Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Texas FallNationals outside of Dallas.
1 – ASHLEY BACK IN CHARGE – Justin Ashley took back the Top Fuel points lead for the second time in the Countdown by winning the Texas FallNationals at Texas Motorplex, at Ennis.
First he defeated Antron Brown, who had led the field following the opening two playoff races, then Shawn Langdon, whom Ashley called “maybe the best driver to sit behind the wheel of a Top Fuel dragster.” He took out eight-time champion and resurgent Tony Schumacher in the semifinals before defeating Clay Millican in the final to earn his fourth victory of the season in six final rounds and his first in the Countdown.
It marked Ashley’s 15th overall Top Fuel victory and third here in the past four seasons. But more remarkable was that he wasn’t even participating in the event much of the first two days.
He put his SCAG Power Equipment Toyota dragster safely in the field in Friday’s first qualifying session, and then he left for a day and a half to observe Yom Kippur.
When he returned Sunday to Texas Motorplex and found himself starting eliminations from the 12th of 16 starting positions, Ashley had no time for quiet meditation and peaceful reflection. He was thrust back into drag-racing combat, where, in his words, “it’s battles, battles, battles, all heavyweights, all day long.” After all, it was the max-pressure moment of what folks at the dragstrip south of Dallas call “The Stampede of Speed.” Nothing about that is relaxing.
Ashley stepped right back into fighting mode, inching closer to that elusive first championship.
But he warned, “It is far, far from over. This is going to be a fight down the stretch. There’s a difference between playing to win and playing not to lose. This year it was my goal to play to win.” He said he naturally will be mindful of the points race and where everyone stands. However, he said, “If we don’t take care of our business, it’s not going to matter.”
Ashley shared the winners circle with Matt Hagan (Funny Car), Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Pro Stock), and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle).
He said his team had no problem with his decision to slip away and practice his faith. He said, “It’s so easy to get lost in the midst of the Countdown,” but he had no hesitation in staying true to his beliefs.
“It speaks volumes to the kind of team we have. They rallied together around me. I have certain principles that are based on faith and family.” He has a verse of scripture on his dragster that says “With God, all things are possible.”
He made the seemingly impossible possible Sunday, and he knew from whence his strength came.
“There’s that never-quit mentality,” Hagan said. “You got to dig in every round.”
And he said, “I think we’ve got a chance if I can lock him in his house. Maybe I can pay somebody to tie him up. I have a lot of respect for the kid. He’s a good wheelman. Got to give respect where respect is due. They came out and outworked everybody. I don’t see anyone catching him anytime soon.”
3 – BOUT WITH VERTIGO SIDELINES BECKMAN – In yet another dramatic twist for John Force’s Funny Car team, title contender and No. 3 qualifier Jack Beckman was forced to the sidelines Sunday morning with a sudden onset of vertigo-like symptoms.
Beckman, 58, has been substituting for the injured John Force since the August race at Brainerd, Minnesota,, and had been the No. 2-ranked driver in the standings as one of the few to stop Austin Prock from running away with the championship. Force was hurt in the June event near Richmond, Virginia. NHRA rules allow an injured driver to have a fill-in for a maximum of eight races.
Sunday’s setback didn’t cost Beckman, winner of the previous race at St. Louis, any positions in the standings. He remained in second place but he’s 147 points off Prock’s pace.
With Beckman’s startling race-day news taking the PEAK Antifreeze and Coolant Chevrolet Camaro off the racetrack, Chad Green won their first-round match-up with a solo pass.
Beckman, 58, who had helped emcee Saturday night’s Drag Racing Association of Women (D.R.A.W.) auction that fetched more than $100,000 to help injured racers, said he awoke Sunday morning feeling woozy.
“Jack was fine when he left the track [Saturday night], but when he woke up this morning, he had vertigo-like symptoms that were not quickly resolved,” John Force Racing spokesman Bob McAleer said. “On the advice of NHRA medical professionals, he reluctantly has withdrawn from competition this weekend.”
WANT TO SEE “THE TEN” FROM QUALIFYING? – CLICK HERE
4- JEG COUGHLIN JR. SALVAGES DAY FOR ELITE – The KB Titan Racing Pro Stock headliners delivered a gut punch to the Elite Motorsports team in the second round Sunday. Greg Anderson defeated Fernando Cuadra Jr. Points leader Dallas Glenn defeated Aaron Stanfield. Matt Hartford beat Erica Enders, leaving her still longing for her milestone 50th victory. Elite Motorsports’ Jeg Coughlin Jr. advanced to the semifinals, but he did so at the expense of teammate David Cuadra. In the end, Coughlin salvaged the day for Elite with his victory over KB Titan principal Anderson.
For Coughlin, it was his fourth victory of the season and his 69th in Pro Stock – and it was his first at Texas Motorplex since 2002.
He said he was going to send his Wally trophy to Mark Ingersoll, the dean of Elite crew chiefs. Ingersoll remains hospitalized in Chicago following a double lung transplant two Wednesdays ago.
“I can’t tell you how amazing that process has been. It makes me take a step back,” Coughlin said. “I’m glad to say this Wally’s going to his hospital in Chicago.”
5 – POINTS LEADER PROCK JOLTED – Austin Prock’s rivals haven’t had much luck in stopping the Funny Car rookie this season. He has won seven times in 11 final rounds, qualified No. 1 an NHRA record-tying 13 times, and led the standings twice in April and again ever since the June 2 event at Epping, N.H.
They got help Sunday from an unlikely source – Prock’s own AAA Chevy Camaro. The throttle linkage broke after he performed his burnout in the semifinals, and he handed Ron Capps a free pass into the final round when the crew shut off the car. Prock bounded from the race car and marched off the starting line, retreating to his John Force Racing pit.
After a while, Prock shared that he knew something was wrong when his foot extended all the way to the floor of the car. “We tried reconnecting [the throttle cable]” but said it was quickly determined that wasn’t possible..
“Tough break. It was still a good week,” the top qualifier said, adding that his focus was on the Nov. 1-3 Nevada Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “We’ll see if we can sew this thing up,” Prock said of the championship in an astounding season that saw him hired to drive when three-time champion Robert Hight took a medical leave of absence in the preseason. With two races remaining, at Las Vegas and Pomona, California, Prock has a 147-point lead over closest challenger Jack Beckman, who sat out Sunday’s eliminations because of a sudden medical condition.
As for the missed opportunity to race Ron Capps in Sunday’s semifinals, he said, “I’m sure it would have been a hell of a drag race.”
6 – WE DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ LONG TREES – At the NHRA U.S. Nationals, NHRA officials met with the professional drivers, and the topic was the tree-start randomizer, which provides a random quickly or slowly activated tree once both drivers have staged. The whole purpose was to prevent drivers from guessing the tree. This meeting discussed speeding up the tree activation to quicker than four seconds.
The first-round Top Fuel match between Shawn Langdon and Jasmine Salinas produced an apparent malfunction. CompetitionPlus.com timed the tree’s activation at 4.08 seconds.
The situation was such that the Texas Motorplex’s timing system provider, Portatree Timing System, inspected the system before the next race, prompting event PA announcer Jason Galvin to say, “The tree is not supposed to hang that long once you stage the cars.”
The reaction times from both green light starts were .126 for Langdon and .190 for Salinas.
“I’m sure happy I have Shawn as a driver,” crew chief Brian Husen said. “That would have thrown me off, but we got through it.”
Langdon chuckled when top-end announcer Chris Monaghan asked what was going through his mind.
“I can’t really say, I’d get fined so much money [that] I wouldn’t be able to come back for next round,” Langdon said. “S*** happens. It is chickens*** that we are racing in the Countdown for a lot of money, we have a lot of people, with a lot of money at stake … jobs and points and everything like that. Computer stuff is out of people’s control to a certain extent, but we cannot have that crap happen in the Countdown.”
Langdon gave credit where credit was due, and it was to the driver he had just beaten. He said he walked over to Salinas following the race and commended her on a good job of holding her composure.
“For her to be a rookie and hold her composure, she left right with me,” Langdon said. – Bobby Bennett Jr.
WANT TO SEE “THE TEN” FROM QUALIFYING? – CLICK HERE
WANT TO SEE “THE TEN” FROM QUALIFYING? – CLICK HERE
WANT TO SEE “THE TEN” FROM QUALIFYING? – CLICK HERE
