Nitro Dogs Racing

Larry Dixon and Mike Edwards, low qualifiers three weeks ago in Phoenix, lead the Top Fuel and Pro Stock fields, respectively, halfway through qualifying at 40th annual ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.Bob Tasca III has the fastest Funny Car so far while  Matt Smith is atop the Pro Stock Motorcycle field.

A very full Friday crowd packed the venerable facility for the event, the third of 24 events on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series  schedule, basking under most sunny skies.

Larry Dixon

Dixon is halfway to his second straight No. 1 qualifying position after wheeling the Alan Johnson racing-Al-Anabi dragster to the top spot with his first-session 3.902 pass. Crew chief Johnson won the race last season while tuning for Tony Schumacher and beat Dixon in the semifinals of that race.
“I think from the first two events we went to, the air is quite a bit better here, but because of the track temperature, you have a lot less grip,” said Dixon. “I would assume that most of the teams that got down the track had to calm the car down to let it get down the track. It was real close to get that .90 on the board and at least get us qualified in the top 12. That’s always important. The next run we went up there and slowed down a little bit. I didn’t get a chance to talk to the guys to see why or what they were trying, but two runs down the track, that’s real good for us.”

“I wouldn’t think [the number will hold], I think cars should run better the more they get adapted. It seems like in years past here at Gainesville the first day is a little bit slower than the second day. I don’t know why, obviously the heat and we haven’t run here in a year, but the second day everything normally picks up and the team seems to adapt better to it and you have more shots to fire at it. I think you’ll see 80s tomorrow. I wouldn’t expect a .90 flat to hold up.”

Brandon Bernstein, who won this event in his rookie season in 2003 and was runner-up last year to Schumacher, jumped his Rob Flynn-tuned Budweiser dragster from the fourth spot to the No. 2 slot behind Schumacher. Veteran Cory McClenathan, who has never won the Gatornationals in his successful career, is third with the Fram dragster at 3.93.Class rookie Shawn Langdon sits fourth with the Lucas oil Slick Mist entry at 3.94, just ahead of Schumacher, who smoked the tires on his morning pass but improved to a .944 in the afternoon.

Points leader Antron Brown, winner of the Phoenix event, is the No. 6 qualifier, just ahead of rookie Spencer Massey and Joe Hartley. Urs Erbacher of Switzerland holds down the 12th spot with a 4,043 pass.

Among those drivers not in the field heading into Saturday’s final two qualifying sessions are former event winner Doug Kalitta and legendary Top Fuel racer Chris Karamesines, who is making his first NHRA start in two years.

Bob Tasca III

Tasca leads a trio of Mustangs corralled atop the Funny Car chart with an opening salvo of 4.124 from his Chris Cunningham-tuned Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford. If he holds on to the top spot, it will be the third-generation racer’s first professional No. 1 qualifying berth.

“The weather is going to be great all weekend,” said Tasca. “It really comes around with the cloud cover. It really doesn’t matter what the temperature is, track temperature is what’s critical. We’re hoping it’ll hold up but hey, we could improve. The good thing about running a 4.12 is you have the data and you can look at it. There were a lot of things in that run that we could have improved upon. It was a real safe 4.12. If the conditions come our way tomorrow, we’ll try to improve it.

At the end of the day, Chris and the guys give me a great hot rod and the driver is here to do his job. [We ran] 4.12 in that first session right out of the box and then we came back with a 4.18. We were trying something, and that’s a luxury you have when you’re at the top of the pack and you’re the No. 1 qualifier. It showed us some promising stuff, it didn’t improve the performance of the car but the track wasn’t as good as it was the morning session. If we have a chance to approve, it’ll probably be the earlier session tomorrow. I think that afternoon session will be too hot.”

Behind Tasca on the sheets are seven-time Gatornationals winner John Force and his Castrol Edge Mustang at 4.153 and Force’s teammate, Mike Neff , who continues to run strong even in the absence of sidelined crew chief John Medlen. Neff’s Drive One Mustang ran 4.154.

Points leader Ron Capps, undefeated through the first two events of the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, jumped from the 15th spot to fourth with a strong 4.156 despite having his NAPA Auto Parts Dodge dart for the guardwall near the finish line. One of Capps’ Don Schumacher Racing teammates, Matt Hagan in the Shelor.com Dodge, is right behind him at 4.157 for the fifth spot. Behind them is yet another Mustang, the Castrol GTX machine of Ashley Force Hood sat 54.179. Del Worsham and Jeff Arend round out the top eight.

Mike Smith, in the Tire Kingdom Monte Carlo, holds down the final transfer spot to Saturday’s qualifying with a 12th-best 4.247. Among those who will need to battle their way into the field Saturday are former national event winners Robert Hight, Jack Beckman, Jerry Toliver, and Jim Head. Hight, second in points entering the event, has had a rough outing so far in the Automobile Club of Southern California Ford. He banged the blower on the launch of his first run and came to a halt 100 feet downtrack, then smoked the tires on his second pass. His 5.57 is just the 16th quickest of the 17 entries to make runs Friday.

Mike Edwards

Edwards, like Dixon the low qualifier at the schedule’s most recent event, the Lucas Oil Slick Most NHRA Nationals in Phoenix, continued his hot streak as he screamed to the top of the Pro Stock pack in the second qualifying session with a 6.585. He was joined in the 6.50s by Greg Anderson’s 6.595 as both blew past first-session leader Allen Johnson’s 6.600. Edwards, flying the colors of Applied Racing Technology at this event, had been the No. 2 qualifier after the day’s first session behind Johnson with a 6.622.

“I’m not really used to this to be honest with you,” said Edwards. “It’s very rewarding to have these kind of results after the effort our team put in last season and over the winter. I’m just really appreciative of everything. Kathy and Derek Steinbach from A.R.T. are here today and what a great way to show them off here in their homestate [of] Florida. They’ve been on our car for eight years, and I’m real tickled for them and to have them on board. We made up the whole car for them this weekend because we wanted to do something real special for all the dedication they’ve given us, and it turned out real nice for them.

“There will be some faster times tomorrow,” he added. “I don’t know if we can get any better than that tomorrow but we’re going to try. It depends on the weather but I think the first session tomorrow is going to be real good.”

Behind the two Pontiacs and Johnson’s Dodge are Anderson’s Summit Racing Pontiac teammate, Jason Line, at 6.620 and reigning series champ Jeg Coughlin’s Chevrolet at 6.623. Larry Morgan has the next fastest Dodge with a sixth-ranked 6,627 while the event sponsor’s flagship, Kurt Johnson’s Cobalt, and Greg Stanfield’s Attitude Apparel Pontiac round out the top half of the field. Steve Spiess holds the final provisional spot with a 12th quickest 6.659.

Improvements generally were slight if at all for the factory hot rods in the warmer afternoon session, with Justin Humphreys’ four-hundredths leap, from 6.70 to 6.64, being tops, though it wasn’t good enough to put him in the quick 12. He, along with nine-time Gatornationals winner Warren Johnson, V. Gaines, and Rickie Jones, will need to run quick Saturday to make the show. Twenty four Pro Stocker made qualifying attempts.

Matt Smith

Smith, in his debut with the Don Schumacher Racing stable, ran 6.945 in Friday’s first session aboard the NitroFish Suzuki after more than two years astride his own Buell entry and held on through the afternoon’s slower session for the provisional pole position with two sessions still to go.

“That’s a good start to the season and if we can continue like that tomorrow we’ll be good,” said Smith, who made just seven runs on the bike before the race during testing. “We left three- or four-hundredths on the table on that first run, so if the conditions are similar tomorrow morning, we could run a 6.90 or .91. This Nitro Fish Suzuki that Don Schumacher has put together is pretty awesome, so I have to thank everyone on the team for giving me a chance to do this.

“The Buell is like a tractor in that it vibrates and makes no rpm – we run like 9,000 rpm – while the Suzuki will turn 13,500 nice and smooth, so it’s totally different. The clutch is different, the throttle is different, so it’s a big adjustment.”

Smith was joined in the six-second zone four other riders, led by 2008 Norwalk winner Hector Arana, who clocked a 6.957 aboard the Lucas Oil Buell. 2007 event winner Karen Stoffer, sporting new yellow paint on her GEICO Suzuki, is third with a 6.963 and is followed on the sheets by Angie McBride, Smith’s fiancée, who rode his 2008 machine to a 6.963, and former Gatornationals champ Andrew Hines, who ran 6.991 on his Vance & Hines/Screamin’ Eagle Harley. All of the six-second passes were recorded in the first session.

As it was in Pro Stock, not many riders improved in the afternoon session, though Wesley Wells did open a few eyes by improving by nearly five-hundredths, from 7.082 to 7.034, which ranks his Suzuki ninth. Ahead of him and behind the six-second runners are Craig Treble’s Suzuki (7.007), defending series champ Eddie Krawiec’s Harley (7.007), and two-time Indy champ Steve Johnson’s WyoTech Suzuki (7.024). Although he’s not currently in the field, Ryan Schnitz also impressed with a 7.17 aboard the Team Muzzy Kawasaki ZX-14, a career-best time for the rare machine.

Among those not in the field heading into Sunday are defending event champ Matt Guidera and 2008 rookie of the year candidate Junior Pippin.

The 2009 ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals will mark the 40th anniversary of NHRA’s annual March classic, and looking back over its long and illustrious history, it’s safe to say that it’s been crammed with well more than 40 years of memories and history.

You might remember that at last year’s event, banners were hung on the main grandstand at Gainesville Raceway to salute five of the event’s more memorable moments: the first all-team Funny Car final (Leonard Hughes versus Larry Reyes, 1970); Don Garlits’ debut of the Swamp Rat XXX Top Fueler and subsequent breaking of the 270-mph barrier (1986); Darrell Gwynn’s final Top Fuel win (1990); Kenny Bernstein’s shattering of the 300-mph barrier (1992); and Andrew Hines’ toppling of the six-second barrier in Pro Stock Motorcycle (2005).

That hanging handful of history only scrapes the surface of what remains one of the most storied events on the calendar. In fact, it would be easy for me to compile a top 25 list of memorable moments, heck, maybe even a top 50.

What? Was that a dare you uttered? A challenge? Ha! How about 40? Twenty today, and 20 Friday. Such a deal.

For the record, Gainesville Dragway – as it was known then and for several years afterward – officially opened for business Dec. 7, 1968, for a two-day event patterned after a points meet, and it didn’t take long for the track to get into the record-breaking business. Southeast legend Bo Laws set four records with his Corvette to lead the way. The iconic three-story tower was part of the opening-day landscape, as were a short-lived 80-foot crossover bridge that spanned the staging lanes and sponsored finish-line scoreboards similar to those at Indy. It didn’t take long for NHRA to award the new jewel of the Southeast with a national event, which it did the following June in anticipation of 1970’s much-heralded Super Season. It became the season’s second event on the calendar – a de facto East Coast season opener – and remained that way on the schedule until 1989, when the new Houston event was moved between it and the Winternationals. A year later, when the Phoenix event was moved from the fall to February, the Gainesville event became the fourth race on the schedule and stayed there until 1999, when the spring Houston race was moved behind it due to weather concerns.

Okay, but on to the rich and wondrous history of the event itself. Some of these I read about in magazines in my youth, some I saw on television, and others I have witnessed personally during my Gators-going tenure here. It seems fair and reasonable to do this chronologically rather than to try to rewrite a list that’s already begun.

Leonard Hughes, near lane, beat temporary teammate Larry Reyes on a holeshot in the 1970 Gatornationals Funny Car final.

1. As noted above, it was an all-Candies & Hughes Funny Car final at the debut event in 1970, but what few know is that runner-up Reyes, fresh off his Winternationals win in Roland Leong’s Hawaiian, was still employed by Leong, and they ran the race as C&H’s partners. Hughes was driving the team’s new Barracuda, and Reyes saddled up in the ‘69 car, which actually was the better of the two cars. It was never really discussed historically (until now), but Reyes was “asked” to lose the final round to Hughes as the team was working on a big sponsorship. One only has to look at the e.t.s — Hughes defeated Reyes on a holeshot, 7.29 to a shutoff 7.12 – to get an inkling that something wasn’t kosher (a fact to which all parties now confess), but the real shame is that had Reyes not aborted his final-round pass, he would likely have recorded the class’ first six-second pass.

2. All three Pro finals at that first event were decided by holeshots. In addition to Hughes’ gatejob, Dave Chenevert won Top Fuel – and the only Wally of his career — against Jim Paoli, 6.74 to 6.61, and Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins bagged Pro Stock with his ‘69 Camaro on a 9.90 to 9.86 tally against Ronnie Sox. As appropriate as it would have been to have the state’s finest racer, Garlits, win the debut event, it didn’t happen because despite outclassing the field in every sense – he ran in the 6.50s on four passes when no one else could even run one — he broke the transmission.

3. Jimmy King, of King & Marshall fame, also won the only Top Fuel crown of his career the following year, also on a holeshot, 6.90 to 6.80 against Sarge Arciero. For the second straight year, Garlits qualified low but went home without a trophy.

After dominating the first two Gatornationals but coming away winless, Don Garlits won his first of four Gators titles in 1972.

4. In 1972, Garlits finally scored the first of four Gatornationals Top Fuel titles in typically “Big” fashion: He ran 6.15, the quickest time in class history, earlier in the day, then ran 6.17, 243.90 (the fastest speed ever) in the final to beat the 6.24, 238.09 of national record holder Clayton Harris in what was then the quickest and fastest side-by-side race in history.

5. Chevrolet fans rejoiced at the 1973 event, where the late Jim Bucher earned a piece of history as the first Top Fuel racer to set the NHRA national record with Bowtie power, a sizzling 6.07 in round two against Carl Olson. Unfortunately for Bucher, a cracked cylinder head led to a blower explosion in the final, giving the win to Herm Petersen, whose win was the – stop me if you’ve heard this before – only one of his long career. Both ends of the national record were broken in all three Pro classes, with Pat Foster (Funny Car) and “Dyno Don” Nicholson (Pro Stock) winning the event after setting records.

The Butch Maas-driven Mickey Thompson Grand Am met a fiery end in 1973.

6. Also in 1973, Butch Maas, in Mickey Thompson’s sleek Grand Am, and Jim Nicoll, in his Speed Equipment World Vega, both rode out nasty top-end fires. Maas – whose career will be featured in this column in a few weeks – and the smoldering wreck came to a photographic stop right next to the track’s “The End” sign.

7. More history was in store at the 1974 event, where Wally Booth scored the first Pro Stock victory for car manufacturer AMC after his Hornet stung the field, including final-round opponent Jack Roush (yes, that Jack Roush) and the new Gapp & Roush Mustang. Usual driver Wayne Gapp wheeled their trusty old Pinto to the No. 1 qualifier spot but lost early to Bob Glidden. It was the (say it with me) only final-round appearance of Roush’s driving career.

Don Prudhomme brought back his Indy-winning ‘Cuda in 1974 to win the Gators.

8. The 1974 Funny Car final was notable for the body styles of the two finalists. Prudhomme had debuted an aerodynamically slick and trick Vega at the Winternationals but hated the car and later sold it to Tom Hoover. Prudhomme dragged his trusty ol’ “plain Jane” ‘Cuda out of mothballs, painted in his new Army livery, and whupped the Gators field. In the final, he beat Don Schumacher, who had tossed the body off his own aero-influenced Super Shoe Vega in qualifying but patched it up for eliminations.

9. Prudhomme also won the 1975 Funny Car title in one of the weirder final rounds in class history. “The Snake” was shut off on the line for an oil leak, which appeared to give Tom Prock – father of Robert Hight crew chief Jimmy – a solo to what would have been (all together now!) the only win of his career. Unfortunately for Prock, his final dry hop to the starting line broke the rear end. Officials gave both racers 45 minutes to make repairs, which for “the Snake” meant repairing the oil-pan gasket, and Prock and company couldn’t change out the rear end in time. Prudhomme soloed to what was his second of six wins (in eight events) that season.

10. As tough as it is for us, the Warren & Coburn faithful, to fathom, James Warren only won two national events in his fabled Top Fuel career, the second of which was at the 1976 race. The Ridge Route Terrors, whose only other Wally was earned in a front-engine car at the 1968 Winternationals, were runner-up to Frank Bradley at the 1976 Winters, then beat Chevy stalwart Bucher in the final in Gainesville. Gary Beck recorded the track’s first five-second pass that year with a 5.92. This year, of course, we’ll see its first three-second run, albeit it at 1,000 feet.

“The Snake’s” Army Monza, one of the winningest cars in NHRA history, won the Gatornationals back to back in 1975 and 1976.

11. Also in 1976, Prudhomme won his third straight Gatornationals crown and, in the process, became the winningest driver in the sport’s history with 16 wins, breaking his tie with Garlits. Prudhomme won seven of the eight events that bicentennial year, losing only in the final round in Indy to Gary Burgin.

12. “240 Gordie” Bonin began one of the oddest courtships with Gatornationals glory in 1977, when he won his first title (imagine that!), powering the Bubble Up Trans Am to low e.t. and top speed (6.19, 238.72), then won the race every other year through 1981. Bonin singled for the 1977 title after Roger Lindamood was unable to return after destroying the engine in his Color Me Gone entry in beating red-lighting Prudhomme in the semifinals. The final-four loss for Prudhomme, who battled the flu all weekend, was his first non-final-round appearance in 13 straight national events spanning three seasons.

13. The bridesmaids finally got hitched at the 1978 event as Dale Pulde, a two-time runner-up in Funny Car in a seven-year career, and Frank Iaconio, who had logged four Pro Stock runner-ups, each scored his first national event win. Pulde slid the War Eagle Trans Am past Billy Meyer’s Aqua Slide ‘n’ Dive Arrow to claim his initial Wally, and Iaconio got a gift from low qualifier Glidden, who red-lighted in the final.

14. Garlits won his second straight and third Gatornationals title in 1978 in one of his few cars that was not black. His Donovan-powered digger, painted blue and white, escaped with the victory after low qualifier Kelly Brown – who would win the season championship that year – lost the engine just off the line and Garlits smoked the tires to a 6.55.

15. Brown took it one round further the following year as his star continued to ascend, but few could have predicted the future trajectory of the 1979 Top Alcohol Dragster winner: Joe Amato. The plucky Pennsylvania pilot won his first of 57 titles – 52 of which were in Top Fuel – with his Hurst/Airheart dragster after competing in Top Alcohol Funny Car. Amato also won the Gatornationals in 1981 in TAD and four times in Top Fuel –1984, 1987, 1991, and 1997 – to put him among the event’s winningest drivers. Only Warren Johnson (nine) and John Force (seven) have more Gatornationals wins.

Bob Glidden won 85 national events but only won the Gatornationals twice, the final time in this Plymouth Arrow in 1979.

16. Here’s one that makes you go “Huh?” Glidden won Pro Stock at the 1979 Gatornationals with his Plymouth Arrow, which was newsworthy in and of itself because he beat Ronnie Sox in the first all-Mopar final since the 1973 Springnationals (where Butch Leal beat Don Carlton) and because in 63 more wins before his 1997 retirement, he never won the Gatornationals again.

17. Prudhomme won Funny Car again in 1980, but only after the heroic efforts of NHRA Competition Director Steve Gibbs with the Safety Safari, who concocted a witch’s brew of a traction compound to rescue a very green track and almost blew himself up in the process. For years afterward, a dented saucepan with the words “Desperate men do desperate things” lettered on it hung in Gibbs’ office. Gibbs’ reward? Prudhomme unleashed one of the greatest on-track assaults in history with five five-second runs, including an astounding 5.93.

18. Len Imbrogno, who decades later would work for NHRA, took a wild ride in Funny Car qualifying in Kenny Thornburg’s Centurion Pontiac Trans Am. After a wheelstand on the first attempt, he crossed the centerline on his second pass. Things got decidedly worse Saturday when Imbrogno got out of shape due to excessive tire shake and made a hard right turn into the guardrail, launching the fire bottle like a bottle rocket, before sliding the length of the course along the guardrail.

Jeb Allen finally broke Don Garlits’ six-year-old class mark of 5.63 with a 5.62 at the 1981 Gatornationals.

19. The 1981 Gatornationals was another performance barnburner. Eventual world champ Jeb Allen, who won Top Fuel the year before, ran 5.62 to finally supplant the 5.63 recorded more than five years earlier by Garlits at the 1975 Supernationals as the quickest run in Top Fuel history.

20. Shirley Muldowney won her first of two straight Gatornationals Top Fuel crowns at the 1981 event, where she bested Jody Smart in the final round. The following year, she denied Garlits in a classic final-round showdown.

Okay, there are 20 without even breaking a sweat. And in just the first 11 years of the race! Are you impressed yet? Twenty more coming your way Friday — at this rate, I may need 60! — when I’ll be filing from G-ville, where I travel Thursday.

Victor Cagnazzi Q&A: Covering the competitive spectrum

When it comes to the world of NHRA Pro Stock racing, team owner Victor Cagnazzi is a man of mixed emotions. On one hand, his Jeg’s.com team, driven by Jeg Coughlin, is the two-time defending Pro Stock champion and winner of the most recent race in Phoenix.However, for the second year in a row, his other entry, normally driven by phenom David Connolly, remains parked at the Cagnazzi Racing shop in Mooresville, N.C., while the team searches for sponsorship. As the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series prepares to head to Gainesville, Fla., for next weekend’s ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals, the quiet-spoken New York native took time to address his unique situation, and to offer his outlook for the future as well as his thoughts on the upcoming East Coast drag racing season-opener.

Q: Could you give us a brief recap as what has transpired at Cagnazzi Racing over the last few months?
VC: We have been busy since the end of last season working on new partnership programs for Dave Connolly and the Charter Communications team. The good thing is we have quite a few potential sponsors in our pipeline and we are getting good feedback from prospects about our opportunity and about our sport.

Q: How difficult is it to be in the same situation as you were one year ago?
VC: It is actually a bit easier this year. Last year we had absolutely no advance notice when Knoll Gas pulled out, I believe I got the call Jan.10. We were actually in the process of loading up for the Pro Stock Showdown in Vegas when we had to regroup and take a step back. At that point, we had already invested a lot of money and resources to get everything fresh and ready to go so it was extremely difficult financially when it ended.

This year we knew back in late November that we needed to find a partner for Charter to get Dave and the team out in Pomona. We had time to size our operation and budgets to meet our lower revenue so although it has been difficult, it isn’t as devastating as it was last year.

Q: Through it all, you have managed to keep a positive outlook throughout the entire organization. How have you done this?
VC: We know God has a plan for us; we trust in His divine guidance and know better times are just around the corner.

Q: Coming from a business background you are well aware of what a potential sponsor is looking for in today’s competitive marketplace. What about Cagnazzi Racing and the NHRA’s Full Throttle Series offers companies the best opportunity?
VC: Value, Value, Value. Wait, let me say it again: VALUE! In today’s marketplace, I believe the NHRA offers a better opportunity for a sponsor to capitalize on their investment than in other forms of racing. On top of that, racing in the Full Throttle Series is our fulltime business. We do not do this as a hobby. We are as committed to making the sponsors’ investment pay off as we are to winning races and championships.

Our responsibilities to our sponsors extend far beyond the racetrack. Our business model hinges on delivering successful, measurable results over the long term to our sponsor-partners. The team’s commitment to our sponsors is that no other organization in professional motorsports will do more to help its sponsors succeed through their motorsports investment than will Cagnazzi Racing.

Q: Have you kept in close contact with David? What is he up to?
VC: Dave and I speak a few times a week keeping each other updated on the things we are working on. Dave has been keeping busy racing in the Lucas Oil Series but he is very anxious to climb back into his Chevy Cobalt Pro Stock.

Q: Where do things stand in terms of getting the second team back on track?
VC: As of today we are looking at possibly having Dave and the Charter Team back out in Houston slugging it out for race wins. The best way to put it is that right now we are guardedly optimistic.

Q: What has been the response by the racing community and the fans to your situation?
VC: The e-mails to our website have been virtually nonstop, with every one of them offering support and encouragement for Dave and the team. Some even go as far as to suggest potential sponsors!

We have actually saved the e-mails to show any company we talk to, stacks of them we offer as evidence of the fan loyalty we have told them about. Basically, we tell them if you sign on with Dave and our team, these fans will become your customers.

Q: Of course, one of the hardest things to handle in this situation is the many misconceptions and rumors that inevitably crop up. Are there any specific areas where you’d like to set things straight?
VC: We have gotten a lot of calls criticizing us for not running Dave without a sponsor. The fact of the matter is we certainly would do that if we could – after all, we are all racers here. We want Dave to be out there racing. But, the reality is that we just don’t have the financial resources to do it without support.

Q: You have to be encouraged by the strong start by Jeggie and the entire Jeg’s team.
VC: We are really pleased with how the Jegs.com team has been performing; it goes to show the depth we have here at Cagnazzi Racing. Jeggie is an awesome driver, the team has been flawless in execution, and Jeg Sr. and Roy Simmons have been doing a great job on the set-up calls.

For the first two races, Jeg Coughlin Sr. has been in touch with the team over the Internet and via cellphone, but he’ll actually be in Gainesville, which is just up the road from his vacation home. We’re all pretty excited to have him there in person.

Q: How important has the Coughlin family’s involvement been to your team?
VC: The Coughlin family has played a big part in our success, and they all are great to work with. Jeg Jr. is just awesome behind the wheel, while Jeg Sr. brings a wealth of knowledge and has been a guiding force on the Jegs.com team working with Roy these past two seasons. Mike, John and Troy are also very supportive. As a group, they have a positive attitude that is extremely contagious, and like me they are fiercely competitive. It’s all good.

Q: You have quite a diverse stable of three drivers, each with his own personality and level of experience. Talk about them.
VC: What can I say about Jeg Coughlin Jr that hasn’t already been said or written? He’s a five-time NHRA champion, an awesome driver and individual who is calm and collected behind the wheel; nothing rattles him. He’s a fantastic spokesman for the Jegs brand and all of his sponsors and his passion for the sport shows in his interviews; you can see he loves what he does. When he’s not racing Pro Stock you might find him competing at a high-dollar bracket race somewhere; he has won a number of big Sportsman events in the past three years

Dave Connolly is another fantastic driver. He has shown time and again he will get up on the wheel and leave on you. He is confident and compelled and works hard at his craft. He is always on the practice Tree, or out racing something somewhere. You won’t find Dave sitting around often. He has a quiet and determined nature that most people don’t notice. He is there to win and I believe he is a championship waiting to happen.

Shane Tucker is our Australian rookie, and we are really excited about his potential. He was the rookie of the year in Australian Pro Stock and almost won the championship in his first year on the circuit. Shane has movie-star good looks and will bring a young, hip factor to whoever he represents. I honestly believe he will be a good addition to the team and the Pro Stock class and will be a good ambassador for our sport.

Q: The Gatornationals will be the first race you attend this season; how do you feel going in to the event?
VC: I’m excited. This year we arrive at this historic race as the defending event champs, and also come to town fresh off a big victory in Phoenix. I didn’t go to Pomona and Phoenix so we could continue to work on sponsorship solicitations for Dave and Shane, but the Gainesville race is close enough that I will only be out of the office one day. Besides, my Mom and Dad love to come to the Gators — they live in Vero Beach, so it’s a local race for them.

Q: As a drag racer growing up on the East Coast, what do the Gatornationals mean to you?
VC: The Gatornationals have so much history that it is one of my favorite races of the entire year. As a drag racer living in New York, the Gators were our first race of the season, our Spring Break, a chance to get out of the snow and cold and get to the sun and tire smoke. After a long winter, what could be better than that!?

Q: It had to be a tremendous thrill winning the Gators last year; talk about the experience.
VC: Over the past few years our team has been late starters, not really hitting our stride until late spring so to win that early in the season was really fantastic. It was also a special weekend as both Jeg Sr and I were celebrating our birthdays during the race so to end with the win was absolutely the icing on the cake!

Q: In closing, what would like to say to all your fans?
VC: I‘d like to thank them all for the great e-mails and letters. It makes a big difference to all of us knowing how much support we have out there. The encouragement is heartwarming and keeps the whole team pumped up, so please keep them coming! Other than that, we hope to see you at the races!

NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series points leaders Antron Brown and Ron Capps took part in a national teleconference hosted by NHRA March 3 and shared their thoughts about their seasons to date.

Brown has three wins in 26 Top Fuel races in the Matco Tools dragster, including one win and a runner-up in the first two races this season. He has a 42-point lead over Brandon Bernstein after the first two races. Capps has won the first two races of the 2009 season to give him 26 Funny Car wins, which ties him for the top five for all time with Cruz Pedregon. He has 27 wins; the other is in Top Fuel.  Capps is the winningest Funny Car driver in NHRA history to have not won a world championship. He has three second-place finishes, in 1998, 2000, and 2005.

Q: Antron, rewind maybe six weeks to the middle of January when there was so much turmoil going on with the change in ownership and crew chiefs; could you have imagined this? Bring us up to speed now, if you thought this was possible.
Brown: Actually, it didn’t take me by surprise. When we go back six weeks ago, it’s just like we were thumbing along, everything was great, like a gravy train over here at the time with 3BRacing. The whole team had the car ready to go. We were getting ready for the upcoming test session at Phoenix. Then we had the bomb dropped on us. We didn’t know if we had a team owner; my team owner [David Powers] basically told us he was getting out of the sport, that he couldn’t do it because of health reasons. We were a little bit in turmoil.

Later that afternoon, actually my team manager now, Tom, walks in the building and tells us that Mike Ashley took over the race team. At the time we found out that Lee Beard wasn’t going to be my crew chief. I was like, “Oh, Lord, what’s happening? Where are we going with all this?” They told us that Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald were going to be our crew chiefs. I knew we had two solid crew chiefs coming in. Made me feel better. But I was worried about my team getting separated.

Our team as a whole came together. They kept the majority of all the guys on our team. A couple of guys didn’t want to stay. They were actually getting out of racing.

We went to Phoenix, and that’s when our whole deal came together. The whole team jelled together well. We went out there and ran the quickest in Top Fuel. Gave me a boost of confidence to know what our team was capable of; all our hard work in the off-season paid off. Went to Pomona, qualified No. 1, went to the final. I was ecstatic, pumped up.

We pulled the win there in Phoenix. Gave me a continuing boost of confidence. We’re a contender in the championship. We didn’t know how our team was going to jell. I’m pretty stoked now because I know we have a strong team, and we’re only going to get stronger as the year goes on.

Q: Ron, I think it’s fair to say you are among the most decorated drivers, if not the most decorated driver, to not win a championship. Crew chief Ed “the Ace” McCulloch is in the same boat. What’s the difference so far this season, the first two races, than last season (when you didn’t win a race)? Where do you think it’s going to take you 22 races from now (end of the season)?
Capps: Well, pretty much just the approach for this season from the get-go. I mean, when we left Pomona last year, we ran the quickest run on Sunday and lost in the final. We ran 4.07 or 4.08, one of our quicker runs for the year. By a lot of team standards, we had a pretty good year. For our standards last year, we were kind of embarrassed with ourselves with how we finished. We finished eighth. We didn’t win a race. We were in final rounds. We didn’t live up to our expectations.

At the end of the day, of course, Don Schumacher, NAPA being our sponsors there, they want us to win. But it’s “Ace” and I and the team that have to wake up in the morning and know we’re not having the kind of year we wanted to have.

When we left Pomona, even though we ran good, he completely redid the tune-up on the car, went back to basics, and started from scratch, redid the whole car. When we showed up in West Palm [Florida] for our first test session, we were the quickest car every session. Then when we went to Phoenix for preseason testing; we wanted to test a lot of things. When we rolled into Pomona, we were a little bit apprehensive but a little bit confident. We weren’t sure how the weekend was going to go. To win there, it just proved that a lot of hard work paid off.

Q: How different is Gainesville going to be compared to where you’ve been? What does it take to win there?
Brown: I think the deal with Gainesville is when you go there, we know you can actually set some fast e.t.s depending on the weather. It should be pretty cool out there. It’s a sea-level track. The traction is always really good there. The fan atmosphere really gets you pumped up. It’s a really good track to go fast at.

It’s going to be a little bit different coming from Phoenix in one aspect because Phoenix was dry; it was fast out in Phoenix. We’re going to have a little bit more humidity. Play mind games on the crew chiefs. Set their tune-ups in a different way. Us as drivers, I mean, we personally — I get pumped up going to Gainesville because it’s where I always started my season off before [when riding Pro Stock Motorcycles], and the weather’s always right. It’s always one of the biggest races we go to.

You have to deal with the crowd. You got to deal with all the other stuff going on around you and get ready for a real fast race.

Capps: Like Antron said, the conditions can be very good. One thing we learned, lucky enough to win it there twice, those years, it’s real easy because of the records set there in the past. Kenny Bernstein being the “King of Speed,” breaking the 300-mph barrier. The track had cool conditions with cloud cover for several years and got a reputation for being very fast. But as of late, with it being in March, the sun can come out. Of course, humidity, a lot of these crew chiefs have in the back of their mind this attitude that this track has had records set there and you need to get after it. But it’s very tricky.

Antron will tell you, when the sun comes out there, you can’t try to run low e.t. The crew chiefs that do it are the ones that may qualify low, but they’re going to go out on race day because conditions change.

It’s a very tricky track, like Antron says, but it’s prestigious. The first year I won, I was blown away because that race, it’s one of the big three races we have. To win it twice was even bigger.

It’s kind of like the Winternationals for the East Coast. A lot of corporate sponsors come out. It’s a big deal for everybody.

Q: How do you rank the Gatornationals? Is it what you would consider one of the most prestigious stops? And how has the economy affected your programs?
Capps: Well, as far as ranking the race, kind of go off of history. I love the sport of drag racing, following the history as a kid. It’s probably the second-biggest race. Of course, Indy has to be our biggest race. For me, Pomona is big because of its history and being the heart of drag racing. Wally Parks got everything started there.

When you look at the corporate level, you look at the fan turnout, the campers when you’re driving up that small highway to the racetrack – there’s just miles of campers lined up with racing banners; it’s amazing.

So I would put it up there right with Pomona, two or three.

The economy, I’ll tell you, I’ve been bragging on our sport because, to be honest with you, the fan turnout has been unbelievable. We have a great package. Our sport is in good hands. The fact that people are going to look in their wallets and say, “Here is what I’m going to spend my money on this whole year for entertainment.” When you look at any motorsport, any stick-and-ball sport, you can’t get any better buy than a drag race. Take the kids, meet the drivers, meet the legends. It’s amazing to see the turnout we had. Even when it was raining in Pomona, I couldn’t believe the fans out there, even without umbrellas.

I expect a huge crowd in Gainesville. My sponsor NAPA is doing just fine. I think people are spending money on things they have at home instead of going out and buying a lot of things. I’m not really that worried about our sport.

Brown: The Gators is, definitely like Ron was talking about, one of the most prestigious races, especially for the bike class, because it’s where the bikes always started at. That’s my start back in ’98. I mean, I love going to the racetrack. I’ll say it – it ranks up there definitely of all the races we go to, definitely in the top five of all the racetracks that we go to, for sure.

When everybody thinks about racing, they think about the Gatornationals and the U.S. Nationals. They go hand in hand with each other.

As far as the economy will go, I think our sport is just like Ron was stating. It’s not just us being biased because we’re drag racers; when you talk to our NASCAR counterparts, they say the same thing about our sport. It’s the best bang for the buck. A few of them even came by thinking about getting drag race teams because they see how our sport is growing, from the Coca-Cola standpoint all the way down to when I look at it through our sponsor with Matco. Their business is growing. You see other people getting out of different motorsports, where they’re taking a leap of faith and more and actually extended our contract through 2009 and 2010.

It’s definitely a great buy because you’re seeing more people working on their stuff at home, like Ron says. They’re going to NAPA to buy their stuff, and hopefully they’re using Matco tools to put that on their car. Our sport is really family oriented. The people come into the stands, come to the pit areas, mingle around, seeing the cars warming up, seeing the crew. Every ticket is a pit pass. Our sport is growing in a time of hardship, which is great for our sport. I’m happy to see it because people are having short fields. We’ve been having 22-car fields in Top Fuel. The same thing in Funny Car. That really put a shine on my face when we came out the beginning of this year. People were saying, “Let’s see how the field is going to look.” Our field has actually been booming with the new kids, rookies coming out in our class and making our sport grow. I’m really excited about our sport as a whole, how it’s grown in a time of desperate needs. And I love Gainesville.

Q: What do you think of the new variable timing starting Tree? How is it changing your approach at the start of a run?
Brown: I love it. I never even realized it or even saw it. But I guess you did have some people who’ve been in our sport for a while. Ron can probably talk a lot better than I have because he’s been in the fuel class a lot longer than I have. I didn’t realize there were some people anticipating the Tree, but you’re seeing more of it as the race goes on. It makes it more competitive for our classes. Now you have to be a disciplined driver, which me coming from bikes, we always left when I saw yellow, I was able to red-light. But I leave when I see yellow in fuel; I don’t have to worry about red-lighting. Other people were anticipating a little bit.

It’s made our class a little bit more interesting because now people have to be more prone to be disciplined enough to leave when they see yellow. I think it’s been making a little bit for up-and-down racing and better racing.

What do you think about it, Ron?

Capps: Yeah, I agree. It’s something all of us drivers together last year kind of formed a group, sort of a task force, to look at safety and a lot of issues to deal with PRO [Professional Racers Owners Organizaion], NHRA. One of the deals came up to getting the Christmas Tree back where it was when the late Buster Couch was the starter. It’s so automated now. For people that don’t know much about the Tree, the amount of time when a flash of yellow would come down when both cars were staged, a guy could count one thousand one, one thousand two, almost guess at the light. We wanted to put it back into the driver, make the driver a little more important, I guess.

It caught the drivers by surprise. I almost red-lit. Robert Hight told me the same. Raced the semi’s in Pomona. We were more excited about how the Tree made us wait, we were both in the cars ready to push the gas, than even the fact I won, I was going to the final. So I think it was welcomed.

We had a meeting with all the drivers. It was a unanimous decision at the time. I think you’re going to see one more change to the Tree that NHRA might change, a small amount, nobody is going to notice. Again, it’s going to bring the drivers back into it. It needs to reward guys like Antron, the guys that are really quick, that can wait and anticipate and leave on yellow. That’s what needs to happen. There were too many guys taking shots and guesses. That’s not good when you come home to your kid and you explain a loss because a guy guessed at a Tree. Trying to eliminate that.

Q: There have been more red-lights in the first two races than last year. Do you think we’ll see more reds all year?
Capps: Yeah, you might. You might. But you’ve got to take a step back before you go forward. I think if there are any drivers complaining, then they need to go back and practice some more.

I’m saying that because I could very well red-light the next race. But the fact is we did it as a group because we wanted to bring the driver back into it more. You might see some more red-lights. Antron can talk about the bikes a few years ago. There were a lot of red-lights when they tried to change the Tree or they did change the Tree. We’ve coped with a lot of changes with NHRA. They went to a different bulb type. A lot of things have happened in the past. It went along until all of a sudden the Tree was just more of a robot.

There was a guy named Buster Couch, a starter years ago. It was in his control. You didn’t leave until you saw amber. If he wanted to make you wait, you waited. That’s when you hear Don Prudhomme and Don Schumacher talk about the old days. That needs to be back the way it was.

Q: When you look at how competitive it is out there, how remarkable is it that Tony Schumacher had last year with all those wins? What could you compare it to maybe?
Brown: That was kind of phenomenal. He had an unbelievable team. I had a firsthand watch at it because he was kind of kicking our team’s butt up and down the track each and every time last year. I think we beat him twice maybe. No, once. I was 1-6 against him.

What can you compare that to? One of John Force’s domination years, when he won all those world championships in Funny Car. I think some people say, “Is that good for the sport?” I think it’s great for the sport because what it has done is I think if you see Top Fuel now, it has raised the level of Top Fuel because everybody has to compete with that kind of team. That team is still out there with Larry Dixon, who is a phenomenal driver himself. Us as a whole, we worked in the off-season so we can be that much more competitive. That’s what it does, it drives it.

Force won all those championships. I’ll let Ron speak about that. I think that rose the level of Funny Car to where it’s at, too. All it does, when one person breaks records, it creates a whole ’nother level for the teams to have to step up to to compete on that level to win that championship. What it’s done is you create your own monster with other race teams to step up to that level. That’s what’s happening.

Q: Did John have any seasons that paralleled that at all, Ron?
Capps: Oh, yeah. When I first started, that’s the reason I went to Funny Car. I drove Top Fuel for a year and a half. A lot of teams, that’s the reason you see a lot of Funny Cars where they’re at right now. Everybody wanted to go in and battle John Force. He was the guy you wanted to put yourself against because you knew he was absolutely the best. He was destroying people. He was clinching championships sometimes in September.

Yeah, I’ve seen that before firsthand. Being a teammate of Schumacher, watching what they’ve done the last few years, I’m not sure you’ll see that again in some time. It was an amazing thing to watch. Everything was going right. So we’ll see.

Q: Ron, you referred to last season being embarrassing for your team. Yet in the last race of the season, you made the final. Did that give you a boost of confidence coming into this year?
Capps: Yeah, well, definitely. “Ace” that whole day Sunday in Pomona at the end of the year, I could see it in his eye. He was trying things he wasn’t comfortable trying, but that’s what you’ve got to do a lot as a crew chief. I could tell on the car; the car was getting much more of an animal every run. In the final round, he did some things he would not normally do, and it paid off.

I wanted to go hang myself after running what we did, finally running that good, be in the final round, last race of the year, a chance to give NAPA a win, losing the race. I had the whole off-season to think about it every morning.

It gave us definitely a silver lining to look forward to this year. That’s why we’re so apprehensive. When “Ace” decided to change a lot of things, it was like, “We just finished with a great run.” He also knew that with the other teams out there, [Auto Club Ford Mustang crew chief] Jimmy [Prock]’s team that always seems to be low e.t. at qualifying, we were going to have to step it up. To do that, we were going to have to completely change everything.

As a crew chief, it’s a hard thing to do. But I’m glad he did it.

Q: In Phoenix, you destroyed the field. How did that feel after what you went through last year?
Capps: Looking back, it kind of looked that way. When you’re in the trenches race day, it didn’t feel that way. We barely beat our teammate Matt Hagan the second run. We weren’t quickest the first couple rounds, but “Ace” knew why. The cool thing about racing with “Ace,” you look at years past. There have been great drivers in the past. But if you look at a great racer, there are only a few of those out there. He’s one of those guys that approaches it that way. He only ran what he thought we needed to win those rounds, not get ourselves in trouble.

I didn’t feel like we were dominating. What made me feel like maybe we had a car that did maybe dominate a little bit was the final round when Mike Neff broke his clutch linkage. He idled down the track.

Q: Antron, you’ve had success in both classes. Do you feel now you’re kind of racing what you always wanted to race? Is this kind of a dream being realized?
Brown: Oh, for sure. I mean, I can take you back to 1986. I was 10 years old at the Summernationals at Old Bridge [Township Raceway] Park in Englishtown. I was there when “Big Daddy” Don Garlits flipped his Super Shops car over. I remember as a kid just watching that race. I was a motocross racer back then. My dad was a drag racer. They were Super Comp and Super Gas racers. I remember I said, “I want to drive one of those things one time, either a Top Fuel or Funny Car.” Didn’t make a difference. I was never picky. I was fascinated with the nitro classes, how fast they went.

I got into the motorcycle end of it. I got there, and Capps will remember, when I was over at DSR racing the bikes, I would talk to him every once in a while. “I want to drive one of these. Will you help me out?” Capps was one of my heroes. I thought he was the best in the business that ever drove a Funny Car. He would say, “Whatever you want; if you get in one of those deals, I will help you drive it.” I want to do this deal. I want to do this deal.

I just never got the opportunity to make it happen at DSR. When I got this opportunity to come over here with the Matco car, I went full head of steam. Fortunately, it worked out for me. I was putting my head down. Till this day, when I won my first race in Houston, I still look up at the sky every day and say, “Lord, is this really happening?” I think I’m dreaming. It’s like a dream to drive one of those cars. Until you drive one and experience it, it’s like a being kid in a candy store, you want to do it over and over and over again. The ride never changes. That’s why Force is still doing it, and he’s [59 years old]. He loves it. That’s the kind of passion I have for this sport as a whole and driving this race car. I’m very fortunate to get to do what I’m doing for sure.

Q: Ron, when you look at how you finished second in your career, are you at a point where you’re kind of compartmentalizing the season into segments, how you want to start off, things you maybe want to try midseason, trying to save it for the end, or are you pretty much going all out all the way through?
Capps: That’s kind of funny. The way we approach this season I think is kind of how I want to approach the whole thing. In years past, everybody has had this Countdown looming over us. You want to be one of the cars that makes it in there. When you get in there, you want to try to be a car that’s peaking.

The first year of the Countdown [2007], we went in with a points lead, and we lost a huge points lead when it started. We just never saw the points lead again.

The approach that “Ace” and our team have this year is one run at a time. I know it’s cliché. We’re standing on the gas, and we’re going to try to be the quickest car every single run of that round, then do that and win every race, just try to win races. All that will come with it. Instead of laying back and testing, trying things here, you know, sound like a NASCAR guy, “We’re okay with a top-five finish this weekend.” That turned out to not be the right approach. I think a lot of teams are going to see that same thing. You can’t approach it — drag racing is not NASCAR, first of all. But you can’t approach it like that.

So far it’s worked for what we wanted to try this year.

Q: Antron, talk a little bit about the difficulty or the transition between the motorcycles and the Top Fuel car.
Brown: The transition was mind-boggling. A lot of people say it looked easy, but they looked from the outside looking in.

When I first did the transition, I went to Frank Hawley’s NHRA Drag Racing School and got my alcohol license. I got to Gainesville with the Matco team, was able to make four runs there because the weather wasn’t permitting. We went in the wintertime. I got my first shake, tire shake. When the car shakes its tires, it’s like somebody put your head between two two-by-fours and was slapping your head like a paint shaker. It was kind of violent. It got me to all the different types of feelings I’m going to have to get used to in the car. The bike, the movements are real subtle. When I got into the fuel car, everything was like overexaggerated where you know it was happening. So I think the bike really got me primed and ready for how to be one with the vehicle because you’re not strapped in, you’re sitting on top of it, where you have to feel every nook and cranny, be in tune with it to give feedback to help the crew chief make the tune-up calls besides looking at the race computer.

When I got into the fuel car, all those movements were really exaggerated, where it really helped me catch on quick. The thing the bike did not prepare me for was the rate of acceleration. That’s one thing that took me at least a half a year just to get into my system where I can actually say, “Okay, this would happen here. This would happen in the first 60 feet. This would happen at the 100-foot mark. This at the 330.”

The fuel cars, what happens is you feel about 3.8 Gs off the starting line. When you get to hundred foot, it goes to 4.2 Gs. 330, you’re at four and a half Gs. When you’re at half-track, you reach 5 Gs. On my bike, I felt 3.8 Gs off the starting line till about 100 foot out, then it descended where it went down to 1 G by half-track. You’re along for the ride. You got the bike straight; it’s easy. The fuel car is accelerating all the way down the racetrack. The whole racetrack is like my Pro Stock Bike 60 foot. In three seconds, we’re over 300 mph.

That took me some really getting used to, how to feel the car, get it through tire shake, keep the car in the groove. When I first started off, I was looking at it all the way down the racetrack. When I was looking all the way down the racetrack, the car would get out of the groove, and I would spin the tires, where I had to start paying attention to 100 foot or 200 foot in front of the race car. If the car was making a twitch, I had to correct it. It came to just be a reaction. When I was trying to do it, I never could keep up with it. I just had to react to it.

The adjustment took me a while. I’m still learning stuff to this day. I’m way more comfortable than what I used to be. I can maybe win a round or two if I have to pedal it before last year where I had to get through it, and I might lose a round because I didn’t pedal it at the right time. I think now I can maybe sneak a couple rounds out if I have to get into a pedal match with somebody else.

Q: Ron, is this the strongest start you’ve ever had to a season? What’s the highest number of consecutive race wins you’ve been able to string together?
Capps: Definitely the strongest. We had a pretty good start I think it was ’05, but nothing like this. The most consecutive, I’m not sure. I know we’ve won at least two in a row. I thought we won three in a row a couple years ago. Trying to remember.

Yeah, this is definitely our strongest. I think our consecutive might be three.

Q: Antron, in NASCAR, the open-wheel guys that have made the transition, AJ Allmendinger, Ricky Carmichael, those are exceptions. Most of the open-wheel guys did not make it. What do you think you share with those guys that you’re able to adapt and be a points leader?
Brown: I think for one thing I can relate to Ricky Carmichael a lot. I think one thing of it is just having the determination and the willingness to want to win. I think that’s what you see not in just athletes, but into your championship-caliber athletes. You know what I mean? You just go out and beyond the call of duty.

When I took the Top Fuel deal, it didn’t just come to me. It’s that a lot of people say, “You picked a bike guy to drive a Top Fuel car? You did this or that.” For me personally, when I get in there, I kept my head down, worked hard. I’ve been in the shop every day. Scott Speed, Ricky Carmichael, that’s what they shared; they did it in their other previous sports. That’s why they got to get into the NASCAR Truck Series, what they’re doing; they actually do everything it needed to take and more. They went beyond the realm to achieve success. Success doesn’t come easy. You go through bumps and trials. But it’s the people that don’t give up, continue the work ethic to succeed. That’s what makes champions, how you go through adverse times.

I’m one of those types of people. I don’t like losing by any means. I’m confident in myself. But I’m willing to put the work that it takes to be successful in life. That’s the main key, to have determination.

Q: During the off-season, you got the opportunity to race those guys in a go-kart in Orlando. Could you comment on that?
Brown: It didn’t go the way I wanted it to. I went out there, got my tail whipped. That time right there, I’m not giving up, I’m going to go out there with them next year, but be with a little bit different team next year. I had a lot of equipment failure. It didn’t help when I had - what do you call it - a pair of vice grips that were still clamped on my steering column beating me on the leg when I was going around the track either. It was a lot of fun. You could see the raw determination of those guys, how they got out there from their sports. They performed well in the go-karts. I love go-karts to death. Ron was out there with me. It’s a lot of fun, but you’ve got to be on your toes. That’s a lot of endurance. I’m going to be ready for them next year. Want to go out there and try to get definitely a top 10 finish. That will make me feel real good for a drag racer.

Q: How do you think the 1,000- foot length is working? Is there a possibility of going back to a quarter-mile?
Capps: I’m real happy with it right now. Until we get all the shutdown areas at all the tracks like we have at Pomona, Charlotte, and Indy, you know, then I think we’ll be more comfortable going a quarter-mile.

I don’t think we’ve lost any bit of the competition, the racing, for the fans. I think a lot of them had their arms up in the air when it first happened, were wondering if the racing was going to suffer. It’s still strange not to go to a quarter-mile. I think a lot of us have gotten more used to it.

For me personally, I think it’s a good thing right now. I see us going back to quarter-mile sometime down the road.

Brown: I definitely agree with Ron on that. To give you a little history, in previous tracks, some of the tracks haven’t changed since the ’60s and ’70s, some of the early ’80s deals. Our cars do over 330 mph in a quarter-mile. I think it’s all the right moves we did, especially with our sport. The racing actually has gotten tighter at a thousand foot. We all loved 1,320. Don’t get none of us wrong. We want to go back to the full quarter-mile. That’s what our sport was built on. In the fan aspect, you’re seeing a lot of cars and teams where the parts attrition is up when you can see the cars run hard to a thousand foot without hitting the rev limiter. I think you’re going to see 315 mph or 310 mph out of a Funny Car, you’re going to see 320 out of a Top Fuel dragster. I think you’re going to see some good quality racing this year. I’m pretty excited about it actually because now it puts it back into a driver’s hands a little bit more because you’ve got to be more in tune and crisp off the line to get those race wins. 

Brown, Capps, Coughlin pick up big wins at 25th Phoenix race

Info | Tickets | Schedule | Entries | Results

Team reports | Audiocast | Photos | Video

Thhe silver anniversary of the Lucas Oil Slick Mist NHRA Nationals in Phoenix was highlighted by triumphant wins by Antron Brown (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car), and Jeg Coughlin (Pro Stock).

Brown and Coughlin edged out respective multi-time Phoenix victors Brandon Bernstein and Kurt Johnson in the final round. Capps singled in the final when Mike Neff wasn’t able to stage. Brown and Capps leave the second event of the 24-race NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series as the point leaders, while Coughlin is a close second behind Pomona winner Jason Line.

Antron Brown

Brown started the season well in the Brian Corradi- and Mark Oswald-tuned Matco Tools dragster with a runner-up in Pomona, but the team left California with a thirst for that coveted Wally. He got the chance again when he met Bernstein in the final round. Brown, a former Pro Stock Motorcycle rider, took his third career Top Fuel win two races into his sophomore season by posting a 3.846 at 310.63 mph, while Bernstein smoked the hides and ran a 5.17.

“This just shows you how strong this team is,” said Brown, who leads the Top Fuel points standings for the first time in his career. “During the off-season, I looked at the guy upstairs and said, ‘What is all this adversity for?’ It was crazy. Then I found out that we were going to get Brian or Mark, and I had no doubt that we were going to be a good team. They took our car to another level.

“We were bummed in Pomona, because we had the car to beat going into the final before we had a mishap that slowed us down. The crew is getting more confident with every run. I think we’re going to keep getting stronger as the year goes on.”

The internal components of Brown’s dragster were used and abused every time he got back to the pits in eliminations, but they worked well for 1,000 feet at a time as he ran strong on Sunday. Brown’s motor expired early in a first-round defeat of rookie Del Cox Jr. He was locked in the 3.8-second zone after that by running 3.885 and 3.819 to survive competitive battles against Shawn Langdon and Tony Schumacher.

Bernstein followed his semifinal performance in Pomona by doing one better in getting to the final round at the event where he scored his first career win in 2003 and successfully defended the title in 2004. Bernstein was quietly effective in his fifth-best qualifying effort before crew chief Rob Flynn dialed in the Budweiser/Lucas Oil dragster to a 3.890 and two 3.84s on race day while opponents Joe Hartley, Spencer Massey, and No. 1 qualifier Larry Dixon all had trouble. Bernstein’s victory over Dixon was key because the Alan Johnson Racing/Al-Anabi Racing dragster had been the class of the field up to that point, where it suffered a broken a throttle cable.

Ron Capps

Capps and Neff had been the headliners in the Funny Car class from day one, but what was supposed to be an incredible final round ended in anticlimactic fashion when Neff was unable to get his Ford Drive One Mustang into reverse after his burnout. Capps would have been tough to beat, however, as he drove the Ed “the Ace” McCulloch-tuned NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger to his 27th career win with a roaring 4.048 at 306.81 mph.

“The start we’re having to the season is what NAPA signed up for,” said Capps, who had one previous win in four finals at this event. “We did so well with the Brut car, and we were disappointed with what we gave NAPA last year. This is more like it. I’m living a dream right now.

“Neff was having one of those weekends going where they looked like they couldn’t be beat. They had [crew chief] John Medlen in the hospital, and we’re all glad to hear that he’s okay. It was one of those stories that you almost hate to upset.”

Capps entered eliminations from the No. 1 qualifying position, the eighth of his career and his first since the 2005 season. Capps stayed consistent with elapsed times ranging from 4.079 to 4.118 while turning back challengers Jeff Arend, teammate Matt Hagan, and Del Worsham en route to the final round. Capps became the first Funny Car driver to open the season with consecutive wins since John Force in 1997 and is only the second driver to do so since Frank Hawley in 1983.

Neff’s misfortune in the final round was akin to the clock striking midnight during his Cinderella story. Neff took over the tuning chores as well as driving due to crew chief John Medlen recovering in Indianapolis after a stent was inserted around his heart. Neff had the most consistent car on the premises. He is now 0-4 in final rounds. The last time Medlen was unable to attend an event he was scheduled to work at, next-in-command Dickie Venables tuned Tony Pedregon to victory in Seattle in 2002.

Jeg Coughlin

Two of the greatest active drivers in Pro Stock today met in the final round when Coughlin took on Kurt Johnson. Coughlin held a 30-25 advantage over Johnson in previous competition, though the odds were in Johnson’s favor in final rounds to the tune of 7-0. Coughlin got a two-hundredths advantage when the pair of Chevy Cobalts took off and held on to win, 6.643 at 208.01 mph to 6.647 at 208.46.

“I didn’t realize Kurt had such a good record against us in the final, but I didn’t take him lightly because he’s always tough in the money round,” said Coughlin, who picked up the 42rd Pro Stock win of his career – he’s the fourth-winningest driver in class history — and his 55th overall. “We didn’t have the best car today by any stretch, but we just kept crawling our way through them and keeping our head up. To see that win light come on in the final round with the crowd we had today and the points and the whole bit, it feels fantastic.”

“The chips kind of fell the way they did for us to come home with the greatest achievement, and that’s a race win here. You always go into race day wanting a win, but we kind of struggled with it. It seems like in my career in Pro Stock that I’ve very rarely had the feeling of being up front and not wanting to screw up. We just went up each time and raced hard for it.”

The second round of Pro Stock featured upsets across the board as Johnson, Coughlin, Ron Krisher, and Greg Stanfield defeated respective favored opponents Allen Johnson, Line, Mike Edwards, and Greg Anderson. Coughlin was steady if not flashy as he moved Victor Cagnazzi’s Jegs.com Chevy Cobalt through the eliminations ladder. He opened with a 6.619 to beat Steve Spiess, upset Pomona winner Line in the second round with a 6.653, and ran a 6.651 in the semi’s to put Krisher’s good showing to an end.

The wave of second-round upsets made Kurt Johnson a favorite at a track where he had won on three previous occasions. The ACDelco driver overcame a holeshot from Larry Morgan in the first round with a 6.626, scored a holeshot win against Allen Johnson in round two, and cruised to a win in the semifinals with a 6.647 when opponent Stanfield broke after staging.

Lucas Oil Sportsman winners include past Lucas Oil season champions Dan Fletcher (Comp), Michael Iacono (Super Stock), and Mike Ferderer (Super Gas); two-time national event titlist Brad Burton (Stock); and Lucas Oil-sponsored driver Tom Bayer (Super Comp).

Friday qualifying leaders stay on top in Phoenix

Info | Tickets | Schedule | Entries | Results

Team reports | Audiocast | Photos | Video

The top performers in the Professional ranks during Friday qualifying remained the qualifying leaders despite an onslaught of great runs in the final day of qualifying at the Lucas Oil Slick Mist NHRA Nationals in Phoenix. Mike Edwards (pictured) will head into final eliminations from the No. 1 spot in Pro Stock, while father and son crew chiefs Ed and Jason McCulloch tuned their respective drivers Ron Capps (Funny Car) and Larry Dixon (Top Fuel) to the top spots.

Never before in drag racing history had a father and son tuned drivers to No. 1 spots in different Professional classes at the same event. This occurred in just the second race of the younger McCulloch’s tuning career.

Though Dixon has been followed closely by his competitors in Top Fuel, he is the only leader in the Professional ranks that clearly had the best car during both days of qualifying. Mike Neff had the best Saturday in Funny Car, and Greg Anderson and Allen Johnson were slightly quicker than Edwards in Pro Stock on Saturday.

Larry Dixon

Dixon was the class of the field throughout qualifying. He wheeled the Alan Johnson/Al-Anabi Racing dragster to respective runs of 3.843, 3.807, 3.828, and 3.818 en route to the 32nd No. 1 qualifying effort of his career. To open eliminations on Sunday, he’ll face Terry Haddock, a Funny Car driver who will be making his first start in Top Fuel.

“I’m happy to see Jason got his first pole, and I think it’s really neat that his dad got one, too,” said Dixon. “It’s great to be up here with a brand-new team. When you look at what [team owner] Alan Johnson has done over the past 15 years, not qualifying in Pomona with only one shot was just a small hiccup.

“I’ve watched this team dominant qualifying in the past when they were with [Tony] Schumacher. Being their driver, all I have to say is that they’re really good. We ran a .82 in the third session when the next best run was a .87, and that’s just amazing to me.”

Tony Schumacher moved around Antron Brown for the second spot during the final qualifying session with a strong 3.826 at 314.46 mph. Spencer Massey stayed fourth in the U.S. Smokeless dragster, so he will start from the top half of the field for the first time in his young Pro career. Massey’s first-round opponent will be Mike Strasburg, who upset him in round one in Pomona.

Doug Kalitta successfully avoided becoming the first driver since Jerry Toliver in 2004 to fail to qualify one race after winning the season-opener. Kalitta went from outside the field to the top half with one of the better runs of the last session, a 3.897 at 307.86 mph. He holds lane choice over Cory McClenathan in the first round.

Ron Capps

Capps remained the quickest driver in Funny Car with a 4.023, the second-quickest elapsed time of the 1,000-foot era. The driver of the Napa Dodge Charger earned the eighth No. 1 spot of his career, one of which occurred at this event while driving for Don Prudhomme in 2000. The Pomona champ is vying to extend his points lead with consecutive victories to start the season, which hasn’t been done in Funny Car since 1997.

“It’s cool that Ed and Jason both got No. 1s,” said Capps. “It’s strange to be around the two of them. They have a neat relationship, because they both have an old school, tough image. Ed gave me a big hug recently, and I asked him if he hugs Jason like that. He just looked at me and said, ‘No.’ ”

“We made three pretty good runs. It would have been nice to lay down another 4.0, but you’ve got to look at the big picture of getting down the track consistently. I hope to keep going rounds. After that win in Pomona, I think everyone on this team remembers how fun it is and wants to do it again.”

Though Capps made the best run in qualifying, it can be argued that Mike Neff had the best race car. The driver and designated crew chief of the Ford Drive One Mustang is the No. 2 qualifier and the only driver to go A to B on every attempt with efforts of 4.126, 4.050, 4.124, and 4.063. Neff, whose crew chief John Medlen is recovering in Indianapolis after a stent was inserted around his heart, also holds top speed at 309.06 mph.

John Force made the biggest move in the final session. His Castrol Edge Ford Mustang stepped up to a 4.069 at 306.53 mph to take the third spot, setting him up for a marquee first-round matchup with Tim Wilkerson. John Force Racing driver Robert Hight stayed fifth, setting him up for a first-round battle with teammate and sister-in-law Ashley Force Hood.

Matt Hagan is making his first career start from the top half of the field with the BrakeSafe team. Jeff Arend and the DHL crew made the field on the bump spot with a 4.196 at 293.60 mph.

Mike Edwards

Edwards sat tight as the top qualifier in Pro Stock, a position he held six previous times in his career and once at this event in 2001. After making the quickest runs in both sessions on Friday with a best of 6.605 at 208.52 mph, Edwards’ Penhall/YoungLife Pontiac GXP was the third-quickest in each of the sessions today with a pair of 6.62s. Edwards will fight for his first win of the season with power from his own engine program and a tune-up from capable wrenches Terry Adams, Josh Robinson, and Alan Lindsey.

“We worked long hours over the winter to make strides in our engine program,” said Edwards, who also leases engines to Ron Krisher, who coincidentally leased an engine to Edwards when he was the No. 1 qualifier at this event in 2001. “We were behind all last year before we gradually got better. Our guys really stepped up. Greg [Anderson] has a top-notch team, and he set the bar so high that it’s been our ultimate goal to get as close as we can to him.”

“When you can run good, you feel like you have a chance,” added Edwards. “We have a chance tomorrow.”

Two weeks after setting the national E.T. record in Pomona, Greg Anderson’s Summit Racing Pontiac GXP made the best passes of the day with a 6.610 and a 6.622. Allen Johnson made the best runs other than Anderson in the two sessions with respective 6.621 and 6.624 blasts, after which the Mopar driver boldly declared, “We’re gonna win this race.”

All of yesterday’s top 12 made the field with Johnny Gray taking the bump spot with a 6.669. Three Dodge drivers (Rickie Jones, Larry Morgan, and David Beckley) and one Chevy driver (Steve Spiess) made the field today with nice runs, and the 21-year-old Jones even ran quick enough in the QuarterMax Dodge Stratus to move into the top half of the field.

Defending event champ V. Gaines was unable to make the cut. The last time a Professional driver failed to qualify as a defending event winner was last season when 2007 Bristol champ Jeg Coughlin posted a rare DNQ at the same event.

Doug Kalitta and Ron Capps opened the 2009 Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season with wins in Funny Car and Top Fuel at the Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. Both had not won since the 2007 season, but got their new seasons off to a flying start with morale-boosting victories in Pomona. The Tuesday finish was a rare one, matched only by the 1978 event , whch also needed two extra days to complete.

Race fans who stuck around for what was the sixth day of the initial race of the new campaign saw a new national record in Pro Stock and a bevy of quick runs and exciting pairings thanks to cool weather and a tight track. The Pro Stock final wasn’t until more than an hour after the nitro classes, but Jason Line found the dely well worth the wait as he scored his Summit team’s fifth win in the last six Winternationals.

Doug Kalitta

Kalitta joined his uncle Connie (1967) and late cousin Scott (2005) as Winternationals winners and scored the first victory for Kalitta Motorsports since the tragic loss of Scott in a racing accident last summer. Kalitta, last year’s Mac Tools U.S. Nationals runner-up who scored his most recent win in late 2007 in Richmond, defeated low qualifier Antron Brown in a tight match, 3.82, 308.57 to 3.84, 307.16, to collect career win number 31.

“It’s pretty cool to win this because Connie and Scott have won here, and the roll cage of my car is actually the same one that was in Scott’s car when he won here in 2005,” said Kalitta. “I think of Scott when I’m up there on the line because he had a couple of things he would do to get himself worked up and I’ve followed that, so it reminds me of him when I do them. He’s with us all the time, and I’m sure he’s proud that all three of us have won at the Winternationals.

“I’ve always wanted to win here; this one of the places that ranks way up there on my list, and the Kalitta name has a long list here. I’m just happy to win with this being Connie’s 50th [anniversary in drag racing] and hope we can keep this momentum going and stay in the hunt. We’ll just play it by ear; hopefully this will help our chances of finding a primary sponsor and take it from there.”

Kalitta raced to his 56th career final from the No. 11 spot, blasting past Urs Erbacher with a fire-trailing 4.64 Sunday and then pounded out a 3.82 to 3.86 decision over last year’s Winternationals runner-up, Cory McClenathan, in round two. Kalitta moved on into the final when Morgan Lucas shook and smoked his tires in the new GEICO dragster in the semifinals.

Brown, the surprise low qualifier at this event last year in his Top Fuel debut, again started the season from the pole position, but, unlike last year when he exited in round two, the driver of Mike Ashley’s Matco Tools dragster took it all the way to the final round. Although Brown led qualifying, his eliminations run was anything but spectacular until the semifinals. He could muster just a 4.22 to beat Top Fuel newcomer Steve Faria in round one, then got a gift in round two when Mike Strasburg was unable to stick around after the rain. Brown’s blue digger launched into hard smoke and then banged the blower, which automatically deployed the chute. He crossed the finish line nearly 16 seconds later at just 26.16 mph, but nonetheless reached the final four, where the Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald-tuned machine ripped to a 3.778 at 312.78, the second quickest pass in 1,000-foot history, behind only Tony Schumacher’s 3.777 of last year.

Ron Capps

Capps, who didn’t win his first round of Funny Car racing last year until the fifth event of the schedule, went four straight to open his 2009 campaign, finishing it off with his 25th career win in Funny Car when Jim Head lost traction at the green. Capps’ NAPA Auto Parts Dodge roared to the victory with a 4.15, 296.96.

Capps hadn’t visited the winner’s circle since the 2007 Madison event, but reached his 55th career final and showed that he, crew chief Ed McCulloch, and the NAPA team are serious about regaining the championship form they had showcased in years past. Although they qualified just 13th in the one-shot qualifying, the car came to life in eliminations by running low e.t. of the first three rounds. A 4.12 in round one dispatched John Force,and a 4.088 sent Bob Tasca III home early. In the semi’s, Capps sent packing perennial Pomona finalist Robert Hight, the low qualifier and the last of the Force Racing entries, in a spectacular match, 4.054 to 4.08, which was low e.t. of  eliminations.

“We ran 4.07 in the final here last year when we lost [at the NHRA Finals],” said Capps, who also won his first NHRA national event on a Tuesday, in Seattle in 1995, “and that 4.05 against Robert was awesome because we always get up to race him and Jimmy Prock. We bring out the best in each other, and we knew we’d have to have our A game. We were worried about Jim Head, too, because he can run low e.t. at any time, and we learned that lesson last year in Seattle against Tony Bartone, where I was already counting that trophy before we ran him in the final. But seeing Doug win in front of us was very emotional, and I couldn’t wait to get down there to celebrate with him.

“It’s cool to be the first Full Throttle winner,” said Capps, whose win was his first for NAPA, “and it’s great for NAPA. We really wanted to get them a win this year because they really like our program and love what NHRA does for them because the customers can get so close. They were blown away when they came aboard last year and are doing so much with us with the TV commercials and everything. This is a big win for us.”

Head, who hadn’t been to the winner’s circle in Funny Car since the 1985 event in Brainerd and to any winner’s circle since the 1997 Memphis event in Top Fuel, reached the final round, his 10th in Funny Car and 18th overall with his self-financed Toyota with a combination of luck and guile. Former world champ Tony Pedregon was ahead of him in round one before hiking the front end on his mount and crossing the centerline. In round two, Head put a holeshot on Ashley Force Hood and walked away with a 4.09 to 4.05 decision, narrowly getting the win as he rode the guardwall all the way down before kissing it just past the finish line. Head then advanced to the final with a 4.10 against local favorite Gary Densham.

Jason Line

Line followed only teammate Greg Anderson on the qualifying sheets but after his Summit running buddy went out in the semifinals, Line picked up the banner and carried it forward, topping the day with a 6.65, 211.63 victory over Edwards’ 6.57, 210.01. Line’s speed is a new track record.

“I drove pretty good out there which feels pretty good because I’ve been criticized for that in the past,” said Line, who left on all four of his opponents. “I drove decent and had a pretty good hot rod – probably the second best one here – and I would have loved to have raced Greg in the final, but we had a good race and it feels good to win. I botched the shift in the final or I probably would have gotten the speed record because I hit the chip in third gear and again in fifth gear because I was so excited to be getting down the track in the final.

“We knew these conditions would be fast, and we seem to shine in these types of conditions, so I was excited about it. I don’t know what it is about this race, but our team seems to do really well here. It seems like the more time we have in the shop, the better we do, and you’re always pumped up to come here to start the season.”

Line reached his 35th career Pro Stock final and scored his 16th win in the class by powering Ken Black’s Summit Racing GXP from the No. 2 spot with a pair of 6.50-second runs in the second and semifinal rounds. After an opening 6.67 against Rickie Jones, Line ran 6.549 to beat Johnny Gray and then a 6.584 to trailer Allen Johnson and reach the final.

Edwards, who was going for 16th win in his 30th career Pro Stock final, beat Greg Standfield with a stout 6.59 in the opening frame and followed with a second-round conquest of Jim Yates before upsetting low qualifier Anderson in the semifinals on a holeshot, 6.57 to 6.55

Anderson, who won the Winternationals four of the previous five years (missing only in 2005), broke his own near-two-year-old 6.536 national record with a 6.528-second blast in the second round that was backed up by his first-round 6.568. The last time that the national record in Pro Stock was broken at the Winternationals was 1997, when Warren Johnson ran 6.927. Anderson’s speed on the second-round pass was 211.23, a new track record until Line’s shot in the final.

Despite falling in the semifinals, Anderson trails only his teammate Line in the standings thanks to the 20 bonus points for the record. Runner-up Edwards sits third.

Persistent rain and cooling air and track temperatures forced NHRA officials to call an end to Sunday’s action at the Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals with only a mostly complete first round in the books. The first rounds of both Top Fuel and Funny Car were completed and two of the eight first-round pairings in Pro Stock were run down the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona track before a rain, which had caused a four-hour delay earlier in the day, brought an end to the day’s activity at 5:20 p.m.Racing will resume Monday at 10:30 a.m. with Stock eliminator. Round two of Top Fuel will follow at 11:30 a.m., followed by Funny Car and then the resumption of round one of Pro Stock. NHRA.com will present a live audiocast of the day’s action.

Monday’s racing will air during a two-hour show on ESPN2 and ESPN2HD at 9:30 p.m. (ET). Tickets will be available for Monday’s racing for $26. Fans holding tickets for any of the rain-delayed days (Thursday, Friday, or Sunday) may redeem those tickets on Monday for entry.

In-between the delays, quick times and exciting racing were the order of the day as many favorites fell to the tricky track conditions and the lack of ontrack time from Saturday’s one-shot qualifying, but both low qualifiers in the nitro classes moved on into round two.

Though it is just one round, things remained much the same in Top Fuel with Tony Schumacher leading the way with a 3.845 that gave him an easy win over rookie Del Cox Jr. Schumacher enters round two with lane choice over Brandon Bernstein, who had an interesting journey to the second round of competition. Both Bernstein and opponent Andy Carter had to pedal their cars, and Carter’s car responded quicker, giving him the edge. However, just when it appeared the European driver would score his first career NHRA round-win in his debut, his Lucas Oil ride began shedding body panels and drifted toward the centerline, ultimately crossing it and disqualifying Carter from competition.
 
Joining Schumacher and Bernstein in round two are Antron Brown, Mike Strasburg, Morgan Lucas, Steve Chrisman, Cory McClenathan, and Doug Kalitta. Only four of the first-round winners came from the top half of the ladder.

The upsets started early with independent runner Strasburg ousting Don Prudhomme’s U.S. Smokeless Racing team and rookie driver Spencer Massey. Chrisman continued the shockers when he bested David Baca in the following pair. Though he also started in the bottom half of the field, Morgan Lucas made a strong opening-round statement with the second quickest time of the round, a 3.846, that gave him the win over No. 2 qualifier Joe Hartley. Doug Kalitta also started from the slow half of the field, but his 4.648 was more than enough to move him around Urs Erbacher.

One driver from the top half of the field that did escape the first round was top qualifier Brown, who dodged a bullet when Steve Faria experienced more troubles and faded, allowing Brown to win with a 4.222. Fellow top half qualifier McClenathan also advanced when he bested Shawn Langdon, 3.934 to 4.221.

Funny Car low qualifier Robert Hight, who’s been to the last three Winternationals finals and won two of them, in 2006 and 2008, is a round closer to a fourth straight final-round appearance after getting past Jerry Toliver in their opening pairing. Hight’s Automobile Club of Southern California Mustang ripped to a 4.15 to beat the 2004 Winternationals winner to the finish line.

Although Hight advanced, his boss, John Force, in his new Castrol Edge Mustang, did not, as longtime rival Ron Capps put him on the trailer with a 4.125, the quickest pass of the round. Another Ford driver, Bob Tasca III and his Quick Lane Shelby, nearly matched Capps with a 4.127 against Hight’s teammate, Mike Neff, who compounded a red-light by getting extremely crossed up. In round two. Hight will face Jack Beckman, who downed reigning season champ Cruz Pedregon, and Tasca will race Capps. If both Hight and Tasca win their second-round duels, they’ll face off in the semifinals.

On the bottom half of the ladder, Del Worsham was the only driver to make close to a full pass as he booted Alan Johnson’s Al-Anabi Toyota to a 4.19 against Bob Bode. Worsham will face veteran Gary Densham in round two; Densham beat local hero Jeff Arend in their first-round tussle.

“When you get in these cool conditions like this, the track doesn’t become slippery; it actually gets more traction,” said Worsham, of Sunday’s conditions, which produced a number of tire-shaking runs. “When these tires bite like that, if they don’t slip a little bit, they tend to want to shake, and that’s what you were seeing with the tire shake out there and everybody trying to pedal it and get it down there. We just don’t run in these conditions enough to get good at it, so when we get into a situation like this when it happens, everybody’s just doing the best job they can do. If you can get it to where it’s not shaking, you could easily set a record out here right now.

“I’m extremely confident about tomorrow. The first round’s gone, and that really is the nerves, first round at the first race of the season. I feel a lot better about tomorrow, and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Ashley Force Hood added a second John Force car to the quarterfinals when she bested rookie Matt Hagan’s BrakeSafe Dodge. She’s pair off in round two with Jim head, who advanced after former world champ Tony Pedregon hiked the front end after pedaling and crossed the centerline.

 After two days of anxiously sitting idle in the pits while rain was the top eliminator, the NHRA Full Throttle Pros took to the fabled Auto Club Raceway at Pomona racetrack Saturday for their opening — and closing — qualifying efforts at the 49th annual Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals, the season opener for the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.The Pro teams got in only one very quick qualifying pass before rain returned late Saturday afternoon, setting the fields on the one effort. Antron Brown leads Top Fuel, and Robert Hight (4.037) and Greg Anderson (6.588) front the fields in Funny Car and Pro Stock.

Antron Brown

History repeated itself in Top Fuel when Brown powered his Brian Corradi- and Mark Oswald-tuned Mike Ashley Racing Matco dragster to the top of the field for the second straight season, but the 3.708 that came up on the scoreboards and an earlier 3.748 for Joe Hartley were later invalidated in part. NHRA officials released a statement that read “Due to a malfunction in the wiring system, it has been determined that the times recorded by Antron Brown and Joe Hartley were not correct. Those times have been determined to be invalid and will not be officially recorded. NHRA is confident that the two cars in question were among the 16 quickest cars, but because it’s impossible to assign times, the ladder will remain intact. Also, NHRA will not be awarding qualifying points for this race for Top Fuel drivers.”

“It was a phenomenal run,” said Brown. “Our back-half numbers were unreal. It’s always good when a 3.70 pops up on the board because it’s good for the fans, and they really ate it up. This feels good for our team after what we went through in the off-season [the team was sold twice, and new crew chiefs Corradi and Oswald were brought in] and me not qualifying at the [2008 season finale].

“It feels great to start the season the way we have. The car went A to B on our first pass down the racetrack [in preseason testing] and got progressively better as we went along, so we had high hopes coming into here. Personally, I just wanted to go A to B on this run and get in the show anywhere after not qualifying here [in the fall]. I’ve been getting geared up for this all winter because I wanted to make a real run at this championship.”

Until Brown’s pass, Hartley was the talk of the Pomona grandstands as the independent runner and his father and tuner, Allen, are running the full schedule for the first time in their eight-year Top Fuel career. Cory McClenathan’s Fram dragster, with new tuners Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler, sits No. 3 with a 3.851, and Brandon Bernstein rounds out the top four with a 3.866 in the Rob Flynn-tuned Budweiser dragster.

Newly licensed Steve Faria, a former Top Alcohol Dragster racer, holds down the final spot in the field and will face Brown in Sunday’s opening round. Faria was joined in the field by fellow new licensees Del Cox Jr. and Shawn Langdon and fellow rookie Spencer Massey.

The biggest victim of the shortened qualifying is last year’s championship runner-up, Larry Dixon, whose 6.32 was the slowest of the 18 drivers who attempted to qualify. Dixon, in Alan Johnson’s new Al-Anabi dragster, experienced tire shake just off the line, which broke the ignition, and he was not able to get back into the throttle to save the run. “We came to Pomona with the same high expectations as everyone else, but sometimes parts break; there’s nothing we could have done differently,” said Dixon. “It’s unfortunate, but NHRA awards the same number of points at Phoenix, and we’ll be ready to go.”

Robert Hight

Hight, who has two Funny Car wins and a runner-up in his last three Winternationals appearances, continued his Pomona love affair as he shoed his Automobile Club of Southern California Mustang to a track-record 4.037 to lead the Funny Car field. Teammates Ashley Force Hood and John Force were third and fourth, with Del Worsham sandwiched between them and Hight. Hight’s run was quicker than the 4.07 registered by teammate Mike Neff at last year’s Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals in Pomona. No speed was recorded on the pass due to a speed-trap malfunction.

“I’ll tell you, it’s so much pressure on the whole team and the driver when you know you’re going to have rain-shortened sessions and maybe only get one shot,” said Hight. “My crew chief, Jimmy Prock, shoots for the moon every time, and that worries me sometimes, and especially with this run here. [After the Phoenix test], Jimmy Prock went back to Indy and got on our clutch dyno and just worked night and day and came here with a new setup, something that we’ve never run before. That’s really tough to do because there’s a learning curve with any kind of changes that you make with these cars, and to go out there and go to the top spot is unbelievable. It doesn’t give you a lot of confidence going into tomorrow, though, because, like [tuner] Austin Coil says, it takes 20 to 25 runs before you have a setup that you know works.

“Now that it’s 1,000 feet, when I shut the thing off at 1,000 foot and hit the parachutes, I glanced up and looked at the scoreboard. I saw 4.037, and I was so happy, but I didn’t know what Del [Worsham] ran. I knew he ran 4.03 with something, but I didn’t know if I was No. 1 or not. It’s just a great way to start, and tomorrow’s just going to be exciting.”

Worsham, who had been solidly in the low 4.0s in preseason testing in his new ride in Alan Johnson’s Al-Anabi Racing Toyota, was just a tick behind Hight with a 4.038. Force Hood and her father are also in the 4.0s at 4.061 and 4.092, respectively.

Another Ford driver, Bob Tasca III, holds down the No. 5 spot with a 4.14 in the Quick Lane Shelby, just ahead of 2007 season champ Tony Pedregon’s 4.164. Gary Densham (4.183) and Jack Beckman (4.197) round out the top eight.

Among those not in the field are last year’s pleasant surprise, Tim Wilkerson, whose 5.14 was 17th quickest. Like Dixon in Top Fuel, his efforts were compromised by the abbreviated qualifying.

Greg Anderson

Former Pro Stock world champ Anderson, winner of the last three Winternationals, began his quest to regain his national title at a fast pace, breaking both ends of his own 6.615, 209.39 track records with a 6.58, 209.59 blast from his Summit Pontiac to end the first qualifying session atop the pack. Teammate Jason Line was a distant second with a 6.61.

“It’s not been easy on us [waiting out the rain] because after a winter of working so hard, we want to get on this racetrack and see what you’ve got and see how you stack up, but I’ve had a good feeling all weekend,” said Anderson. “We thought we’d have a good product when we got here, but you never know until you get on that racetrack what everyone else has got.

“It looks like we’ve made some gains from last year, and we’ve got a great hot rod, but I’m not thinking that everyone else is as far back as they showed today. I just think I did a little better job on a green racetrack, and it certainly helped to be the last pair out.”

Allen Johnson, who last weekend won the Pro Stock Showdown in Las Vegas, continued to look good with a 6.625 from his Mopar Stratus, the fastest of the non-GM cars. Mike Edwards (6.628) rounds out the top four with his GXP.

Warren Johnson, who just a few weeks ago was planning on watching the season opener from home, showed newly signed sponsor K&N that it made a wise choice by racing his Pontiac to the No. 5 spot with a 6.629, 208.62 just ahead of reigning national champ Jeg Coughlin, whose identical e.t. had a marginally slower speed of 208.23. W.J.’s son, Kurt, is seventh, and rookie pilot Davd Beckley, in the Mountain View Dodge, rounds out the top eight at 6.650.

Ron Krisher anchors the 16-car field with a 6.832 in his Cobalt and will race Anderson in round one. Among those not making the field were chassis builder Jerry Haas, former Pro Stock Truck national champ Bob Panella Jr., and returning Erica Enders, in the field’s lone Ford entry.

The competition for the $20,000 Auto Club Road to the Future Award, which recognizes the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series’ best-performing rookie driver, promises to be as intense in 2009 as the battle for the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship in each Pro category.Though the official list of nominees won’t be revealed until October when more than 100 of the nation’s top motorsports journalists will vote to determine the winner, three drivers have generated an early-season buzz and staked an unofficial claim as the favorites to win the coveted award.

Matt Hagan, Shawn Langdon, and Spencer Massey will enter the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series in 2009 with nervous energy and high expectations as they begin their careers in the world’s fastest motorsport, NHRA Championship Drag Racing.

All three drivers have solid credentials, having constructed their résumés with reputations for winning races and championships and being ultra-competitive in other racing arenas.

All eyes will be focused on them as they compete in the Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals, Feb. 5-8, at historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona in Southern California. The $1.8 million race, which will be televised on ESPN2 and ESPN2HD, is the first of 24 in the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

Spencer Massey

Native Texan Massey, who won the IHRA Top Fuel world championship last year and has won many races in the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series in Top Alcohol Dragster, will be driving the U.S. Smokeless dragster for NHRA legend Don “the Snake” Prudhomme. The car finished second in the Top Fuel points standings last year with crew chiefs Donnie Bender and Todd Smith.

“As a rookie guy coming in, being with Don “the Snake” Prudhomme is something I’ve always dreamed of,” said Massey, who also worked as a crewmember for several nitro teams, including those of Morgan Lucas, Ashley Force Hood, and Scott Palmer.

“I’m not the type of guy to say we’re going to go out and win every race, but we’d love to try to. My goal is to get a Wally. And I want to get to the Countdown. This car is very capable of making a run for the championship at the end of the year. And I’ve just got to do my job and drive the car to the best of my ability. I know how to do it. And ‘Snake’ obviously has high expectations for me or he wouldn’t be putting me in the race car. But I think I can handle it, and I’m ready for it.”

Matt Hagan

Hagan, a Virginia gentleman and cattle rancher who has had much success in Pro Mod competition and shined in his NHRA Funny Car debut last year at the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, is eager to begin the next chapter of his racing life as driver of the BrakeSafe Dodge Charger R/T for Don Schumacher Racing with crew chief Tommy DeLago.

“I’m really excited,” Hagan said. “Being involved with a team such as DSR, which has so much knowledge, experience, and great equipment, is going to be very rewarding. It’s one of those opportunities that doesn’t come around but once in a lifetime. I think that as a rookie driver sharing information with teams of the caliber that DSR has will help me improve my driving. Being able to use that equipment and having all the resources that DSR brings to the table will be great for my career.”

Shawn Langdon

Two-time Super Comp champ Langdon, a native of Southern California, was named by Lucas to be the driver of his team’s second car, the Lucas Oil/Dixie Choppers dragster, which John Stewart will tune. Langdon has competed in six other NHRA categories, including joining Massey as a graduate of NHRA’s Jr. Drag Racing League.

“This is definitely an exciting time,” Langdon said. “I’ve got lots of nervous energy right now. I know it’s going to be a big step up, and I’m really lucky to have Morgan as my teammate because he’ll be there to bounce things off of as I learn to drive these things. I can’t thank the Lucas family enough for this opportunity. Their commitment to drag racing at all levels is second to none. I feel very lucky to have this chance.”