Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA 4-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, NC.
3 – ANDERSON IS HOMETOWN HERO – Pro Stock winner Greg Anderson extended his victory total to 105 with back-to-back victories at zMAX Dragway, in what the Duluth, Minn., native called his “new hometown,” at his home track, in the home of sponsor HendrickCars.com. He said he gets “good vibes when I come out here” to the Concord, N.C., facility. Anderson denied Aaron Stanfield the chance for two Wally statues in one day. Earlier in the afternoon, Stanfield won the Factory X final – making he and his dad Greg Stanfield the only winners so far in the new class – but even his stellar .011 reaction time couldn’t make that happen. Anderson and his Chevy Camaro also spoiled KB Titan teammate Dallas Glenn’s shot at his 20th victory and Cristian Cuadra’s attempt to give retiring father Fernando Cuadra Sr. a farewell trophy.
4 – HE WAS PLUM TO THE EIGHTH MILE BEFORE I LEFT -Rickie Smith has seen a lot in a lifetime of drag racing, but the one thing that transpired on Sunday he didn’t see coming when he rolled through the gates at zMAX Dragway on Thursday. In fact, months ago, when he planned to run Competition Eliminator at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals on an off-weekend, he had never thought it could happen in a million years.
Smith has been drag racing for a long time, but Sunday marked a million years.
“I can’t believe this is happening,” Smith said. “I came down here for Parkway Ford just to put on a show. I’m more excited doing this than racing Pro Modified. That’s badass racing, ya’ll.”
Smith was .028 on the tree to beat Joel Warren in the final. How impressive was this feat?
No. 1 Smith was running a full tree in a Pro Modified car.
No. 2, prior to this weekend, the last time he ran a five-tenths sportsman tree was in 1974 while racing the Maverick, which he would eventually use to dominate IHRA’s Super Modified division. The eliminator would eventually die because Smith won so much.
“God was holding my thumb,” Smith said. – Bobby Bennett
John Force loves everyone he associates with but sometimes struggles to pronounce names correctly. This weekend he waffled between correctly calling his newest sponsor “Rick Hendrick” and on occasion incorrectly saying, “Rich Hendricks.” After advancing to the Funny Car semifinal round Sunday, he said in his top-end interview, “I’ll get it right sooner or later or he’ll fire me. He won’t put up with this s—.”
Krista Baldwin is anticipating her next Top Fuel race, which will be May 17-19 at the Chicago suburb of Joliet, Ill., the next stop on the schedule. She said she received a bit of a mock-ultimatum from her grandfather, drag-racing pioneer Chris Karamesines, this past week. Baldwin said he told her, “If you don’t run well on Friday, I’m going home.” She told him, “I hope you do. Well, you live there. I hope you go home.” She said, “That’s the way he says, ‘I love you.’ Nothing like some grandfatherly advice to get my butt in action. We’re going to go cheetah-fast.” Her dragster has a bit of cheetah-print trim on it. Baldwin gave a shout-out to all the women in the pro ranks Sunday morning for advancing out of their quads: Jasmine Salinas and Brittany Force in Top Fuel, Alexis DeJoria in Funny Car, Erica Enders in Pro Stock, and Angie Smith in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
“He showed up with their shirt on, so it was news to me.” – J.R. Todd, regarding losing valuable Kalitta Motorsports team member David Boyer to Alexis DeJoria’s DC Motorsport crew.
“We didn’t have lane choice all day, and I don’t think it’s a big factor in regards to Four-Wides. I don’t think qualifying is a big factor when it comes to Four-Wides, either.” – Third-place Funny Car finisher J.R. Todd
Pro Stock racer Camrie Caruso, still hobbling on crutches this weekend following her top-end crash April 6 at Phoenix, says she’s hoping to return to the racetrack by the August race at Brainerd, Minn.
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