BONUS EDITION: Competition Plus doubles down on its water-cooler topics from the Dodge Power Brokers U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park
 

1 Antron Brown (Top Fuel) and Ron Capps (Funny Car) share U.S. Nationals winners circle for second straight time - NHRA Top Fuel driver Antron Brown ran over to Funny Car champ Ron Capps after both won the U.S. Nationals and climbed from their cars Monday afternoon, and Brown wrapped Capps in a bear hug and picked him up in a déjà vu moment.

That’s exactly what happened last Labor Day at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. In 2022, they shared the podium as first-year team owners. Monday, they celebrated as repeat winners focused on diving into the six-race playoff that begins in two weeks, carrying their momentum to respective fourth championships.  

And about 24 hours earlier, Brown wasn’t sure he even would be able to compete in his Matco Tools Toyota dragster. With only one qualifying chance remaining, the three-time series champion was in danger of missing the field of 16. He blasted his way into the line-up, in the 15th position, and buzzed past some of the class’ stiffest competition – Brittany Force, Clay Millican, Justin Ashley, and Steve Torrence – to repeat his Indianapolis triumph.

Undoubtedly the most sentimental victory of this 69th edition of the U.S. Nationals belonged to Capps – and legend Don “The Snake” Prudhomme. With the blessing of sponsor NAPA Auto Parts, Capps wrapped his Funny Car in tribute to Prudhomme’s iconic yellow Hot Wheels livery to mark the 50th anniversary of “The Snake’s” first U.S. Nationals Funny victory, as well as the 10th anniversary of the “Snake & Mongoose” film that features a cameo by Capps.

And a clearly touched Prudhomme was on hand for the entire weekend, engaged in Capps’ efforts just like he was in the days Capps drove for his team.

Capps said, “To have Don Prudhomme here, I could not let him waste a plane ticket. He didn’t want to lose after he flew all the way out here. This is an unbelievable thing. To win here, to win Indy with my brother Antron again, is massive.”

Brown struggled with mechanical problems – electrical, ignition, clutch – the entire weekend. But he and his Matco Tools Toyota team persevered to come from the No. 15 starting spot to score a second consecutive U.S. Nationals victory and fifth in all.

“It’s one of those weekends where we never quit, and that’s what you have to do to win the U.S. Nationals,” Brown said. “We went through all the trials and tribulations and that’s what makes this win so special. We were coming off that win in Brainerd [Minn.], and we got thrown a curveball. But we got this one done, and we’re going to remember this win for a long time.

“This is one that was a getting-dirty win. We went through all the pain, all the stuff all the way through qualifying and we found a way as a team. We never stopped believing. You’ve got to have faith. I love this team so much. They never quit, never stopped working and all the credit goes to this team. They worked so, so hard and to win this two years in a row. It’s amazing,” he said.

2  Pro Stock’s Matt Hartford earns place in Indianapolis history - Matt Hartford sat in the seat of his Total Seal Chevy Camaro, eyes closed, reveling in the accomplishment of winning his first U.S. Nationals.

“We came so close a few years back, and I lost by the narrowest of margins,” Hartford said after emerging. “Indy is a childhood dream. This is surreal. I’m ecstatic.”

Looking ahead to the Countdown, which starts at Reading, Pa., in less than two weeks, Hartford said, “There’s six races coming up. Our focus is to qualify at the top of the sheet at all of them and turn on four win lights every time. If we do that, this turns into a wipe. We have the team. We have the car. And let me tell you, KB Titan power is as good as it gets right now, and we’re going to have an incredible, fresh piece going into the Countdown. If I keep [my head] screwed on straight, watch out.”

Then, in a light moment, Hartford said, “Half my crew is flying home in about 35 minutes. I explained to them in no uncertain terms, ‘Your flights are canceled.’” 

3 Gaige Herrera continues to cash in, but Matt Smith wins bike final - Denso/MSR/Stockseth Suzuki racer Matt Smith capitalized on two Pro Stock Motorcycle opponents’ miscues in the semifinals and final to claim his third U.S. Nationals victory and second in a row.

A broken porcelain on a spark plug was to blame for year-long dominator Gaige Herrera’s rare loss on the Vance & Hines Suzuki in the semifinal round. Smith advanced to the final round, where Hector Arana Jr. left the starting line three-thousandths of a second too early.

“For us to win back-to-back U.S. Nationals, it’s pretty amazing. To win with the next-gen Suzuki Hayabusa, it’s pretty spectacular,” Smith said.

However, he lamented that his bike wasn’t producing the performance he was intending for it to show in the first 60 feet on just about every run: “We’ve got to go fix a couple of motors. The biggest thing is we’ve got to find a tire and a clutch combination for 60 foot. And if we can do that, I really think that we can run close to Gaige and give him a battle for this championship.

“It all starts over in the next two weeks at Reading, and I think we’ll be alright there,” he said.

Herrera, meanwhile, breezed to his fourth Mission Foods#2Fast2Tasty Challenge victory in six events for the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. That gave him a class-best 13 additional playoff points in the Countdown to the Championship, another outstanding achievement in his already-stellar 2023 campaign.

4 Kris Thorne captures Pro Mod trophy - Current series champion Kris Thorne won the trophy in the FuelTech NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series, defeating Justin Bond in the final round. - This eighth of 10 events was the second race in the category’s Road to the Championship.

Driving the Bahrain 1 Racing Chevy Camaro, Thorne assumed the points lead for the first time this season as he earned his career-first  U.S. Nationals victory.

“There is no other race in the world I’d rather turn it around [than Indianapolis],” Thorne said. “I’m super-excited we were finally able to conquer this one. I’ve been upside down here, I’ve been on fire here, I’ve torn everything up I’ve owned here. This was emotional and great. If I went out today, this is the last race I would ever want to win – the U.S. Nationals, the biggest one.”

He reached the final past Jerico Balduf, No. 1 qualifier Rickie Smith, and Stan Shelton. With two races left on the schedule, Thorne has a 12-point lead over Bond. Jason Lee is 49 points off the pace.

The FuelTech NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series presented by Type A Motorsports returns to action at the Midwest Nationals at World Wide Technology Raceway, near St. Louis.

5 Funny Car’s J.R. Todd makes it to final round – the scary way - After J.R. Todd defeated Blake Alexander, Bob Tasca III, and Cruz Pedregon to advance to the final round, he had a frightening moment that he handled with aplomb. Although he didn’t know what the reason was at the time for his close call at the top end of the 1,000-foot course, Todd’s DHL Toyota Supra experienced a failure of the brake pressure sensor on the master cylinder. What he did know was that he had no brakes.

Top Fuel cars sat at the end of the race track in front of him, and he swerved to the right to avoid them and ended up in a patch of grass. The car came back to the pit on a flatbed and was unloaded for a repair thrash that included all three teams from the Kalitta Motorsports camp. Todd lost in the final round to Ron Capps.

“It was definitely dramatic, for sure, after the semis,” he said. “Once you get to the semifinals, you start thinking it’s going to be your day, especially after what we had to go through there. We had a really good car the first two rounds, and I just hate we dropped a hole there in the final.

"In the semis, I pulled the ’chute, went to grab the brake, and there was nothing there. It was either hit the Top Fuel cars in front of me or [make a] hard right turn into the grass. And that’s what I did. I wasn’t sure what happened, but I knew I had no brakes. It turned out it ripped the pressure sensor off the master cylinder, so we had absolutely no brakes. That’s a helpless feeling. I’m glad it was something minor like that, so we were able to get it fixed up there for the final.  Losing in the final round at Indy sucks. That stings. These opportunities don’t come around that often. We’ve been here before, but when you’re that close, you just want it.

“All in all, it was a good day. We made up some ground in points like we wanted to going into the Countdown,” Todd said. “That’s the ultimate goal. I always say you want to be top five going into the Countdown, and you can make that up in a race. I feel like we have a car capable of contending with these guys. We just have to do our job in qualifying and work on getting a little quicker, and I think we’ll be in good shape. We just have to keep digging.”

 

 

 

6 Robert Hight calls out Ron Capps to start the Pep Boys Funny Car All-Star Call-Out and goes on to win the $80,000 top payout of the year - The Robert Hight approach: Treat it like a bar fight. The Cornwell Tools-sponsored Funny Car driver made a bold choice as the first to select a Round1 opponent for Saturday’s Pep Boys All-Star Call-Out.  Hight used the  philosophy of seeking out the biggest guy in the bar for a fistfight and punching him out, and it worked. He erased one of his toughest opponents right away and went on to beat Cruz Pedregon then Matt Hagan for the $80,000 season’s-richest victory.  In last year’s inaugural event, Hight followed the same train of thought, calling out Bob Tasca III when Tasca was in the midst of a strong run.

Capps crew chief Dean Antonelli called Hight’s move pure genius. Hight replied, “I don’t know that it’s genius, I’ll be honest. You’re sitting in your car for first round and you’re thinking, ‘Boy, I hope I made the right decision. I hope I don’t go up here and choke and do something stupid and really look stupid.’ Just because you call somebody out doesn’t mean you’re going to beat them. You’ve got to now go out and get the job done and then do your job, and it can go a million ways. These are race cars that anything can happen and the driver can screw up, the car can break, can be overpower, anything can happen.”

Robert Hight looked anything but stupid. And he said, “There’s no doubt about it: It’s going to be Hagan and Capps right to the bitter end. We’re going to be fighting these guys, so this is practice. If you happen to get it done, you’re one up on them.”

7  John Force breaks through for a first victory of this season - John Force broke a winless streak of 30 races without any bonus- or specialty-race accomplishment, winning the Funny Car’s final Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge of the season. The long-awaited victory happened to come on the day his son-in-law, Graham Rahal, broke his own 14-year performance struggle by earning the pole position for the IndyCar series finale at Portland, Ore.

I do what I do, and I was really lucky in this Mission Foods deal. It was almost a red light against Robert. He knows it; I screwed up. Then with Capps, I took all the bulbs to New York. But then I got to race Capps and the Don ‘The Snake” Prudhomme car, and that means a lot. He used to whoop me up every week,” Force said.

“In the final, the last thing I said to my crew chief Danny Hood was, ‘Look where we’re at. Let’s get out of the bottom half [of the line-up].’ He and Tim Fabrisi both said, ‘Go for the win.’ So, I jumped on it. [Sponsor] PEAK, they’re happy that I can put this Chevy Camaro in the winners circle. I’ve got a lot of work cut out. I’m in the Countdown now. I want to see where it goes. I’m no spring chicken, so I got a lot of work to do. It’s a good feeling. I’ve won Indy five times, but it was a good feeling to be here.”

8 Ashley on a mission with specialty races - Top Fuel points leader Justin Ashley capped his class’ run of Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenges by capturing his sixth trophy. That punctuated his season-long supremacy with a total of $69,000 in prize money and 21 Countdown to the Championship points. The Phillips Connect Toyota Dragster driver pocketed $15,000 Saturday, a $5,000 bump-up from the usual $10,000 winners share of the purse.

In the opening qualifying session today, Ashley won when Leah Pruett disqualified herself with a foul start.  Against Brown in the final round, Ashley cut a nearly perfect reaction time (.017 of a second) to propel him to the wire-to-wire victory.

9 Cory Reed returns to Pro Stock Motorcycle competition - For the first time since his on-track accident in September 2021 at Charlotte. Reed suffered a compound fracture of the left leg, above the ankle, and faced months of surgeries and rehabilitation. Aboard Michael Phillips’ Suzuki this weekend, Reed qualified No. 16 but said, “I have zero expectations.”

10 Yellow Hot Wheels livery celebrates memorable 50th anniversary - Ron Capps wrapped his Funny Car in tribute to Don Prudhomme’s iconic yellow Hot Wheels livery that marks the 50th anniversary of one of “The Snake’s” five U.S. Nationals victories, as well as the 10th anniversary of the “Snake & Mongoose” film that features a cameo by Capps.

“This is a dream come true, both as a kid growing up and now as an NHRA driver,” Capps said. “It’s exciting to bring together the old-school Hot Wheels fans like myself with the next generation and offer up a tribute car. It’s also a tribute to what Hot Wheels did for the sport with ‘The Snake’ and ‘The Mongoose.’ It’s incredibly emotional to be on the starting line at Indianapolis Raceway Park with ‘The Snake’ standing behind the car.
 
“I’m grateful to our partners, especially NAPA, for graciously supporting this idea and allowing us to run a throwback car like this at such a big, historic race,” he said.

The Hot Wheels/NAPA GR Supra is a modern version of the Hot Wheels Funny Car Prudhomme drove to victory at the 1973 NHRA U.S. Nationals. Prudhomme was already an established name in the sport with five Top Fuel victories, but his first of three Funny Car triumphs at Indianapolis helped take his career to new levels. He became the first driver in drag-racing history to win a national event in two pro categories, and he won four straight Funny Car championships (1975-78) and 49 victories in a combination of Top Fuel and Funny Car races. As a team owner, Prudhomme added more than 50 victories in both nitro classes.
 
“I got a little tear in my eye when Ron approached me about doing this paint scheme,” Prudhomme said. “It blew me away that he was doing that, and to have NAPA on board with the whole project is quite an honor for me. It's really a throwback paint scheme. That paint scheme, along with ‘The Snake and The Mongoose’ Hot Wheels set which was originally released in 1970, really made my career. I couldn’t think of a better guy to be teamed up with to run this paint scheme.”
 
The 1:64-scale Hot Wheels die-cast version of Prudhomme’s bright yellow car, as well as partner Tom ‘The Mongoose’ McEwen’s red version, brought drag racing to the living rooms of kids around the world. The toy sets introduced Prudhomme and McEwen to a mainstream audience, propelling both drivers and drag racing in general to unprecedented heights.
 
“The Hot Wheels team is so excited to have NHRA Funny Car champion, Ron Capps, pay tribute to the legendary Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme and his iconic Hot Wheels Funny Car at this year’s NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis,” said Bryan Benedict, Mattel’s director of vehicles product design. “Ron has been a great friend of the Hot Wheels brand and continues to push boundaries, inspiring the next generation of automotive legends through his perseverance, passion and countless hours of ‘challenge accepted’. And the fact that this is honoring the ultimate legend, Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme, makes this a perfect match."
 
The story of Prudhomme and McEwen’s early racing careers, including their pursuit of Hot Wheels as a major sponsor, was chronicled in the 2013 film “Snake and Mongoose.” The film was released during the 2013 U.S. Nationals weekend with special screenings at a theater near IRP. It included cameos by racing personalities like Capps and fellow Toyota driver Alexis DeJoria.
 
“It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years since the ‘Snake and Mongoose’ movie came out,” Capps said. “As someone who grew up idolizing ‘The Snake’ and ‘The Mongoose,’ it was really exciting to see their life stories played out on the big screen. To get to be a part of the production and have a cameo in the film was surreal. This throwback car is also a great way to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the movie.”

 

 

 

15 Rooftec Comp Cash Clash Jackpot Goes To Don Thomas - One drag racer’s vision leads to a $50,000 specialty event - The Rooftec Comp Cash Clash, a natural byproduct of Rodger Brogdon’s D4 Competition Eliminator Bonus Fund offered the top 16 in the specialty series to race for a $50,000 purse. Thanks to a special Calcutta auction, another $37,000 was added to the pot.

Ultimately, econo dragster racer Don Thomas won the $30,000 plus an additional $17,500 from the auction.

How much has Brogdon’s efforts helped rejuvenate Competition Eliminator?

In 2021, Competition Eliminator had 41 entries; this year had 63. Additionally, five of six NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series events in D4 have had full 32-car fields with alternates. A year earlier, the largest field had 24 events.

 

 

 

 

 

16 Stevie Fast Returns To Pro Mod Action - Stevie Fast is back. After nearly a year away from doing what he loves, and that’s driving a race car, popular Pro Mod driver “Stevie Fast” Jackson made his return behind the wheel after having offseason neck surgery at the biggest and most prestigious drag race on the planet, the U.S. Nationals. And while it may seem fitting that Jackson made his return at the granddaddy of them all, the two-time U.S. Nationals champion says he didn’t plan it that way, but is happy it’s the way it worked out.

“Indy is always special for us,” Jackson said. “So it wasn’t circled in the beginning, but when we talked about fielding a second car, and Sidnei asked me if I’d drive it for a race or two, I told him if we do that, I want to debut it in Indy. So, yeah, it’s a special deal. 

“I’ve run well here, and we’ve had some very emotional moments here. Not a lot of people can win one of these, and to win two of them is even harder. And when I speak at engagements, when I go to talk to kids at a fair, or when I go to talk to kids at a school, they announce me as a two-time U.S. Nationals champion even more than a two-time Pro Mod world champion. So it’s a special deal to win one of these.”

Jackson had a pretty solid outing in his first race back, qualifying eleventh with a 5.835 at 248. Unfortunately, Jackson was a little too amped up in the opening round, turning on the red light against Mike Castellana, who cut a psychic (.015) reaction time of his own. 

However, Jackson, who had a long and rigorous road to recovery to get back behind the wheel of the racecar, says he feels good and is ready to get back after it.

“For two or three runs, I felt like I was behind the car,” Jackson admitted. “The car moved around a little bit downtrack and I told the guys, ‘It’s a new car that we’ve never raced.’ So not only is it me getting in it, but it’s me getting in something and trying to sort it out, in really just one test session. So we went and tested for one day and then came to the U.S. Nationals. That’s not a good recipe for success, but getting this thing was really, really last minute, really late. We worked all night. I worked 48 hours straight to get to Bowling Green to go test it. When we got to Bowling Green, I told the guys I hadn’t been to bed since Friday and it was Monday. So it was a really tough push.

“After about three runs, I felt really comfortable in the car. The one thing that I said to the guys after the first test day [was], ‘We made five runs and I didn’t even really think about it until the next day, but I got up and my neck didn’t hurt.’ And I will say this is the first time in 10 years I have driven a Pro Mod five runs and not been in pain the next day. And pain is a weird thing. You don’t realize you have it until it’s not there anymore. And we made four rounds of qualifying here, I am back to 100%, I have zero pain, zero issue, comfortable in the car, mobility is good, and I’m ready to rock.”

17  He’s in. He’s out. What is Rickie Smith going to do? - In what may have been his final run at the prestigious NHRA U.S. Nationals, Pro Mod legend “Tricky Rickie” Smith made the first step in trying to go out in style at the “Big Go” as the driver of the lone nitrous-oxide boosted hot rod in the field went to the top spot in qualifying with a blistering 5.754 at over 253 miles per hour. 

The two-time U.S. Nationals champion in Pro Mod has contemplated retirement before, even deciding to skip the final race of the NHRA Pro Mod season last year despite having an outside shot of winning the title, feeling like his nitrous-powered Ford was at a disadvantage. However, after a rule change in the class, Smith has raced on a part-time basis in the NHRA this season, and it seems like the King, N.C., native has put everything in place to make a grand exit.  

“It’s a fun weekend so far for me,” Smith said. “Coming up here, being the No. 1 qualifier, and I’m trying to retire. And at least at the end of the year when I quit, they can’t say, ‘Well, he quit because he couldn’t be competitive.’ I can be competitive. And you always need just a little luck or something on Sunday. So it just depends on how the luck goes [Sunday] and Monday, and we’ll see where it goes. But I’m quitting on a really good note, I feel like.

“I come here ’cause I think I’ve got everything now. I’ve been trying to retire for four years, but I’ve got everything: deposits on it. I think I’ve got stuff sold the way I want to go. So good luck to these guys. I’ve had one hell of a career, 42 years almost for a living, and 50 years racing and 11 championships. Nobody else besides John Force has run this well this long and still be competitive and still can win races. So I’m tickled to death to go out the way I’m going out.”

He went out in Monday’s Round 2, as Kris Thorne beat him on a holeshot.

19 Hartford makes personal history - Matt Hartford has fought the Pro Stock fight and is now winning.

Back in 2006, he was running an independent team just hoping to make the 16-car field at NHRA national events.

That's not the case anymore.

Hartford has transformed into a championship contender, and he's having a career-best season in 2023.

He arrived in Indy second in points and before this season he never captured a No. 1 qualifying spot and he has four No. 1s in 2023, including the U.S. Nationals.

Hartford, who runs KB Titan engines in his Camaro, has proven more than ever that he can't be overlooked in the six-race Countdown to the Championship.

20 Championship points to reset for six-race Countdown - The distinction doesn’t come with any points, cash, or even a certificate of achievement.

Just the same, Justin Ashley (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car), Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock), and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) have the satisfaction of being winners of the so-called “regular season” and as such will lead their respective fields into the six-race playoffs that start in less than two weeks at Maple Grove Raceway at Reading, Pa., and continue at Charlotte, St. Louis, Dallas, and Las Vegas and end in November at Pomona, Calif.