letting a couple of decades' worth of frustration get in his way. "I like Dallas," Morgan said. "I've done real well there before. It's been awhile, but there's no time like the present to start a new streak there." The Lucas Oil Ford Mustang driver said he's making progress. "We'll take it to Dallas and get better. We're going to work hard. At least we ran better. That's one good thing to say. We have some more confidence going to Dallas. We've just got to get the car right every time we run. We're making a lot more good runs than bad. If we can eliminate those few missteps, we'll be good to go." Morgan also advanced to the finals here in 1989.
PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE
PREPARING COMEBACK - LE Tonglet, looking to atone for his stumble at Charlotte last weekend in the Countdown opener, said he'll have repaired cylinder heads back on his Nitro Fish Suzuki in time for Friday qualifying. He said he knows it's going to be tough to regain ground after slipping from second place in the playoff standings to fifth place. Said Tonglet, whose Metairie, La., home makes him practically a neighbor of the Texas Motorplex. "We know we can't go out early in any of the races. We need to make a big jump up and try to at least get to the finals at Dallas to keep up with Eddie (Krawiec) and Karen (Stoffer). It's going to be a tough fight. I hope we fly all weekend. If we do, we’ll still have a shot at winning the championship again." Tonglet won last year's race here as part of his march to the title as a rookie.
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