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

THURS. GALLERY (POSTED) FRI. GALLERY (POSTED) SAT. GALLERY (POSTED) SUN GALLERY (POSTED)

 

SUNDAY NOTEBOOK

REIGNING TOP FUEL CHAMP BROWN CLAIMS CHICAGO TITLE - Once again, Antron Brown displayed why he’s the reigning NHRA Top Fuel world champion.

The veteran driver drove his Don Schumacher Racing Matco Tools dragster to his third victory of the 2016 season when he won the K&N Filters Route 66 NHRA Nationals Sunday in Chicago.

Brown clocked a 3.777-second elapsed time at 321.19 mph to defeat J.R. Todd’s 3.798-second lap at 322.11 mph.

“We’re actually lovin’ it right now,” said Brown, who also was the 2012 Top Fuel world champ. “Our Matco Tools, U.S. Army, Toyota team, man we are starting to go in the right direction. We haven’t peaked yet, and we are still working things out, but our car responds to everything Brian (Corradi) and Mark (Oswald) (Brown’s crew chiefs) and all of our Matco boys are doing to it and that’s the key out here. We had a strong car in Nowalk (Ohio, the last race), but to come here to Chicago and being our boss (Don Schumacher’s) hometown race and we wanted to come home with the win and fortunately we made all the right calls.”

This was Brown’s 57th career NHRA national event win and his 41st in the Top Fuel class. He also had 16 career Pro Stock Motorcycle national event victories before he began competing in Top Fuel in 2008.

“Hopefully there are a lot more (wins) to come and for us to get better,” Brown said. “Our whole goal is to get better and better and better. We are going to see how we do on this Western Swing and that’s what is going to really set us up for the Countdown to the Championship.”

On Sunday, Brown, who qualified No. 4, beat Clay Millican, Terry McMillen, Leah Pritchett and finally Todd in his victory march.

“We look for everything when we race,” Brown said. “What I’m trying to do is go up there and do the same thing. The crew chiefs are trying to make the car better and faster and everything else and I’m trying to give all I have got. If everybody is on that same page and giving all we have and putting our best foot forward for each and every round, those kind of results happen on Sunday.”

Brown is upbeat about what the remainder of the season will hold for he and his team.

“We found new things that are making it better,” Brown said. “We are on to something and we are just going to keep improving upon that. Our deal is we try to win every race we go to. We compete at a high level and our main goal is to come into a race and go out there and be efficient and that means getting every drop out of this lemon every time. We need to be on that level to be where we want to be at like where we were last year. That’s the key right now, getting your team and car ready to go to battle (in the Countdown to the Championship).”

Brown did overtake Doug Kalitta for the points lead at the halfway point in the season, but he’s not putting much stock in things yet.

“I don’t even think about it but it’s good that we got it,” Brown said. “Those 30 points are crucial. It’s hard to make up 30 points when you only have 24 rounds of racing to win a championship. That’s two rounds. That’s going to be very crucial and we just have to keep working. Hopefully we can sneak it out and get those points that we need to help us for that title defense. We have a boss that is very, very competitive that hates to lose. He gives you all the necessary pieces and tools so there’s never excuses. He gives you the push you need when you need it. When we come out here to compete at a high level and that’s all we can do to give to our boss man.”

Brown did take a moment address his success in the Top Fuel class.

“I’m going to be honest with you, it was just a dream for me to even drive a Top Fuel car,” Brown said. “Not even thinking about the success that we’ve had as a group or as a team. I drive the car and everybody always talks about how I do this, I do that but it’s not me doing it. It’s our whole team. We do it together. I’m very fortunate and blessed to be with a great group of guys, our front office, everybody at DSR in the fab shop. We have such a remarkable group of individuals that come together to make unbelievable things happen and I’m just fortunate to be a part of it.” Tracy Renck

BECKMAN BACK ON TOP IN CHICAGO, GETS FIRST WIN OF THE YEAR - Finally.

After countless opportunities and half the season gone by, Jack Beckman finally returned to the winner’s circle in Funny Car Sunday at the 19th annual K&N Filters Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway, driving the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T to a win over teammate and number one man in points Ron Capps.

It had been 15 races since Beckman’s last win in Funny Car, an eternity for the winningest driver in the class from one year ago. After racing to seven wins and coming up just shy of the championship last season, no one, especially not Beckman, would have ever believed it would be more than half the season before the team would visit victory lane again.

“I thought we had so much momentum last year, and then we go to the Countdown and watch Del (Worsham) win the first two. We come back at Maple Grove and win that one, set the national record, then we haven’t seen a winner’s circle since,” Beckman said. “Even though we had been to three final rounds this year, we really didn’t have our car. We never made it more than 200 feet in any of those prior final rounds and we were struggling.

“We ran well, we set national records this year, we qualified number one four times, but we just couldn’t put it together. We would either run good under the heat and not on the cool track, or great in the hero conditions and couldn’t get it down the track in the heat.

“It’s a little bit frustrating to be the only one of our four (DSR) Funny Cars that hadn’t closed the deal. When Capps is winning every other weekend, (Matt) Hagan has multiple wins, but we knew we would find it. And we did here today.”

In the final, Capps left first in the all-Don Schumacher Racing matchup, but Beckman was able to chase down the NAPA Auto Parts Dodge and race to his first win of the season with a 3.955 at 324.05 mph. Capps, who had won three of the last four races, went up in smoke about 400 feet out and limped across the line with a 4.522 at 194.74 mph in his sixth final of the year.

“With the new Charger bodies, the windshield is much farther back, so we can see out the sides a lot more, which isn’t always a good thing,” Beckman said. “I saw a whole lot of NAPA front fender out there and I thought, ‘oh,’ and before I could get to, ‘no,’ it disappeared. When a car disappears out of your peripheral vision that fast, you know they have smoked the tires and you know that, unless you have a huge problem, there is no way they are getting around you.

“At that point, it is up to me to keep it in the middle lane, don’t hit anything and get the chutes out.”

Beckman, who qualified second Saturday night with a blistering fast lap at over 333 mph, added wins over Robert Hight, Courtney Force and John Hale to collect his 23rd career Wally. In addition, Sunday’s finale marked the 800th race for the Funny Car class, an exciting sidebar to Beckman’s storybook weekend as his crew chief Jimmy Prock celebrated a unique milestone with the win.

“It’s funny, Jimmy Prock won number 500 with Gary Densham driving. Jimmy Prock won number 600 with Robert Hight driving. I won number 700 and we’ve now won number 800,” Beckman said. “It’s a pretty cool deal and the thing that makes it extra special, is it’s the 50th anniversary of Funny Car. So you’ve got a lot of the legends out here, and to have them come by and acknowledge you and cap that off with a trophy, at the end of the day, this is one of those perfect drag race weekends.”

Despite his winless streak, Beckman has remained within striking distance in the NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car standings all season. And with his win on Sunday, he was able to leapfrog up to second in the Countdown to the Championship, just 126 points back of Capps.

And, ironically, he has his own teammates to thank for that shift in performance.

“I will tell you the great thing about DSR teammates. It was my birthday, and Tommy Johnson said, ‘I’ll drive your car.’ They took it out to Indy, they made four hits on it, and the thing never made it past 400 feet. But it started pointing us in the right direction,” Beckman said. “We unwound a problem in the bellhousing with our clutch system, but we couldn’t go back to last year’s notes. We had a pretty good idea for a starting point and when we ran that 3.885 at 333 mph Saturday night, you go, ok, we know this thing can make the hero runs, but what's it going to be like on race day when the track is 30 degrees warmer.

“Then today, the car was darn near flawless out there.”

Beckman will look to string that performance together and make it two-in-a-row when the series heads west for the western swing in two weeks, beginning with the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals in Denver. Larry Crum

ANDERSON OVERCOMES FIRST REAL CHALLENGE OF THE SEASON, COLLECTS SIXTH WIN - Almost.

After five months, 12 races and only two different winners in NHRA’s Pro Stock class this season, it appeared that the undefeated streak of KB Racing would finally come to an end during the 19th annual K&N Filters Route 66 NHRA Nationals.

With a new driver topping the class for the first time all year during qualifying and a sizable performance gap made up by the rest of the field, it seemed almost inevitable that the duo of Jason Line and Greg Anderson would be knocked from their perch at Route 66 Raceway just outside of Chicago.

Boy were we wrong.

On Sunday, Anderson showed exactly why he is the winningest driver in the history of Pro Stock racing, overcoming the unexpected fight put up by the rest of the class in overcoming his worst start to a race weekend this year with his 84th career victory.

“We are very happy. But that word dominance, which may have been right on the money at the beginning of the year, is not there anymore,” Anderson said. “The class has tightened up, just as I have said all year long. There were a lot of teams that made big gains during that week off. We really, really had to dig in and work hard and come up with something special today.

“Rob Downing and the crew did a great job matching the racetrack with the hot sun on it and it made beautiful runs all day long. It is our hardest fought victory of the year, without a doubt.”

After qualifying a season-low fourth on Saturday, Anderson navigated a tougher than usual field in racing to his 10th final in 12 races. In the final, he met up with fellow KB Racing partner-in-crime Bo Butner, edging him at the starting line by .015 and holding that advantage the entirety of the race.

Anderson crossed the stripe with a 6.644 at 209.01 mph, good enough for his sixth victory of the year and the 13th in a row for the Summit Racing Equipment Camaros of Anderson and Line. Butner raced to a 6.667 at 209.17 mph in his third final of the year - all runner-up finishes.

“We basically just outraced them today,” Anderson said. “We didn’t outpower anybody, we didn’t dominate anybody. We just found a way to win each round we raced and that is what it is all about. The cars have been fantastic all year long. Jason and I haven’t been killer on the tree like we need to be, but today when we needed to be, we got the job done.

“It was a great team effort, and that is what it takes in this class. 13 in a row is amazing, it is certainly something that I never believed could happen, but I don’t think too many people expected we were going to win today. All of the other racers were very confident coming into today. They just knew they were going to knock us off and somehow we found a way to hold them off.”

Anderson’s road to the final included wins over No. 1 qualifier Shane Gray, Allen Johnson and Dave River. After powering past River in round one, Anderson had a narrow victory over Johnson in the second round before facing the surprise top qualifier in the semifinals.

Gray, who topped the field Saturday night for his first top qualifier award of the year - and the first by a non-KB Racing driver this season - entered the semifinals with an opportunity to knock Anderson out of the final for only the second time all year, but ran into issues during his run and had to click it off just past the 60 foot mark. Anderson raced right down the groove with a 6.631 at 209.14.

“When we came up for driver introductions today, you could just feel the confidence level of the other teams,” Anderson said. “They were (thinking), ‘you guys are going down today and we are going to be so happy at the end of the day. We don’t care which one of us beats you, but someone is going to beat you’

“That is what makes this class extra special. We held off that wave of confidence and that performance gap that they closed up on us. It was a great win.”

Anderson’s teammate, current point leader Line, fell in the semifinal, failing to reach the final for only the second time all year. The result helped Anderson close the gap to his teammate in the Countdown battle, while the duo continued to put ground between themselves and the field. But there is no doubt the performance gap is shrinking, and that means even more work for the KB Racing duo.

“You are going to have a new landscape once you get to the Countdown,” Anderson said. “This was a great indicator of what we have coming up. We have another week off before we head to Denver and I expect the same thing to happen.

“Regardless of what happens the rest of the year, it has certainly been a great start. But we know, deep down, if we don’t find more performance, we are going to get smoked the rest of the year. That is the beauty of Pro Stock.”

And it all begins in two weeks when the NHRA Mello Yello tour travels to Denver to kick off the western swing at a track notorious for its challenging conditions.

“Denver is a completely different racetrack. We have no earthly idea what fuel injection is going to act like in Denver, so who knows what is going to happen,” Anderson said. “Whoever can figure that one out first is going to be in great shape, just like when we first started this season.” Larry Crum

HINES TAKES CHICAGO PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE CROWN - Andrew Hines found his way back to the winner’s circle Sunday and he was thrilled to be there.

Hines clocked a 6.858-second elapsed time at 194.91 mph on his Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson to defeat Angelle Sampey’s 6.893-second lap at 193.40 mph in the finals at the K&N Filters Route 66 NHRA Nationals.

“This win means a ton,” Hines said. “I made the final at the last race at Norwalk and now another win, it doesn’t get much better.”

This was Hines' second win this season as he also was victorious at Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, N.C. (April 24). He and his teammate Eddie Krawiec have won five of the six Pro Stock Motorcycle races this season.

This also was Hines’ 44th career NHRA victory, leaving him just one win behind Dave Schultz for the most all-time wins in NHRA’s Pro Stock Motorcycle class. Schultz died from cancer in 2001. Hines now has three career victories at Chicago (2007, 2012, 2016).

Hines, who has won five NHRA world championships (2004-2006, 2014-15), was far from dominant at Chicago. He qualified No. 8 with a 6.881-second pass, but found his groove on race day by beating Chip Ellis, Michael Ray, and Steve Johnson before ousting Sampey in the finals.

The focus of Hines in the semis and finals was obvious as he had outstanding .012 and .002 lights.

“Pro Stock Motorcycle is so tough right now, that if you don’t get every thousandth of second all the way down the race track, you’re just not going to turn on win lights. (Sunday) in the first round, we took a swing at the tune-up because we knew where we messed up (Saturday) and man it set the track record (6.833 seconds) there in the first round of eliminations and it was on a rail, straight chalk line runs all day (Sunday) and that’s what allows you to go turn on four win lights. It was easy to ride. My brother (Matt Hines, Andrew’s crew chief) had the 60-foot tune-up nailed down, and it would shake here and there, but it would hook up on the 1-2 and keep going.”

Hines acknowledged he enjoys competing at Route 66 Raceway.

“I’ve always loved Route 66 Raceway and it (this race) is in the middle of the summer and I always seem to excel at the very hot race tracks. It just turns me into a better rider and maybe I can focus a little better and not overthink things. I’m just worried how hot it is.”

Surprisingly as good as Hines’ reaction times were Sunday – his worst of the four rounds was .049 in his second-round win – it is something he doesn’t devote extra practice to before races.

“I actually never practice for reaction time,” Hines said. “I just come here and race and I’ve made so many runs over the years I’ve become accustom to reacting to the yellow.” Tracy Renck

SATURDAY NOTEBOOK

TOP FUEL

FORCE FIELD - It will be hard to top Brittany Force’s 30th birthday.

Celebrating with family and friends at the racetrack is one thing, but to then back that up with the fourth quickest pass in Top Fuel history, a run that would eventually give her her second No. 1 qualifying position of the season, well, it appears the only way to top that would be to finish the weekend with a victory on Sunday.

“That was at the top of the list when it comes to birthdays,” Force said. “To come out, be with my team, with my family, and celebrate my birthday and go No. 1 was just awesome.”

Force’s 3.692 at 325.69 mph from Friday night held up after two more rounds on Saturday to give her her sixth career top qualifier award. She followed that up with the fourth and first quickest rounds of the session on Saturday, giving her four fast, consistent runs entering eliminations on Sunday.

“Today’s conditions were similar to tomorrow,” Force said. “Today our main focus was two consistent runs and we ended up with four all weekend. We are exactly where we want to be right now. We are comfortable, confident going into tomorrow.”

Force will open eliminations against Chris Karamesines on Sunday.

ONLY A MATTER OF TIME - It has been exactly one year since Tony Schumacher last won a race.

Schumacher won the Route 66 NHRA Nationals in 2015 over Larry Dixon, bringing him within five wins of Pro Stock’s Bob Glidden for third on the career wins list in any professional category. Since then, he has been 0-for-23 in hoisting a Wally. That’s not to say he hasn’t had success. He has visited a couple of finals, won plenty of rounds, and currently sits in the top five in the Countdown to the Championship standings, but it certainly hasn’t been easy battling through one of the longest droughts of his storied career.

“We’ve had some issues, but that is just part of racing,” Schumacher said. “And the fact remains, other people have faster cars. When you have 10 or 12 great cars out here, you don’t try to make tiny corrections, you try to make big changes that can make the car go faster than all of them.

“It takes time. Anybody can build a car that’s already been built with a manual that has already been written. Our engineers and our people try to fix things to the point that nobody has ever seen them before. And that takes time.”

In the meantime, Schumacher continues to battle, reaching two finals in the last three races, knowing it is only a matter of time before the winningest man in Top Fuel history returns to the top.

“We just have to keep working at it,” Schumacher said. “It may be this weekend. It may be next weekend. It may be four weekends from now. It takes blood, sweat and tears and that is what kids today need to learn. It is a simple life lesson; hard work and preparation equal results.”

Schumacher’s quest to repeat as event champion in Chicago will begin from the sixth position, as “The Sarge” placed the U.S. Army dragster sixth with a 3.744 at 326.63 mph. He will face Pat Dakin in round one.

ONE SPECIAL YEAR - Doug Kalitta has had a pretty remarkable career.

A grand total of 85 finals, 41 victories and 572 round wins have filled the pages of Kalitta’s story, but despite all of his past success, Kalitta says this year stands firmly at the top.

With three wins already in 2016, Kalitta currently leads the Top Fuel standings by 69 points over Antron Brown and looks poised to continue that success into the second half of the year.

“This year is at the top of the list,” Kalitta said. “Getting three wins this early in the season has been a big boost for our team; and leading the points too. We’ve done that in the past, but not with three wins halfway through the season. So this year ranks right up there.”

Kalitta, who has qualified in the top two in eight of the 12 races so far this season, fell just one spot shy of adding another to that list, qualifying third with a 3.732 at 330.55 mph.

 

ALWAYS A BRIDESMAID - When Terry McMillen first came to the NHRA on a full-time basis back in 2010, it was his goal to place the Amalie Oil Top Fuel dragster in the Countdown to the Championship and contend for a championship.

Six years later, that is still his number one goal.

McMillen has been close, coming one spot shy of making the Countdown more times than he would like to admit, but that hasn’t deterred McMillen from chasing his dream and going for it all as one of the smaller budgeted teams on the NHRA Mello Yello tour.

“It’s always been our goal when we came to the NHRA; to make the top 10. We’ve been close a couple of different times,” McMillen said. “It’s our mission. We have a good car and we have a really good team led by Rob Wendland. We just have to keep going out there and doing our thing and getting some rounds. If we do that, we’ll get into the top 10.”

This has already been a banner year for McMillen, racing to his first career final in March at the Gatornationals and sitting as high as fifth in the standings. Since that final, however, McMillen has suffered nine-consecutive first round losses, pushing the team all the way down to 11th - one spot out of the Countdown - with six races until the cutoff for the Countdown.

“Our short term goal is making the Countdown, our long term goal is to win a race. After that we will probably retire and put someone else int he car,” McMillen said. “But right now, my mission is to get into that top 10.”

McMillen qualified 12th this weekend with a 3.940 at 309.56 mph.

BEST TWO-OUT-OF-THREE - Richie Crampton and Leah Pritchett will settle their best two-out-of-three series on Sunday. The two drivers have faced each other in the first round in the last two races, with the two drivers splitting those meetings. Crampton qualified third, Pritchett ninth to set up the fun round one matchup.

FUNNY CAR

HAIL MARY PASS - Through three rounds of qualifying Saturday, Ron Capps held the top spot in Funny Car and Matt Hagan sat in fourth.

But with one final shot at the track Saturday night, Hagan decided to drop back and throw up a Hail Mary pass with zeroes on the clock. Four seconds later - touchdown!

Hagan raced to the top of the charts Saturday at the K&N Route 66 NHRA Nationals, leapfrogging Capps and holding off a few other hard chargers to earn his second top qualifier award of the season and 23rd of his career.

“Obviously Q4 is usually not the time you do it; it’s always late Friday night when it is cool out and the track is great. It was getting to that point tonight and we had a great racetrack underneath us, the weather seemed to be there, but I didn’t really know we were going to be pushing that hard,” Hagan said. “I know Dickie Venables came on the radio and said let’s push the primary and see what we can do and knew he was making some calls out there on the racetrack as far as where we needed to be.

“To come up here, being a little bit behind the eight ball after not getting to make our earlier run, was pretty awesome. Dickie is a guy that you really can’t count out. I’m very glad he’s my crew chief. He’s one of those guys that’s steady and efficient and does a great job. That’s why we’re number one today.”

Hagan bettered Capps’ Friday night run by .006 on Saturday. He will face Bob Bode in round one.

LEAPFROG - It wasn’t just Matt Hagan who played leapfrog with the field on Saturday. Jack Beckman and Alexis DeJoria both jumped Ron Capp’s chart-topping lap from Friday in Q4 on Saturday. Beckman jumped from 10th all the way up to second in the final pass with a 3.885 at an eye-popping 333.25 mph, while DeJoria jumped three spots up to third with a 3.887 at 327.11 mph.

JOHNSON VISITS THE BEACH - During the second round of qualifying Friday night in Chicago, Tommy Johnson Jr. went for a wild ride.

After making a nice, clean pass with a speedy 3.921 at 325.45, Johnson’s parachutes failed to deploy, sending his Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T hopping into the sand trap. Other than a crack on the front of the body and a front lip that is a little banged up, the chassis was unharmed and Johnson returned to action Saturday.

“Everyone thinks it was a parachute failure; it wasn’t. The cables broke right at the handle, so there was no way for me to get them out,” Johnson said. “The cable just snapped off. I’ve never been in the sand before; I’ve always been able to get it stopped when I’ve had a failure, but it was pretty rough in the shutdown area. You have the bouncing and just couldn’t get enough speed scrubbed off.

“We’ve researched the problem and have changed how we’re doing it. The good about DSR is we have seven other cars and we went and looked at how everybody did theirs and see if anyone else had any issues. We’ve changed the cables, we’ve changed the way we’re crimping them and fastening them to the handle. It shouldn’t be an issue anymore.”

He rebounded with the eighth quickest time on Saturday. He will face Chad Head in round one.

MURPHY’S LAW - Murphy’s law is an old adage that states that, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

It is also a good description of Cruz Pedregon’s season.

Pedregon hasn’t had the best of seasons in 2016. He is 12th in points. He has only four round wins through 12 races. He has qualified in the top half of the field only once. And, other than a runner-up finish in Charlotte, he hasn’t truly sniffed a victory.

For a man with 35 career wins and a championship, that isn’t easy to swallow.

“We really want to change the name of the car to Murphy’s Law because it seems like things that have happened out here to our car, you never see it on anybody else’s car,” Pedregon said. “I’ve got guys that have worked 30 years, 15 years out here in racing, and some stuff just doesn’t happen.

“We’re optimistic; every single run is going to be our breakthrough run. We’re getting closer and closer and even though the results don’t show it, we’re just about there. We don’t want to just run with these guys. You have the guys that are running mid-eights; we want to blow past those guys.

“We’re not about to go out there and just be one of the pack. We want to be number one. We want to be top three every time we qualify.”

Unfortunately, the top three will have to wait another week as Pedregon qualified 11th on Saturday with a 3.965 at 310.63 mph. He will race Robert Hight in round one.

CAMARO CRAZY - One of the biggest storylines coming into the 2016 NHRA season was the eventual switchover to the new Chevrolet Camaro bodies for John Force Racing.

Featuring a sporty design and a much-closer representation of the Camaro brand, it was an exciting time with John Force debuted the new Camaro back in May in Topeka, followed by Robert Hight, and then Courtney Force this weekend.

While the sample size isn’t much, the JFR Racing camp are so far pleased with the performance of the cars and are excited about what the second half of the season holds for the sleek new cars.

“They’re really good. We’ve shown a lot of performance with them,” Hight said. “The visual side, it takes a while to get used to them because you have less tunnel vision. There’s nothing blocking your view. I think my eyes drift a little too close to the car rather than down the track where it needs to be.

“These cars accelerate so fast that you can’t have your eyes too close to the car. I have to rethink how I drive, but when you do all of that, they’re really nice to drive. They look good and Chevy is happy. I’ll be honest, if you lineup any of the cars out here, I believe the new Camaro looks more like a production Camaro than any of the other bodies. That’s a huge plus and that’s one thing Chevy wanted when we did this project. I say mission accomplished.”

SLIDING BACK - Both Del Worsham and John Force produced their worst qualifying positions of the season Saturday in Chicago. Worsham will start 10th, equalling his worst qualifying result of the season, while Force qualified 13th. The pair will face a buzzsaw on Sunday, with Force meeting up with Ron Capps and Worsham going against Courtney Force.

PRO STOCK

GRAY ON TOP - Stop the presses - KB Racing did not qualify first in Chicago.

For the first time this season a non-KB Racing driver took the top spot in the Pro Stock class as Shane Gray in the Valvoline/Nova Services Chevrolet Camaro earned the No. 1 qualifier award at the K&N Filters Route 66 NHRA Nationals, capping a midseason surge by the Gray Motorsports team.

“It’s not magic; it’s just work,” Gray said. “I don’t try to get too far ahead of myself, so I say we’ve caught up to the Summit Racing cars at this race. We’ll see where we’re at in a couple of races down the road. Hats off to everybody involved in my organization. We’ve got a core group of guys, some of them have been with me for seven years now, so they’re all like family.

“We’re having fun at the races again and when you have fun, you do well. And we’re doing well, so look out.”

Gray’s pass of 6.578 at 209.43 mph put him atop the 17 Pro Stock cars, including the three KB-powered Chevrolets. It is his sixth time in his career Gray has topped the Pro Stock charts.

“I think we are catching up,” Gray said. “We showed tonight that we’ve got the same parts and we are capable. I’m real pleased with the progress we’ve made today. I’m really stoked about tomorrow. I think we have a good shot.”

Gray will face Alan Prusiensky in round one on Sunday.

SEASON LOWS - You know you are having a great year when the lowest point of your season is qualifying third and fourth.

But that is exactly what Greg Anderson and Jason Line faced on Saturday, as the two drivers equalled their season-lows in qualifying at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Chicago. Anderson equalled his season low from Epping four races ago with fourth on the Pro Stock charts with a 6.610 at 209.30 mph, while Line fell outside the top two for only the second time all year. He qualified third with a 6.598 at 209.95 mph.

But don’t feel too bad for the KB Racing teammates, as they were still among the quickest in every session this weekend, with Anderson and Line taking turns topping sessions one and three respectively.

Line will face off against Mark Hogan on Sunday, while Anderson will get Dave River in the opening round.

 

OPENING THE DOOR - The man who opened the door for Shane Gray and the rest of the field by becoming the first driver to top a session other than the KB Racing trio was Vincent Nobile two weeks ago in Norwalk.

Nobile helped show that the team was mortal with the quickest pass in session one in Ohio and hopes to carry that momentum into the second half of the season.

Nobile was quickest of the Elite Motorsports stable on Saturday with the eighth spot on the ladder with a 6.621 at 208.62 mph. He will face teammate Erica Enders in round one on Sunday.

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

SMITH ON TOP - Since teaming up with Victory Motorcycles at the beginning of last year, it has been a never ending cycle of ups and downs, highs and lows, between Matt Smith and his new ride.

This season has brought that struggle to light even further, with two races qualifying inside the top three, and two others failing to make the field. On Saturday, Smith finally found the speed he has been looking for, racing his Victory Gunner to the top of the charts with a 6.842 at 195.51 mph, his first No. 1 qualifying position of the season.

“It feels good to be back on top. We know we have a good bike and we know we’ve had a good top four or five bike; maybe not a number one, but luckily we got the run in yesterday and got the number one spot,” Smith said. “All in all, the bike is running good. It’s consistent. We’ve had the quickest 60-foot time about every time and we have been good on race time, so hopefully we can turn some win lights on tomorrow. If we can get in the winner’s circle, that’d be great for Victory.”

While Smith’s pass that placed him at the top came Friday night, that’s not to say he didn’t have his share of drama on Saturday.

“In Q4 we were on as good a pass as any, maybe even equalling our .84 from the previous day, but the top of the fuel injector broke off,” Smith said. “It started spraying fuel out and I immediately shut the bike off and just tried to get the fuel pump off as quickly as I could so I wouldn’t catch the bike on fire.”

In addition, Smith’s wife, Angie, riding the exact same bike with an identical setup, failed to make the show. She qualified 20th of 21 riders.

Smith will face Michael Ray in round one on Sunday.

 

 

SAMPEY STRONG - By now we have all read the stories.

Angelle Sampey returns to the track, trying to prove to her daughter - and herself - that she still has it. As the winningest driver in Pro Stock Motorcycle history, a win should be the least of her worries, but she struggles, wants to quit, only to find the light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a stunning win in Englishtown earlier this year. It is a made-for-television screenplay already, but Sampey isn’t quite done writing this story just yet.

Sampey, who has one win, two semifinal finishes and hasn’t qualified lower than sixth all season, continued her resurgence this weekend in Chicago, riding her Buell to a third place qualifying effort on Saturday with a 6.853 at 195.59 mph.

She will face Jim Underdahl on Sunday looking to continue her hot start.

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK

TOP FUEL

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRITTANY - It has been more than two months since Brittany Force last visited the winner’s circle.

During that time - a span of seven races - she has advanced past the second round only twice and slipped from first all the way back to fourth in the championship standings. This weekend in Chicago, Force is trying to correct the ship and put the Monster Energy dragster back up front.

And she got her quest off to a great start Friday, powering to the top of the charts at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals with a track-record time of 3.692 seconds at 325.69 mph. She sat third after round one, but put together a near-perfect pass under the lights with the fourth-quickest pass in NHRA Top Fuel history to take the top spot.

And did we mention, Friday was also her birthday.

“We were shocked that we ran that because it was such a big jump from our first run,” Force said. “I got out and thanked the team, my crew chief, and Alan Johnson, they are the ones that make it happen. We were looking at running in the 70s and to run a number like that and end up number one is exactly where we want to be.

“It is absolutely the best birthday present.”

WELCOME BACK STEVE – There was a noticeable absence in the pits two weeks ago at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio as Steve Torrence, one of the top contenders for the Top Fuel championship this season, was MIA after undergoing a medical procedure.

Torrence, who didn’t feel well following a gym session during the week leading up to the northern Ohio event, checked himself into the hospital later that day before undergoing the procedure. This weekend, Torrence, who is currently third in the Countdown standings, will return to the track and hopes to pick right back up where he left off.

“I am feeling good,” said Torrence, who has six No. 1 starts and two wins so far in 2016. “We’re a little further behind Doug (Kalitta) and Antron (Brown), but there’s still time to catch up; there’s still a lot of racing to do. I will tell you that sitting at home was pure agony. I didn’t even watch the race on TV. I couldn’t. It’s the first one I’ve missed since we formed this team in 2012 and I just felt like I should be there.”

Torrence enters this weekend’s K&N Filters Route 66 NHRA Nationals 163 points behind Kalitta and Brown.

“We left with a good car and I’m confident we’re coming back with a good car,” Torrence said.

 

AN OFF-WEEKEND WIN FOR BROWN – Antron Brown scored his third win of 2016 over the holiday weekend, but it wasn’t as a driver in the Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster.

It was as a team owner, crew chief and, most importantly, a proud father.

Brown’s youngest son, Adler, scored the win in the 11.90 category at National Trail Raceway near Columbus, Ohio, over the weekend. While Adler got the win, Brown’s other two children also won some rounds.

Now Brown will try to equal the success of his own children when he returns to action this weekend in Chicago, home to four of Brown’s career wins – two in Top Fuel and two in Pro Stock Motorcycle.

“We’re ready to go,” Brown said. “It’s always been an important race for us being that it is Don Schumacher’s hometown track. I always like the atmosphere there with their stadium seating. It reminds me of a gladiator pit and we’re ready to do battle for sure.”

FRIENDS IN HIGH PLACES – T.J. Zizzo is making his 2016 debut this weekend in Chicago and, so far, his goals are both ambitious and remarkably simple. Don’t oil down the track. And go for that first career win.

Zizzo, who live just a stone’s throw from Route 66 Raceway in nearby Lincolnshire, Ill., has made a slew of changes to the Rust-Oleum dragster during the offseason, including a new fuel tank, fuel pump and new injector, and he hopes the combination of a veteran crew, an updated car and a lot of help from some of the bigger teams will help spell success this weekend at his home track.

“There were a lot of things in the offseason that we changed to make it better to fulfill our goals,” Zizzo said. “We also reached out to (Don Schumacher Racing’s) Rahn Tobler, (Kalitta Motorsports’) Jim Oberhofer and Tim Wilkerson to say, ‘hey, what can we do to make this car run better and put it together better so we don’t have issues?’

“Everyone we have reached out to has helped us with even the simple procedures, like the amount of torque we need to put our cylinder head bolts, all of those things to make sure that we fulfill our goals for 2016.”

MERRY-GO-ROUND CONTINUES – The merry-go-round season continues to Leah Pritchett.

Clutching to the final cutoff spot in the Countdown to the Championship, Pritchett, who was last seen racing for the Lagana team in Norwalk, Ohio, is back behind the wheel with Don Schumacher Racing this weekend.

Pritchett will wear the Albrecht’s Fast Track motorcycle repair and service livery on the side of her DSR ride.

“Last week it looked like we wouldn’t even be racing at Route 66,” Pritchett said. “We had put everything away in our new DSR trailers waiting for our next opportunity and then after Dave (Albrecht) stepped up we were able to unlock the doors and start getting ready to race again.”

Pritchett had a decent start to the weekend, qualifying ninth on Friday with a 3.811 at 321.50.

FUNNY CAR

NEXT CHALLENGE – Exiting the grueling four-week stretch known as the Eastern Swing, no one – and we mean no one – was more dominating than Ron Capps.

Beginning with the New England Nationals in Epping, N.H., and ending with the Summit NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio, Capps won three races, was the top qualifier three times and climbed from sixth all the way to first in the championship standings, some 130 points clear of second place Courtney Force.

In addition, during the four-race stretch, 27 of Capps’ 32 runs were in the 3-second range, including two events where all eight of his competitive passes were sub-four seconds. No other Funny Car team has recorded that feat even once.

So with the second half of the season getting underway this weekend, and only six races remaining until the Countdown, what is next for Capps and the NAPA Auto Parts team?

How about yet another run topping the Funny Car field.

Capps raced to the provisional number one position Friday in Chicago with a track-record 3.888-second pass at 328.78 mph. If the run holds, it will be his fifth overall top qualifier award and fourth in the last five races.

“I am so happy to drive this car right now. Every year we talk about how this is the most competitive Funny Car has ever been and, racing these magnificent minds, it is so unbelievable to do what we have done this season,” Capps said. “I hate hearing words like dominate and championship, it is so far off and there are so many good teams, it won’t last. But as long as we are one of the top cars, we will be good come the end of the year.”

With Capps’ most recent race victory, he tied Don “The Snake” Prudhomme for 11th on NHRA’s all-time win list with 49 career wins.

COURTNEY LOOKING EVEN HOTTER ON THE TRACK – Boy, she sure is pretty.

The car, I mean.

Courtney Force debuted her brand new 2016 Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car body this weekend, alongside a new and wildly unique paint scheme on the side of her Traxxas Chevy. With the debut, Force becomes the third and final driver in the John Force Racing stable to pilot the 2016 Camaro SS Funny Car after teammates John Force and Robert Hight made their first passes in the sporty designs earlier this season.

“My dad and Robert have been driving their new Camaros for the past few races, and it’s finally our turn,” Force said. “Chevrolet has done a phenomenal job with the design of the new body, and I’m eager to have that clear visual out the front, from the driver’s perspective. Dan Hood and Ronnie Thompson are so excited for us to run the new body, and they have set the bar high for themselves with what we could possible do.”

WILKERSON’S WILD RIDE – What a year it has been Tim Wilkerson.

A first round exit at Pomona to kick off the year, followed by a win. Two more first round exits, followed by another win. And that wasn’t even the wild part. He has gone from ninth in points, all the way up to first, and back down to seventh. He has raced two different cars this year during two separate stretches after crashing his new ride back in Topeka.

Honestly, there really isn’t much else that can be thrown at the Illinois native. And that, Wilkerson says, is exactly why he is thrilled to be in Chicago this weekend, the race that is closest to himself and his sponsor, Levi, Ray & Shoup.

“I like to race at Route 66 Raceway and having all my family and friends attending,” Wilkerson said. “Some people may feel pressure racing in front of all of those people, but I find it actually helps me. We have close to 200 Levi, Ray & Shoup employees and guests alone with us this weekend and I want to make them proud to have their logo on my car.”

More than anything, Chicago represents an opportunity to hit reset on a rocky season as the NHRA Mello Yello tour enters its second act.

“This is a good opportunity to get some momentum back after a rough four-race schedule that had us experiencing a couple setbacks and car changes,” Wilkerson said.

And Wilkerson got some of that momentum back, rocketing to second on the Funny Car charts Friday evening with a 3.894 at a track-record speed of 330.23 mph. It if holds, it will be his best qualifying run since taking the top spot in Houston more than two months ago.

RIDING THE LINE - Two weeks ago at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, Matt Hagan crossed that thin line that exists when trying to wrangle a 10,000 horsepower machine.

He had too much power.

After lighting hides at the hit in the first round of eliminations against John Force and losing in the opening round for the first time since week four in Las Vegas, Hagan enters this weekend’s race in Chicago - a notoriously fast track - trying to once again toe that perfect line.

“We just pushed it a little too hard. We were looking to run (3.91), but the track was hot and no one ended up going quicker than a .94. The track wouldn’t hold what we threw at it,” said Hagan, who dropped from fourth to sixth in the standings following the first round exit. “We had a tough draw and John Force makes you push it. He smoked his tires; unfortunately, we smoked our earlier. Sometimes you have to take chances.”

Looking to get back on track this weekend, and sitting only 15 points back of fourth place in the Countdown, Hagan placed the Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots Dodge Charger R/T fourth after two rounds of qualifying on Friday with a 3.895 at 330.07 mph. If Hagan can hold firm and wrangle the power into victory circle this weekend, he will collect his fourth career win at the Route 66 NHRA Nationals, one win shy of the all-time lead at the track.

PRO STOCK

FINALLY - It was eventually going to happen.

We just didn’t think it would take five months.

For the first time all season, a driver other than Jason Line, Greg Anderson or Bo Butner is leading the Pro Stock charts after a full day of racing. Shane Gray, in the Gray Motorsports Valvoline/Nova Services Chevrolet Camaro, raced to the number one position in Pro Stock on Friday, outperforming the KB Racing team - and the rest of the field - by a wide margin with a 6.578 at 209.43 mph.

“It showed tonight, we have got the same parts, we are capable, we just have to put it all together,” Gray said. “I have a wonderful group of guys, from Dave Connolly, to all the guys at the engine shop, just an awesome group of folks. My dad, he has supported this deal for seven years now, and we couldn’t do it without him.

“Everything is just starting to come around. It is actually fun to be at the racetrack.”

The Summit cars showed the first crack in its armor two weeks ago in Norwalk when Vincent Nobile outran the teammates of Line and Anderson in the opening session of qualifying at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals, ending a streak of 43 consecutive qualifying sessions where KB Racing had led the field. Now Gray becomes the second driver to outperform the class leaders.

“I think we are catching up, we just need to find the consistency to repeat what we did tonight tomorrow,” Gray said.

 

LUCKY 13 – If either of the Summit Racing Equipment Camaros walk away from this weekend’s Route 66 NHRA Nationals with a victory, it will the 13th in a row for the KB Racing team.

Through 12 races, Jason Line has won seven times, while Greg Anderson has collected five wins, as the duo are currently more than 475 points clear of their closest competition in the championship standings. Thanks to that domination, Line and Anderson are also the first two drivers to clinch a spot in the Countdown to the Championship playoff.

“At this point in the season, we are still making some gains, but they are much smaller,” Line said. “It’s getting tougher to stay ahead. I predict the field will even out by the time we reach the Countdown.”

This track is especially special to Line, who achieved a milestone of his own here a few years back.

“It’s a special place to me because it was here that I beat Greg for the first time,” Line said with a laugh.

BACK TO THE BEGINNING – Route 66 Raceway in Chicago is where it all began for Erica Enders.

Four years ago, Enders was still fighting for her first victory, racing to six final rounds without turning on a win light. She had been so close, but victory still eluded the young driver.

And then, Chicago.

During the 11th race of the 2012 NHRA season, Enders became the first woman to win in the history of the Pro Stock class, securing the victory over Greg Anderson in the finals. And that win launched a spectacular career. She won three more races in 2012, two more in 2013, before moving to Elite Motorsports for the 2014 season.

Enders then won six times and the 2014 Pro Stock championship. Last year, she raced to nine more wins and a second Pro Stock championship. She was even recently nominated for Best Driver by EPSN for her incredible accomplishments. And it all started right here at Route 66 Raceway.

“I remember that day like it was yesterday,” Enders said. “When we got to the track on Thursday – I don’t know why, but it happens at a handful of racetracks – we had a good feeling when we walked through the gate. I was always hopeful that whatever track we were at would be the track where I got my first win, but that was definitely an awesome weekend.

“I remember there was a long rain delay, and we didn’t start first round until almost four, so it was a long, drawn-out day. There are still pictures proudly hanging in my office of the winner’s circle when my guys doused me with beer. It was awesome.”

Enders is currently 11th in the standings this season, eight points out of a spot in the Countdown to the Championship.

FULL FIELD - For a class that has suffered through some disappointingly short fields in 2016, Chicago brought out the best-of-the-best with 17 cars making qualifying runs on Friday.

KB KRYPTONITE - If anyone is going to be the kryptonite to KB Racing’s superman-like performance, it might just be Allen Johnson.

Johnson has been, perhaps, the closest driver to unseating the powerful KB Racing team this season, racing to four semifinals and a runner-up finish in Epping five weeks ago. Johnson is currently fourth in the Countdown standings, 670 points back of the championship leader, but Johnson does have some things going for him this weekend.

Johnson is the defending race winner of the Route 66 NHRA Nationals in Chicago, and he is also the last driver other than KB Racing to remember what it feels like to win a race, taking the 2015 season finale in Pomona. While these may be different cars, and much different circumstances, Johnson can’t help but feel at least some optimism heading into this weekend in the Marathon Petroleum Dodge Dart.

“We had a good weekend here last year,” Johnson said. “I beat Larry Morgan and then he came back and beat me the next race in Denver after that staging duel.

“The boys have been hard on the dyno since we got home. Doing well in Chicago is what we’re concentrating on because we need to get our momentum back as we head into the Western Swing.”

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE

SEEKING NO. 1 - Finally, some momentum.

Riding a wave of inconsistency to kick off the 2016 campaign, with qualifying runs ranging from second all the way to 22nd, Matt Smith finally hit on the perfect combination Friday, racing to the top spot in the Pro Stock Motorcycle category on his Victory Motorsports Gunner with a track-record 6.842 at 195.51 mph.

Smith, who finished runner-up at this race one year ago, will try to hold that position through two more rounds on Saturday as he seeks his first top qualifier award of the year.

“Our Victory Gunner is running strong. We have done a lot of testing this year. We have tested nine times and we have had a lot of bugs,” Smith said. “We have had a few DNQs, but when we qualify, we qualify fast. We have been very, very good when we have gone down the track. Now that we have found the gremlins, we are finding that we have a really fast bike.”

Smith, who made his 200th career start two weeks ago in Norwalk, will also be seeking his first win of the year as he tries to climb from eighth in the PSM standings. But he will be doing it with a completely different motor on Saturday from the one used to top the charts on day one.

“We are going to swap motors and run a new motor tomorrow,” Smith said. “Hopefully we can do the same tomorrow with a different motor. If not, we have a good piece here, so we will put it back in on Sunday if we need to.”

BY THE NUMBERS – KB Racing who?

In the Pro Stock Motorcycle ranks, there is another who is dominating the competition unlike any other and, believe it or not, his winning percentage is actually on par with that of Pro Stock rock stars Greg Anderson and Jason Line.

Eddie Krawiec has fashioned a marvelous start to the 2016 PSM campaign, winning three times in five races with four top qualifier awards and an impressive 16-2 round record. Only Jason Line, with a larger sample size and a 41-5 round record, has been better win percentage.

Thanks to that start, Krawiec has opened up a 166-point lead over teammate and defending class champion Andrew Hines. On Friday, however, Krawiec showed a bit of weakness as he managed only sixth on the charts after two runs with a 6.889.

FOOT IN THE DOOR - With several of the traditional front runners faltering on Friday, a number of other riders took full advantage with their best qualifying runs of the season.

Steve Johnson briefly held the top spot after round one on Friday before slipping a spot to second on the charts. His previous best qualifying spot this year was eighth. His 6.854 at 195.76 also briefly held the track record until Smith bettered his time by .012 later in the evening.

Additionally, LE Tonglett, who hadn’t qualified higher than fifth, drove his Suzuki to third with a 6.865. Both riders will look to hold off the class front-runners on Saturday with two more rounds to go.

MOVING BACK TO GO FORWARD – There are times in your life when you wish you could bottle up memories and tuck them away somewhere special so they can last forever.

Lucas Oil Racing TV Buell rider Hector Arana Jr. has a place on a shelf reserved for that special memory from two years ago at Route 66 Raceway, where he and his father, Hector Sr., gazed across the racetrack at each other, fulfilling a lifelong dream of racing against one another in an NHRA national event final round.

Fast-forward to this weekend’s running of the K&N Filters Route 66 NHRA Nationals, and Arana sees the possibility of hoisting the Wally for the third consecutive year at one of his favorite tracks on the NHRA Mello Yello circuit.

In order for that to happen, thought, Arana and his Lucas Oil team will have to continue their season-long tune-up refurbishing project.

“We’re having to redo all of our tune-ups because all of our tune-ups from last year that we used to plug in and have dialed in, for whatever reason, they’re not working,” Arana said. “The fuel is a little bit different, we’ve changed some stuff on the heads, and those tune-ups don’t work anymore. So now we just gotta slowly tweak the tune-up and fine-tune it to come up with a new combination. Once we get that all squared away, we should be right back where we were.”

Arana Jr. is currently 12th in the Countdown standings.

NEW COLORS – There are a number of drivers debuting new looks this weekend in Chicago.

And one of those is Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Scotty Pollacheck. Pollacheck will be flying the bright pink and yellow colors of the Nitro Fish apparel brand on his Buell beginning with this weekend’s K&N Route 66 Nationals. Pollacheck joins 2010 world champion LE Tonglet and the husband and wife Victory Motorsports team of Matt and Angie Smith as the latest driver with the Nitro Fish team.

A month ago, Pollacheck faced an uncertain future following the sudden loss of his primary backer, but this new marketing partnership with Nitro Fish owner Kenny Koretsky will allow the Oregon-based driver to continue his pursuit of the NHRA Mello Yello championship.

“On very short notice, we lost support for our program and we were probably looking at running one or two more races before we’d have to park the bike,” Pollacheck said. “We were in a really tough spot, but while we were racing in Englishtown, Kenny heard about our predicament. He asked if there was anything he could do to help and we were able to sit down and very quickly come to an agreement. I can’t begin to explain how thrilled I am to represent Nitro Fish. I feel like we’re capable of doing some great things together.”