EVENT RESULTS EVENT NOTEBOOK POINTS AFTER EVENT ROUND-BY-ROUND RESULTS FINAL ROUND RESULTS

EVENT GALLERY

SUNDAY - TIGHT SIDE-BY-SIDE RACES MARK FIRST ROUND OF ELIMINATIONS, DSR MISSES OUT ON DOUBLE, OBERHOFER PRAISES TONY SCHUMACHER’S CREW BUT DISSES DRIVER, NEW 2015 WINNER AGAIN IN TOP FUEL, DSR ASSURED FUNNY CAR TRIUMPH, ENDERS-STEVENS COMPLETES SECOND STRAIGHT PRO STOCK VICTORY IN HER NATIVE HOUSTON IN ALL-TEXAS FINAL
 

 

KALITTA FINALLY BESTS SCHUMACHER IN TOP FUEL FINAL - Doug Kalitta, mashing on the throttle of his Mac Tools Dragster as smartly as he could on the 116-degree  Royal Purple Raceway track, watched Tony Schumacher and that U.S. Army Dragster speed ahead of him Sunday afternoon.

It was something he was starting to get accustomed to.

On this 1,000-foot course at Baytown, Texas, in the final round of the NHRA’s O’Reilly SpringNationals, Kalitta said to himself, “Well, I’m going to get beat here.” Schumacher simply has had his number lately. And Kalitta figured this would turn out like their previous final-round meeting in February at Phoenix.

“He was out ahead of me. I don’t know what he was running over there in that left lane. But whatever happened, we got by him,” Kalitta said, elated that his 3.820-second elapsed time at 324.98 mph meant he finally had solved the Schumacher riddle.

“It wasn’t until the end that we got him. But Tony is a tough competitor, and certainly here lately we’ve had a tough time getting around him. Hopefully this is a [sign] of things to come,” Kalitta said following his 36th triumph that pushed him past drag-racing legend “Big Daddy” Don Garlits for fifth on the NHRA’s all-time Top Fuel victories list.

Schumacher, who moved into the points lead despite the runner-up finish, put up a 4.014-second, 225.60-mph fight with an engine that blew up about halfway down the course. (“We went after it in the final and just pushed it past the point of no return,” Schumacher said.)

Kalitta’s happy surprise improved him from seventh place to fifth in the standings as the ultra-competitive Mello Yello Drag Racing Series heads east to Atlanta Dragway in two weeks for the May 15-17 Summit Southern Nationals.

The veteran Top Fuel contender, who’s chasing his first drag-racing series crown to match his USAC national sprint-car championship, became the sixth different winner in as many races this season. This is the first time that has been the case since 1992.

Already five different winners to start a race hadn’t happened since 2000. And that wasn’t lost on Kalitta, who stood on the podium with two-time 2015 winners Ron Capps (Funny Car) and overwhelming hometown favorite Erica Enders-Stevens (Pro Stock) as she earned her second straight victory here.

“Anytime you can get past all these guys and get the win, it’s pretty special,” Kalitta said. “You’ve got to work a little extra hard on Sunday. It’s a very competitive class. Funny Car’s the same way. Pro Stock’s the same way. You’re just going to have to deal with it and try to keep rising to the top.”

He said winning always is gratifying, “especially here at Houston. It was a challenge for all the crew chiefs with the heat. The track is good here. It’s amazing – with good cloud cover here, there’s plenty of traction. So hats off to the effort that went into making this place what it was: nice, even lanes,” he said.

“It was great racing for the fans, and they had plenty of ‘em here today. They’re probably used to this heat. In Michigan, we’re still hoping that the heat is moving that way, but it hasn’t quite yet,” the Ann Arbor, Mich., airline owner said.

Kalitta had to defeat Spring, Texas, racer Troy Buff, Larry Dixon, and Don Schumacher Racing’s top-qualified driver, Spencer Massey, before renewing his rivalry with Tony Schumacher.

“It was a great race,” Kalitta said. “You get by the Schumacher cars, you’re having a good day. I’m real proud of everybody on my team.”

This is his first victory since the August 2014 Seattle event.

“I’ve had a couple of dry spells. You never know when you’re going to have another opportunity to win one of these,” he said. “You have to appreciate the opportunity and certainly appreciate these wins when you get them.

“We’ve struggled. We went to the final in Phoenix, but we certainly aren’t having the year we started out with,” Kalitta said, referring to the 2014 season. He led virtually the entire “regular season,” only to see his charge collapse and slide him down to fifth place by year’s end.

“The way I’m looking at it is as long as we’re strong at those last six races  . . .  I have to admit we kind of struggle on those last six races. I was actually OK with starting off just the way we did. We’ll gain momentum and we just want to be in those top 10 and be in the Traxxas Shootout. We accomplished that today [with the victory giving him an automatic berth in the September bonus race]. And be there for the end. That’s what it’s about for all of our teams.

“We’re all just trying as hard as we can every round, qualifying, and let it fall where it is. The competition is real tough out here, so you’ve just got to hope that you’re there at the end,” he said. Then with a laugh, he said, “As much as I’d like to be smart enough to have a real good strategy, I’m not sure I can convince you guys with that one.”

He said he’s “just trying to get to the final again and get a chance to win. It was a great day for us. You just take it round by round, but my confidence was high. My guys, they’re always real hungry. They just work their butts off on my car. Just real lucky to have them. They give me a good car every time I go up there [to the starting line]. My team ended up changing a couple of motors. [Crew chiefs] Jim Oberhofer and Troy [Fasching] made good calls on that thing.

“It was running strong,” he said. “We smoked [the tires] in the second round. In the final, I’m not sure exactly what was going on there.  I was just looking for the win light. Anything other than the win light I have a hard time remembering.”

Kalitta extended his qualifying streak to 100 races here this weekend and will be shooting for his 400th appearance at Atlanta. But will be become the Top Fuel class’ first repeat winner?

“You never can tell. We like Atlanta. That’s where [series sponsor Coca-Cola’s] Mello Yello brand is. It’d be a great place to do it,” Kalitta said.

He said he credits team owner and uncle Connie Kalitta for his success in drag racing.

“He has supported me with drag racing, and it’s been an incredible opportunity, and it’s been great to have him as a mentor out here,” Doug Kalitta said.” So all of these statistics . . . I have to give Connie the credit. I’m hungry. I’m out here trying to win these things. But I mean, he has been the financial support of all of our teams. We’re fortunate to have great sponsors – Mac Tools, DHL, Red Line Oil, and JR’s car, Tequila Patron – [and]  Summit, Traxxas, and O’Reilly.”

He said he particularly likes the races sponsored by this weekend’s event sponsor.

“In the past I’ve had good luck in those [O’Reilly-sponsored races]. Sometimes you’ve got to take all the luck you can get,” Kalitta said.

Schumacher said Kalitta’s victory didn’t surprise him at all.

“We knew Doug and his team were going to be tough, and there’s no shame in coming up short against those guys,” Schumacher said.

“I’m so fortunate to be surrounded by an incredible team led by [crew chief] Mike Green. Mike and I won our first race together here back in 2009, and we nearly did it again today. This U.S. Army team really makes a big difference here at the track just like the Army makes a difference in our nation. To be able to come out here and go four rounds in these changing conditions… and then add in the pressure of doing it all with quick turnarounds so that we can be on live television, I can’t thank them enough. It was a really good weekend for this U.S. Army team.” - Susan Wade

CAPPS CAPTURES HOUSTON WIN - No one can ever doubt the passion and excitement Ron Capps has for NHRA drag racing.

The veteran nitro Funny Car was plenty excited Sunday at the SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway in Houston.

Capps, who drives the Don Schumacher Racing NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger, beat his teammate Jack Beckman in the finals at Royal Purple Raceway.
Capps clocked a 4.244-second time at 258.32 mph to defeat Beckman, who slowed to a 4.480-second at 205.16 mph.

“It has been a long weekend, and these are the races that I’ve talked about in the past where you feel like you really earned it,” Capps said. “The conditions that you have to drive in, you have to tune in, everybody has to be on their best. The track, I have to tell you Seth Angel (Executive Vice President & General Manager at Royal Purple Raceway), I want to kiss that guy. (For) several years, we gave him a lot of grief because we needed two lanes and there was a pretty good bump in one lane, and considering the rain that came and the sun afterwards, most tracks would have had water swelling up through them, and they did a heck of a job. We won two, including the final, without lane choice in the right hand lane. Everybody did such a great job to get our sport on live TV. I already received text messages from all the NASCAR guys who just hopped out of their cars in Richmond (Va.) and they were texting that were watching drag racing, and that’s going to grow our sport.”

This was Capps’ 45th of his career – he had one Top Fuel win in 1995 in Seattle and he now has 44 in Funny Car. Those 44 wins move him into second place on the all-time career list.

Capps now has three Houston wins, 2006-2007 and 2015, and he also moved into first place in the points from fifth where he began the weekend. This is the first time Capps was atop the points since the fifth event of the 2013 season. Capps has yet to win an NHRA nitro Funny Car world title, finishing second in 1998, 2000, 2005 and 2012.

“Somebody told me down there (after his win over Beckman) that we had the points lead and I just didn’t think about it all day,” Capps said. “Being No. 2 all time (in career nitro Funny Car wins) is crazy. From the time I drove Don Prudhomme’s Funny Car and a lot of those crew guys are with us with DSR now and since I started in 2005 in the Brute car, the amount of wins with Ed McCulloch, Tim Richards, John Medlen and Rahn Tobler,they have all given me a lot of wins. It’s just a tribute to all those guys (because) I’m not that good. To make me second-place all time, it tells you how good of people we have around us, but more than anything NAPA Auto Parts. We are going on eight years, I’m starting to feel like Kenny Bernstein. It is hard to keep a sponsor and take them that far and hold on to them. I just feel like I wake up in the morning and all I want to think about is how to make our sport better and make sponsors happier and prouder and Don Schumacher more and more proud of me. If we keep doing that, we will be OK.”

Capps best win of the day came when he beat Robert Hight on a holeshot. Both drivers had identical 4.084-second times. The difference was Capps .076 reaction time compared to Hight’s .077 reaction time.

“Robert Hight sent me a text after we had that close race and I just fired back to him that ‘Dude you bring out the best in me.’ He said ‘good job go get them.’ To get a message like that from another driver after beating them in that close of a race and that good of a driver and that competitive of a driver was cool.”

Capps, who qualified No. 3, had wins over John Hale, Matt Hagan, Hight and Beckman.

“You can’t go up there light-footed anymore, what a day,” Capps said. “Live TV, the whole thing was just awesome.”

Capps also acknowledged how much he enjoys driving his Funny Car which is equipped with the new Dodge Charger body.

“That new car is so nice to drive, but I said in Gainesville (when he won), the only bad thing is now I can see out the side windows and it is not a good thing when I’m going 320 mph and I see out my window,” Capps said. “It’s exciting. I was like a little kid starting over as a rookie when they brought that (new Dodge Charger body) in. I thought this was the greatest thing ever and how good it was to drive a car like that.” - Tracy Renck

ENDERS-STEVENS KEEPS ROLLING AT HOUSTON - Winning remains a constant for reigning NHRA Pro Stock champion Erica Enders-Stevens.

Enders-Stevens won her second national event in a row and for the second season in a row at her hometown track - Houston’s Royal Purple Raceway.
Enders-Stevens clocked a 6.571-second time at 211.73 mph to edge first-time finalist Chris McGaha, who came in at 6.598 seconds at 211.66 mph.

“The competition that we face every week is so fierce and to be on two weeks in a row is just an incredible accomplishment,” said Enders-Stevens, who pilots the Elite Motorsports Camaro for Richard Freeman.

This was Enders-Stevens' 14th career NHRA national event win, which is the third most by a female behind Angelle Sampey (41 wins) and Shirley Muldowney (18). Enders-Stevens has two wins this year – the other coming at Las Vegas. In Vegas, she also captured the $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge for the second consecutive year April 11.

The latest victory at Houston almost didn’t happen. If it wasn’t for a frantic 11-minute engine swap prior to her semifinal race against Jonathan Gray. Enders-Stevens beat Gray with a 6.570-second lap compared to his 6.574-second run.

“You have to believe with all your heart and I give the glory to God,” Enders-Stevens said. “This one goes to my guys, not just my team, but Drew Skillman’s Chevy Camaro team as well. Everybody on our team jumped on our race car to make that 11-minute motor change, and they are the reason why were able to make it to the semis, and then come here and get around Chris (McGaha). Hat’s off to Chris. He has done a tremendous job and he’s going to get his win one of these days. I’m so excited. This probably like one of the most emotional wins for me because of what my guys accomplished. When the adversity is there, they rise to the top and that’s why they are the world champions.”

Enders-Stevens' victory also included wins over Allen Johnson and Vincent Nobile in the first and second round, but she still couldn’t stop praising her Elite Motorsports team for its effort in the pits before the semis.

“We did our normal in between round routine, service the car and made a transmission change,” Enders-Stevens said. “After we change the transmission we always go through the gears and make sure everything is OK. As I finished high gear, I whacked the throttle like I always do and it went back to idle and I heard it break. Then it started missing so I shut it off as quickly as possible. My guys pulled the valve covers and determined what it was and it wasn’t something we could fix so we had to pull the motor out and at that point we were supposed to be in the water box in 15 minutes. It would have been easy for them to say we are not going to make it because an engine change in a Pro Stock car is easily a 30 to 35-minute job. We pulled together, not just my team but the entire Drew Skillman team and we pulled guys from (Rodger) Brogdon’s pit. That’s what it is all about, there was not one guy sitting still in that pit area. I just want to give them all the credit because people have no idea how hard that is.”

Enders-Stevens will attempt to win three Pro Stock national events in a row for the first time in her career at Atlanta May 15-17. - Tracy Renck

ENDERS-STEVENS REPEATS – In an all-Texas final round Sunday, Houston-raised Erica Enders-Stevens scored her second consecutive O’Reilly SpringNationals Pro Stock victory at Royal Purple Raceway against Odessa native Chris McGaha.

She said her mantra this weekend as the normal home town chaos included racing against her Elite Motorsports team owner Richard Freeman and husband Richie Stevens was “You’ve got to believe. You’ve got to believe with all your heart.”

Enders-Stevens called this “one of my most emotional wins” after defeating McGaha with a 6.571-second elapsed time at 211.73 mph to become the class’ first repeat winner this season.

McGaha countered with a 6.598, 211.66 in his first final-round appearance.

“We made it over the first hump, getting to the semifinal,” McGaha said. “I can’t seem to beat that car. We’ll beat her eventually. It’s going to happen.”

CAPPS WINS ALL-DSR FUNNY CAR SHOWDOWN – Ron Capps leapfrogged Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan as the points leader after defeating yet another DSR mate, Jack Beckman, in the final round.

The NAPA Dodge driver moved into sole possession of the No. 2 spot on the NHRA Funny Car all-time victories list with this 45th triumph.

Capps ran a 4.244-second, 258.32-mph pass to top Beckman, who had a 4.480, 205.16 in the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger. Beckman said he had a fuel regulator problem in that round.

Among Capps’ most special memory of Houston is his victory in 2007, just two weeks after fellow Funny Car driver and California native Eric Medlen died from injuries from a testing accident in Florida. Capps and other race winners dedicated their Houston achievements to the popular John Force Racing driver.

"I remember winning this race after Eric Medlen died and the Force family sat out that race," Capps said. "It was a race everyone wanted to win so they could dedicate it to Eric. Someone posted a picture [on the Internet] the other day of me and with the trophy after we won. I had to walk away and compose myself. It is still that emotional for me. That race is in my thoughts every time we're here."

KALITTA TRIGGERS MOSH-PIT CELEBRATION - The Kalitta Motorsports team’s fabled mosh pit broke out Sunday after Doug Kalitta used a 3.820-second, 324.98-mph pass in the Mac Tools Dragster to outshine Tony Schumacher and his 4.014, 225.60 in the U.S. Army Dragster.

Kalitta’s crew swapped out an engine before the final run, helping him earn his first victory since the August 2014 race at Seattle. With that, he passed “Big Daddy” Don Garlits  on the Top Fuel all-time victories list with 36.

“He was out ahead of me. I don’t know what happened,” Kalitta said of Schumacher. Then, alluding to eliminating another Don Schumacher Racing driver, Spencer Massey, in the semifinal round, he said, “You get by the Schumacher cars, you’re having a good day.”      

FANS SEE CLOSE RACES – Clay Millican defeated strong-running Richie Crampton in a close side-by-side Top Fuel race in the second pairing of the day (even though his parachute popped out a bit too early) and was one of five upset winners in the first round. And the Parts Plus / Great Clips Dragster driver said, “This is what people come here to see. They want to see these cars go down the racetrack.”

The sizeable crowd got its money’s worth Sunday.

Larry Dixon edged fellow Top Fuel champion Shawn Langdon by .0044 of a second, Antron Brown had a .0353-second victory over Dave Connolly, and Steve Torrence dismissed JR Todd by .0037 of a second. Dixon, Brown, and Torrence were racing out of the bottom half of the ladder.

Top qualifier Spencer Massey had to dig hard to knock out Round 1 upset winner Brittany Force in the quarterfinal. Also in Round 2, Millican continued to survive close runs, ousting Torrence, while Doug Kalitta had his hands full with Larry Dixon and Tony Schumacher won a tight battle of teammates, eliminating Brown.

The Top Fuel class wasn’t the only one that delivered close performances in the opening round. Upset winners Courtney Force and dad John Force, as well as their Funny Car teammate Robert Hight, had close challenges. And the Pro Stock class was no slouch with a parade of side-by-sides and only one red-light start in Round 1. Ditto with Round 2.

Ron Capps and victim Robert Hight put on a semifinal thriller in the Funny Car class. And fellow finalist Jack Beckman, who said he was holding on and hoping not to lose traction toward the end of his 1,000-foot run, did the same against Courtney Force.   

YET ANOTHER NEW WINNER? - The Top Fuel class had a 50-50 chance of getting a sixth different winner this season. Phoenix victor Tony Schumacher and Gatornationals winner Spencer Massey already earned automatic berths in the Traxxas Shootout bonus race that’s set for Labor Day weekend at Indianapolis. But their semifinal opponents, Doug Kalitta and Clay Millican, still seeking their first. Millican, the six-time International Hot Rod Association Top Fuel champion is going after his first NHRA victory.

After the semifinal round, the odds remained at 50-50, because Millican tire-smoked away his chance to make his ninth final-round appearance. And Kalitta beat Massey for the right to race for his first victory since the August 2014 Seattle race.

Sunday began with five different Top Fuel winners this season, marking the first time that has happened since 2000.

The Funny Car class would not see a first-time winner for 2015. The Don Schumacher Racing finalists, Ron Capps and Jack Beckman, each had a victory (and reserved Traxxas Shootout spot) already. Capps won at Phoenix and Beckman at Charlotte.  

KALITTA RUNNING STRONG – Doug Kalitta has qualified his Mac Tools Dragster at 100 straight races. He celebrated briefly by running a 3.732-second elapsed time against Troy Buff in the first round that eclipsed the 3.734-second track record Spencer Massey used to qualify No. 1. But Tony Schumacher came along in the next pairing and trumped that with a 3.726-second pass for the record.

 

DOUBLE DISAPPOINTMENT – Las Vegas Top Fuel champion Richie Crampton missed his chance to win back-to-back races Sunday, which was disappointing enough, especially considering he was the No. 3 qualifier (just four-thousandths of a second behind No. 2 Tony Schumacher). Compounding his frustration was the fact he lost 15 points and his Morgan Lucas Racing team got a $4,000 fine for an oildown on the first-round run.

FINAL-ROUND TIDBITS – The final round featured an all-Texas match-up in Pro Stock with Houston native and 2014 event winner Erica Enders-Stevens racing Odessa’s Chris McGaha, who was looking for his first pro victory.  According to ESPN’s Mike Dunn, Enders-Stevens’ Elite Motorsports crew changed the engine in her Chevy Camaro in 11 minutes to help make that happen.

The Funny Car showdown turned out to be an all-Don Schumacher Racing affair between Jack Beckman and Ron Capps.

The Top Fuel class had the potential to see an all-Texas AND an all-Don Schumacher Racing final. But Fort Worth’s Spencer Massey experienced a supercharger explosion that deployed his parachutes while Kalitta won the semifinal match with an ugly 4.177-second pedal job.

QUOTES:

“I don’t care much for that driver over there, but who cares?”

Jim Oberhofer, Kalitta Motorsports vice-president and crew chief for Doug Kalitta, referring to Top Fuel runner-up Tony Schumacher after complimenting Schumacher’s U.S. Army Dragster crew chief Mike Green and the Don Schumacher Racing organization

 

SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - MASSEY LEADS TOP FUEL FIELD WITH BOTH ENDS OF TRACK RECORD, JENNA HADDOCK GETS HER 3.9, McMILLEN GETS HEARTBREAK, BUFF’S CAR EATS CONCRETE, LANGDON HAS NEW STICKERS BUT SAME OLD FUNDING ISSUES, MILLICAN ESCAPES LIGHTNING STRIKE, RAWLINGS YELLS, ‘GET YOU SOME OF THAT!’ . . . AND THAT’S JUST IN THE DRAGSTER CLASS; BECKMAN KEEPS TOP FUNNY CAR SPOT; LINE BLAZES TO TOP OF PRO STOCK LEADERBOARD 

TOP FUEL 

HADDOCK GETS HER 3.9 – Jenna Haddock was about to burst if she didn’t run that 3.9-second elapsed time she has been craving for weeks. And judging by some of the troubles her Patriot Grading Dragster was experiencing Friday, it appeared she might have to wait a little longer. But just as the rain clouds blew away early Saturday afternoon, her cloud of frustration disappeared in the third overall session and she blazed to her first 3.9 – a 3.943-second elapsed time at 296.05 mph.     

Haddock earned her Top Fuel competition license here last year the day after the O’Reilly Auto Parts SpringNationals, where husband Terry competed in the Funny Car class. The Temple, Texas, resident wants to leave this year with a victory in the Patriot Grading Dragster. But she had some trouble in Friday qualifying, experiencing engine problems on her first attempt and watching as the repaired version made odd noises at the starting line and the crew shut it off as a precaution. She still fared better Friday than fellow Texan Troy Buff and Terry McMillen, holding down the No. 15 spot overnight.

She ended up the No. 15 qualifier Saturday, destined again for another first-round meeting with Tony Schumacher (the No. 2 qualifier) in Sunday eliminations.

The notion of back-to-back Mello Yello Series appearances had Jenna Haddock saying, “I am so ready for this weekend. This track means so much to me, because it’s where I earned my license.  They are so good to me here, and I’m comfortable here. I know I’ve only run a few races, but now that I know how much I love driving and how competitive I am deep inside, I’m anxious to go out and try as hard as I can in front of all my family and friends.”

She said her “goal for the past few races has been to break into the three-second range.” But several little glitches prevented that at Las Vegas, causing crew chief Jimbo Ermalovich to go over it, she said, “with a fine-tooth comb.” He has a few more things to explore as the elusive 3.9-second elapsed time has had to take a back seat to her simply making the 16-car field.

“No matter what happens,” she said even before the event began, “I know it’s going to be a great weekend full of fun and friendly faces.  It’s going to be crazy and I am going to enjoy everybody and everything and cherish every moment.”

Meanwhile Friday, Terry Haddock also was 15th, by virtue of his one unruly run in which the car got really squirrelly, headed for the guardwall, and produced a ‘chute-deployed 6.788-second E.T. But that was enough to stay ahead of both Chad Head and Cruz Pedregon the first day.

Terry Haddock will race Sunday, making the field on an aborted run at Todd Simpson’s expense. Haddock, at No. 16, will take his first-round chances against No. 1 Jack Beckman.   
 
WANTS TO BREAK STREAK – Steve Torrence hasn’t won in 43 races, since the June 16, 2013, race at Bristol, Tenn. But the Capco Contractors Dragster said it “feel like a thousand.”

In this weekend’s first steps toward his fifth victory, he moved up from 12th to ninth in Friday qualifying. He closed out Saturday in 11th place with the grand prize of a first-round runoff with No. 6 starter JR Todd.

Torrence called last season “the best season of my (pro) career,” because he finished just three elimination-round-wins out of second place. And he indicated he thinks the pattern for him has been a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time against the wrong opponent. His most convincing proof that might be turning around was his runner-up finish to Antron Brown by a mere .098 of a second at the Four-Wide Nationals at Charlotte.

“That was a morale booster,” he said.  “Now we just have to take that next step.”

Todd might say, “Not so fast.” What the Red Line Oil / Kalitta Air Dragster driver did say was “We made some great runs today in the heat. That is what it is going to take to turn on four win lights tomorrow. All in all, it was a good qualifying effort for the Red Line Oil guys, and we are ready to go for tomorrow.” 

BME SCOOP SWALLOWS CONCRETE – Troy Buff told Competition Plus the Bill Miller-owned BME/Okuma Dragster behaved like a runaway truck was that a piece of concrete became lodged into a blade of the injector during his pre-burnout process.

“What they found was a piece of concrete in the blade of the injector that was holding it open,” Buff said.

“On our injector, we have a scoop, so the injectors sits level, or flat, instead of like the other guys, where you can see them open and close. Ours are parallel to the car,” he said. “I don’t know if when Richie [Crampton, the racer in the opposite lane] did a burnout if [some debris] went into the scoop and went down in there. I have no idea.

“It was just holding the throttle open. It did take much,” Buff said, as much in shocked amazement as by way of instruction. “[It was] probably holding the throttle open 60-thousandth of an inch.”

His quick thinking kept the situation from becoming worse.

“I was on the brake already and had my foot on the clutch. It was pushing my foot on the clutch and took off. I just had to let go and hit the mag switch. That’s what I did as fast as I could. It did take awhile for me to realize this thing is running away,” Buff said.

“Anthony, the guy that backs me up and tells me where to go, he had just turned his back. That was the normal deal. The thing was heading for him. I figured it has already knocked Bill [Miller] over. I was just hoping and praying I didn’t hurt anybody,” Buff said. “Miller probably has some sore legs, because the mud flaps hit him. Terry [another crew member] said the back tire just rolled over his feet. It’s crazy. I’ve never had that happen.

“As soon as the motor goes, I always pull the brake anyway and I am holding it. A soon as I hear them pull the trigger [starter], I pull the brake harder. And man, that thing took off,” he said. “I cannot believe how it tried to accelerate. Thank God I was on the brake. I had a lot of brake pressure.”

Perhaps fittingly, Buff drew the lucky No. 13 berth for Sunday’s eliminations. He’s paired with No. 4 Doug Kalitta in Round 1.          

NEW MARKINGS – Shawn Langdon and his Alan Johnson Racing team still don’t have funding that will allow them to race for the full season. However, while they continue searching, they do highlight a couple of new items on the side of their AJPE / Toyota / Knuckle Sandwich Dragster. This weekend the car is known as the Knuckle Sandwich / Bass Pro Shops / Toyota Dragster. The team unveiled the car Thursday at a Bass Pro Shop at Pearland, Texas. And for the second straight race, Langdon is sporting the “Champion’s Flight” decal on the back of the rear wing. “Champion’s Flight” first went on Gary Scelzi’s AJR dragster in 1997 in memory of Alan Johnson’s brother, Blaine, who was killed in a racing accident in 1996. It returns this year as “Champion’s Flight II” on Langdon’s car. 

Langdon, fifth after the first day of qualifying, is the No. 5 qualifier. He’ll face fellow Top Fuel champion and former Alan Johnson Racing driver Larry Dixon in the first round of eliminations. Langdon will seek  AJR’s fifth victory at Royal Purple Raceway (following victories by Del Worsham in 201, Larry Dixon in 2010, and Gary Scelzi in 1997-98). Despite the financial upheaval this season, Langdon has one victory, two semifinal appearances, and two No. 1 qualifiers in the first five races. En route to his Feb. 8 Winternationals triumph, he made the quickest pass in NHRA history with a 3.700-second elapsed time.

CAN LIGHTNING STRIKE TWICE? – Clay Millican was settled comfortably into his airplane seat this weekend on a flight to Atlanta, minding his own business, watching a movie on his mobile phone. A big bang startled him and rocked the airplane. After landing safely at Atlanta, Millican discovered the plane had been struck by lightning as they flew through heavy storms blanketing the Southeast.

But he’s hoping a bolt of good luck will come his way Sunday during eliminations and he’ll earn that first Wally statue to go along with his 52 IHRA Ironman trophies.

“I have made it to the finals before in Houston a few years ago, and there is no reason why I cannot return to the finals this time. The only difference is I plan on walking away with a Wally at the end of this finals appearance,” Millican, the Stringer Performance Parts Plus / Great Clips Dragster driver said.

He has eight runner-up finishes in 200 NHRA races. He hit that appearance milestone at Las Vegas two weeks ago. And The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is where he gathered some valuable information before coming to Houston.

“I have always enjoyed racing at Houston because it can be a very fast track. We got a lot of valuable data at the last race in Vegas on what it’s like to run our car on a hot track. We actually stayed a day after the Vegas race to test and got three solid runs on a track that was 130 degrees. I know David Grubnic has been going over everything that we learned from that race and Monday testing. He’s always got a solid game plan, and this entire team is ready to deliver.”

FAST N’ LOUD AND RACIN’ ON SUNDAY – Top Fuel racer Kebin Kinsley was fast, and Richard Rawlings was loud this weekend. Rawlings, star of Discovery Channel’s Fast N’ Loud TV program about hot-rod rehab projects, whooped it up on the starting line Friday night and again Saturday afternoon. He was delighted in Kinsley’s No. 13 showing with a 3.853-second pass at 301.87 mph in his season debut. Kennedale, Texas, resident Kinsley had to start all over Saturday in his Gas Monkey Garage / Roger Hennen Motorsports Dragster because his time wasn’t among the protected top 12. He survived an 11th-hour scramble for the final spot in the lineup. And Rawlings celebrated with a cheer and a dare: “Get you some of that! Goin’ fast and havin’ fun – This is where it’s at, right here!”
 
Kinsley will be racing from the 16th place in the lineup in his career-first successful qualifying effort and will run buddy Spencer Massey in the first round.
 
Massey said he relishes the match-up of the two Texans who are friends from their sportsman-racing days. Before he spoke with reporters, Massey took a minute to record a spot for a Discovery Channel promo. In it, Rawlings asks Kinsley who he’ll be racing. And Massey barges onto the screen and boasts, “You’re runnin’ me, the Texas guy!”  
 
NO TIME TO REACT - Clay Millican and Kebin Kinsley, both of whom were unqualified and had official no times because their respectable times from Friday were not in the protected top 12, missed the third overall session early Saturday.
 
Both teams said they didn’t have enough time to prepare the car and bring it to the starting line on time, but the reasons were slightly different.
 
Kinsley’s Gas Monkey Dragster crew members told Competition Plus’ Michael Dennis they didn’t receive enough notice. Perhaps that was because of miscommunication about the schedule change following Saturday morning’s rainstorm. Dave Grubnic, Millican’s crew chief, shouldered the blame for not bring the Parts Plus / Great Clips Dragster to the starting line. Grubnic said the contrast between overcast conditions and the emerging sunshine meant extensive adjustments to the car that the team wouldn’t have time to make.
 
Both were able to answer the bell for the fourth and final qualifying session later in the afternoon, and both made the field, leaving Terry McMillen the odd man out among the 17 entrants. It was McMillen’s second DNQ in three races, as he missed the cut at Charlotte.
 
Millican cranked out a 3.916-second pass to take the No. 14 spot, and Kinsley produced a 4.019 to bump out McMillen. So when the Amalie Oil / UNOH Dragster driver came to the starting line in Q4, he had one last shot at a berth in the field. But his car got out of the groove and his 4.438-second, 187.91-mph attempt wasn’t quick enough.
 
It was a blow to McMillen, who had said earlier in the weekend, “We’re about ready to turn the corner. We’re not hurting parts, and it’s been a little more fun.”  
 
Kinsley will start from the 16th spot and will meet top qualifier Spencer Massey. Millican drew No. 3 Richie Crampton, who sizzled in the final session with a 3.800, 320.58 on the sun-baked track.
 
PRITCHETT CONSISTENT – Leah Pritchett, eager to please Dote Racing sponsor Gumout at its hometown drag race, clocked consistent 3.8-second elapsed times Friday in the face of humid air conditions and a mechanical monkey wrench. She settled into sixth place in the order with her first pass, a 3.838-second effort, but despite shaving off a couple of hundredths of a second from her initial elapsed time, she found herself dropping back to 11th place at 3.811. In the Friday evening run, she appeared to be on her way to a 3.7-second clocking but then a slight mechanical hitch slowed her down.
 
Still, Pritchett said, “All the data from the evening run looked very good. But after the half-track mark, we had a mechanical issue and that slowed our elapsed time just a little.  I was looking at a 3.77 or better, because the car felt very good off the line.
 
“I have to give our Gumout / Dote Racing crew a lot of credit today,” Pritchett said Friday, “as the conditions were very difficult to get the proper air for the engine. The humid conditions made it tough on all of the Top Fuel teams today.  Plus, the rain stopped the action at times.”
 
She used a 3.775-second E.T. to improve to No. 8 early Saturday and stayed there for the final line-up.
 
She still was buoyed by her visit to the Johnson Space Center and NASA headquarters. She toured a space capsule replica and got close look at the space station. Pritchett said the experience “was a thrill. I was fascinated by the space capsule and the giant pool used in the astronauts’ training. It was a tremendous experience.”
 
No telling what experience awaits her in Sunday eliminations when she meets another native Californian, Brittany Force, in the opening round. It will be their fourth Round 1 match-up.
 
Said Force, “It is always really difficult when you qualify No. 8 or No. 9 because the person you are running has an E.T. that is so close to yours. We wanted to step up a little bit, but it was a tough weekend. We were battling the rain and then the heat. We only really got one good pass, but that is all we need tomorrow to get that first round-win. We’ll try and get that first good run and then we will hopefully go from there.
 
The lone dragster driver in the John Force Racing mix matched her season-quickest E.T. with her Friday pass at 3.779 seconds. 

FUNNY CAR 

FEELING CONFIDENT – Jack Beckman retained his No. 1 spot in the Funny Car field Saturday on the strength of his 3.988-second pass Friday night, and he said, “I feel really confident. There are some people who have a delusional sense of confidence. But DSR [Don Schumacher Racing] gives us the ability [to excel].I don’t want to sound cocky, but I feel incredibly confident.”

The Infinite Hero Dodge Charger driver said of his team, “Now we’re reaping the rewards” of DSR hiring Jimmy Prock as crew chief. He said the key to that is giving Prock 20 or more passes to develop a baseline tune-up.

Beckman will race Terry Haddock in the opening round of eliminations Sunday.

As an aside, Beckman remarked that in the strategy of not focusing on the opponent but rather the task at hand that it doesn’t matter whether he’s lining up against Haddock or 142-time winner John Force. He meant no disrespect to Haddock. He simply was saying with a strong lineup every week, it shouldn’t matter who’s in the other lane. But this weekend, Force is qualified only one spot ahead of Haddock, at No. 15 (although Force’s 4.272-second elapsed time reflects a more competitive qualifying performance than Haddock’s 5.395).  

CAR OBEYING - Del Worsham, driver of the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car, said he’s thrilled with his Camry because “it has done exactly what we have wanted it to all weekend. The Camry is consistent, and we are confident going into Sunday." The veteran Funny Car racer and 2011 Top Fuel champion led the field after Friday’s first session but never fell farther down in the order than second. Sunday’s first round for Worsham will be a classic throwback to his earlier Funny Car days. He’ll race John Force, the surprise No. 15 qualifier.

Force had a tough two days of qualifying. His Chevrolet Camaro crew battled to give him a consistent race car, despite the fact they found the winning combination at the most recent event two weeks ago.

In Saturday’s first session, Force incurred a 10-point oildown penalty, and in the second (fourth overall) session, his Camaro was on an impressive run when it hazed the tires at the top end and crossed the finish line at 4.272 seconds and 249.67 mph.

“You race your lane and you race what your car will give you tomorrow,” the 142-time winner said. “If my race car runs, I can beat anybody out here. But if it doesn’t, we aren’t going to win. We’ll be ready with this Chevrolet hot rod for the first round. Del has been out here a long time, and it should be a good race.”

HIS TURN TO WIN? - Tommy Johnson Jr. has two runner-up finishes at Royal Purple Raceway but no victories.

Among his most memorable moments here were one round-win and one round-loss. He defeated legend Shirley Muldowney in 1990 for the first round-win of his career. In 2002, he got to be part of history, on the wrong end of it. He was in the opposite lane from John Force when that legend recorded his 100th overall victory.

Johnson, No. 4 in the standings with the Terry Chandler-funded, Don Schumacher-owned Make-A-Wish Dodge, said he’s confident he has all the elements not just to win this event but also a series title.

"If you're going to win a championship, you first have to have confidence that you have the team and the car to do it," Johnson said. "I have that. Last year at this time, I was just glad to be back racing full-time, but this year I think we all expect to win. We have that good of a team. We know we can win. We know we can get it done.

"We've had a few silly things that have kept us from that, but we never quit,” he said. “We continue to dig and overcome, and we've fixed problems that we know won't happen again. In the long run, that is going to pay off dividends. To be where we are right now and to know that we haven't hit our stride just yet, that gives me confidence.”

Johnson, the No. 8 starter, is paired against No. 9 Cruz Pedregon.

One of those “silly things” happened Friday night, when his engine detonated.

“It's very hot and humid here. We haven't raced in these kind of conditions yet this year, so we were really taking a shot at it," Johnson said. "It came loose and shook the tires. It was a little too fast, so we slowed it down for the second session, and with the conditions improving, we tuned it back up and were going for it. It made a nice run. It went right down through there, but just as I stepped off the throttle it went boom, backfired the super-charger, and exploded the engine."

The John Collins-led crew prepared last year’s Dodge body. ("We have a new one being painted, but unfortunately it wasn't able to make this trip,” he said). Johnson took the pressed-into-service one for two Saturday passes. He remained No. 8 heading into the final session.

“The body change won't affect us that much,” Johnson said.

MAKING HEADWAY – Chad Head jumped from 16th place to 10th early Saturday with a 4.106-second, 305.29-mph pass, reinforcing his declaration that “Dad has found a great tune-up for our Toyota Funny Car.”

He said, “The rest of the Head, Inc. crew has really been putting forth a great effort and we’ve proved we can match the track conditions and produce some winning elapsed times.  We’re doing it the right way by building runs that can be repeated round after round.”

The third-year Funny Car driver has been running consistently throughout 2015, advancing to the final of the Four-Wide Nationals at Charlotte.

“Dad” – team owner / crew chief Jim Head – had anticipated a strong performance here this weekend, considering the near-sea-level location of the track.

“There are just a few tracks that offer us a platform of great air and good track conditions,” smiled Head anticipating some great runs.  “It will be a great place to show our potential, but there are so many other teams running just as well.  We’re hoping to reach the three-second zone this weekend and we have the power and a great team to back it up.” 

That didn’t happen in qualifying, but he has another chance – and more important, a chance to advance – with his first-round match-up against Robert Hight, the No. 7 starter.

OTHER PAIRINGS – Alexis DeJoria (No. 4) will meet Bob Bode (No. 13), Ron Capps (No. 3) will take on John Hale (No. 14), and two-time champions Matt Hagan (No. 6) and Cruz Pedregon (No. 11) will battle. The lone non-qualifier was Todd Simpson, whose Camaro was pushed from the starting line in his final chance to qualify Saturday.   

PRO STOCK 

NEWS FLASH: HE LIKED IT – Jason Line made a huge concession Saturday: He is happy with his track-record 6.519-second elapsed time at a class-best 212.33 mph that gave him his 40th career top-qualifier, second of the season, and third at Houston.

“I made a good run,” he admitted in his typical low-key fashion. “It was bad to the bone. I’m excited Normally I’m not that optimistic. I’m not the most exciting guy you’ll ever meet. But this is about as excited as I get.”

Line said, “We put on some new parts. They’re definitely better. The desire to test those pieces was stronger than my desire to qualify No. 1.”

As the leader, he’ll start eliminations against No. 16 Deric Kramer.

OOF. WHAT I MEANT WAS . . .  – Shane Gray might get a brotherly hug from teammate Jonathan Gray for swapping Pro Stock cars in an effort to help the struggling younger sibling shake off four first-round losses in the first five races.

(He also looked at his own ledger sheet and noticed that his early exit at Las Vegas, despite being only his fourth since the August 2013 Brainerd, Minn., race, was his second this year. Still, it was a noble gesture, considering he had no idea how quick his brother’s flat-black Chevy Camaro would go.)

“I wanted to give my brother the white car because it goes down the track and it’s fast. And he’s a good driver. I wanted him to have something that would go down the racetrack every run,” Shane Gray said. 

“I jumped in this black car and bam! It just took off for whatever reason. I don’t know – we haven’t figured out that one yet,” he said after driving his “new, old” ride to the top of the order Friday night.

And that’s when Shane Gray maybe gushed a little too much about the car.

“Me and that car, we go a long ways back,” he said, concluding his visit with the media at Royal Purple Raceway. “I’m glad to be back in it. I guess it’s kind of like an old girlfriend. She still feels good.”

None of the reporters had any more questions.

But wife Amber might have had at least one for him.

JONATHAN GRAY’S FEARS FADE – When Jonathan Gray took over his brother’s smooth-handling car in hopes his own Pro Stock performance would improve, he started to wonder about himself.

"When they first put me in the white car, it did the same thing the black car had been doing. It shook. It blew the tires off,” he said before Friday qualifying. “I started thinking maybe it was me, but Justin [crew chief Elkes] and the guys went back and started really looking at things, and they made quite a few significant adjustments. Finally we got it to go down the racetrack – and then we just kept getting better and better. We're not 100-percent sure that we've got everything ironed out, but I have a feeling we'll be fine. For once this year, I'm not worried. If things go as we think they will based on what we've seen so far, I should be able to qualify in the top half and go rounds on Sunday.”

He was assured of qualifying, with a car count of exactly 16 to fill the field. And he improved from 14th in the lineup in the first session Friday to 12th by evening. So early qualifying leader Shane Gray and rejuvenated Jonathan Gray both left the track Friday with encouraging news.

And that was happy news for Elkes.

"We noticed a significant difference in how the car reacted to Jonathan's driving style, and with that in mind, we decided to put Shane in the black car and see how it would react with another driver," Elkes said. "This program was initially developed around Shane, and we knew we had to tune the cars a good bit different for different drivers, but this shows us just how much. We had made the adjustments, but we just hadn't gone far enough, and this shakes things up enough to get us outside of our comfort zone to really do things differently.”

Jonathan Gray ended up No. 9, with a first-round meeting with No. 8 Rodger Brogdon. Shane Gray will start from the second spot and will start eliminations against No. 15 Richie Stevens.

LEARNING HOW TO WIN – Odessa, Texas, native Chris McGaha said his tuner, Brian “Lump” Self keeps telling him the Harlow Sammons Chevy Camaro team needs “to learn how to win.”

McGaha, No. 5 in the Pro Stock standings, has been the qualifying leader twice, at back-to-back races at Gainesville, Fla., and Charlotte.
 
"We need to win. We've gotten close, but it's like Lump keeps saying – we've got to learn how to win. We've gotten to that point. We've shown everyone we know how to go fast, now it's time to show them we know how to win," McGaha said.

What that means to McGaha, the owner-driver who graduated from the Comp Eliminator class said, is they need to eliminate preventable mistakes.
 
“The reason we say that is we’re making mistakes . . . that we know better than to do and we do them anyways. That’s what we really mean,” McGaha said, conceding that “losing focus” has been a problem.
 
He was blunt about the source of that. “I guess it’s ego, probably,” he said with a guilty laugh. “It’s probably all of us’ fault, but it’s one of those things. You know, you’re fast and you want to keep staying fast. Then sometimes you’re just, ‘Wait a minute – If we just back off here a little bit and not be the fast guy, we can probably win. That’s what that’s all about. I’d say 75 to 80 percent of the time you beat yourself. You really do.”
 
All the egos were in check Friday, for McGaha had a strong start to his weekend. He was third-quickest in the opening qualifying session at 6.568 seconds, 201.90 mph, a performance that left him no worse than fifth overnight. He slid down to seventh Saturday as nasty rains showers gave way to hot sunshine.
 
McGaha will face No. 10 Richard Freeman, Elite Motorsports owner, in Sunday’s first round of eliminations.
 
If McGaha were to win the race, that would be an accomplishment beyond notching his first Pro Stock victory. To win at Houston would be extra-special for the West Texas native.
  
"The first time we ever raced in Houston was in the early 1990s," McGaha said, remembering the days when dad Lester McGaha, who works alongside him on the Pro Stock car, competed in Comp Eliinator, too. "We're very familiar with [this] racetrack and have a lot of memories here, and for my crew chief [an Oklahoma native who raced throughout Texas in his Comp driving days], this is really a lot like home, too."
 
McGaha is tuned by Brian "Lump" Self, a noted Comp racer in his own right who is originally from Oklahoma but spent many years racing in Texas. McGaha and Self raced against one another for years before McGaha asked him to join him in the Pro Stock ranks as a crew chief.
 
"The very last round of Comp I ever raced was the final round at a division race in Houston in 2011," McGaha said. He didn't win that round, but he said, “We should have won it. That goes through my mind a lot. We had the car to win – just like we did in Gainesville earlier this year – but we just couldn't get it done. I feel like that is almost the same situation we've been in lately. We have the car to win. We just haven't been able to get it done yet. To get it done in Texas, our home state, would really mean a lot to us.”

DRESS REHEARSAL – This weekend, Bo Butner is a key part of Jimmy Ålund’s J&J Performance Racing crew, along with racing girlfriend Randi Lyn Shipp and tuner Darrell Herron. But the recently licensed sportsman-turned-Pro-Stock racer is expected to be behind the wheel of the KB Racing Chevy Camaro starting at the next event, at Atlanta.

“They wanted to come to Houston, and it's a good fit for us,” Ålund said. “Plus, Bo is supposed to be in this car in Atlanta, and they are getting more acquainted with this Pro Stock thing. It's a benefit for all of us to work together in Houston.”

He said he had hoped to qualify in the top half of the bracket, but that didn’t happen. He’ll start from the No. 14 slot and race his No. three-qualified close friend Greg Anderson in the first round.

“We're just looking forward to having fun in this last race and, as always, hoping we do good. Who knows? You might see us back out here again later in the year. You never know," he said.

Ålund has raced with KB Racing horsepower this year with the support of Viking Industri Målning, Autoshop Racing Engines, Speed Dawg Shift Knobs, Stig's Axle and Parts, Shipping Cars R Us, Exclusive Cars, Liberty's Gears, Sjolunds Transport, Kendall Oil, Hansen Racing, A&J Furniture Manufacturing Inc., Findlay Chevrolet, and Silverstate Refrigeration & HVAC. For information on partnering with the J&J Performance Racing Pro Stock team in their future endeavors, contact Ålund via e-mail at jimmyprostock@telia.com.
  
TAKING ‘BUSINESS OF FAST’ SLOWLY – Drew Skillman said he “has a clear head” now. The rookie-of-the-year candidate from Bargersville, Ind., runner-up in his first professional race this February at Pomona, Calif., said, “We’ve had a pretty good year, started off really strong, and then we had some growing pains the last couple of races. But we are back at it now and got a clear head.”
 
His transition from the sportsman ranks to Pro Stock, he said, was a bit like retraining himself, even at the young age of 26.
 
“It’s totally different,” Skillman said. “It’s like starting all over again. It’s learning how to drive a stick car again. Just learning the whole process of starting the car, staging, it’s been difficult. But we’re learning.”
 
Skillman and his family-branded Chevy Camaro is scheduled to compete at the first 15 races this season. He said, “And then after that will see where we are at with sponsors.”
 
Skillman, who’s fifth on the grid for eliminations, is set to race first-round opponent Vincent Nobile (No. 12). – Michael Dennis
 
FIRST-ROUND MATCH-UPS – Other Pro Stock pairings for Round 1 of eliminations are best friends Erica Enders-Stevens (No. 4) and Allen Johnson (No. 13) and V Gaines (No. 6) and Larry Morgan (No. 11).    

QUICK TAKES:

 

JOHNNY GRAY – The patriarch of Gray Motorsports recorded one of his biggest racing achievements here at this racetrack, which then was called Houston Raceway Park. It happened at the 1993 Houston national event, when he was racing his Reher-Morrison-powered Comp Eliminator A/Dragster. In the first round of eliminations, he reeled off a record 201.60-mph speed. Wife Terry and sons Shane and Jonathan, respectively aged 20 and 11 at the time, watched from the starting line. "It was a pretty nice run for the time, and man, it was sure fun," Johnny Gray said. He had a successful run in the sportsman ranks with three national-event wins in Lucas Oil Series competition (one in Top Alcohol Dragster and two in Top Alcohol Funny Car). Gray then competed in Pro Stock and Funny Car before retiring to oversee his son’s Pro Stock operation. 

QUOTES:

 

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - BECKMAN CLOCKS FIRST THREE-SECOND FUNNY CAR RUN AT HOUSTON, TOP FUEL’S MASSEY AND PRO STOCK’S SHANE GRAY ALSO TAKE PROVISIONAL NO. 1 QUALIFYING SPOTS AS RAIN SPRINKLES ONLY MINOR INCONVENIENCE FRIDAY, BUFF APPRECIATES TOP FUEL CREW MEMBER, DIXON INTACT, TEXANS WANT TO SHINE IN HOME RACE, TORRENCE TEAMS WITH CHRIS KYLE FROG FOUNDATION, UNCOOPERATIVE SCALE GETTING FIXED, BYRNES HONORED
. . . AND MORE . . .

RAINS HOLD OFF – Thunderstorms forecast for Friday never materialized, although a heavy cloud cover blanketed Royal Purple Raceway and a few brief sprinkles interrupted professional-class qualifying for the O’Reilly Spring Nationals at Baytown, Texas.  
 
TOP FUEL
 
MASSEY READY TO CARVE HOUSTON HISTORY – Fort Worth native Spencer Massey hasn't left a mark at Royal Purple Raceway, where he earned his Top Fuel license. He hasn't won, hasn't been runner-up, and hasn't led the Top Fuel field.
 
He left a pretty impressive memory on the fans Friday night. He lit up his right-lane scoreboard with a track-record 330.07-mph performance – in a class-best 3.734 seconds on the 1,000-foot course to move into the tentative No. 1 position.
 
"I have a lot of memories from this track, but none of them [is] in the winners circle with my DSR team," the Red Fuel/Sandvik Coromant Dragster driver said before running the third-quickest elapsed time in the opening Top Fuel session Friday with a 3.807-second pass at 327.03 mph. "I've been to a lot of races in Houston, helping out friends with their cars, but I really, really want to get a win there for myself and all of my family and friends that will be coming out."
 
(If it’s any consolation, Massey earned his International Hot Rod Association Top Fuel license here in Galveston businessman-racer Mitch King's Bexar Waste Dragster, under the watchful eye of veteran tuner Paul Smith and with help from seasoned driver John Smith. And within 20 days, Massey had two Ironmen trophies on his way to an IHRA championship.)  

Massey entered the weekend fourth in the standings, less than two rounds of racing behind DSR mate and leader Antron Brown.
 
"We're sitting in a good spot this early in the season," he said, "but we need to work on getting more consistent. Our goal is to really be in the top three in points. We have a lot of racing left to go, but we're in a good position."
 
IN MEMORY – Houston-area native Troy Buff, of Spring, Texas, said he’s excited so many family members and friends have come out to Royal Purple Raceway this weekend to support him and the Bill Miller-owned BME / Okuma team. However, he said, “I don’t have enough time to spend with them. That’s the problem. I want to talk to every one of them. If I get a chance, I will.” He also has been inundated with ticket requests. “My phone started ringing a week ago!” he said. “That’s the hardest part, saying no to everybody. I’d be doing good to get one [complimentary] ticket.”
 
He did help give something special to crew member Brent Everitt: the name of Everitt’s father, Greg, on the dragster’s scoop. Greg Everitt passed away suddenly a few days ago of a heart attack while attending to his wife at a hospital. But the young cylinder-head specialist set his grief aside this weekend to maintain his responsibilities for the Carson City, Nev.-based team.
 
“His dad just passed away, and he came to the race, anyway. I couldn’t believe he came. He’s here working.” Buff said. “We put his dad’s name on the scoop. 
 
“I really want to win the race and dedicate it to his dad,” Buff said. “I cannot imagine losing my dad. I’m close to my dad, and he [Brent Everitt] was the same way. I can’t even comprehend that loss.”
 
GOING FOR 100 – If JR Todd wins this weekend in the Red Line Oil / Kalitta Air Dragster – and based on his No. 1 qualifying positions at the past two events, he well could do that – he'll hit the 100-round-win plateau.
 
The seven-time Top Fuel winner earned his fifth Wally here in 2007, defeating Joe Hartley in the final round and dedicating the accomplishment to late buddy Eric Medlen.
 
Todd, the NHRA's 2006 rookie of the year, won the Winternationals to open that 2007 season for team owner Dexter Tuttle. And things began to go wrong for the Lawrenceburg, Ind., native. Crew chief Jimmy Walsh left the team to revive Kenny Bernstein's struggling new Funny Car team. Johnny West and Jim Head came in to tune the car, and they weren't Todd's last crew chiefs of the year. In March, just after the third race, he lost Medlen to injuries from a testing crash. Four days after Medlen's funeral, he won here and presented his trophy to Medlen's family. At Las Vegas for the next race, he stood by for support as Brandon Bernstein won and dedicated his victory to Medlen, too. Two races later, Todd got a new tuner: Kevin Poynter from Medlen's crew at John Force Racing.

"It was mission accomplished," Todd said in the 2007 winners circle. "All week long I worried how long it would take me to win a race so I could dedicate it to Eric and John Force Racing. I've never wanted to win a race as bad as I did today. I wanted to prove that we could win after Jimmy went over to Bernsteins. I think a lot of people thought it was over for us."

That was then, and right now, Todd said his plan has been "to carry our recent performance into Houston. Houston has been a great race for the Kalitta team in the past, and we are looking for the Wally this weekend."
 
Doug Kalitta won here in 2003 in Top Fuel, and his cousin Scott Kalitta won here in Funny Car in 1989.
 
Todd took the 16th qualifying spot early Friday (6.293, 105.74) and improved to seventh overnight at 3.780, 321.27.
 
SUPPORTING CHRIS KYLE FOUNDATION – Kilgore, Texas, native Steve Torrence called his strategic partnership with the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation “a no-brainer” because he has shared Kyle’s core values. The Top Fuel owner-driver said the late Army soldier of “American Sniper” renown “was all about God, family, and country. He was passionate about those things and so am I.  The fact that we’re both Texans and that we shared a love of the outdoors and of properly-used firearms made this association a no-brainer.”
 
Taya Kyle, widow of Chris Kyle, was on hand Friday to help Torrence unveil the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation logo on his Capco Contractors Dragster. Torrence, No. 1 qualifier here last season, talked about helping generate awareness of the non-profit organization before driving the car into the protected top 12 in the first qualifying session.
 
The mission of the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation, which Taya Kyle established to carry on her husband’s passion, is to help members of the military and first responders re-connect with family following deployment or separation. Its immediate goal is to fund a series of “Revitalization Retreats” for married military and first-responder couples after deployment — opportunities allowing them to get to know each other again while adapting to changes that occurred during their time away from the family unit.
 
“Our military and first responders serve bravely, but they are struggling on the home front,” she said. “Nearly three in four married veterans are likely to have had family problems after deployment and half say [their military service] had a negative effect on their marriages. 
 
“The experiences provided by the foundation are designed to give veterans an opportunity to re-connect with their spouses and remember what they love about one another,” she said.  “Trees without roots fall over, and sometimes those roots need re-generation. That’s what we’re here for.”
 
Torrence, calling the alignment “an honor for me and the team,” said, “I just wish Chris was here to see his dream of helping the families of military members and first responders coming true through the efforts of his wife and the foundation. It’s a wonderful cause I know our fans will support. The military is a brotherhood, and so is drag racing.”
 
He ended Friday qualifying in 10th place.

HAD A BLAST DESPITE CRASH – Antron Brown said he "had a blast" participating in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach Pro-Celebrity race last Saturday but wishes he hadn't been involved in an accident, one that involved former NFL and Super Bowl star Willie Gault in Turn 1 on the street course. Gault somehow plowed into the tire barrier and didn’t mash on the brake, which caused him to roll back into traffic. Brown hit Gault's car. "I needed a parachute on my car when I saw Willie rolling back at me," Brown teased.

The Top Fuel 2012 champion said, "I'm a big fan of every kind of racing, but my sport is more about a reaction sport. I wish I could have finished clean, because I think I could have come up through the field some more and finished closer to the top.

"Anytime you can get out of your own element and try something new, you learn from it," Brown said. "The people were tremendous and, from qualifying to the race, we definitely grew by leaps and bounds. I appreciated being involved with it and look forward to doing it again."

This weekend Brown could make a bit of NHRA history. If he wins, he’ll have his 49th overall triumph, which would tie him with the legendary Don “The Snake” Prudhomme for 10th on the victories list.
 
And the Matco Tools Dragster driver has some special history here. In 2008, when he switched form the Pro Stock Motorcycle class to Top Fuel, he earned his first Wally in a dragster at Royal Purple Raceway, defeating Khalid alBalooshi in an all-Toyota final round. This visit, seven seasons later, he is the points leader and last year’s event winner with 32 Top Fuel victories and a series championship. Brown is the only driver in the series to have won a race in every season since that first victory in 2008.
 
Brown closed the opening day of qualifying at No. 8 (3.782, 314.02).
 
HE’S A STAR IN ANOTHER ORBIT, TOO – While many of his colleagues were enjoying some time off at home with family last week, Ann Arbor, Mich., Top Fuel racer Doug Kalitta was in Miami, promoting drag racing and his Mac Tools Dragster at the MRO Americas trade show that focuses on aviation maintenance, repair, and overhaul. Kalitta was featured among Aviation Week magazine’s key social media posts. 

The exposition drew about 800 exhibitors and 15,000 attendees from all 50 states and 87 different nations. So Kalitta had a full house to discuss with the aviation industry his accomplishments in drag racing and to explain how he meshes that with his Ypsilanti,Mich.-headquartered charter airline. Assuming he qualifies at the Atlanta race, the next on the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule, he will be making his 400th start.       
 
“We were down for the aircraft maintenance show in Miami. It is the biggest show of its kind. It is for third-party maintenance, and we have one of the largest maintenance facilities up in Northern Michigan. It is where we maintain all our 747s,” Kalitta said. “It was a great opportunity to support the team that went down there from Kalitta Maintenance. Jim O [crew chief Oberhofer] joined me, and we had a great time signing autographs and honoring them."
 
Kalitta will start Saturday qualifying from the No. 4 slot.
 
FUNNY CAR
 
BECKMAN LIKES BONUS POINTS – Jack Beckman said that recording the first and so far only three-second Funny Car pass at Royal Purple Raceway, a 3.988-second elapsed time (at 318.17 mph), was exhilarating. But he said, “I didn’t know it was a three-second run.”
 
Instead he said he was thrilled to get the three qualifying bonus points and said he hopes to gobble up some more this weekend. “We’re in 10th place and desperate to move into the top 10.” He said that especially because Don Schumacher Racing mate Matt Hagan took his “sure-thing” No. 1 spot away at Indianapolis, he has learned not to count this achievement until qualifying officially is finished.
 
Beckman’s DSR colleague Ron Capps reset the track speed record with a 319.67-mph blast in the NAPA Dodge.
 
Both marks erased John Force’s five-year old records.
 
CRAZY SPORT - It's April, the month that starts with people playing tricks on one another and gets worse with the tax-filing and tax-paying deadline. It's a month associated with rain showers but also the blossoming of spring and new life. It's a month with plot twists, just like the early drag-racing calendar. For Tim Wilkerson, this April is a time he has stopped to recognize that winning in the Funny Car class is neither as easy nor hard as it sounds. The independent racer and 17-time winner from Springfield, Ill., is on an 84-race winless streak, trying to find the winning combo for the first time since the 2011 Seattle event.

"People underestimate how hard this is, but they also overestimate it sometimes too," he said. "You hear everything from 'Why don't you just go out and beat those guys?' to 'You don't stand a chance against them.' But it's not that cut-and-dried in either direction. Yeah, I think the multi-car teams that win most of these races are better than ever, and it sure feels like it's harder for a guy like me to win these days, but we can still do it. You're just lining up against teams that have so many more resources and so much more manpower. But our group is very good in their own right, and I'm proud of them.
 
"So far this year, we've been able to string some pretty good runs together, and we have everyone's attention, I'm sure. Let's just say I don't think anyone is overjoyed when they have to run against us," he said. "Just give me another inch in the semifinals in Gainesville and we probably wouldn't be talking about a winless streak right now, because we had the best car there and that's about how much we lost by in the semis. So we can do it, and we will. We'll never give up the fight, I can promise you that."
 
Through his three-and-a-half-year drought, Wilkerson has recorded 65 round-wins since his Seattle victory. Because of his reputation as a "warm-weather tuner," he's hoping Houston might launch another serious run for his first championship. "I think I'm still pretty good at negotiating a hot track, but a lot of people seem to think that's all we can do, and I don't agree with that," he said. "We've been able to run up front when the conditions are good, but maybe because we haven't run a three-second run yet they think we're not contenders. I'm not worried about running threes, I'm more worried about getting my Levi, Ray & Shoup Mustang to the stripe first, against all these all-star quality teams we've been having to face."

But "worried," really? Wilkerson said it’s not a matter of emotion, just a matter of executing all tasks correctly.

"Whatever the weather holds for us this weekend – and let me say that I don't think the weather guys have a harder time getting it right anywhere more than they do in Houston – we're all going to have to deal with the same thing. And the people who make the most of it will win. There's absolutely no reason that can't be us," Wilkerson said. "I tell my guys all the time that if we just do our jobs right and we all pull together, there's nothing we can't do. They believe it, I believe it, Dick Levi believes it, all my other sponsors believe it, my wife believes it, my kids believe it, and we'll prove it someday soon."
 
Wilkerson, with 4.041-second E.T. at 308.78 mph, has a tentative hold on the No. 5 berth in the order. 
 

GETTING GREEDY – Matt Hagan's a Virginian, but he's kind of partial to Texas, Houston in particular. "I got my first-ever [NHRA] win at Houston, and I'd love to bring home another trophy this weekend," he said.
 
He's starting to get a little bit greedy, for he already has victories at each of the first two races this season – and this is just race No. 6. So he and crew chief Dickie Venables, who, incidentally, is a Houston product, tested the Monday after the Las Vegas race, mostly to experiment with their combination. Hagan said the purpose was "to get us ready for the summer stretch when we know it will be hot" . . . like this weekend.

Hagan called the post-Las Vegas session "really productive" and said, "I feel good about our chances this weekend."
 
So far he's sixth-quickest, with two more sessions scheduled for Saturday.
 
PENNZOIL PROUD – Ron Capps recorded back-to-back victories in 2006-2007, but sponsorship is on his mind as Don Schumacher Racing brings his top-five NAPA Dodge Charger team back to town. Pennzoil joined DSR last month as its "Official Oil Technology" partner in a multiyear agreement, and Pennzoil supported Capps in the1990s, long before he racked up 44 professional victories. This will mark the first time in 20 years Capps will race in Houston with Pennzoil decals on his Funny Car. And this time, Mom Betty didn't have to sew the Pennzoil patches onto his tidy white uniform.
 
"Pennzoil was one of my first sponsors, and this is the first time in many years I'll race at Houston, where Shell Oil is headquartered with Pennzoil support. Pennzoil started with me when I drove John Mitchell's Montana Express A/Fuel car [in 1994]. Then I brought Pennzoil to Roger Primm when I started in Top Fuel the next year. The Houston race was always important to me," Capps said.

This year, it means he gets to stay in one place for four days. He left home at Carlsbad, Calif., near San Diego, Monday. He spent Tuesday visiting NAPA Auto Parts stores at Lincoln, Neb. He flew Wednesday to Lake Charles, La., for an appearance at the Burton Coliseum, sharing the spotlight with the NAPA Funny Car simulator.
 
He had to share the Friday qualifying spotlight with his DSR teammate Jack Beckman and Kalitta Motorsports’ Del Worsham. Capps is third behind them at the moment with his Friday-best of 4.038-second E.T. and 319.67 mph.

PEDREGON HUNGRY BUT NOT FOR TEX-MEX DISHES - Foodies go to Houston for Tex-Mex or Cajun fare or steak and seafood. But Funny Car owner-driver Cruz Pedregon, according to crew chief Chris "Warrior" Kullberg, is hungry for his first victory of the season.

He has led the field once in the first five events (at Gainesville) but hasn't made it past the second round anywhere yet. Kullberg, one of the few who said the warmer, muggier weather "is not looking as warm as this car likes for it to be," said the crew wants a taste of the winners circle, too, and that they've evaluated and re-evaluated what we need to do."   

Pedregon has earned three Funny Car victories here, and he said the Snap-on Toyota team "is really coming together and ready to be winners in a very competitive Funny Car field. We're focused and setting our sights on a Wally from Royal Purple. Over the years we've done well at this track, and I am confident we're ready to recreate those winning efforts. We have the crew, the determination, and the car to do what it takes. We're ready to follow up a series of solid efforts with one that generates a win this weekend."

He had a bit of trouble on his first run this weekend. On the launch, his engine went quiet, and the parachutes fell out. He experienced tire shake and had to abort the run. So he ended up dead last among 17 racers. He has two more chances Saturday to avoid being the odd-man out.

Cruz and brother-teammate Tony Pedregon are second-generation racers whose father hailed from El Paso, in far West Texas. And with Cruz's team this weekend is second-generation Snap-on franchisee Derek Walters, a 15-year veteran of his own brand of tool wars. Walters' name is on the side of Pedregon's Toyota. He joined Pedregon for a Snap-on Grill 'n' Chill with at a local Toyota dealership. He did it once before, when the store ran out of hot dogs because more than 300 fans showed up to meet the two-time NHRA Funny Car champion.

INFINITE OPTIMISM – Little did Jack Beckman know last April 27 that his runner-up finish here would be the only time in 2014 he would advance to a final round. Little did he know he wouldn’t qualify for a chance to earn a second Funny Car championship since 2012. "I didn't think that would be the only time we got that far on Sunday," he said. And little did he know that with an infusion of highly respected help in Jimmy Prock and John Medlen he'd begin this season with a DNQ at the racetrack he taught hundreds of racers how to drive and not crack the top 10 through the first three events.

But Beckman is pointed in the right direction, with a March 29 victory in probably the hardest race all season, the Four-Wide Nationals at Charlotte. Only a minor parts failure curbed him in the most recent race, at Las Vegas.

"We have a great race car. It just blew a couple spark plugs out of it at the last race and we still only lost by two-thousandths of a second," he said. "I thought we made good runs every time down the track but got bit by some bad fortune in the first round and that's going to happen once in a while in a nitro Funny Car. In a checks and balances system, steady performance is going to win us a lot of races."

Beckman was leading opponent Cruz Pedregon in the opening round two weeks ago when his car experienced trouble. "I was staring at the finish line, just staring at it," Beckman said. "I wasn't even looking for Cruz, because I thought we've got this win. We were a half-car ahead when it started to lose power. We still were still going 299 at the finish line, and that was after it also dropped a cylinder right before the finish line. It was still pulling pretty good. I pulled the 'chute then looked over and saw his win light. I thought, 'Gosh, you've got to be kidding me.' "

He's still energized, though, looking for his 17th victory and first at Royal Purple Raceway. "I'm not hanging my head. Jimmy has the tune-up sorted out. We're right where we need to be to start picking off race wins and moving up in the standings," Beckman said.

This Houston race last season marked the first time he carried the Infinite Hero Foundation banner on his Don Schumacher Racing-owned Dodge Charger. Infinite Hero has returned with sponsor Terry Chandler. 
 
PRO STOCK  
 

INACCURATE SCALE TRIGGERS MORGAN TIRADE – Call it a tempest in a tech trailer.

Veteran Pro Stock racer Larry Morgan said before Friday’s first qualifying session for the O’Reilly SpringNationals that the scales at Royal Purple Raceway are not set correctly. And he went on a rant about how that affects the cars and the racers’ pocketbooks.

The positive news for the driver of the FireAde Chevy Camaro is that Graham Light, NHRA senior vice-president of racing operations, has promised the sanctioning body has hired a technician to recalibrate the scale Saturday morning.     

“The track’s scales are screwed up. They’re 35 or 40 pounds heavy. They know that. They acknowledged it,” Morgan said.

NHRA rules dictate that a Pro Stock car may weigh no less than 2,350 pounds.

“Instead of adding 35 pounds to 2,350, they make everybody take weight out of their car,” Morgan said.  “What it does is change the ride height, gets the cars out of whack. It’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever seen. All they have to do is simple arithmetic. Add 35 pounds. Make it 40 pounds. 

“Don’t make us take weight out. You’ve got to change the ride height of the car, change the suspension all around, the gear ratios . . .,” he said.

“Some of the s*** they do . . . It p***** me off, because there’s absolutely no common sense used in what we do here. That’s the problem that we have,” the owner-driver said.

Asked why the NHRA or track officials immediately didn’t reset the scale, Morgan only had a guess.

“It would cost money, I guess,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. They don’t care about costing us money. Making our cars unsafe is what they’re doing. They don’t give a s***.”

Light, after speaking with Danny Gracia, NHRA director of technical operations, confirmed Morgan’s charge that the scale is weighing heavy and said that from time to time and at certain tracks, that is not uncommon.

“Every category has to adjust for that, not just Pro Stock,” Light said. “We do have a scales technician coming out at 7:30 tomorrow morning to recalibrate the scales. The issue should be resolved in the morning.”

The adjustments didn’t slow down Morgan. He took the provisional No. 5 spot with the day’s first 6.5-second pass (6.581 seconds at 210.87 mph).

“That was pretty good,” Morgan said.

HOMETOWN RACER READY TO SHOW HIS BEST – Rodger Brogdon is ready to be aggressive again. "We were good at the first two races, and we qualified well and went to the semis at the Gatornationals," the roofing contractor from nearby Tomball said. "Charlotte, we didn't do very well. We only had one decent run and the transmission broke first round. In Vegas, we didn't run as good as we could, either. We've been a little bit too conservative the last couple of races."
 
But he made some eighth-mile runs at a local track Monday, concluded that "we're going to be more aggressive" at this hometown race, and even predicted, "I think we should be able to qualify in the top three."
 
His prediction wasn’t too far off, for he earned a spot in the top half of the ladder early Friday. He started the weekend seventh with a 6.594-second elapsed time at 210.90 mph. Brogdon had the last of the 6.5s in the opening session.
 
"The top 10 is so tough this year," Brogdon said. "The top 10 cars are really, really fast. We kind of figured that at the first of the year, but there are eight or 10 cars that can win any race. We've had six different winners in six races this year, so there are a bunch of fast, good cars. And there are a couple of cars who haven't shown themselves yet, so it's really tough."
 
GOOD TO BE HOME AGAIN – Probably nobody arrived at Royal Purple Raceway with more enthusiasm than Pro Stock's Erica Enders-Stevens. The hometown hero shared the winners circle last spring with Antron Brown (Top Fuel) and Robert Hight (Funny Car) and went on to win the championship. This time she comes in two weeks after winning both the Las Vegas event and the K&N Horsepower Challenge bonus race.
 
This weekend will be unique, as well, because she will be racing with and against both husband Richie Stevens and team owner Richard Freeman. She outshone both in the first session. Enders-Stevens grabbed the No. 2 position in the order at 6.563, at a class-fastest 211.33-mph speed. Freeman was 13th on the grid at 6.647, 208.62 in his season debut, and Stevens was 15th at 6.676, 208.91 in his first race as Allen Johnson’s J&J Racing / Mopar teammate.
 
Last year's victory here was Enders-Stevens’ first at her hometown track since she turned professional.
 
"It was a really important race win to me, not only because it was my first professional win in my hometown but also because it's sort of a home track for my team owner, Richard Freeman, as well," Enders-Stevens said. "And it was the first Pro Stock race my dad ever got to see me win. It was really an exciting weekend, and everything came together."
 
So was the most recent event, in which she moved to No. 2 in the current Pro Stock standings.
 
"Vegas was huge for us," Enders-Stevens said. "We didn't exactly start off the season the way we wanted to. Granted, it wasn't horrible, but we hadn't gotten a handle on the tires and the fuel yet. Staying after Charlotte to test got things looking up for us. It was a huge confidence builder, and it was also pretty surreal to be able to double up [at Las Vegas] two years in a row.
 
"That was an awesome experience. I believe we create our own momentum, and we're on a high right now," she said. "I'm excited to carry that into Houston." 

 

 
MORGAN WAS LIGHTS OUT, LITERALLY – Larry Morgan and the FireAde Racing Pro Stock team got a non-electric jolt at the Las Vegas race, which interrupted his momentum. After he qualified in the top half of the field for the fourth time in five races this season, the generator in his hauler malfunctioned that Sunday morning. That wiped out any electricity to the semi, including to the computers that help in tuning Morgan's Chevy Camaro. Understandably, Morgan experienced tire shake in the first round and lost to Jimmy Ålund.
 
"It was just crazy," the Charlotte Pro Stock winner said. "We were more worried about the stuff we weren't there for than what we were there for, but that happens when stuff breaks, I guess. What a deal. Everything is good now. We got the computers back and everything else, too. It blew up more stuff than 10 things, but we got all that fixed. It's over now, and we're moving on to something else, like winning in Houston." 
 
PRO MODIFIED 
 
DOUBLING DOWN – Two-time Pro Modified series champion Troy Coughlin has added son T.J. to the team this season, and so far Dad said this is "the best start to a Pro Mod season I've ever had. Both father and son reached the semifinals at the class' season-opener at Gainesville, Fla.
 
"For whatever reason, we've always had a tough go of it in Gainesville. Nothing against that track or anything, it's just been a rough location for us. Obviously, to start off with both T.J. and I going to the semifinals and being third and fourth in the points when we left town, that's a great boost for us," Troy Coughlin said.
 
"We expanded to a two-car team and moved T.J. up to the pro ranks this past off-season, but the guys stepped up and made it seamless. I feel like we're already reaping the benefits of a two-car team and have gotten past any growing pains we might have had. That's an indication of the talent level in this crew," he said.
 
T.J. made the transition to the pro ranks and his new high-horsepower JEGS.com twin-turbo Corvette. His father switched to a brand-new, nearly identical race car that had barely been broken in with only five or six passes when they arrived in Florida last month for the Gatornationals.
 
Troy Coughlin said, "Steve [crew chief Petty] and the guys just put together perfect cars for us. We had some luck, and we had horsepower when we needed it and came very close to having an all-JEGS final round."
 
To further their cause, Troy and T.J. added Brandon Stroud to the established crew of Mike Rees, Kyle Pettis, and Justin Beaver. The group also spent the early part of this week testing at Texas Motorplex, south of Dallas.
 
"The guys have been great and I'm doing all I can to give them the best feedback possible," T.J. said. "My dad has been a huge help in answering all my questions, and I'm just absolutely living the dream right now.
 
"Everyone in the category went out of their way to welcome me in Florida and I felt really comfortable right away. I've been analyzing video and there are so many things I want to improve on, so [this week's] test has been great."
 
The Coughlins are eighth and ninth in the Pro Mod lineup overnight, Dad edging out his son.

QUICK TAKES:
 
KALITTA MOTORSPORTS – Team Kalitta is honoring the legacy of longtime motorsports reporter Steve Byrnes this weekend, with both of its dragster and both Funny Cars bearing the #ByrnesStrong decal. Byrnes, 56, lost his battle with cancer Tuesday, just two days after the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway that was named the "Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes." Byrnes was a FOX analyst since the network began covering NASCAR in 2001. FOX Executive David Hill said, "Viewers simply loved his knowledge, his sense of humor, and his easygoing nature" and called him "the Mr. Rogers of NASCAR."

TERRY HADDOCK – Funny Car driver Terry Haddock has some new help from his adopted home state of Texas by way of Norway. This weekend he has the support of Deer Park, Texas-based 1Diamond Technologies, LLC. The company is a research and development company that specializes in developing and commercializing cutting technology products using both blades and wires. Their diamond-infused technology allows cuts on land, in space, or 10,000 feet below the sea. They operate primarily in the oil and gas industry but have the resources to design cutting solutions for any application. Harald Ramfjord, president of 1Diamond invented a new cutting technology, brought it from Norway a few years ago, and established its headquarters in the United States. Ramfjord, who met Haddock at Royal Purple Raceway when attending his first NHRA national event when he first arrived at Houston, said he stayed in touch with Haddock and realized drag racing was a suitable fit for his marketing endeavors.  “At 1Diamond, we are focused on commercializing our market, and I have studied many different avenues,” he said. “In learning more about NHRA drag racing and Terry, I am convinced that this is the new marketing avenue for our technology. I am excited to take this new approach with Terry and his team.” Haddock and racer wife Jenna are residents of Temple, Texas. Terry Haddock is 15th in the Funny Car order after Friday.

MUY BUENO – If anyone wants to know where to get the best fajitas or dinner this weekend, reigning Pro Stock series and event champion Erica Enders-Stevens, a Houston-area native, has a ready answer:  Lupe Tortilla Mexican Restaurants. Longtime friend Stan Holt, owner of the restaurant chain with 17 locations throughout Houston (and Austin, San Antonio, Beaumont, and College Station), has partnered again with her Elite Chevy Camaro for this event.
 
"We've got a different name on the door this weekend, and it's a great family-owned business in Lupe Tortilla," Enders-Stevens said. "Stan Holt has been a big part of my career for as long as I can remember, going back to Jr. Dragsters, and he's been a longtime family friend. Stan even performed the wedding ceremony when Richie and I got married. We're really proud to fly his colors in Houston and support him. Hopefully we'll get a bunch of people to go try the best food in the country."
 
Enders-Stevens attended Spring-Cypress High School and Texas A&M University. Holt and wife Sheila have supported Enders-Stevens since she was eight years old. "He has always been there for me, and I consider him and Sheila part of my family. It would be another dream come true to win this race for Stan, his sons, Sheila Mae, and all of their employees across the state. No matter what, if we can remind people to go eat at one of their restaurants, then I'll be super happy, and trust me everyone leaves that place happy. It's the best Tex-Mex ever."
 
Holt, who drag races himself at the sportsman level, said, "It'll be really neat to see the Lupe Tortilla car on the racetrack. We came up with the idea to support Erica and the Elite Motorsports team at this race since it's in our backyard, and when I talked to my sons about it they thought it would be a lot of fun. We always have a good time at the races, and many of the professional drivers and crewmen come to visit and have lunch or dinner when they're in town. We have great relationships with so many people out there, including the Angel family, who own the racetrack. The NHRA is really a big family and we're happy to feed them all."
 
RAHN TOBLER – Rahn Tobler, crew chief for Ron Capps' NAPA Dodge for Don Schumacher Racing, spent most of his teenage years living in Houston after his mother, an analyst for Shell Oil, was transferred there from Southern California.

At age 16, while riding his bicycle home from a part-time job at a grocery store, Tobler discovered a garage behind a filling station that housed the front-engine Top Fuel dragster owned by legendary racers Stevens & Venables.

He went from volunteering to clean the shop to becoming a three-time NHRA champion Top Fuel and Funny Car crew chief. And it bolstered a lifelong friendship with Dickie Venables, crew chief for Matt Hagan's DSR Funny Car.

PRO MODIFIEDS – The Pro Modified class is scheduled to get a third and final qualifying session at 2 p.m. Saturday. Round 1 of eliminations is set to start at 5 p.m. Saturday and will continue Sunday following the first round of Pro Stock action. 
 
QUOTES: