PAIR OF PONTIACS SHAKING IT UP IN COUNTDOWN
Mike Edwards is the series' most recent Pro Stock winner. The strong, consistent performance of Edwards' Penhall/Young Life Pontiac at the 21st annual O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals has breathed new life into the native Oklahoman's championship hopes. The victory at Memphis gave Edwards his sixth multi-win season, and with a top-10 finish already in the bank, the 1981 NHRA Modified champion is now working toward his fifth career top-five finish.
The first three races of the six-event NHRA Countdown to 1 championship playoffs have produced three different winners in
Mike Edwards is the series' most recent Pro Stock winner. The strong, consistent performance of Edwards' Penhall/Young Life Pontiac at the 21st annual O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals has breathed new life into the native Oklahoman's championship hopes. The victory at Memphis gave Edwards his sixth multi-win season, and with a top-10 finish already in the bank, the 1981 NHRA Modified champion is now working toward his fifth career top-five finish.
"It's been a wacky Countdown in Pro Stock," Edwards said following his win at Memphis Motorsports Park. "Those teams you think would be dominant, for some reason, they're having problems like everybody else. But don't count them out. They're awfully strong. It's (the Countdown) kind of made it tight for everybody. It's fun to come out here and race Pro Stock again and feel like you have a chance.
"Coming into Memphis, I didn't think I had a chance of even coming close to winning the championship, we were so far back. I never even thought about championship hopes. I was just trying to win a round. It seems like since this Countdown started that crazy things are going on in Pro Stock."
WATCH VIDEO; Mike Edwards post-race at Memphis -
Edwards entered the Memphis race ninth in the POWERade points standings, and with only one round win in the first two contests of the Countdown to 1. Needing a two-out, bases-loaded double to revive any chances of getting back into the title chase, Edwards delivered with a four-round-win blast and his second national-event victory of the season. He's now advanced to fifth place in the Pro Stock standings, just 69 points behind first-place Jeg Coughlin Jr., 37 points behind second-place Kurt Johnson, 14 points behind third-place Jason Line and six points behind fourth-place Greg Anderson.
"We're having an exceptionally good year," Edwards said. "But it's not just me, it's the whole team; Al Lindsey, Josh Robinson, John Phillips, Terry Adams, the guys at the shop. I hate to say we're nobodies out here, and we're not the upper class of teams, but our effort is second to none.
"The championship is out there, but we just want to try and improve every race we go to. We stayed over and tested in Dallas on Monday, we feel like we got quite a bit better, and we're going to give our best these next three races and see where we end up."
Prior to the beginning of the 2008 season, Edwards started his own engine-development program, which is based just outside of Charlotte, N.C., and he credits that as one of the primary reasons for his team's success this year.
"When we come to the races we know for a fact what we got, and we know we have the best engine out of that shop in our car," Edwards said. "Hats off to Roger Stull and his wife Ann. They made the commitment. This is just our first year, and these guys, Nick Ferry and Paul Hoskins, they're doing an awesome job. We're inching up. Every race we've gotten a little bit better. I've given some races away, but we've run really good all year. We have three races to go and if we could pick up another win that would be really awesome for our team.
"Our program last year, we had six or seven DNQs, and we've had none so far this year, and we've won two races, we're in the Countdown - that just doesn't happen in Pro Stock. You just turn a season around from one year to another, and I have the same guys. Our engine program steps us up to the next level and has gotten us better and better. Hopefully we're just scratching the surface. We have a lot of work to go and a lot of things we have to get better at, but I'm really excited about our chances to get better."
After limping into the 10th and final spot in the Countdown to 1 following a DNQ at the U.S. Nationals, Greg Stanfield's Attitude Apparel Pontiac team rallied to win round two of the Countdown to 1 playoffs at the O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals in Dallas on Sept. 21. It was the first career Pro Stock national-event victory for the Stanfield, and so far, the pinnacle of what has been a roller-coaster season for the Bossier City, La., resident.
"I can't remember a season where I've experienced the kinds of ups and downs we've had this year," Stanfield said. "From the Western Swing to Indy we couldn't get a handle on what was happening with our engine program, and then we ran out of engines at Indy. I seriously considered stepping back and regrouping, and probably would have if we hadn't made the Countdown. Now look at us. We've won a race, we're going to finish in the top 10, and with all of that, we're beginning to raise expectations on ourselves. We're that close to breaking through and these last few weeks of the season we're going to give it everything we've got."
WATCH VIDEO; Greg Stanfield post-race Dallas -
Stanfield's season started out on the fast track and by mid-year he had advanced to a pair of finals at Las Vegas and Bristol. At Denver, Stanfield's Pontiac qualified No. 4, and he appeared headed for a strong three-race Western Swing, but in the short span of three qualifying runs at Seattle their engine inventory was decimated, although Stanfield still managed to advance to the semifinals.
"I felt good going into Denver," Stanfield said. "We were No. 4 qualifier with three spares on the trailer, and I really felt we could make a push on the Western Swing, but in a matter of three runs I destroyed everything. That tells you how quickly it can change, and you can have a lot of luck for a few races and then it's gone. Mentally it's been tough. I have more grey hair that has popped out on my head this year. The problems we encountered just snowballed on us and sometimes you can't stop it. As an outsider you can watch it go down and predict it."
Stanfield's first Countdown race at Charlotte resulted in a round one loss to Jeg Coughlin, but at Dallas, that elusive first career Pro Stock win became reality and happened appropriately at a venue that the Attitude Apparel Pontiac driver calls his racing home. At Dallas, Stanfield also became just the fourth driver in the history of the NHRA to win a national event in five different categories (Pro Stock, Pro Stock Truck, Com, Stock and Super Stock).
"Dallas is my home track and has been good to me over the years," Stanfield said. "As a Sportsman, I won the first race there when that track opened, I won there in 1990, and in 1994 I had to win that race in Super Stock to win the championship, and did. I won there in Comp. It's like Pomona. It's a good place to race and there are certain tracks you go to where you have that feeling."
With three races remaining in the Countdown, Stanfield feels that in this Pro Stock championship race, anything is possible. Heading into Richmond, he sits in eighth place and only 45 points outside the top five.
"I like this time of year, and I always have, even when I raced in the Sportsman ranks," Stanfield said. "Now that you have a chance to do something you can get aggressive. Our goal is to improve how we qualify and try to be quicker the minute we roll into a racetrack. It seems like every run we get better and better, but when you get down there at the bottom of the qualifying sheet, I mean, you can win from there, and we did it at Dallas, but the odds are against you. Top to bottom, though, anybody can win this thing. I think we have a fast enough car that if we have a little luck and I drive good, we can make a strong push."
The 27-year-old Justin Humphreys is in his second full season as an NHRA Pro Stock category competitor, and of the three Pro Stock winners in the first three races of the Countdown to 1, Humphreys is the only one outside the top 10. With Warren Johnson horsepower under the hood of his Frank Gugliotta-tuned RaceRedi Pontiac, Humphreys captured his first career Pro Stock win at the Carolinas Nationals in Charlotte. Without any of the pressure associated with a championship run, the Maryland native is enjoying the unique role he's playing in this championship battle.
"Warren's (Johnson) guys and our guys are all working together and we've got (crew chief) Frank Gugliotta back over here," said Humphreys. "He's a bad man with these cars. And it's just been a lot of hard work and determination from my guys. They've been working their tails off since Day 1. But we're starting to finally get a handle on this Warren Johnson horsepower and getting better every round. It's been a good team effort and I think it's working out for everybody. We're definitely looking forward to the future."
