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

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

SUNDAY NOTEBOOK

DEJORIA FINALLY FINDS WINNER’S CIRCLE AGAIN - The streak is over for Alexis DeJoria.

After going winless for 33 races, the nitro Funny Car driver finally found the winner’s circle again Sunday.

DeJoria beat her Kalitta Motorsports teammate and reigning world champion Del Worsham in the finals of the Denso Spark Plugs national event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

DeJoria clocked a 3.968-second time at 315.49 mph to edge Worsham’s 3.988-second lap at 323.58 mph.

“It was really awesome to be able to race my teammate,” said DeJoria, who pilots the Tequila Patron Funny Car and used to have Worsham as her crew chief.
“That has been a dream of mine. Going up against Del Worsham is no easy feat. I had a smile on my face and I was pretty excited, but man I wanted to win so bad.”

DeJoria captured her fourth career national event win and her first since the 2014 U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.

Actually all of DeJoria’s victories came in 2014 as she also won at Phoenix and the spring Las Vegas race.

“This fourth trophy was definitely a difficult one, it took a lot of races to get here, but, we ran consistent all day,” DeJoria said. “All four runs in qualifying and on race day were consistent and I don’t know when the last time is we did that. We definitely didn’t do it at the last race. It was a turnaround. The new chassis we are running right now is taking everything the guys are putting into and still wants more. It is just incredible to be a part of this. It was heartbreaking, the last race (at Gainesville, Fla., losing in the first round to Matt Hagan) because I knew we could do better and we sure as H*ll did.”

DeJoria also became the third female driver in a row to win in a Pro Class at an NHRA national event. Leah Pritchett (Phoenix) and Brittany Force (Gainesville) won Top Fuel trophies at the last two events.

“To be a part of that is incredible,” DeJoria said. “Three women in the last three races, including myself, have won and it is an amazing day in NHRA drag racing. We have come so far. I also really want to let everyone know all of Mark Lyle’s family and friends, my heart goes out to you. God Bless you. He’s watching over us. He’s here.”

Lyle, who became NHRA's chief starter in 2012, died unexpectedly March 27.

DeJoria’s victory march consisted of wins over Tommy Johnson Jr., Robert Hight – on a holeshot – John Force, and then Worsham.

This was the first all-Kalitta Motorsports final since Doug Kalitta beat Hillary Will in the Top Fuel finals in Memphis in 2006.

What’s more, this is the first time there was an All-Kalitta final in the nitro Funny Car class. This also was Kalitta Motorsports 84th team win.

“Making history in the Kalitta camp and to be the one that wins is huge, especially against Del Worsham,” DeJoria said. “He’s my mentor. He taught me everything I know behind that wheel. I look up to that man so much and I’m so proud to be his teammate.” Tracy Renck

BROWN HOLDS OFF AGGRESSIVE FIRST-TIME FINALIST BUFF FOR TOP FUEL WALLY - Antron Brown said he knew he left the starting line on time Sunday in the Top Fuel class’ final round of the Denso Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals.

“I heard a car rev up and take off before I took off,” Brown said, “and I thought, ‘Where’s this brother going?!’ I was like ‘Whoa!’ and I felt the thunder going down the racetrack.”

That brother was 53-year-old journeyman Troy Buff, who was trying to become the third first-time Top Fuel winner in the season’s four races, joining Leah Pritchett and Brittany Force.

But the trophy from The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway went to Brown. He held off Buff, covering the 1,000-foot course in 3.843 seconds at 314.68 mph in the Matco Tools/Toyota/U.S. Army Dragster. Buff, trying to capitalize on his stellar .012-second reaction time, dogged Brown with a 3.918, 307.58 in the Bill Miller Engineering Dragster.

Even in 3.843 seconds, traveling at 300 mils an hour, Brown said he had time for a conversation with himself: “I know I wasn’t late – but I ain’t seen my win light. He didn’t red light.” Then to his car, he pleaded, “All right, Baby, get to the end.”

When Brown survived what he called “a tight, tight drag race,” he learned that Buff had cut a nearly perfect light. So he went to Buff and asked impishly, “Troy, what are you trying to do to me, man?”  

Buff said, “I’m trying to get everything I can.”

“You sure did,” Brown told him. “I went to a street fight with a knife, and you pulled out a bazooka on me!”

He credited crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald and the team – including assistant crew chief Brad Mason, a part-time Las Vegas resident – with giving him “a hot rod that could drove around it and put that win light on.”

Seeing the scoreboard in his lane flash the win light was a luxury he had enjoyed this season only twice in three races before this weekend. Furthermore, Brown entered this event uncharacteristically in 10th place in the standings. The reigning Top Fuel champion improved to second place behind Force as the series shifts to Concord, N.C., for the April 22-24 NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway.

Brown said crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald “don't just look at the first few races as do-or-die. We always look to the big picture, and that's the Countdown [to the Championship] at the end of the year. That's when championships are won."

The Matco team experienced repeated traction problems at the starting line in this season's first three races. That happened despite Brown’s qualifying in the top eight at each event (including second and third at the two before Las Vegas).

"Those are times you never forget. When you struggle a little bit, that's when you learn," Brown said. “And that's what Brian and Mark know how to do. We've qualified good but haven't had the performance we expect on Sunday during eliminations." He fixed that Sunday.

That’s after the team remained at Gainesville, Fla., testing the day after the Gatornationals two weeks ago. "We made four laps and we launched hard on all four and learned what we needed to," he said of that post-race testing. "We shut off early each time and ran a 3.75 at 250 mph. We planned to shut it off way before the finish line. That could have been a 3.69.”

So he knew coming into this Las Vegas weekend that his performance likely would be miles apart from what it was at Gainesville, just like the geographic distance between the two races. And his hunch was correct.

Brown said the victory is "huge, especially considering where we came from. We had a rough start to this year. We had a couple of things we had to change. You had to change your combination around because you have different parts and pieces than you had before. We started off and it wasn't like our car wasn't running well. It was running great. You come out and you just want to win and you want to win early and you end up pushing too hard.

"We just went back, tested after Gainesville, and we decided we needed to get a window back again because our car wasn't aggressive early,” he said. “And we got that window back and it showed here. In qualifying it got better and better and better. Then, on race day today, the car was just like a bracket car. It ran an 84, an 84 and an 82, and an 84 in the final and it did exactly what it needed to do to get us these wins.”

This marked the Don Schumacher Racing driver’s second victory at this event and fourth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He swept the Top Fuel victories in 2011 and last fall clinched his second series championship here.

Brown eliminated Scott Palmer and the Bob Vandergriff Racing tandem of Leah Pritchett and Dave Connolly to reach the final round.

Since Brown left the Pro Stock Motorcycle class in 2008 and joined DSR in a dragster, he has earned 39 event titles. Moreover, this was his 55th overall in his career that ties NHRA legend Kenny Bernstein for fourth-most wins all-time.

Buff, the No. 12 qualifier, became the second straight first-time runner-up, following Terry McMillen. He beat Richie Crampton, Brittany Force, and JR Todd to advance to the final. Susan Wade

LINE REGROUPS WITH VEGAS WIN - It didn’t take Jason Line to get his redemption.

A day after a loose oil line ruined his chance to beat his teammate Greg Anderson and win the $50,000 K&N Horsepower Challenge, Line regrouped Sunday and won the Denso Spark Plugs national event at The Strip.

“(Saturday) was a tough day,” Line said. “It wasn’t the day I was looking for and I really had my heart set on winning that K&N trophy and it was a little bit devastating to be honest. Normally, I don’t get to upset over it, but it was one of those things that kind of bothered me a little bit. It took 24 hours for that to get fixed. They are paying me to stink up the joint. If you go to work every day and you don’t do a good job, who goes home and feels good about it? I certainly don’t. I don’t hide my emotions. What you see is what you get.”

Bo Butner, a Lucas Oil Racing Series champion who made his Pro Stock debut last May, was trying to win his first Wally. Butner was trying to become the 62nd different Pro Stock driver to win an NHRA national event, but that opportunity ended at the starting line when he registered a redlight, handing Line the win.

“I actually feel bad that Bo didn’t (win), I really do, because he had the best car,” said Line, who tunes Butner’s car. “It is fun to help somebody get their first win and I really felt like (Sunday) was his day. It was also strange to go up there (to the starting line) Mark (Lyle) always gave me a little gesture before I staged and I’m definitely going to miss that.”

Lyle, who became NHRA's chief starter in 2012, died unexpectedly March 27.

Line and Butner are Ken Black Racing teammates and the team has been dominant this season.

Fellow KB driver Greg Anderson has wins at the Winternationals and Gainesville – beating Line in the finals each time. Line won at Phoenix, defeating Chris McGaha in finals Feb. 28, and now at Las Vegas against Butner.

The KB Racing team became the first Pro Stock team to win the first four races to start the season since teammates Darrell Alderman and Scott Geoffrion accomplished the feat in 1995. Their streak was broken when Mark Osborne won at Atlanta.

“It has been special, to say the least,” said Line about his team’s season so far. “We whined the most when the (Pro Stock) rule changes came out and obviously it has benefitted us. Is that great? I don’t know, but it has been good for us. It has been a fun ride.”

The KB Racing team will have a chance to set the record at the Four-Wide Nationals April 22-24 in Charlotte, N.C.

This was Line’s 39th career NHRA Pro Stock national event win to go along with the world championships he won in 2006 and 2011. It was Line’s second career win at Las Vegas, the other coming in 2008.

Line also is now one win away from tying Kurt Johnson and Mike Edwards on Pro Stock’s all-time career victory list.

Line, who also was the No. 1 qualifier, beat Matt Hartford, McGaha and two-time reigning world champ Erica Enders-Stevens before ousting Butner. Tracy Renck

STARTER SURVIVES EMOTIONAL WEEKEND, BUFF HAD THAT FEELING, KALITTA TEAM SHINES, GIRL POWER PREVAILS, TORRENCE TRICKED, SCHUMACHER STILL STRUGGLING, FRONTRUNNERS LOSE

GITTINGS WORKS THROUGH EMOTIONAL WEEKEND – NHRA Division 6 official starter Mike Gittings was used to standing behind his mentor, Mark Lyle, at dragstrips throughout the Pacific Northwest.

Because they were so close, Gittings even developed some of Lyle’s mannerisms.

That’s why the sanctioning body turned to him this past week after Lyle, the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour chief starter, passed away Easter Sunday. Lyle died while on vacation with wife Marcia in Mexico, trying to rescue a swimmer in the Pacific Ocean.

Gittings stepped in as interim chief starter at this past weekend’s Denso Spark Plugs Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But he found out that presiding over the starting line really isn’t the same without Lyle.

“I’ve stood behind him for 16 years, starting out at Pacific Raceways and working to the Division 6 arena. So it’s hard not having him in front of me,” Gittings said Sunday during a break in eliminations. “But I know that he would want me to do this for him. So that’s what I’m trying to do.

“It’s been very hard. It’s really an emotional weekend,” he said. ““But we’ve got the best crew in all of motorpsorts here. They’re doing their jobs, just like he would want them to do. Our focus, the whole crew’s, is just to try to put on a professional act for the weekend, even though we’re still in the grieving process. Last pair down today, then we’ll go back to doing that again. Mark was just an incredible gentleman. You don’t meet people like him these days hardly anymore.

“In my eyes, he passed away as a hero,” Gittings said. “He was trying to save another man he had only met two days prior.”

For Gittings, what proved immensely helpful was the support from the NHRA executives, the Safety Safari, the racers and teams, and the fans.

“The drag-racing community – the family, as we call it – we’re all pretty tight. It gets intense at times, but they’ve all pulled together. The support has just been really, really good,’ he said. “One of the hardest things is I’ve gotten messages from his family, all the way down to nephews, thanking me for coming and doing this this weekend, and having to answer them. It’s been real emotional.”

Gittings said he wasn’t sure he could describe properly jut how much Lyle meant to him.

“Standing behind him for that long and watching him, we’d almost be able to read each other’s minds on the Division 6 circuit. I could see him turn his head to look at something on the track, and I would go running after it without him even having to ask,” he said. “I don’t know how you would term the relationship. And rooming together with him most of the time on the road, he was like a brother. You know, he was just a really close, dear friend, and I’m really going to miss him.”

One thing he knew for certain: that he and Lyle loved doing their jobs.

“There are those situations where you just have to make split-second calls. Watching him and knowing what he’s done [helps]. I did replace him as starter when he left Division 6 to come here [to the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour]. Big shoes to fill in that arena, as well. It’s been five years now. It’s a high-pressure job at times, but it’s very rewarding, too,” Gittings said. “Some of the crew members have asked me, ‘Why are you out here for 14 hours a day in the dirt and the grime and the heat?’ When they make their best pass down the racetrack and they’re all hoppin’ and jumpin’ and hollerin’, it’s very gratifying. It’s so satisfying.”

Many people have asked Gittings this weekend if he would like to be the fulltime NHRA official starter.

“What I’ve told Graham [Light, NHRA senior vice-president of racing operations] and everybody is that this weekend is for Marcia and Mark. I’m really not thinking that direction,” Gittings said. “They’ve got a decision to make. I’ll gladly put my hat in the ring. There’s a lot of talented people in the country, so they need to take a look at that and do what’s best for the sport and for NHRA.”

“It takes a while to know their mannerisms. It’s a high-pressure sport and a lot of money [is] involved when these cars go down the track. So I know the pressures were very high for him. He would talk about that. But Mark was just an incredible person. He challenged that. He would stand up to it. He would welcome that challenge.”

Gittings, of Enumclaw, Wash., which also produced NASCAR star Kasey Kahne, represents Divison 6, which also has sent Chris Blair (track operator at St. Louis and before that at Las Vegas) and Mike Rice (Division 7 Director) and Mark Lyle to the national level.

“We really take pride in what we do up there. Our Division 6 logo is ‘Land of the Leaders.’ And we try to be the land of the leaders. We’re at sea level. We have very good air. We usually set a lot of records. And we’ve got some great tracks and track operators,” Gittings said.             

Top Fuel winner Antron Brown said his trophy is going to the Lyle family.

“This race is special, because it’s for Mark Lyle. This weekend was a tough weekend for everybody out here, because every time you go to the starting line you look over and we were missing a face we’re used to seeing. And that was Mark Lyle’s. He touched each and every one of us’ hearts. Every time race day came, he made race day all right. You could have a rough day, a bad day, or you’re feeling ill and you’re still driving, and he’d come up to you and go, ‘You ready for race day?’ And he’d give you a hug or a pat on the back. He was our family.

“Today this whole race is all about Mark,” Brown said. “Every time we line up at that tree, I guarantee you each and every one of these drivers is going to be having him in their hearts, and he’s going to be with us all the time. He’s going to live with each and every one of us each time we step on that gas pedal at that Christmas tree.”

BUFF FELT LUCKY – Troy Buff, a veteran of 103 NHRA Top Fuel races, had won 15 times in 94 elimination rounds.

But the Spring, Texas, Bill Miller Engineering Dragster driver said even before Saturday qualifying began that he felt ready to win a Wally trophy.

“We’re convinced we’re going to win a race – not just run (3.)70s. We’re going to win. It’s going to happen this year, I’m telling you. I think so. I do believe that. I know it sounds crazy,” he said.

Morgan Lucas Racing’s Richie Crampton, last year’s event winner, might have thought it was crazy that he lost traction immediately in the day’s first pro match-up against Buff, then pedaled his dragster without any luck.

So Buff opened his 80^th career event with his 16^th round-win – not with a 37-second run but rather a 4.967-second elapsed time at 191.97.

“There’s no such thing as an ugly win, but that was ugly,” Buff said. “We got there first. That’s all that matters, I guess.”

And he said he had a game plan for going rounds.   

“We’ve been to the semis a couple of times. Every time we get to the semis, we have some stupid issues. So if we ever get to the semis again, I’m going from the back of this car to the front to make sure there’s nothing wrong,” Buff said.

He got a chance to test his plan an hour or so later. He defeated Brittany Force in the quarterfinals, with an improved E.T. and speed (3.924, 311.41).

Team owner Miller, normally a reserved individual on the starting line, let out a celebration whoop and acted with mock indignation when announcers gave Buff some “How about your driver?” credit. “My driver? Give me a break,” Miller challenged, teasingly. “That was a 3.92 that I just tuned to a win, wasn’t it?”

Buff met JR Todd in the semifinal and won with a 3.910, 310.55 as Todd smoked the tires on the Sealmaster Dragster. And Buff has made his first final round.

“It wasn’t luck,” Buff said. “We made a good run.”

He said he was grateful to Bill and Virgie Miller for letting him drive their car and gave his crew credit for the improved performance.

 “I’ve had great teams in the past. (I’m not going to knock any person who has ever worked here, because they’re all good.) But right now, this group, they’re very positive,” Buff said.

Brown said, “Everybody doesn’t come out to these races to come out to these races. Each and every one of these teams are doing their homework. Look at Terry McMillen going to the final round [at Brown’s expense at Gainesville in the first round].”

Some of these struggling teams, Brown said, “are not doing the same things. They’re changing around, and they’re actually getting quicker. You can’t take any of ‘em lightly, and we don’t. You take anyone likely who gets to the final round.”

Of Buff, he said, “He made some quality runs today. But when we went into that final, we didn’t back off. But we weren’t planning on Buff pulling a (.0)12 out there like that. But it’s all good. We still had enough just to sneak by him.”

Anymore, Brown said, it’s unwise to take lightly anyone who makes it to the opening round, anyone who qualifies. “The first round is the final round now.”

FAMILY FEUD – It was just a question of which lane in which the Kalitta Motorsports mosh pit was going to erupt.

The Funny Car final pitted the Ypsilanti, Mich.-based teams of Del Worsham and Alexis DeJoria.

She won the close side-by-side with a 3.968, 315.49 to his 3.988, 323.58.

“It was really special to race our teammate Del Worsham in an all-Kallitta final, too. Del’s my mentor. He’s taught me everything I know behind the wheel of a Funny Car,” De Joria said.

“This is a very humbling sport. The last race, the last year, was a struggle for us. It just hurts so frickin’ bad. We knew we were better than that,” she said. “I knew we could do better, and we sure as hell did.”  

“Great weekend for Team Kalitta,” Worsham said. “I am excited for Alexis. This is what we have been working for many seasons. I wanted to be the one with the Wally, but if I cannot win, I would want it to be her.”

This was the first time ever that the Kalitta team produced both Funny Car finalists. And it was the first time since the 2006 Memphis race that the team had two in the same class. Doug Kalitta and Hillary Will raced in that Top Fuel showdown.

GIRL POWER . . . AGAIN – With Alexis De Joria’s victory, NHRA’s nitro-powered contingent celebrated three different female winners in consecutive races for the first time in history.

“To be a part of this is incredible. It’s an amazing day in drag racing,” DeJoria said, after combining with Top Fuel winners Leah Pritchett and Brittany Force for the achievement.

WELL, TRUE – Jason Line said following his Pro Stock victory, “They’re not paying me to stink up the joint.”

HEAD START - Chad Head understands he might not be the equivalent of an all-chips-in wager, but he's certainly a safe bet after yet another strong showing at this weekend's DENSO Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. 

Head has registered back-to-back semi-final efforts which has vaulted him upward in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series points to seventh, where he is less than two round wins away from fifth. 

"When you race as a single-car team in the midst of multi-car teams, you have to be creative and resourceful not only to qualify but also to win rounds," said Head. 

Coming into Vegas, 13 of Head's 18 passes have been 4.06 or better, including 11 of 18 (61%) in the 3.9-second range .Additionally, he'd won three times the rounds at this point in the season than last year. 

What makes that even more impressive is that Head is one of just two drivers in the top-10 who drives for a one-car team. The remaining eight drivers all come from teams that run at least four full-time cars in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. 

Last fall at the Toyota NHRA Las Vegas Nationals, Head reached the semis, losing to Robert Hight. 

“It was a real good day," Head said. "It started off real ugly, smoking the tires in the first round, but lucky enough to catch it and pedal it and win.  We dropped a hole in the second round, but lucky enough to win. We gathered it up in the semi-finals as a team and made a great run.  

"Big picture, this Toyota Head Racing Redline Oil car is really running well.  Independent, one-car team, we’re doing a hell of a job. We’re going forward.”

TORRENCE TRICKED? – Reading changing racetrack conditions can be tricky. It certainly isn’t precise, as top qualifier Steve Torrence was reminded Sunday in Top Fuel eliminations. He and his Capco Contractors/Rio Ammo Dragster, so flawless during qualifying, were upset victims to No. 16 Steve Chrisman.

After clocking an average 1,000-foot elapsed time of 3.750 seconds in four qualifying runs (including a time of 3.728 that earned him his second No. 1 start in four races), Torrence ground out a less-than-impressive 4.682 seconds at only 204.08 mph.

The tires spun as he hit the throttle, and Torrence twice tried to calm down his car by backpedaling.. But it was no use.

 “I’m not really sure what happened,” he said right away.  “We went up there to try and prepare for hotter track conditions in Round 2 and thought it would be plenty safe for that round (but) the car just didn’t make it. We’ll look at the data and figure it out but there were a lot of cars not making it down (the track).  Something changed drastically on the track.”

ARMY DRIVER SLOGS ON – Tony Schumacher and his  U.S. Army Dragster team will be staying here Monday to test following his second first-round defeat in four races and the fourth time he has failed to get past the second round.

Two dropped cylinders early into his run against JR Todd was the reason Sunday.

“You know, we’ve got a car that should be performing, but the results are not indicative of what the car has in it so far this year,” Schumacher said, disappointed he didn’t earn his ninth career Las Vegas victory. “We have a good car – we have a good car but we’re just having some bad luck right now. But, in the big picture, it’s fine.

“You know, people have been reminding me all day that it’s been 14 events since we’ve won. I think that’s way too narrow of a view at this point in this season. I’ve been doing this for 20 years and, every year, at the end, no matter how we started out, we were fighting for a championship at the end. No matter how we got there, we’re always there, so don’t be surprised at the end of this season,” Schumacher said. “Don’t ask, ‘How did they do this?’ We’re always there. It’s always part of the deal with this U.S. Army team.

“And the adversity part, generally speaking, is how we get good. It lights a little fire under us,” he said. “Last year, we started out incredibly well and then struggled at the end. You’re always going to struggle at some point in the season. If I have to choose, I’d much rather struggle early and finish the season strong. All of our greatest comebacks over the years have been when we’ve had mountains to climb, to one degree or another. You certainly don’t hear about teams coming from ahead, so you? We’ll test here again on Monday and move on to the next one.”

TOUGH DAY FOR LEADERS - Of the top six drivers in the Top Fuel standings coming into this race, none made it past the second round. And only one made it even to the second round. That was Brittany Force.

“In the second round, we had a cylinder go out right from the step.  I felt it. It was sluggish right when we launched,” she said. “Going out second round is a bummer, but we are still on such a big high from our first win at Gainesville.

“This is still just the beginning of our season and we have all season long here. We are still No. 1 in points, and that is huge,” she said. “I am still trying to wrap my head around all the things that came with last weekend’s win.  You know, we are going to test here tomorrow then pack up and head to Charlotte.”

 

SATURDAY NOTEBOOK

TOP FUEL

KALITTA STEADY AT NO. 2 – Doug Kalitta missed another No. 1 qualifying position by four-thousandths of a second in his Mac Tools Dragster. He

sandwiched his worst run, a strong 3.830-second, 322.04-mph effort that earned him one of his five bonus points, between 3.7-ssecond elapsed times.

In the final session, he and top-qualifier Steve Torrence ran side by side and registered identical 326.24-mph speeds. Torrence’s came with a 3.740-second elapsed time, Kalitta’s with a 3.771.

“I am very impressed with the performance of this Mac Tools machine. No run has been ‘off,’ and all of my Mac Tools guys have been performing at the top of their game. We have been top three in every session, which just shows the consistency of my car and the Mac Tools team. I am excited for race day tomorrow and hopefully a repeat of what happened last fall here at the Toyota Nationals.” He won.

Kalitta will start Sunday against Steve Faria.

REVERTING TO FAMILIAR - Shawn Langdon, struggling a little through the first three races with the Don Schumacher Racing-owned Red Fuel / Sandvik Coromant Dragster, tried something familiar this weekend. He returned to racing his Super Comp dragster, as well the Top Fuel car.

"I enjoy it," he said. "I think as a driver any time you can get more hits at the [starting-line Christmas] tree and more laps down the track, it helps you mentally. You're able to get in the right mindset. It keeps you sharp, and it keeps you fresh when you're in the seat. I've always enjoyed driving two cars at an event. That's what I used to do during the NHRA Sportsman days. I think you just get in that rhythm and that race mode, and it helps you as a driver."

He has been competing in Super Comp along with father Chad Langdon. Both won their opening-round races Saturday.

Shawn Langdon has won NHRA championships in the Jr. Dragster, Super Comp, and Top Fuel classes.

The Red Fuel team, under the guidance of crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler, had what they considered a successful test session following the previous NHRA Mello Yello Series event, at Gainesville, Fla.  The purpose was to find a way to stop the pattern of three first-round exits.

"There was a lot of changes that we made on Monday after Gainesville," Langdon said. "It was all basically in the clutch department, and it showed a lot of progress. We were able to make some good runs in the heat. We were able to attack certain areas that we hadn't really been able to before. We're in a learning process. We definitely ended the test session with a very positive attitude. We were very happy with the outcome of the test session.”

Moreover, Langdon has benefited from the DSR network that includes six other teams.

"We worked with the Matco team and [Jack Beckman’s Funny Car crew chief] Jimmy Prock was in our trailer, as well. The good thing about being at DSR is we have seven teams, so if you get in a pinch there's a lot of great minds to help you out,” he said.

Langdon said qualifying better would be key to his turnaround. His best start in this season’s first three events is 10th.  He closed Friday qualifying tentatively in fifth place, making his prediction become true. Before arriving at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Langdon said, “I think with the changes we made we'll be able to improve and improve Sunday, as well."

He remained fifth after Saturday’s first and third overall qualifying session and dropped to sixth. He’ll start eliminations against No. 11 Leah Pritchett.  

TORRENCE NO. 1 – Capco Contractors/Rio Ammo Dragster driver Steve Torrence held onto his second top-qualifying spot in four races Saturday with his 3.728-second elapsed time at 326.48 mph.

This marked his seventh No. 1 start overall and his third in the past nine races, as he claimed the maximum 12 qualifying bonus points. His best time was just .006 off the track record Antron Brown set last year.

He’ll meet fellow Texan Troy Buff in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations. And he’ll do it as the second-ranked driver in the standings. He moved past Doug Kalitta and Clay Millican solely on the strength of his qualifying performance.

“On Friday, we’d changed so much stuff on the car we didn’t really know what it would do,” Torrence said. “We thought we were setting it up a little conservative, and then it went out and ran a 3.73. That put us ahead of the curve and set it up to be a very good weekend so far.

“This new Morgan Lucas Racing chassis has been flawless,” he said.  “The car moves well early, and we haven’t smoked the tires with it very much at all. It’s showing a lot of promise, but to have that much of a dominating performance in qualifying is huge for our confidence going into tomorrow.”

Torrence said, “We have the best car out here right now. We’re the only guys that can screw it up. But it gives you huge confidence when you’re going into a race with a car that has run that well. It’s an honor to work with Richard Hogan, Alan Johnson, and Brian Husen. They’re a bunch of bad guys.” That’s “bad,” as in good.

The last time Torrence qualified No. 1 was Feb. 13 at Pomona, Calif., where he went on to win the season-opening NHRA Circle K Winternationals.

 

BLOWS UP BUT MOVES UP – Leah Pritchett was 14th at the end of qualifying Friday, and she had a frustrating day Saturday in her final two chances to qualify the FireAde/Quaker State Dragster for Bob Vandergriff Racing. Even so, she ended up the No. 11 qualifier, despite two blow-ups. Her car backfired at the finish line in Q3 and blew the motor in Q4, causing a clean-up delay. “We had a major malfunction, to say the least,” she said after her last attempt. We’re putting that FireAde to use.” Her sponsor manufacturers environmentally friendly firefighting, tank cleaning, and dust control products that the NHRA Safety Safari uses to retard fires and mop the track.

ONLY A CUT ELBOW – Brandon Pesz took “Enigma,” Keith Haney’s self-built drag radial Chevy Camaro for which he serves as crew chief, for a Friday night spin – literally.

Subbing for Haney, who yielded the wheel for the Radial Revenge Tour at Osage Casino Motorsports Park at Tulsa, OK, Pesz crashed in a dizzying-looking Tilt-A-Whirl-like trip down the track.He banged the wall and roughed up the car. And his brother-in-law, NHRA Top Fuel racer Troy Buff, said Saturday that Pesz suffered only a cut elbow and was experiencing general soreness on his left side.

He received the news in a phone call from his sister Kim – but he said he didn’t believe her.

“At first I thought Kim was playing an April Fool’s joke. I thought for sure she wouldn’t do that. Then I saw the video. It was crazy the way the car turned left.”

Buff said he actually was the victim of a prank Friday: “I called Frank from Sunoco for nitro, and he said, ‘No, I have already left [the track].” He had me going for a while. He’s from Texas and had me going for a while. I said, ‘That’s not cool.’ ”   

 

FUNNY CAR
 

CAPPS GETS ANOTHER VEGAS DNQ – In a stunning episode of deja-vu, Funny Car driver Ron Capps failed to make the field at this spring race at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The same happened to him in 2012.

This is the first time since the 16th event of the 2013 season, at Seattle, that the NAPA Dodge Charger did not qualify.

“Every race in the Mello Yello Series is important, but this is one of three places that I considered to be a home track for me,” Capps said following his huge disappointment. “Nothing is worse than not being able to race on Sunday.”

The second most successful Funny Car driver of all-time had been hoping to compete for his 46th Wally trophy.

It was quite a shock, considering that in the year’s three completed races, Capps and crew have celebrated a victory, a runner-up finish, and one No. 1 qualifying performance. The team fell to second in the standings by one point when it lost to Robert Hight of John Force Racing in the final round two weeks ago at Gainesville, Fla. So this was a jolt.

His Rahn Tobler/Eric Lane-led team met challenges in each of its four qualifying attempts. The car broke a part on the first session’s burnout, forcing Capps to shut off the car. Then he smoked the tires on Friday’s second run. He was 15th early Saturday after a 4.855-second pass at a slowing 173.16 mph. Capps fell one spot for his last try, but he Funny Car smoked the tires. So his 8.11-second time knocked him down to 17th, one spot short of the 16-car field.

That enabled Terry Haddock to remain in the field.

Also missing the show were Capps’ brother Jon and Gary Densham, who was coming back after totaling his race car at Pomona, Calif., in the season opener.

Capps joined about 40 NAPA Auto Parts guests with a ride on the 520-foot High Roller Ferris wheel on the Las Vegas Strip. But Saturday night, he experienced his lowest moment of the weekend.

Capps has won five times at this track.

NEEDS A LITTLE T.L.C. – Funny Car owner-driver Terry Haddock has spent the past few years preparing wife Jenna for her Top Fuel career then tuning her as she embarked on her dream journey. With not enough funding for her to continue this season, she took a hiatus and he decided to concentrate on his neglected Funny Car.

“The Funny Car is running well. The last few years we have put all of our attention into the dragster. It ran well and now we are just trying to get this one on track,” he said. “The first couple of races it has run well. It has run in the 4-teens and 4.20s. We just keep making runs on it and keep making it happy and it will go faster.”

He’s a little torn emotionally about the fact he no longer has to take on managing both the dragster and the Funny Car. Is he happy about that?

“In one way I am,” Haddock said. “I was very proud of what we accomplished with her in that car. It gave a lot to that team, and I am happy this car is coming back around. It’s fun, but sometimes you forget why you do it. It’s a lot of fun when it runs right, and I think it will progressively continue to get there.

“Attention is why it is getting better. We’ve got decent parts, but our attention was on keeping Jen safe. I wanted her to be successful. We haven’t really changed anything, except being able to pay attention to this car. All it was missing was attention. It’s just like people, no different. It needs to be loved on. When we were working on that car, we weren’t working on this one. And it showed.”

He said that funding is the primary concern whether he and Jenna get to race together again. But Haddock has personal reasons beyond sponsorship.

“We’ll see. It’s money,” Haddock said. But he added, “I have every black eye you can get in this sport and stand behind the belief [that] she doesn’t need those black eyes. We are out here with no money, and everyone is pitching in. We are not going to do that, because something can go wrong. She doesn’t need it.

“When I got started, there was no one here to teach me. I wanted it so bad that I did so many dumb things to keep racing. I thought that was what you needed to do. We are past that,” Haddock said. “I shouldn’t be running this car with no money, but I want to race. We are careful, and the car is coming around.”

The Haddocks own and operate Lone Star Aluminum Block Repair in Temple, Texas. And Terry Haddock said they have plenty of work these days.

“We are staying busy at the shop with more business than I know what to do with. That is nice,” he said. “It’s cool, because we have never advertised. And for years I kept giving away space on my car to all of these people, hoping to build sponsorship relations. Then we put our name on there and now we have more business than we can stand. We don’t even have a phone number and people are finding us. Three people dropped off blocks here for me to take home to fix. We are tripping over them all weekend. Then we got a call to pick up six sets of cylinder heads on our way home. It’s going in the right direction so we need to just keep working on it.”

Haddock, a New Jersey native who has migrated from Seattle to Texas, said, “Everybody has to be somewhere” but was quick to say he’s thrilled with life in Temple. “One thing about Texas is it still gives an opportunity to own part of the dream. I couldn’t afford a place in Seattle or New Jersey. In Texas we all have a shot at the dream.”

Haddock squeaked into the field as No. 16 qualifier and will face No. 1 Jack Beckman.

SLIDE VALVE ISSUES – Bob Bode said a slide valve was to blame for his spectacular and expensive incident during Friday qualifying.

“Brand new $4,000 crankshaft – destroyed it on the first pass. And it was on a great run. Stewie [crew chief John Stewart] has the clutch management perfect. It leaves out of the hole. We were always dropping cylinders during the first two races. It didn’t drop a cylinder. It left perfect,” he said, launching into an explanation of the concussion.

“We got to half-track and the slide valve should have been putting fuel in it, and the slide valve let the nitro go past it and killed one of the relays which turns it on. The slide valve never moved and it ran real lean to the stripe and about 900 feet it started melting the pistons and knocked two rods out and busted the blower,” Bode said. “It hurt the motor really bad, but to that point if it would have had half the fuel it needed, it would have been a good run.”

Although he said he had two more slide valves, he didn’t really trust them. “They’ve given me trouble lately,” he said. So he borrowed one from Tim Wilkerson. Before Saturday qualifying began, he said, “We put the new one on the car to go to half-track in Q3. We will go full track in Q-4. We’ll keep our fingers crossed, because it’s all slide valve issues.

“It gives 20 gallons of fuel between one second to three seconds. It didn’t give any fuel. We are going to run it to half-track to make sure the fuel is going in. The next pass we will stand on it,” he said. “If it all works, we will be happy campers.”

That planned half-track run didn’t hurt Bode. He remained No. 12 in the tentative order with one last chance to improve.

He actually slid back to No. 15 and will race No. 2 Courtney Force in the first round of eliminations.

Bode said he’s eager to see what The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will bring by the end of this visit.

“Vegas has a good history with us. It usually provides good luck for us,” he said. “I was a provisional No. 1 qualifier here once. I’ve never had that anywhere before but here. I’ve been to the semifinals, I believe, twice. One was four years ago. It’s an interesting history.

It’s one that includes some not-so-proud moments.

“There was the double DQ with [John] Force on the starting line. There’s always something out of the ordinary here with me, both good and bad. We’ve had the bad stuff happen, so the odds are that the good stuff should start happening now. We are not giving up. It will turn to good eventually. We are not smart enough to quit. We keep plugging away to the point where you say, ‘It’s got to work sooner or later.”

He said he expects that to happen because he already has learned what not to do.

“When my race car runs good, I learn absolutely nothing,” Bode said. “But when it breaks, and doesn’t run well . . . I’ve learned more about my car in the last two weekends of running poorly than I really want to know. Otherwise I wouldn’t have learned what I did. If we cure it, I will learn how not to go back and do it again. It’s all good stuff, just expensive lessons.”

The Barrington, Ill., businessman said he plans “to continue doing this another 20 years someday with my kid driving.”

Son Bobby, now 14, has a 7.90 Junior Dragster.

He said after John Force had his 2007 accident at Dallas, “we had to back-half these cars. And I saved mine. It’s a nostalgia-legal back-half. We have someone building the front tubing, so we are going to build him a nostalgia car. When he’s 16, I want him to start driving that because he can race it legally. He has two more years in Juniors. Then we will race the Heritage Series.

“I don’t care how well we do,” Bode said. “I just want him to line up, put it in the lights, hit the gas, and see if he likes it. He asked me, ‘What if I don’t like it?’ I told him his dear old dad will jump in and drive anytime he doesn’t want to. At 18, I’d love for him to drive my car, good or bad. If he tries it and loves it – great. If he doesn’t, I will keep on driving.”

Bode’s wife Alice, popular for her colorful go-go boots she wears as she backs him up following a burnout, would not be his choice as a driver or teammate, he said.

“I love my wife, but I’d be scared to death of her pulling on that brake,” he said. “She’s a good driver, don’t get me wrong. I always tease her that she blames the world for anything that isn’t right. Whatever she did wrong, it’s my fault being outside the car. She’s good right where she is. I’m a lucky guy. I’ve been with her for 20 years. I wouldn’t trade her for anything.”

NOT SURE WHO SHE’LL RACE BUT EXCITED ANYWAY – On the strength of her late Friday performance (3.947 seconds, 319.14 mph), Alexis DeJoria took the No. 6 berth in the lineup and will face No. 11 Tommy Johnson Jr. in her first match-up Sunday.

“Man, we’ve really gotten a handle on this car since Gainesville. It just took a race to figure it out. We’ve got our hot rod back. We made it down the track all four qualifying runs and we were fast in every one,” she said. “It feels really good and I’m super-confident going into tomorrow. I don’t even know who we’ve got in Round 1, but it doesn’t even matter. I’m just looking forward to race day.”

 

PRO STOCK

ENDERS’ STREAK ENDS – Elite Motorsports Dodge Dart driver Erica Enders saw her winning streak at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway end at 23 passes. She defeated first-round opponent Allen Johnson in Saturday’s K&N Horsepower Challenge but lost in the next round to Jason Line.

She had won every opportunity here since her previous round-loss October 2013.

"It's awesome to have that kind of run, and it's pretty unheard of," Enders said. "We've had an incredible two years there. Twenty-two consecutive round-wins in a row is huge, so Vegas has obviously been good to me. I'm hoping Lady Luck will get on our side this weekend. We certainly haven't had the best start to the year.

"I didn't want it to end, but there was a plan that was different than mine," Enders said. "You know it's disappointing on one hand, but, wow, what an accomplishment on the other. We've got to keep positive and focus on tomorrow."

Enders did make her best qualifying effort of the season in her new Elite Motorsports/Mopar Dodge, as she'll start eliminations from the No. 5 spot. Enders ' best pass was 6.711 seconds at 204.63 mph as she starts from the top half of the field for the first time in 2016.

"We definitely made some strides in the right direction," Enders said. "It's definitely nice to be a little more solid in the top half. We obviously still have a lot of work to do to get to where we want to be, but fifth isn't a bad position to start, especially considering the people who are ahead of me: The three KB (Racing) cars that have just lit the world on fire this year and then my Elite Motorsports teammate, Drew Skillman. It's cool that it's three KB cars and then three Elite Motorsports cars."

She will start from the No. 5 slot Sunday and will meet Aaron Strong, the No. 12 qualifier who has received some help this year from Elite Motorsports.

BLACK FULLY INVESTED – Las Vegas resident Ken Black surely had mixed emotions as he watched the bizarre all-KB/Summit final round of the K&N Horsepower Challenge unfold late Saturday. Because he said Greg Anderson and Jason Line “are like my sons,” he had to feel terrible for 13-time contender Line and at the same time elated and sorry for Anderson.

Line’s Camaro trailed oil as he backed up from his burnout, and his crew pushed the car off the track, giving Anderson an uncontested pass to the $50,000 jackpot. But Anderson didn’t sail to victory. His car also had problems, and he coasted down his right lane.  

Line said, “It was a great day for KB Racing. It just wasn’t a great day for me, that’s all.” He said the problem was “stupidity, 100 percent. You can blame me.” The reason, Line said, was that “I left something loose.” He said it was the oil line. (As the No. 1 qualifier, a reporter asked him what he anticipated happening Sunday. “Tighten that oil line,” he said without hesitation.)

Black, who has been involved in motorsports since 1964 in one form or another, said auto racing “is my drive. I just enjoy the heck out of all of it – the camaraderie, the competition, the fans, the event. It’s a mixture [of that] . . . especially since I had my stroke six years ago. That has limited my movement and my ability to contribute. I still am involved in the financial end. I pay all the bills and do all that from my home office. Being involved really was the motivation for my recovery from the stroke. It pushed me to work hard in therapy and to get back. Everybody at KB Racing was supporting me, and I believe that made a big difference. It still does because it gives me a reason to get up in the morning. If I didn’t have [the involvement with the team], I don’t know what I would be doing.”

What he was doing at the end of last year was wrinkling his face about the extensive changes in the Pro Stock class. But after Anderson won two events this year and Line won the other and owns the points lead, Black said he has been pleasantly amazed.

“I opposed the changes initially,” he said. “I’m an old-timer, and all my years of racing never had anything to do with EFI (electronic fuel injection). I like carburetors. I was unhappy from a monetary standpoint because it was very expensive to comply with the new rules. But things change, and if it can bring in more fans, then I’m all for it. Greg and Jason worked hard to initiate the changes and make everything work out, which is what they have done from Day One. They put in more hours at the shop than anybody else, and they are just driven to make it work. They weren’t happy with the changes, either. So far, Greg and Jason and the crews have put in thousands of hours to put the package together, testing and trying different things. It’s a work in progress, but they hit the ground running and I couldn’t it be happier for everyone involved. It’s a testament to their work ethic and skills on the track.”

NO. 460 – When No. 10 Allen Johnson lines up his Marathon Petroleum Co./J&J Racing Dodge Dart against No. 7 Alex Laughlin’s Gas Monkey Garage/360 Wraps Chevy in the first round of eliminations Sunday, he’ll be making his 460th career start.

“That’s pretty crazy,” Johnson said.

He debuted in 1996 at age 35.

“I used to be considered one of the youngest drivers when I first started, and now I’m considered one of the oldest,” he said. “Just to be able to do it for that period of time with your family is very special. Every race we compete in is just another special race to do as a family.”

The race at hand has him thinking about the right lane, the one in which he clocked his quickest and fastest pass of the weekend – 6.736 seconds at 204.60 mph – In the final round of qualifying.

“We tried to set up the car for race day on that last qualifying session,” Johnson said Saturday. “We’re going to be put in the right lane, most likely, tomorrow. The right lane bit us in the K&N Horsepower Challenge today, and we wanted to have a forgiving set-up for a hot and slick racetrack.”

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK

RACERS SALUTE FALLEN FRIEND MARK LYLE – Robert Hight popped out of his AAA Chevy Camaro after swiping the early Funny Car lead and seemed just as eager to pay tribute to the late Mark Lyle, the NHRA’s chief starter who passed away last weekend.

“It’s just not the same,” Hight said. “I always had Mark Lyle pointing at me. It’s just not the same.”

Hight colleague Jack Beckman said after claiming Friday’s No. 1 spot in Funny Car, “Mark and I were pretty good buddies. We knew each other before he became NHRA’s official starter. There was never a day at a race that he and I didn’t speak at length about something. It’s just a little bit different without him here,” he said.

“My heart goes out to the entire family,” he said. “I can’t imagine what his family is going through, to lose somebody that wonderful.”

Beckman said that “once the car’s running, you compartmentalize stuff. It’s only after you get out of the car you remember that wasn’t Mark up there on the starting line, sending you on your way. That guy made a big impact on a lot of people in a relatively short amount of time. I can imagine that he must have done even more so through his close friends, his relatives, and his lifelong acquaintances.   

Beckman called Lyle a “wonderful man” and a true gentleman” and said, “There was a guy with a lot of power with what he did on the starting line, but he never flexed it. He always treated us fair. He always took our opinions and treated them as if they mattered.”   

Like Hight, Jason Line took his first chance on the public-address system to remember Lyle: “I miss my buddy. He can’t be replaced.”

Steve Torrence, Friday’s No. 1 Top Fuel qualifier said he “didn’t personally know Mark really well, but I always thought highly of the guy – always smiling, always fun to go up and talk to . . . just a friendly, welcome face. My heart goes out. We’ve been saying our prayers for his entire family. It’s such a selfless act, trying to go out and help somebody, and it cost him that. It’s just a tragedy. Mark’s definitely going to be missed, in my book. I hate not seeing the guy up there. He was always somebody to look over and smile, trying to take the serious out of what we’re doing.”

He said he hadn’t had a chance to welcome Gittings but plans to do so.

“I flew in this morning . . . but I’m going to try to go by and talk to him before the weekend’s out,” Torrence said. “You hate that for anybody who has to take that spot, just because of how things went.”   

Many drivers – including Richie Crampton, Tim Wilkerson, Cruz Pedregon, Shane Gray, and Erica Enders – have placed a decal on their race cars in honor of Lyle. It reads, “Mark Lyle – You will be missed.”

Dale Aldo, Mopar’s marketing director for motorsports, said, “On behalf of everyone at Mopar, we would like to extend our sincere condolences to the Lyle family. Mark Lyle was the consummate professional, respected by all, and ran a superb starting line. His absence will be felt by the entire NHRA community."

 

TOP FUEL

 

NOT A FULL FIELD – Only 15 cars are on hand this weekend for the Top Fuel class.

BRITTANY FORCE CONSISTENT – Brittany Force and the Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster team continued their streak of consistency on the track. She clocked two quality elapsed times Friday and enters Saturday qualifying third in the order.

In the first session Force had the fifth-quickest dragster and at the close of Friday qualifying, the Gatornationals winner improved with a strong 3.768-second, 316.90-mph effort. Force earned one qualifying bonus point.

“I just feel so confident with this team I have behind me. The way our Monster Energy Top Fuel dragster has been running so consistently makes me really proud of these guys,” she said. “They have put together a bad-ass race car and they know what they are doing. To come out here to The Strip at Las Vegas and put more good numbers on the scoreboard makes me feel pretty good. We are the No. 3 qualifier right now, and we have two more shots tomorrow.”
 

FUNNY CAR

SWEET 19 – This weekend’s race has 19 Funny Cars vying for the 16 race-day spots.

NOT-ALWAYS-SO-FUNNY CARS – The Funny Car class was full of odd incidents on the track Friday.

On three consecutive first-session runs, the left-lane driver received no elapsed time. That put Cruz Pedregon, Matt Hagan, and Chad Head behind the eight-ball to begin the weekend.

Bob Bode’s Arbee Toyota Solara blew up during his pass, although he wound up with a tentative ninth-place showing. He bypassed his Friday evening chance.

John Force made that session even more eyebrow-raising by fishtailing and grazing the wall after crossing the finish line. He flattened the headers on the right side of his Peak Chevy Camaro, and his parachutes collected a bolted-down, unmanned FOX Sports camera from the guard wall and broke it.

“NHRA, I think they made a rule that the headers have got to be narrow. I narrowed them on that one,” Force said. “It was spinning. I could see the light at 1,000 foot. And I thought, ‘I’m going to drive this thing and try to

get some kind of an E.T. for tonight.’ It just made a right turn, and I thought, ‘Whoa! That’ll make you think twice.’ But we got it off the wall. We’re OK. We’ll put some new headers on it. That’s what we build at John Force Racing in Indy.”

Ron Capps’s NAPA Dodge Charger had a mechanical problems that forced raw fuel out onto the track following his burnout, and his crew had to push the car from the starting line.

In the second session, James Campbell had trouble getting his Worsham-family Dodge Charger in reverse at the completion of his burnout. His team manually backed him up to the starting line, where he appeared to have trouble getting the car to move forward, as well. He lit the pre-stage bulb but ended up shutting the engine off, leaving the ever-patient Jeff Arend a solo run. Arend smoked the tires immediately.

Then Tommy Johnson’s Make-A-Wish Dodge caught fire at the end of his run. He climbed out through the escape hatch, while the car continued to burn in the shutdown area. Johnson said he was on a “nice run early, then it nosed over. It happened pretty quick. We’ll get it fixed and come back tomorrow.”

BOSS ROLLS UP SLEEVES – When something goes crazy at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the boss himself fixes it.

Jeff Foster, the director of racing operations at the facility since 2013 and a former CompuLink technician, worked feverishly on the timing sensor problem that struck Funny Car qualifying early Friday.

“We found an infrared sensor that went bad. So we replaced the infrared sensors, both the transmitter and the receiver. We set the roll-out and went about racing,” he said after Cruz Pedregon, Matt Hagan, and Chad Head, in succession, came away with no elapsed time. “There’s nothing you could do about it.”

In what looked like a cruel April Fool’s joke, the scoreboard lit up a 1.685 for Pedregon’s opening pass. Then Hagan shut off his engine early and still got no time. On the following pass, Head didn’t have any mechanical problem with his car – only with the scoreboard.

“We tested it after the second one, and everything statically tested perfect. The first one I wasn’t even in the tower. I heard on the radio it was an early trip. So that means you’re thinking the finish line [light] is bad. Then it happened the second time, and somebody in the tower said, ‘No. It was a hung reaction time. So OK, now it’s the starting line we’re looking at,” Foster said. “I ran into the tower. Steve [CompuLink representative Cooper] went out and did his thing at the starting line, and we were communicating. Everything looked perfect. Everything looked great in the test. But then when the vibration of the car hit it, it failed again. As I watched it as it was doing it, I could tell it had to be the vibration of the car, because it didn’t do that when the car wasn’t running at full throttle. So I went downstairs, grabbed another pair of sensors and plugged them in.”

Why would a guy with a third-floor office and a fancy title take on electronic glitches?

“It’s that OCD and the ‘It’s-my-facility-and-I-want-it-right’ [mentality],” Foster said with a grin. “I’m still out there, running and fixing things.

“It’s only a three-year-old piece of equipment,” he said of the offending hardware. “They should last five to 10. We also run 48 weeks out if the year. It worked flawlessly up until Funny Cars. The Funny Cars put out such a vibration that the resonance they create – they’ve always created issues for us on the starting line – [made the sensors malfunction].” The plan, he said, is to “keep it bolted down right, keep them from vibrating, keep the tree [stable]. That’s why we went to the LED lights nearly 15 years ago, in 2003, because of the Funny Cars. We’re 13 years into the LEDs. It seems like yesterday.”

Foster called the problem “one of those unfortunate racing incidents. You do all the preparation you can. If the equipment fails, it just fails. But when you test it and it appears right, you’ve just got to go to the next step.”

He said he monitored the sensor board in the tower that shows how the electronics are behaving.

“While they were running, I watched [the equipment]. I physically sat and watched it while the cars were leaving. The pre-stage, the stage lock, and the guard beam all operated properly. But the stage light never came back on. When the car leaves, the light’s supposed to come on. It never came back on until he was about to the 330 mark on Chad’s run,” Foster said.

“It’s unfortunate. As bad as I felt, as soon as I got back to the tower, I was on the phone and was texting Chad: ‘Buddy, I’m sorry, man. I feel terrible. I should have caught it earlier. It took this much time to find exactly what it was doing.’ ” But he added, “I won’t even approach him until he and his dad relax a little bit.”

 

WORSHAM HOLDS RARE VEGAS DISTINCTION – Current Funny Car champion Del Worsham is the only driver ever to win in both the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He won in the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car in 2014, three years after his October victory here in a dragster.

Five of his fellow Toyota drivers have combined with him to win at three of the past six races here. Joining Worsham from Funny Car were Cruz Pedregon (spring 2013) and Alexis DeJoria (spring 2014). In Top Fuel, Richie Crampton (spring 2015), Antron Brown (2013, 2011), and Doug Kalitta (fall 2015).

Brown’s track elapsed-time record remains intact at 3.722 seconds, withstanding Steve Torrence’s 3.728-second E.T. that earned him the tentative top-qualifying position.

3.9S COME OUT AT NIGHT – The first qualifying session produced not one 3.9-second run in the Funny Car class. However, nine drivers posted three-second-range passes in the second session. John Force started it with a 3.984-second elapsed time, but he ended up with only the eighth-quickest time Friday. Jack Beckman topped everybody with a track-record 3.916 in the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger, and provisional No. 2 Courtney Force, who set the track speed record at 326.08 mph, ran side by side with Beckman and clocked a 3.928.

Others in the 3.9 set Friday were Tim Wilkerson, who said after his 3.936-second pass, “I drove that thing one-handed;” Del Worsham and his Kalitta Motorsports teammate Alexis DeJoria with identical 3.974s; Chad Head (3.974), who avenged an unfortunate timing-system glitch from earlier in the day; the John Force Racing duo of early leader Robert Hight (3.980) and the boss (3.984); and Matt Hagan, who overcame a distasteful first-session result with a 3.998.

VEGAS BLUES – Ron Capps’ problems in Friday’s first session were not his first at Las Vegas. He indicated he still bears the emotional scars of his tumultuous 2012 visit to this race. That’s when he failed to qualify, then saw his drag-racing world turn upside down.

He missed the race, continued a miserable start to the season, worried about what he could do to reverse his results, lost his crew chief, and lost his entire team and race car. But the one positive news from that April day four years ago is that he wound up with a primo bottle of French Bordeaux.

“It was a whirlwind. I didn’t qualify. Tim Richards, one of the most decorated crew chiefs of all time, was evidently– obviously he was mad at himself,” Capps said. “Then when Don [team owner Schumacher] came in to talk to him, I sat in there – it’s my locker room, the crew chief area – and watched it all go down. And it was just bad timing. Don never puts on undue pressure. It exploded, and it was not a good time to talk to Tim. And in a matter of 10 minutes, he and Kim had packed their stuff up. They were leaving, going home. They handed me a really, really good bottle of French Bordeaux that they had kept in there that they didn’t want to take. They handed it to me. Great people. I love ‘em. I still talk to ‘em. I went to my motorhome and I just sat there for like an hour, thinking, ‘What is going to happen?’

“Within another hour, I got a phone call from Don,” Capps said. “He said, ‘Come on over to the pit area. We need you to get fitted in Jack Beckman’s car, in Tobler’s car.’ It didn’t make sense. I rode my scooter back, sat in the car, and he told me I was now going to have Rahn Tobler as a crew chief and they were swapping teams. My team guys at that time had been with me for eight or nine years. So they were family to me. It was devastating. Within two hours, it was everything new to me. For about two races, I didn’t know their names. It was just as hard on Jack. It was bizarre. It happens all the time in sports, but it had never happened to me like that.”

What troubled him, though, was the gossip about him.

“I had to get thick skin. That’s what my wife told me every morning,” Capps said.

“When they made that switch and Tim Richards left, they switched [Capps’ team] to Jack Beckman’s team. I got so much hate mail. People thought I whined to Don Schumacher about wanting a [particular] crew chief. Let me tell you something: I did not bring NAPA to this team. They came onboard because Brut was leaving and they saw the availability of me as a driver and Don with a car available. And it was the perfect opportunity. I didn’t ‘bring’ them.

“I don’t demand anything. I’ve never demanded anything of Don. We don’t even talk about things like that. When he makes changes, he makes them. You can ask Don. We’ve never had a conversation [about such matters]. I would feel weird about going in and having a [talk such as that],” he said. “People say to me, ‘You’ve been around long enough – you could go in and [say that]. It’s not me. My peers, even the guys I race against, know that is not me.”

Still, he doesn’t forget that “I took a lot of flak. I never said a thing about it. It hurt me personally to hear some of these fans say that I was whining to Don that I wanted this or that crew chief. I don’t care who he puts on this car – things always turn out for the better. We’ve got Jimmy [on Beckman’s team]. He has made everybody better. Jack’s had a tough road, too.”

HE’S BACK – Gary Densham, making his first appearance since his car crashed at Pomona in the February season opener during qualifying, sits No. 13 overnight. With a body and chassis from longtime pal John Force and help and best wishes from just about, if not all, all of the Funny Car contingent, Densham opened the weekend with a less-than-triumphant 7.826-second, 79.77-mph pass.

Densham said the wreck “brought me into the 21st Century.” He always has tried to extend the life of his older parts and pieces as a low-budgeted privateer, and he teased that he went to the Smithsonian Institution and tried to get parts. This is the same Densham who joked that his first drag-racing opponent was Fred Flintstone.

But he’s in a modern car that Robert Hight used to drive.        

 

GOING FOR JACKPOT – Courtney Force said The Strip is her kind of racetrack.

“We had a great start out here at The Strip. Our Traxxas car is really making some big strides this weekend so far,” Force said. “Going into the first round of qualifying we had a hole out, so we were only running on seven cylinders and still managed to run a 4.01 and pick up a bonus point.

“We fixed the problem and went back out for Q2 and were really prepared to push it hard because the conditions were so good,” she said. “It was the perfect time to see what kind of numbers we could get up on the scoreboard. We ran a 3.928 and barely missed the No. 1 spot, but we set the track speed record at 326.08 mph.

“This is a track for our team, for sure,” Force said. “We’ve always had really good luck with big speeds here, so I’m looking forward to pushing this car even harder and seeing what we can do before Sunday.”

 
PRO STOCK

FULL FIELD, BARELY – Only 16 cars are competing in the Pro Stock class this weekend.   

HORSEPOWER CHALLENGE SET – The K&N Horsepower Challenge will add some drama to Saturday qualifying, as six of the qualifiers will be aiming to solve the KB/Summit Racing team and No. 1 seed Greg Anderson. Jason Line, the Pro Stock points leader, is the No. 3-ranked bonus-race driver.

Anderson will take on fan-vote winner Jeg Coughlin in the opening round. No. 2 Erica Enders must race her close pal, No. 7 Allen Johnson. Line will meet No. 6 Shane Gray, and No. 4 Chris McGaha will go against No. 5 Drew Skillman.

The winner of the K&N Horsepower Challenge will earn $50,000, and the runner-up will take home $10,000. The winner will be going for an additional $50,000 “Sweep Bonus.”   

Gray, driver of the Valvoline/NOVA Services Camaro, said, “It'll be interesting this year what the trophy looks like, because that hood scoop was cool. Maybe they'll give us a fuel-injected manifold. Everybody better have their stuff together to out-run the Summit cars. I think the only way anyone is going to out-run the Summit cars is to capitalize on one of their mistakes – at the starting line or the finish line. If they don't make any mistakes, we're going to be in trouble. They're definitely on top of the class at the moment, but everybody's got to be in front of somebody."

McGaha said that “it does help” that he is bringing his Harlow Sammons Camaro to the race-within-a-race for the second time. “You only get one shot a year to do this, and getting a second opportunity to do it. I definitely think my mind will be at ease since I know what to expect.”

Enders scored back-to-back double-up jackpots here at Las Vegas the past two seasons.

Coughlin, a three-time winner of the K&N Horsepower Challenge, said, “This is very exciting to be voted the fan seed of the 2016 K&N Horsepower Challenge. A big thanks goes out to all of our friends and fans that helped us reach this goal. I was actually seeded to race in the 2015 K&N Horsepower Challenge but was not racing Pro Stock last season, and even though I had a couple of teams offer cars to drive for the event, I ended up opening my spot to another Pro Stock racer. So it feels great to be back in action at this year’s event and would love nothing more than to add a fourth Horsepower Challenge trophy to our mantle.”

He last won the challenge in 2009.

JUST SPOOFING – Call it a hit-and-run by nitro-class mega-team owner Don Schumacher.

He played an April Fool’s joke on the drag-racing media Friday, then left the country.

Here’s what his playful public-relations staff set out as bait Friday in a press release:

“Don Schumacher has wanted a way to help NHRA celebrate 50 Years of Funny Cars, and the hall-of-
fame driver and team owner has decided how to do it.

“The five-time NHRA event winner as a driver will return to driving a Nitro Funny Car at this year's U.S. Nationals, which is not far from his Don Schumacher Racing headquarters near Indianapolis. He won the prestigious U.S. Nationals Funny Car title in 1970.

"It's just the right time," said Schumacher, who has been working to regain his starting-line reactions with countless hours on a practice Christmas tree. ‘I'm getting better, and I'll be ready.’

“The process begins Monday at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after this weekend's NHRA Nationals when he will enter the cockpit of a new 11,000-horsepower Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car.

“[Schumacher said], ‘It took some convincing before my wife Sarah would agree to it. She finally gave her blessing when I promised she could be the one to direct me back to the starting line at Indy after my burnouts.’

“Don Schumacher Racing has stated in several press releases that the main purpose for expanding its shop in Brownsburg, Ind., by 25,000 square feet is for a pending fourth Top Fuel dragster team. In reality, that added space is for a fifth Funny Car in which Don will compete in U.S. Nationals and at least five races in this year's Countdown to the Championship so he doesn't jeopardize his potential rookie-of-the-year status for the entire Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season in 2017.

“He plans to appeal to NHRA that because he has not competed as a driver for 42 years so he should be allowed to compete for the 2017 rookie-of-the-year honor.

“Another snag would appear to be that NHRA only allows one owner to field four teams in one nitro category and DSR already has four Funny Cars.

“But that won't be an issue because Schumacher's Dodge Charger R/T will be owned entered by Chris ‘The Greek’ Karamesines.

" ‘I've known The Greek since before I raced as a professional, and he said he'll add a Funny Car to his Top Fuel operation so this can happen. I'll race under his ownership.

" ‘He's been talking about wanting a younger driver on his team, and I'm perfect for that. I'm a lot younger than he is.’

“Schumacher turns 72 late this year and Karamesines is 84, so adding Schumacher will drop the average age of drivers in Karamesines' operation from 84 to 78.

"The Shoe doesn't plan to continue his career extension past the 2017 season but will keep the Funny Car seat in the family.

“He will be replaced in 2018 by DSR vice president and his daughter Megan Fessel Schumacher, who will be dubbed The Slipper.

“Schumacher will be available for interviews.

" ‘Las Vegas is the perfect spot for me to talk about The Comeback,’ he said. ‘My Funny Cars were called Stardust because of support I received from the Stardust hotel and casino back in the day.

" ‘And doing this today on April 1 makes it even more memorable.’ "

Ah, but Schumacher wasn’t available, not even to share a hearty laugh at his puckishness. He is a on a fishing trip off the coast of the Dominican Republic.

Because it’s Las Vegas and everyone is gambling, it’s a smart bet not to believe Schumacher when he brags about the size of the fish he caught Friday, either.