Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Route 66 Nationals outside of Chicago, Ill.

1 – BROWN EARNS FIRST VICTORY SINCE LAST SEPTEMBER’S U.S. NATIONALS –“Super-part-timer” T.J. Zizzo was the talk of the Top Fuel class for most of the weekend, and he basked in the attention at his hometown race from No. 1-qualifying performances and Sunday’s first round of eliminations, when he defeated multi-motorsport-series ace Tony Stewart. Then Zizzo ran into Canadian upstart Dan Mercier, who had just topped eight-time champion and Chicago native Tony Schumacher to reach his first semifinal. And the attention turned to Mercier until his magic carpet ride came to a halt. In the end, the victory went to a seasoned veteran.

Antron Brown recorded his 75th overall victory, and his 59th in the Top Fuel class (following 16 on a Pro Stock Motorcycle), beating Shawn Langdon in the final round. Brown is just three victories away from tying Larry Dixon for the second-most triumphs in Top Fuel history at 62.

In spoiling Langdon’s bid to go 3-for-3 in final rounds this season, Brown said, “You got to step up when you go against that team.” He did, to break a tie with Tony Schumacher and Pro Stock’s Jeg Coughlin Jr. for the most victories at Route 66 Raceway at Joliet, Ill. It was Brown’s sixth win here, including two in Pro Stock Motorcycle. It marked Brown’s fourth Top Fuel triumph at Route 66 but first since 2016.

Brown’s team was a man down this weekend. Crew member Alex Bullington lost his father this past Thursday, so Brown was inspired to perform well for Mark Bullington and former boss Don Schumacher, who was honored by fans and racers alike Friday at a Celebration of Life gathering behind the grandstands.   

Brown did a little dance for the fans as they gathered around him on the racetrack afterward. “Left to right, left to right … a little wiggle with it,” he described his moves. But what he was best at Sunday was blasting straight down his lane, into the winners circle, and straight toward the record book.       

2 – HAGAN BECOMES FUNNY CAR’S FIRST TWO-TIME WINNER THIS YEAR – Matt Hagan had a few hurdles to jump Sunday before he could claim the Funny Car trophy in a classic final-round battle against John Force. 

Like everyone else, the Tony Stewart Racing driver – who is the four-time and reigning series champion – had to fight a racing surface that he said “threw us loops all day.”  But he also had to endure what he called being “stuck in a bad lane all day” and really maneuver his car in a smart way: “I felt like I had to drive the wheels off of it today.” And he had to strategize against Force, who as the No. 4 qualifier seemed more poised to race in a final round than No. 11 starter Hagan.

But, Hagan said, “We got it done today against the G.O.A.T.,” referring to 156-time winner Force as the Greatest of All Time.

Hagan passed Austin Prock to take the lead in the standings by four points.

3 – SCHUMACHER’S PRESENCE FELT – Don Schumacher was on the minds of the drag-racing family all weekend, and the presence of his spirit shone through in the final rounds of the nitro classes. Former Don Schumacher Racing champions Antron Brown (Top Fuel) and Matt Hagan (Funny Car) reminisced about their quasi-DSR double-up. Brown has owned his own team for three years, and Hagan drives for Tony Stewart Racing.  But that bond continues. And the stories about their days at DSR have become lore.

Hagan looked back at the “tough love” he said Schumacher employed in confronting him. And Hagan said he was contemplating quitting because, in his words, “Dude, I ain’t never had anybody talk to me that way.” However, he said he soon understood that “that’s the way Don motivated you” and that “it drove me to be the person I am today.”

He laughed when remembering Schumacher’s trademark attire he wore on race days and said, “When you saw that red shirt, you thought, ‘Oh, I hope he’s not coming over to my pit.” However, he credited Schumacher for the championships he won and the 51st victory he earned Sunday.

“This one’s for Don Schumacher,” Hagan said. “He saw something in me. I don’t know what it was, but he gave me a start.”

Brown said the double-up with former colleague Hagan made the moment seem “like old times. It brings a tear to my eye.” He said Schumacher “was more than just a boss and a friend. He was like family to me.”

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5 – HERRERA ROLLS TO ANOTHER BIKE VICTORY – Pro Stock Motorcycle winner Gaige Herrera passed the late, great Dave Schultz in recording his eighth straight victory. The winner of Saturday’s Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge outran Chase Van Sant to pull off the perfect weekend for his Vance & Hines team.

Schultz had seven consecutive victories at Atlanta Dragway from 1990-96.      

Herrera’s tuner, Andrew Hines, said, “We’ve got a machine behind him” and said the employees at the Brownsburg, Ind., shop “put in the hours to make sure the finesse is there. And Gaige is an animal. He’s wanting to prove his worth.”  

It was mission accomplished for the Mission Foods Suzuki racer.

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WANT TO SEE “THE TEN” FROM QUALIFYING? – CLICK HERE

9 – WYATT THINKING OF CREATIVE WAYS TO STAY IN GAME – Working with “green” mechanics can have its comical moments. Longtime Funny Car driver Jack Wyatt has some stories, for sure. He has instructed eager young fellows who had never been to a drag race.

One of them asked him, “How do you know when you win?” And the conversation went something like this:

Wyatt: “There’s a light on top of the scoreboard.”

Novice: “Really?”

Wyatt: “Yeah.”

Wyatt was going rounds at Gainesville, Fla., and he advanced to the finals. And his trainee, who had been assigned to handle the bottom end, had another burning question.

Novice: “How do I know when we win?” 

Wyatt: “When I stop telling you to get underneath the car to do the bottom end.”

Novice: “OK.”

Why does Wyatt do what he does? He said he enjoys “just starting a lot of guys and seeing that you give back something to the sport; hopefully keep it going.” 

But Jack Wyatt still is a racer at heart, has earned money racing since he was 14 years old. The trouble is the financial landscape has changed dramatically, and he has joined the ranks of fellow Funny Car team owner-drivers Gary Densham and Dale Creasy who have faced the reality that touring the country with a competitive nitro Funny Car is just not economically sustainable. Wyatt said, “It’s really tough anymore. It is. It’s impossible what I’m trying to do.

“There’s no more match races for me anymore. And nothing against ’em; God bless ’em – the Funny Car Chaos [series] killed that thing. They can bring a whole show in for what it cost me and another Funny Car to [match race]. Chris [Graves] has done a great job with Funny Car Chaos, but I’ve been running a nostalgia funny car all my life. I don’t need to go do it anymore. I don’t need the experience. I have people really trying to get me to do it,” Wyatt said. “But I have no desire to go do that. It wouldn’t even pay enough if you won the thing. It wouldn’t pay enough to even get the thing out of the driveway – diesel fuel and what you need. If you were going to build one thing, the best thing to do is build a nostalgia alcohol car and run like that. But I’m not going to do all that.”

The Seymour, Iowa, native said, “I talked about even buying a sprint car and then putting somebody in it, because I’m only 40 miles from Knoxville (Iowa, the heart of the sprint car world). I could run a sprint car three nights a week during the summertime and hardly get away from home. They make money. And then if you get some young kid whose dad wants to see him do well, he’d bankroll it.”

Wyatt has had friends offer to build his engines and provide a race car if he’d drive. “I said, ‘I don’t have any desire. You need to put somebody small and young in there, someone who really gets after it.’ I never did it.” 

Fans in his part of the Midwest are keen on dirt-car racing. They got Modifieds and sprint cars running there all the time, and tractor pulls. But what Wyatt would do in a perfect world is keep racing.

“I’ll keep going if I can find the funding. I like running my own deal, but it’s just the realism is coming around that it’s physically impossible,” he said. “And after all, this is my 54th consecutive year drag racing. I started driving funny cars in [19]76, and I’ve been driving Funny Cars ever since. I started with a ’48 Anglia when I was 14 years old, and I had my first Alcohol Funny Car license when I was 19.”

This weekend Wyatt got some funding. His buddy, Super Stock racer Larry Hodge, a five-time winner at Route 66 Raceway, invited him to enter the event and represent the Trackside Veteran Salute Foundation.

Wyatt qualified in the 16th and final position on the Funny Car grid Saturday, destined for a first-round match-up against Austin Prock. But his car wouldn’t fire Sunday morning and his only ride was his crew backing up the car from the left lane and giving Prock a solo pass into the quarterfinal round.

10 – YES, THEY SAID IT –

“He’s a mad scientist.” – Funny Car racer Matt Hagan, of crew chief Dickie Venables 

“I ain’t smart enough to think like that. Hagan’s a good driver. He’s The Hulk. We all love him.” – John Force, asked what he might have up his sleeve for Matt Hagan in the Funny Car final 

“People went to work and got some stuff better. If they had done that awhile ago, we wouldn’t have had to work so hard ourselves.” – Andrew Hines, responding to apparent behind-the-scenes criticism  

“It’s my first final round. I’m racing against myself.” – Pro Stock Motorcycle runner-up Chase Van Sant

“The weekend started off a little rough, but we are racing on Sunday! This is the best I’ve ever done at a national event, and I can’t wait to see what happens the rest of the event.” – Super Comp competitor Autumn Hight, 20-year-old daughter of Robert Hight and Adria Hight and granddaughter of John Force. She made it to the fourth round of action before exiting

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