2010 NHRA SUMMIT NATIONALS - EVENT RESULTS
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SUNDAY FINAL - ANDERSON PULLS OFF PRO STOCK SWEEP AT SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT NHRA NATIONALS
Dixon, Wilkerson and Smith also claim NHRA Full Throttle Series victories
Greg Anderson raced to his first Pro Stock victory of the season Sunday at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.
Larry Dixon, Tim Wilkerson and Matt Smith also were winners in their respective categories at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park.
In winning the Pro Stock final, three-time world champ Anderson pocketed more than $125,000 for the weekend by sweeping today’s eliminations and Saturday’s K&N Horsepower Challenge all-star event, which includes a $25,000 double-up bonus from NHRA.
Anderson outran Allen Johnson in the final round for his 61st career victory. Anderson’s Summit Racing Pontiac GXP posted a winning performance of 6.722 seconds at 204.54 mph to hold off Johnson’s Team Mopar Dodge Avenger, which slowed at mid-track and finished in 6.982 at 159.38.
“This is beyond a dream weekend,” said Anderson, who also swept both races in 2004. “I couldn’t have even have dreamed anything this big before we came here this week. I just hoped and prayed that we came here with a good performance and functioned properly throughout the weekend and just had a slight chance of sneaking a few round-wins and maybe a lucky victory away, and we ended up sweeping the weekend and taking every doggone nickel they had to give. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a weekend like this. I guess I’ve got to go back three or four years when we had a car that could do these things.”
Anderson outran Johnny Gray, Jeg Coughlin and Jason Line to advance to his first final since the 50th Winternationals at Pomona in February. He was happy to take his first win of the season in front of his sponsor Summit Racing Equipment, who also sponsors the event and the track.
“We treat this race like our Super Bowl of the season because this is the biggest race,” Anderson said. “It’s got the K&N Challenge. It’s got Summit’s name all over it. We’ve got all the great Summit employees out here with their families, so you just want to do something special for them. You just can’t try too hard sometimes or you’ll just screw up, but things just went so smoothly and we kept our heads.”
Mike Edwards continues to lead the Pro Stock standings by a wide margin despite a rare first round exit.
Dixon claimed his seventh victory of the season in Top Fuel, beating Antron Brown in the final round. Dixon finished in 3.880 at 313.29 in his Al-Anabi Racing dragster while Brown trailed with a 3.907 at 307.65 in his Matco Tools dragster. It was Dixon’s second consecutive win at this event and the 55th of his career.
“Seven for seven, I feel fortunate,” said Dixon, who defeated Troy Buff, Doug Foley and rival Tony Schumacher in the first three rounds and extended his series lead with the win. “There’s been a lot of tight races (this year). Out of this four race swing, to have three wins out of four that’s huge. That’s the only way you can stay ahead in the points. Nobody can catch you if you’re winning rounds. We got four more races before the Countdown starts, and we’ll go from there.”
In Funny Car, Wilkerson took his second win of the season and 15th of his career by getting revenge over John Force, who beat him last weekend in Bristol, Tenn. Wilkerson’s Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Mustang posted a 4.191 at 300.40 to hold off Force, who finished in 4.272 at 290.88 in his Castrol GTX High-Mileage Mustang. Wilkerson beat Bob Tasca, Jeff Arend and Del Worsham to make the final and defeat Force.
“It was great to win over John because he’s so good, and he’s coming into his own again,” Wilkerson said. “After one bad year, he’s making us all look like we don’t know what we’re doing again, so we’re happy to have that win over John. Last weekend, we let him off the hook. We need to do our deal and keep going down the track run after run after run. There’s still four races left [in the regular season], so we have to keep on our game.”
With the runner-up finish Force increased his series lead to 73 over teammate Robert Hight.
Smith raced to his second victory of the season and 12th overall in Pro Stock Motorcycle, beating defending world champion Hector Arana in the final. Smith clocked a 7.076 at 188.36 on his Al-Anabi Racing Buell, to hold off Arana’s Lucas Oil Buell, which finished in 7.080 at 188.52.
“We came here to run with the best of the best, and we ran with them this weekend,” said Smith, who now sits in second place in the points order. “Our goal is to try and be in the top five come Indy, and that just helped our progress.”
Defending world champ Arana continues to lead the series standings, despite not winning a race this season in four final round appearances.
The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series continues July 9-11 with the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways near Seattle.
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SATURDAY QUALIFYING - ANDERSON SCORES K&N HORSEPOWER CHALLENGE TITLE
Dixon, Force Hood, Coughlin and Johnson are No. 1 qualifiers at Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals
Greg Anderson won $50,000 by racing to victory Saturday in the K&N Horsepower Challenge, a special bonus event for Pro Stock competitors at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals.
Anderson used a quicker reaction at the start to upset the special event’s top seed Mike Edwards. In a battle between Pontiac GXPs, Anderson crossed the finish line first in the final round with a 6.685 second run at 206.23 mph in his Summit Racing GXP before Edwards could catch him with his quicker performance of 6.677 at 207.11 in his Penhall/Interstate Batteries machine.
It was Anderson’s third victory in the bonus race for the eight best Pro Stock performers from the last year. If he can win tomorrow at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park, he will pocket an additional $25,000 bonus from NHRA for sweeping both events, bringing his potential weekend payday to more than $100,000.
“We’ve had a great day today, and that gives me confidence for tomorrow,” said Anderson, who defeated Rodger Brogdon and Allen Johnson in the first two rounds of the Challenge. “I’m telling you that confidence is a huge part of this deal. I’m going to come out here tomorrow and think I can win tomorrow too and get that double-up bonus and finally win an NHRA national event this year. I think our season’s going to change starting right now. I think this is the thing I’m going to look back on as what changed our season and what got us going finally.”
All of Friday’s qualifying leaders remained atop their respective categories as Larry Dixon, Ashley Force Hood, Jeg Coughlin and Steve Johnson will lead their divisions into Sunday’s 11 a.m. eliminations at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event.
Dixon’s track record performance of 3.780 at 320.43 in his Al-Anabi Racing dragster gave him his fourth No. 1 position of the season and 44th of his career in Top Fuel. He will face Troy Buff in the first round.
“It's nice to be no. 1 qualifier out here, and that's all about hitting it right on Friday night,” Dixon said. “The Friday night session is something like a long ball contest in golf. We made it stick, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of other good cars going in to eliminations tomorrow; we’ll have to be able to putt when we need to.”
Also in Top Fuel, Cory McClenathan clinched his position in the Countdown to 1 by qualifying for the event. McClenathan qualified sixth with a 3.887 at 313.73 in his FRAM dragster to join Dixon and Tony Schumacher as the only three Top Fuel drivers to secure their spots in NHRA’s championship playoffs.
Force Hood took the third No. 1 spot of the season and 12th of her career in Funny Car with her track record time of 4.032 at 311.99 in her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang. Rain showers ended the final Funny Car qualifying session early as only seven of the 17 cars in that category were able to run before NHRA officials were forced to end racing for the day due to the weather. Force Hood will race her father John Force in the opening round.
“I just have a really good running car,” Force Hood said. “We have had it all weekend long and we are excited to be going into race day feeling this confident. The car doesn’t know who is in the other lane whether it is dad, my brother-in-law, my best friend or someone you don’t like. It just doesn’t know the difference. That is how we race and especially when we race my dad. He talks so much and he is so involved and I have a very different style than him. I do my own thing. I do think he tries to mess with me. I don’t think he does it on purpose but he is constantly talking about everything to do with the runs. I want to tell him, ‘Dad you just do your thing you have been doing it for over 30 years. I’ll do my thing.’ Whoever has the best car will go on to the next round and most importantly whoever wins should go out and win the race.”
Coughlin earned his second No. 1 qualifying position of the season and 17th of his career in Pro Stock, with his Friday performance of 6.592 at 208.97 in his JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt.
“It’s exciting to qualify No. 1 at any event, and in my career, there’s not been too too many No. 1 qualifying efforts but we’ve had great success,” said Coughlin, who will meet Justin Humphreys in the first round. “We’ll certainly take this No. 1 effort as it is. It’s a good effort.”
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Johnson claimed his first No. 1 qualifying position in more than 15 years and second of his career. He sat out Saturday’s two sessions and no one was able to improve over his track record performance from Friday of 6.929 at 193.60 on his Steve Johnson Racing Suzuki.
“We sat out because we were No. 1 qualifier and we have a budge to deal with and we want to save parts,” said Johnson, whose first round opponent is Wesley Wells. “We’ve got a Vance & Hines engine that’s extremely strong. It’s a great engine, the best you can buy, but at the end of the day, we’ve only got one of them. The big focus now with the Full Throttle Series is just getting in the Countdown [to 1]. The reality for me is we’re No. 1 and this is so cool for our team.”
FINAL SESSION
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SATURDAY - THIRD SESSION
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FRIDAY QUALIFYING - FORCE HOOD, DIXON, COUGHLIN AND JOHNSON LEAD QUALIFYING AT SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT NHRA NATIONALS 
Ashley Force Hood raced to the qualifying lead in Funny Car Friday at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals. 
Larry Dixon, Jeg Coughlin and Steve Johnson also paced qualifying in their respective categories at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event.
Force Hood powered her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang to a track record time of 4.032 seconds at 311.99 mph to grab the top spot in the 7,000-horsepower category at Summit Racing Equipment Motorsports Park.
“The track really was perfect conditions, and everybody knew that going up there,” Force Hood said. “We were really excited that we got to run later in the pack, and we wanted to take advantage of it. It was our best run that we ever made. It felt really good. I am surprised that [Matt] Hagan (second, 4.043) and Robert [Hight] (fourth, 4.067) didn’t go around me. When I saw their flames going right down the track as we were towing back, I was like, ‘If they’re going all the way down, they’re doing it,’ but we managed to hang onto it.”
Also in Funny Car, Del Worsham posted a track speed record of 313.15 mph in his Al-Anabi Racing Toyota and is qualified sixth with a time of 4.087 seconds. 
Series leader and two-time world champ Dixon was quickest in Top Fuel and posted a track record performance of 3.780 at 320.43 in his Al-Anabi Racing dragster to lead his category.
“That was a great run by the Al-Anabi team,” Dixon said. “You have to bring it on Friday night to get the pole or to even get close to it. We looked at the computer data after the run, and we definitely got all of it. There wasn't much left. I'm still learning to drive this car. That was a really nice run. It’s normally a handful on really good runs. It had a lot of grip tonight, though.”
Ohio native Coughlin led Pro Stock with a track record time of 6.592 at 208.97 in his JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt.
“We made some good runs today,” Coughlin said. “As the track was getting cooler and the sun was going down and that full moon was blaring its head out there, the crew chiefs were back in the pits changing the Pro Stock cars. You could hear the air wrenches flying and just a lot of changes for tonight. The key to tonight was keeping the car in the center of the groove, and really, that’s something we’ve struggled with with the car, but the last four or five races, we’ve got the car running extremely straight and pretty efficient. That was key tonight, and we were able to be the only car in the 6.5s, which was stellar.” 
Coughlin is one of eight drivers who will compete for the $50,000 winner’s share in the K&N Horsepower Challenge, a special bonus race for Pro Stock teams on Saturday. He is qualified fifth and will meet Jason Line in the first round.
“This certainly gives us a little shot in the arm, heading into the $50,000-to-win K&N Horsepower Challenge,” Coughlin said. “It’s a best of the best shootout. We’ve got a tough road to hoe without question, but today’s run certainly helps us get in the right mindset for tomorrow.”
Series points leader Mike Edwards, winner of the last four races and eight this season and the No. 1 seed for the K&N Horsepower Challenge, is qualified 14th with a 6.641 at 207.88 in his Penhall/Interstate Batteries Pontiac GXP after the first day of qualifying.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Johnson continued his recent surge by powering his Steve Johnson Racing Suzuki to the top spot with a track record performance of 6.929 at 193.60.
“The conditions are awesome,” said Johnson, whose only career No. 1 qualifying position came back in 1995 at Atlanta Dragway. “We didn’t want to make another run because we’re on a major budget program and it was going to be hot, but with the situations that had been happening on the track, it got cooler and cooler and cooler, and it was like, ‘Hey, there’s probably going to be a better run,’ plus your first run isn’t going to be your best run. The track’s great, the weather conditions were better, and we had a good tune-up in the motorcycle to make a great run.”
Qualifying continues Saturday with sessions at 12:10 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. The K&N Horsepower Challenge starts at noon.
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PROFESSIONAL QUALIFYING - RD. 1
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SPORTSMAN QUALIFYING -
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