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

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

 

SUNDAY NOTEBOOK

KALLITA MOTORSPORTS TEAM RULES AT ATLANTA DRAGWAY - The Top Fuel portion of the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals featured an historic final act, a humble winner and a wild mosh pit among co-workers.

Top qualifier Doug Kalitta held off his Kalitta Motorsports teammate J.R. Todd by .0001-seconds in the finals - the closest finish in the history of the class.

Kalitta recorded a time of 3.801 seconds at 323.19 mph while Todd followed at 3.780 at 320.66.

“I really didn’t think that I had won,” Kalitta said. “In the last couple rounds, I didn’t see the win light. J.R. went blowing by me at the end, but I was very relieved when I got round the corner and found out that I had won.

“That’s a long span of time to have the closest race. It’s kind of hard to believe really.”

Kalitta, who was coming off a victory in Houston two weeks ago, Kalitta now has 45 career wins.

“All my guys busted the butts all day long and were hungry to do well,” said Kalitta, whose uncle Connie Kalitta owns the team.  

It was the first all-Kalitta Top Fuel final since the 2006 Memphis event.

“We had the sellout crowd here at Atlanta, and it doesn’t get much better than this,” Kalitta said.

Kalitta said there was no talk of making a business decision that would allow Todd to win so he could earn a spot in the lucrative Traxxas Nitro Shootout for event winners.

“Well I’m glad that’s the way we run -  best man wins,” Kalitta said. “That’s been our policy for years. There’s another spot there for someday, so [Todd] is just gonna have to do it some other time.”

Connie Kalitta oversees the Todd team while Jim Oberhofer is the crew chief for Kalitta.

“That team is running good and J.R. is driving the heck out of it. We were just fortunate to get by them today,” Kalitta said. “We’re here to win races. The Traxxas Shootout is obviously a big deal for us, but we’re out there racing and it is what it is.”

Kalitta Motorsports is one of several powerful Top Fuel and Funny Car teams that have moved to in-house chassis programs. The Don Schumacher Racing and John Force Racing teams started that trend in 2008.

“These Mello Yello events are hard to win, and we’re real fortunate to have Jim and this whole team,” Kalitta said. “They are just incredibly organized and we’ve been fortunate to not tear up a lot of parts. We’re coming together, and hopefully we will be a force to be reckoned with throughout the year.”

It was an exciting final for Kalitta in more ways than one.

“It was an incredibly slow light,” Kalitta said. “I guess that I need to start paying attention, but I was just really happy to see both Kalitta cars in the final. This is a big deal for all our teams.”

Kalitta advanced to the final round by running a 3.77 to defeat Antron Brown.

The other semifinal featured a bizarre scenario.

After Connie Kalitta opted for a lane change, there was a long delay after the steering arm was somehow damaged in the Todd dragster. Following some frantic work by his crew, Todd earned his first final-round of the season by defeating Shawn Langdon.

“Once we got the wheels straight from my point of view, it steered fine pulling forward,” Todd said.  I was going to shut off if it did something stupid.”

The Kalitta Motorsports contingent, which included the crews of Todd and Kalitta, punctuated the victory with another one of their chaotic mosh pit celebrations where crew members jumped, punched and piled on each other. Allen Gregory

HAGAN ENDS DROUGHT WITH ATLANTA WIN - This is a streak Matt Hagan couldn’t wait to end.

The two-time NHRA world champion nitro Funny Car driver (2011, 2014) had gone 19 races without a win.

That’s not the case anymore.

Hagan powered his Don Schumacher Racing Rocky Boots Venator Camo/Mopar Dodge to the victory at the Southern Nationals Sunday.

Hagan clocked a 3.965-second run at 314.90 mph to defeat his DSR teammate Jack Beckman who slowed to 8.073 second at Atlanta Dragway.

“This is huge man,” Hagan said about the win. “We’re all competitors. Nobody likes to lose and it’s really hard to learn to lose well. The frustration level is huge, but I think that’s what separates you from other folks and other teams is how you deal with it. You rise to adversity and you have to learn to cheer for your team and you have to keep your guys up. I feel like they’re family to me. I can tell them ‘hey guys it’s going to be Ok,’ I’ve been here before. In 2012, we didn’t win a race and we came back and we were (second in the points) the next year and then we won the championship (in 2014). It’s one of the things you’re going to go through some ups and downs in drag racing. You’re going to lose more than you’re going to win.”

This was Hagan’s 19th career NHRA national event title and his first at Atlanta Dragway.

“I feel great,” Hagan said. “Honestly these cars are so humbling and then when you think you have everything figured out, they put you right on your butt. We’ve been kind of trying to dig our way out of hole we dug for ourselves at the beginning of the year with the new chassis and new parts and some different things like that. We went back to what we know and pulled our old car back out and we won the championship with it. We’re still running that six-disc clutch and Dickie (Venables, Hagan’s crew chief) is still getting a handle on it, but setting low ET of every round (Sunday) I think he has a pretty good handle on it.”

Hagan, who last won a race at the Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., June 21 last year acknowledged the drought was tough to handle.

“We all knew it was a matter of time before he (Venables) figured it out, but Don (Schumacher) wants results right now. We love him to death and without him we can’t do this and we hate that he wasn’t here. He’s in Italy, I’m sure spending piles of money and having fun, and hopefully we won him a little bit of money (Sunday) and we’re really happy to get that monkey off our back. It really puts in perspective how hard these things are to win. It has been stressful and I have a few more gray hairs in my sideburns, but that’s part of it.”

Hagan beat Chad Head, Del Worsham, and Courtney Force, before ousting Beckman. Tracy Renck

LINE KEEPS DREAM SEASON GOING AT ATLANTA - Reality has been better than fantasy for NHRA Pro Stock driver Jason Line.

Line won his fourth race of the season, defeating his Ken Black Racing teammate Greg Anderson on a holeshot in the finals of the Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway Sunday.

Line clocked a 6.611-second time at 209.75 mph, while Anderson had a quicker 6.593 elapsed time.

The difference was Line’s .015 reaction time compared to Anderson’s .058 reaction time.

“This is pretty crazy, it absolutely is,” Line said. “If you asked me at the start of the year, especially since we took a little heat because we kind of whined and complained about the rules change, but I never would have thought this was going to be the result of that.”

In the offseason, Line, Anderson and the other Pro Stock drivers had to adjust to the massive changes made in the class that went into effect Jan. 1.

As of Jan. 1, 2016, NHRA required all Pro Stock teams to equip their cars with electronically-controlled throttle body fuel injection systems to make engines more relevant from a technology standpoint. In order to reduce and control costs for the race teams, an NHRA-controlled 10,500 rev limiter also was added to the fuel injection systems.

It’s safe to say Line and Anderson have adapted quite nicely to the new rules.

Line and Anderson have now combined to win all seven national events so far, and Line has been in all seven final rounds. What’s more, Anderson has qualified No. 1 four times, Line twice, and their teammate Bo Butner once.

This was Line’s 41st career NHRA national event win and his third at Atlanta – 2011, 2015 and now 2016. Anderson has four career victories at Atlanta (2004-2005, 2007, 2012).

“We’ve been very fortunate at that for some reason,” Line said. “Somehow we manage to dig a little bit deeper at these races. We both struggled (Sunday) at the starting line, we didn’t have our (best) day for sure. I managed to get it together in the semis and final and fortunately for me, Greg struggled a little bit worse than I did (Sunday). This is a very tricky race track. I haven’t been on an Atlanta race track like this ever. We struggled hard with it, but I’m a little bit in awe that I’ve managed to race in all the (final) rounds this year. That’s really pretty crazy. Our guys, fortunately they don’t get paid overtime otherwise we would be in trouble.”

Line has wins this season at Phoenix, Las Vegas, Charlotte and now Atlanta. His three final round losses at the Winternationals, Gainesville and Houston all came to Anderson.

“He’s the only guy I’ve lost to this year,” Line said. “He’s had my number and I guess now that you mention it, it’s fun to be on the other side of that.”

On Sunday, Line beat John Gaydosh Jr., Jeg Coughlin, Allen Johnson and then Anderson.

“We struggled in the left lane here,” Line said. “I think everybody else had the same issues, I don’t think we were alone on that deal. It was just a tough race track. There was not a lot of grip out there. We were hanging on for dear life when we went to the finish line. In the final there, I thought I was going to take out the cone at the end of the track. It is just one those things. I don’t know why it was like that, it just was. I thought about a lot of issues before the final there, I was saying to myself, it’s amazing we’ve been in all these rounds in a row, and something is going to happen like the car won’t start or something. All good and all bad things must come to an end and this will as well, but right now it sure is fun to enjoy the moment.” Tracy Renck

KRAWIEC AUTHORS ANOTHER SUCCESS STORY AT ATLANTA DRAGWAY - Eddie Krawiec earned his first career victory in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Pro Stock Motorcycle ranks in 2009 at Atlanta Dragway.

Sunday afternoon, Krawiec notched career victory No. 33 in the NHRA Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.

“Atlanta has treated me well,” said Krawiec, who has won four times at the historic track located in Commerce, Georgia. “It’s one of those things where if you feel comfortable and you are in the groove, you have confidence. For me, I think all of that has fallen into place.”

Krawiec delivered a run of 6.824 seconds at 196.56 in the finals to down Jerry Savoie, who ran 6.851 at 195.79.

Krawiec is now tied with John Myers for fourth on the all-time PSM win list.

“Anytime you can have your name at the same line as John Myers, it means a lot,” Krawiec said. “Those guys like Myers and [Dave] Schultz make up the rich history of this class.

“I’ll be honest, I never thought that I would be at that level but I always wanted to be successful. Looking back at it now, it’s something that certainly is humbling.”

Sunday represented Savoie's 11th career final round, with four of those matchups coming against Krawiec.

Krawiec explained that his latest conquest was far from routine. For example, there was his wild qualifying runs on Friday and Saturday.

“We struggled navigating the track, it was a little tricky for us,” Krawiec said. “Our bike tends to have no suspension and gets upset.  It hits a couple bumps and that throws the bike around.

“We were able to figure out our chassis setup. And as we made more laps throughout the weekend it got better and better, as you could tell by the final.

“It was definitely a good, fun and exciting weekend for me.”

Krawiec has made the final round in all three events this season and holds the points lead.

“Counting all the way back to Pomona, this was four for me,” said Krawiec, who is supported by crew chief Matt Hines. “As a driver, you always look at those statistics and want to move forward. I’ve got a great Harley motorcycle and a great crew chief in Matt. We’ll just continue picking away and hopefully gain more momentum.”

In the semifinals, Savoie stopped the emotional charge of fan-favorite Angelle Sampey with a run of 6.871 in his White Alligator Suzuki.

After two straight red-lights this season, Sampey executed a near-perfect .008 light en route to a career-best run of 6.795 in the first round.

“She threw it out there,” Krawiec said. “Hats off to that team, they are doing a great job and that’s showing you the level of competition. There’s many bikes in this class that can win. It’s just a matter of hitting it right at the right time.”

Melissa Surber, a 21-year-old rookie and former junior dragster from Northern California, earned the first round of her career in the first round, posting a better reaction time to down LE Tonglet.

After riders were forced to wrestle their bikes against strong head winds during Saturday’s qualifying sessions, Sunday featured near-perfect 70 degree temperatures but track conditions remained challenging.

A total of 25 bikes were entered in the field. Allen Gregory

SATURDAY NOTEBOOK – QUALIFYING COMPLETED BEFORE PACKED HOUSE AT ATLANTA DRAGWAY

CHA-CHING - NHRA officials announced a sellout for Saturday’s racing at the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. Fans from all over Georgia, South Carolina and throughout the southeast have filled the grandstands and pit areas under perfect weather conditions during the seventh of 24 events in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

It is the second event of the season where a Saturday sellout has been announced, including Saturday’s crowd at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals presented by Lowes Foods at zMAX Dragway in Charlotte, N.C.

PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT – Angelle Sampey had contemplated sitting out the final session when it became apparent the Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson, and it's riders Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines, had failed to improve.

Team owner George Bryce, who guided Sampey to all of her championships and was responsible for coaxing her out of her 2010 retirement, made the call to run the final session.

"I was ready to sit out because we wanted to save the engine and run it tomorrow," Sampey recalled. "Then George comes over and says, ‘I think you need the practice, let’s go ahead and make the run.’

"And he wasn’t joking! He really thinks I need the practice. I was like, ‘Alright, let’s go do it."

Just getting back to running the quickest in one session, not to mention three was a fight for Sampey.

“You can’t even imagine how hard," Sampey said. "I mean, when I left in 2008, I left with the mentality that I was done. I was never coming back to this sport. And it wasn’t anything against this sport; it was that I had put my life on hold for so many years. I didn’t have family; I wanted to be a mom. When Ava came along, I was done. I was never going to race motorcycles again."

The persistence of Bryce encouraged Sampey to give drag racing one last chance.

"I often ask myself, why am I back here?" Sampey asked. "Because I have a beautiful baby girl waiting for me at home, but my god, when I realized that I hadn’t lost any of the passion and determination, but what I had lost was a lot of the seat time and some of the skill. We had to do a lot of testing, practicing, I’m working out as much as can and trying to keep the mental focus. I hate to talk about the fact that I started this 20 years ago.

"It’s not as easy as it used to be. When I say we’re working hard, I know everybody says that; but we really are working hard. I’m working hard, my team is working hard, and to get a green hat today is just the beginning of what we got for everybody for the rest of the year.”

YOU DON'T KNOW JACK - Last year Jack Beckman was a championship waiting to happen. There was only one issue with the assessment, it never happened.

Beckman raced his way to nine final rounds, winning seven times, setting and resetting the world record multiple times and finishing runner-up to Del Worsham for the championship. This season he's only made it past the second round twice, with no final-round appearances.

Would Beckman consider this season to this point already a major disappointment?

“It’s an interesting question because superficially, you would say yes," said Beckman. "Look at what we did last year; look at how much we’ve struggled this year, but when you really start digging into things, we wheel stood and bent our good car in pre-season testing in Phoenix. We showed up at Pomona with no runs to the finish line with the brand new car and qualified No. 1.

"Then we brought out the other car after it was repaired in Gainesville and reset the world record with it. So we’ve done some pretty cool stuff this year; what we haven’t done is figured out what the car wants on hot race tracks. Let’s face it: for the next three months, we’re going to get a lot more hot race tracks than those home run shots. And those home run shots are only usually good for qualifying positions."
 
Beckman agrees his team is similar to the biggest man in the bar yet susceptible to a sucker punch.

“You try not to feel that way, because I think as the underdog, a lot of times people can feel like [they] can’t win no matter what," Beckman explained. "I think that’s the wrong attitude to have, and I think as the favorite, it’s easy to get caught up and think, 'God I better not screw this up; we’re expected to win."

The last time Beckman won a race was last October when he defeated Chad Head in Reading, Pa. That's nine races without a victory, but Beckman is steadfast in not dwelling on his previous winless streak, which last 54 events.

“I’m still very lucky to get to drive a nitro Funny Car and get a paycheck for doing it," Beckman said. "I don’t know if I believe in fate; I just feel like you’ve got to put on your best face when things aren’t going well. That sort of attitude and perseverance probably will help turn a slump around quicker than if you’re kicking things and moping around and looking for excuses.

"And the nice thing on our team is if we stumble, nobody points a finger. Do you know how comforting it is to know that you can make a mistake as a driver and know your team will support you 100%? And the irony there is you’re way less prone to making a mistake when you drive for a group of people like that. I want them to think that I feel the exact same way; if somebody makes a mistake, we’re going to get past it as a team. We’re going to out to the next race and do our best.”    

Beckman, a two-time Atlanta winner, used his track-record 3.939-second run at 326.32 mph from Friday night to secure his fourth No. 1 of the season and 19th of his career. This is his first top qualifier at Atlanta Dragway. Beckman will face Jim Campbell to open Sunday’s eliminations.

CONNIE THE TRASH TALKER - Doug Kalitta made a strong run to lead Friday's qualifying.

“Jim and my whole team were real serious about making a good run tonight," Doug said. "That was incredible. The car left hard, and I knew it was going to be a good run."

Yes, the Mac Tools team was on a run of momentum, but Friday's fabulous run had little to do with winning two weeks ago in Houston, Texas, and everything to do with one-upping team owner and tuner Connie Kalitta.

Huh?

Moments before Kalitta's run to the provisional No. 1, Connie tuned  J.R. Todd's dragster to a 3.762 to jump to the head of the Top Fuel qualifying list. With a snide remark as he passed tuner Jim Oberhofer walking back to the pits, the challenge was set.

“They’re just like brothers," Doug confirmed. "The camaraderie of trying to beat one another is definitely there. They poke fun at one another. I think Jim will probably go a little easier on him tonight.

Yes, Connie is a straight-up trash talker.

“He’s very witty," Kalitta explained. "It doesn’t go on for hours or anything (laughs). He’s a good guy to work with.  He just wants the best for all of us and we’re wanting to win these races and championships. He’s definitely good at poking fun at one another; really all those guys are. Jim, Nicky, Glenn, we have a host of characters over there that are pranksters. It definitely keeps it interesting."

The best Connie line?  

‘Total Gas Station mechanics," Doug said with a smile.

Does anyone dare fire back at the revered team owner?

"We don’t get too hard on him, but trust me, our guys aren’t bashful," Doug admitted.

Kalitta, who won two weeks ago in Houston, claimed the top spot with a 3.731 at 328.70. The pass reset Atlanta Dragway’s elapsed time track record, and marked his second No. 1 qualifier of the season and 45th in his career. This is his second No. 1 at Atlanta.

Kalitta will face Terry Haddock in round one.

SAME STORY, DIFFERENT DAY - Stop us if you've heard this before, KB Racing will head into Sunday's final eliminations with the top two seeds in the 14-car Pro Stock field. Thus far this season, the three-car team has won and qualified No. 1 at every race and even more impressively led every qualifying session since Q-1 of the first 2016 event.

Greg Anderson used his Friday night qualifying performance of 6.610 at 210.14 in his Summit Racing Equipment Chevy Camaro to carry him to the No. 1 spot. The four-time Atlanta winner has four No. 1 qualifiers this season and has raced to three victories in the first six races of the year. This is his seventh top qualifier at Atlanta Dragway and the 84th of his career. Anderson will race fellow veteran V. Gaines in the first round of eliminations Sunday morning.
 
“We’ve had a lot of magic at this racetrack, and it makes it even more special to have Summit Racing Equipment on the billboard out there,” Anderson said. “We’ve had four really good qualifying runs and I feel a little bit fortunate because it appears we have our No. 3 car, Bo Butner’s car, faster than both Jason (Line)’s and mine. Bottom line is we have three great cars over there at Ken Black Racing. We’re going to have a great chance tomorrow.”
 
Jason Line, Anderson’s Summit Racing Equipment Chevy Camaro teammate, posted a 6.615 at 209.36 on Friday night to enter eliminations as the No. 2 qualifier. Line has three victories so far this year and has raced to the final round of every race in 2016. The two-time Atlanta winner and current points leader will meet John Gaydosh in the opener.
 
Butner qualified third and will race against Alex Laughlin to open eliminations.

QUIET TIME - Leah Pritchett checked off one more item of experience during Friday's qualifying.

The Top Fuel driver who has experienced a rollercoaster of emotions in the last month participated in what has probably been her smoothest ride ever. 

Prichett, now driving for Don Schumacher Racing, gained one of the perks of the team - a canopy car.

“It was incredible," Pritchett said. "It’s pretty much everything Antron and Shawn had explained from a hearing standpoint. I’m not wearing any ear protection so that I can maximize the amount of noise the motor makes and hear. I don’t think I’ve ever been in tune to so many senses at the same time."

Pritchett realized just how peacefully quiet the cockpit of her race car is now. It might be too quiet. 

“Yeah, I’d have to say so," said Pritchet. "For me, I really like the sound. Half the time I forget to put in ear plugs when I’m warming up the car because the sound of the car just further gets me jacked for race day and I love it. Maybe I’ll have to put in an MP4 player, pumping in nitro engine sounds.”

Pritchett also felt the difference in the safety aspects of the enclosed cockpit. 

"Everything was really different for me from steering wheel placement to all new safety equipment thanks to Impact with their partnership with DSR," Pritchett said. "It responds a little bit differently; my head restraint is different than what I’m used to, which impacts my back restraint when I launch off the line and where my vision is at."

Looking through the canopy enables Pritchett to see the race track in a new light. 

"The vision is so much more vast that it opens your window literally of being able to critique yourself from a precision standpoint," Pritchett explained. "Let’s just say compared to other dragsters that I’ve driven; I think I pride myself pretty hard on squaring up really good with the track and knowing exactly where I’m at, where I was doing that in this car, and I thought, man, everything is just more precise."

Pritchett believes the canopy car will inevitably make her a better driver. 

"I’m going to be able to do a better job I think of driving and challenging myself and perfecting my driving because of the vision that the canopy brings," Pritchett explained. "And it is different. I’m going to learn to love it and absolutely I like it. It’s like you got a new boyfriend and you grow with that relationship, and you end up marrying it, like my husband (laughs). 

"That’s what it’s like. I want to learn to love it and the only way to love it is to be good with it."

GETTING BY WITH HELP FROM HIS FRIENDS - Terry McMillen and crew chief Rob Wendland already had a plan of action in place. 

Following his devasting engine explosion and subsequent crash, they had planned to return to their Brownsburg, Ind., shop where the plan was to reintroduce their 2013 Murf McKinney dragster back into competition. 

Don Schumacher made sure there was a change in plans. 

"Don Schumacher rolls over and says, ‘You will have a new car Wednesday. I’ve already called back to the shop," Wendland recalled. "Me and Terry both looked at each other and just like he was trying to make me cry."

Schumacher wasn't kidding them, and by Monday Wendland had his crew in the shop stripping the mangled former Schumacher chassis. The new chassis arrived on Friday. 

"What’s cool about Schumacher cars is they’re all, even though this car was originally built in 2013 and then front-halved, everything is a bolt on deal," said Wendland. "So if you have a Schumacher car, the floor fits in the same; everything besides the personal items, they all fit in. That makes it pretty easy."

Wendland said many of the parts off of the crashed car were unsalvageable and needed to be replaced. 

"We don’t have the biggest budget in the world, but we’re also very safety conscientious," Wendland explained. "We just threw in all the front end parts away. There’s nothing that we kept from heim joints to whatever it may be. There’s nothing that we used from the other car. We didn’t have a whole lot of stock in those kind of things, so we had to get parts too."

Wendland said the crew logged nearly 100 hours in five and a half days, taking Mother's Day off.  He believes without the support from Schumacher this weekend's participation would have been next to impossible. 

"Joe Fitzpatrick who runs the fab shop there is just an amazing guy," Wendland said. "He’s got a work load I’m sure; trying to put together Leah’s stuff too. Not only with their machine shop and everything else, everything we were trying to get done, seems like those guys shine under pressure. Without them, we probably wouldn’t be here.”

McMillen's newest dragster makes the second Schumacher car for McMillen, but neither have been canopy cars. 

Well, we’re already 90 pounds overweight, and I think it adds 40 more," Wendland said. "Believe me, for safety and everything else, I’d love to have a canopy car. It’s sad to say that you’re going to choose weight over safety, especially after something like this that just happened. To be competitive, we can’t have 100 pounds of extra weight on our car like Brittany does. We make weight, we have so much weight around here we just pass it around to everybody." 

TURNAROUND - After a forgettable start to the 2016 season, Shane Gray showed strong progress towards establishing his competitiveness in the newly re-tooled Pro Stock division.

Gray posted a season-best qualifying effort with a 6.620 seconds at 207.75 mph, and enters Sunday's eliminations as the No. 4 qualifier.
 
"We've made a lot of progress in the past week and a half, both in testing and here at Atlanta Dragway," Gray said. "We certainly are closer to where we want to be; not quite all the way there, but closer."
 
Gray recently hired Dave Connolly as crew chief to serve alongside existing crew chiefs Jim Yates and Craig Hankinson, who tune both Gray's Valvoline/Nova Services Chevrolet Camaro and Alex Laughlin's Gas Monkey Garage Chevrolet Camaro. Laughlin's team utilizes Gray Motorsports engines.
 
Connolly, a 26-time winner in Pro Stock, has competed in a variety of classes, most recently in Top Fuel, but the team he raced with folded a few races ago, freeing him up to come help Gray.
 
"We got down the track every time and we were up near the top of the timing sheets each run, so we have a consistently quick race car," Gray said. "If we execute like this tomorrow, and the driver does his job, we should be able to contend for the trophy. At the very least we'd like to turn on a couple of win lights."

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK – IT’S A HOT FRIDAY IN HOT-LANTA

AH LEAH - Ron Thames of Fire Service Plus and the FireAde 2000 Personal Fire Suppression System announced Friday that it will extend its sponsorship for Leah Pritchett with Don Schumacher Racing’s new Top Fuel dragster team to include the June 10-12 NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J.

 

Pritchett turns 28 on May 26 and that will mark her 20th year in drag racing. She is competing in her first NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event with DSR this weekend in the Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. Thames and DSR owner Don Schumacher agreed two weeks ago to field Pritchett at Atlanta, which is near Fire Services Plus and at the prestigious U.S. Nationals over Labor Day Weekend near Indianapolis.

THE TRUE ARTIST IN THE FAMILY - Saturday will be an important day for Head Family Racing. Team owner Jim Head and driver Chad Head will miss at least Saturday's Q-3 session.

The father and son team are headed back home on Saturday to Cleveland, Ohio, to watch Suzanne Head, Jim's daughter and Chad's sister, graduate from the Cleveland Art Institute.

“I think it is outstanding," Chad said. "There’s always more runs and there’s always more races that you can go to, but there’s only one graduation. We’ll do the best we can today and we’ll try to make two really good runs, Q1 and Q2; for sure we’ll miss Q3. It just depends on if can make it back for Q4 or not. If we can make Q4, great. If not, the most important thing is that we're going to her graduation and I think it’s awesome.”

Chad admits while he might be an artist behind the wheel, the artist gene in the family definitely missed him.

"She definitely didn’t get that from me, didn’t get that from my dad," Chad admitted. "She probably got that from my grandmother. My grandmother messed around with pottery, so she was artistic, but she’s (sister) very good at drawing freehand.

Suzanne was featured in an art exhibit last weekend which the drag racing father and son duo attended.

"It was different," Chad said. "There were models, paintings, drawings, all kinds of stuff. She had four pieces that were just outstanding. I can say she is an amazing artist. She’s going to do really good things I think.”  

Suzanne's website is www.suzannehead.com.

REMEMBERING THE CRASH - There are some images a son can never forget. Billy Glidden was barely an adult when he watched his dad, the legendary Bob Glidden, barrel roll his Pro Stock Thunderbird in the lights during the 1986 NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.

Glidden, now 51, is competing in the NHRA Pro Modified division this weekend, but the horrific vision remains branded in his memory bank.

"I was hoping he was going to win," Glidden recalled. "I can’t say I saw it in slow motion, but with the car, you could see something happened from the starting line. Then everything kind of just disappeared. You could actually see the car come above the dust line every time it would flip up. To say the least, your heart sinks. That’s your life. Dad, mom, this was all we’d ever done. It was a bad feeling."

Glidden had seen his dad crash before but nothing like this. He recalled nothing was salvagable on the car.
 
And the most memorable vision of the incident was not the barrel roll for many, it was an uninjured Glidden emerging from the car to quickly cover his engine's intake manifold with his racing jacket.

“I ran all the way down to the crash site, and when I got down there, he instructed me not to let anyone lift his jacket off the manifold," Glidden recalled."

Bob Glidden's team was not as heavily funded as one might assume, so the need to return to competition as soon as possible was a must. The team did return, but the results were subpar by Glidden standards.

"The crash destroyed our data, our Racepak, so we raced for a little while with no data recording," Glidden recalled. "We weren’t running very good."

Glidden said without the data he needed to walk down the track about 300 feet to see if the car could speak to him.

"I finally told him, ‘You’re short shifting really bad," Billy Glidden explained. "Obviously he didn’t want to hear that. A couple of runs after that, we started running really good. We were over 2,000 points behind in the points and when he finally discovered he was short shifting, we instantly started running really well. We ended up winning the points by over 2,000.”

Glidden had his own Commerce moment in 2004 while racing in the Fun Ford Series.

"I was in the same lane, I was in the right lane," Glidden explained. "Right as I passed the finish line, the ‘chute came out and the car made a hard left-hand turn and I almost hit the left wall. I cut the wheel, stomped on the brake just one time and the back end came around and I never touched the wall, but rolled right down the wall the whole time.

"I remember that more than I remember dad crashing. I had to go out the very next run and actually something happened with the tree and we had to re-run that pass. We won that race."

Ironically, Bob won his race too.

TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME - J.R. Todd had one job and he didn't screw it up.

The driver of the SealMaster Top Fuel dragster was invited to kick off Thursday night's Atlanta Braves - Philadelphia Phillies. Todd was featured on the stadium's jumbotron and proclaimed, "Let's play ball."

"The game doesn’t start until I say so," Todd said with a smile. " So I went out on the field and told them, “Play Ball” and after that they carried on in the rain.”

Todd admits he's a casual baseball fan.

"I enjoy going to games in person, but I’m not one to sit at home and watch it on television," admitted Todd. "Anytime we can go check off a new stadium off the list, it’s cool. We got to go to Turner Field last night; I’ve never been there. This is the last season the Braves are going to play there, so it was cool to check that one off the list.”

Don't think for a moment Todd hadn't thought about had to leave his mark on the stadium. 

“I was thinking on the way there what I could do to get myself on SportsCenter just by saying, ‘Play Ball," Todd admitted. "I kind of chickened out and didn’t drop the mic or anything like that. There was enough people there to get a big rise out of doing something stupid anyway. Had it been a bigger crowd, then maybe I would have done something to get them amped up.” 

A LITTLE CUSSIN’ AND A LOT OF SLIDING - Pro Stock drivers can become robotic in their procedures but when one facet gets out of whack there can be some not-so-great results.

Sophomore Pro Stock driver Drew Skillman learned the hard way during Friday's opening qualifying session.

Skillman blew both front tires on his Chevrolet Camaro as he slid to a stop in the shutdown area, and he accepts full responsibility.

“We had delayed ‘chutes, and I panicked; I was lucky," Sillman admitted. "I just slammed on the brakes and blew the front two tires out. Rookie mistake."

What was going through his mind when this was all going down?

“A little cussing and a little bit of panicking," Skillman said with a laugh. "You just go into reaction mode. You try to keep it straight and keep it off the wall. That’s all I said the whole time, 'just don’t hit the freakin’ wall!"

Did it make the two tires go flat?

“Oh yeah, it flat-spotted them and blew them both out. Had a little cosmetic damage, just ground the front splitter down, so we just went ahead and replaced it with a fresh one. We have another one in the trailer so that’s a normal thing to ding up anyhow.”

DOING IT FOR THE FANS - The process of whacking the throttle during warm-ups is all but obsolete in the nitro pits. There's no performance advantage to this procedure which seats the clutch, but for Scott Palmer, it gives him all the advantage he needs to grow his fan base.

"I was a fan before I owned a Top Fuel dragster and I always said, 'I’ll never quit seating the clutch because of the fans," said Palmer. "If you look at the back of our pits during a warm-up, it looks like John Force’s pits. It’s crazy. Fans love it. I think it should be an NHRA rule - you should have to seat the clutch.”

Palmer said the practice is unnecessary but does not hurt the car.

"It’s not like back in the day when Don Prudhomme did it and they’d stomp the gas to the floor," explained Palmer. "They actually did it pretty violent, but nobody can tell that we’re doing it kind of mellow, and it’s actually not as hard on things as everybody thinks."

UNCHARTED TERRITORY - Up until Friday at 5:30 PM, EST, no Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car had covered the Atlanta Dragway 1000-foot strip in under four seconds.

Courtney Force earned not one but two attaboys for back-to-back three-second passes during Friday's session. She earned four bonus points and in doing so, took over at least provisionally, the point lead.  

Force's 3.971 will go down as the first in the House of Speed.

“It’s pretty awesome," said Force. "I was watching the teams ahead of us and I’m pretty surprised no one ran in the 3’s. I was hoping we could do it and I’m proud of my guys. They gave me a good race car. I was actually a little nervous, my car was doing something weird with the steering so when I hit the throttle right when the tree came down, I was afraid it was going to make a hard right into the wall."

Force upped the ante in Q-2 with a 3.946 ET at 324.67 mph to end the day as third.

HEAD GAMES - Tony Schumacher has captured eight titles and 80 national event wins, and one unenviable stat remains common between the two.
None of those came with a victory at Atlanta Dragway.

"We’ve won a lot of races in my career and we have a great team," said Schumacher. "This one has just eluded us, but you know, you go down in history never winning Indy, you might be a little ticked off. We’ve won Indy nine times. We’ve struggled in Atlanta, but there will always be that next chance. Right now, we have it."

Schumacher doesn't deny he's had many chances to correct this situation.

"I believe this is my 18th Atlanta race or something like that. That’s an awful lot of races to come and get beat. I think we’ve been in the finals here four times, so it’s not like we haven’t had the chance. We just have to capitalize on it and I think we have the moment lying ahead of us on Sunday to do that."

The problem in the end might just be psychological.

“You know what I think it is?" Schumacher asked. "And I’ve told everyone this; we’re an incredible high-pressure team looking at our history. This race falls in a non-pressure time of the year, but we’ve always had this. By now we’d won races, we’re either in the points lead or fighting for it. Right now, we need to get into this Traxxas Shootout and in doing so, we’re going to put pressure on ourselves to go out and do it. I’d love to win this race just to say I did it, but in reality, we need the win to get into that shootout.

"I tell you what, that Traxxas Shootout is one of those things where that last spot is open for fan vote, and if that’s my chance, I think I’m going to tell people not to vote for me because I am a firm believer that if you don’t earn your way into it, you don’t deserve to race for that money. Right now, we don’t deserve anything. We have to earn it. We have to take that trophy because these are not free gifts. I get sick and tired of hearing everyone gets a trophy because it leads to complete weakness in life. We’re going to earn and we’re going to earn it starting here this weekend in Atlanta.”   

NO ISSUES HERE - While Tony Schumacher cannot seem to solve the Atlanta Dragway puzzle, Antron Brown has cracked the code six times during his illustrious career. The two-time NHRA champion has won four times in Top Fuel and twice in bikes.

"Atlanta is definitely one of our favorite racetracks to go to with the air quality there," said Brown. "This track has been very good to me, it has just been one of those tracks that we seem to do well at. It's just a unique place. It feels old school. It reminds me of those racetracks I grew up around. I think it's just got that East Coast feel, the historical roots of drag racing, that makes it so special.

Brown entered the weekend ranked third in points, less than one round win behind leader Brittany Force. Atlanta is a high-humidity race challenging even the most seasoned tuner.

"Atlanta can be really cool and fast at nighttime yet during the daytime it can get real hot and make the track real slick," Brown added. "It's always an advantage to have a team that can adapt and with Brian and Mark and these Matco boys, that's something that we do very well."

Brown has one event title (Las Vegas) and one runner-up finish in six Mello Yello series events this season.

 

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY - The Parts Plus/Great Clips/UNOH dragster has a new look for this weekend. The dragster driven by Clay Millican’s is sporting a special celebration decal for Akins Ford, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep & RAM’s 50th year in business.
 
The sponsorship from Akins is one that is very close to team owner, Doug Stringer. In the early 1990s Brad Akins formed the NASCAR team Akins Motorsports, and in 1998 he hired a young Stringer as the team’s general manager. Stringer began his very successful partnership with Great Clips in 2000 and Great Clips Racing was born.

Eventually, Stringer assumed full ownership of Akins Motorsports in 2005 before later merging with Braun Racing. Today, Stringer still manages the Great Clips Racing program and has formed a new team on the NHRA circuit, Stringer Performance.