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

SUNDAY - C. PEDREGON, VANDERGRIFF, LINE AND ARANA JR. RACE TO VICTORIES AT O’REILLY AUTO PARTS NHRA SPRINGNATIONALS
 
Cruz Pedregon became the first two-time winner in the Funny Car category in 2013 by racing to the victory Sunday at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway.
 
Bob Vandergriff Jr. (Top Fuel), Jason Line (Pro Stock) and Hector Arana Jr. (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also were winners at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event near Houston.
 
Two-time Funny Car world champion Pedregon powered his Snap-on Tools Toyota Camry to the win over Tim Wilkerson to take his 32nd career victory.
 
Pedregon, who serves as the driver and crew chief for his team, covered the distance in 4.246 seconds at 296.96 mph to defeat Wilkerson’s trailing Levi Ray & Shoup Ford Mustang, which lost traction in the finals and ran 6.914 at 102.28. With the win, Pedregon moves into the series points lead, 37 in front of Matt Hagan.
 
"Today was a challenging day, dealing with the track conditions,” Pedregon said. “We thought we had it pulled back enough for the first round, but we didn't [in his 5.36 to 6.04 pedaling win against Terry Haddcok]. After that, we got the car straightened out and it ran good [with times of 4.18 4.24, and 4.24].”
 
This is the second career victory at Royal Purple Raceway (also 1992) and he knows that the success they are having this season wouldn’t be possible without a full team effort.
 
"I had to whack my crew chief just once because he went over-center a bit on the tune-up for the first round, but after that everything was good," said a smiling Pedregon, who beat Terry Haddock, Bob Tasca and Alexis DeJoria in earlier rounds. "It takes a totally different mindset to run a 4.18 and a pair of 4.20s like we did today, and we did some things to the car that we've never done before. It was a great weekend all around."
 
In Top Fuel, Vandergriff earned his third career victory by holding off Shawn Langdon in the final
round. Vandergriff posted a winning run of 3.904 seconds at 316.38 mph in his C&J Energy Services dragster to defeat Langdon, whose Al-Anabi Racing dragster lost traction at the start. After taking the win light in the final round, Vandergriff continued his tradition of jogging from the finish line to join his crew near the starting line.
 
"After qualifying, winning this race was the farthest thing from my mind," said Vandergriff, who outran defending world champ Antron Brown, Larry Dixon and Morgan Lucas to advance to his 16th career final round. "We just started picking away and got to the point where we made a great run in the final. We had 700 people here with our sponsor, C&J Energy Services, and they were all cheering us on. We couldn't have written a better script for this. It was a total team effort. I have a lot of faith in my crew chiefs, Rob Flynn, Kurt Elliott, and Mike Guger; we have great leadership here."
 
Points leader Tony Schumacher suffered a rare first round loss, but retains the points lead and Langdon moves to third in points on the strength of his runner-up finish.
 
In Pro Stock, Line raced his Summit Racing Chevy Camaro to his second win at Royal Purple Raceway and his first of the year with a holeshot victory over Shane Gray. Both drivers covered the distance at 6.589 seconds, but the .007 reaction time of Line gave him an advantage over the .055 reaction time of Gray, who drove his Gray Motorsports Camaro.
 
“We’ve been trying to win a race since Pomona, but until now, we haven’t been able to do it, so this was a good win,” Line said. “It was very difficult to win with today’s conditions, especially because we’ve been lost [with our tune-up]. Even in the first round today, which was my fastest run [a 6.576], it was a disaster.”
 
This is his 30th win of his career and was his first win of the season and the first since the second Charlotte race in 2012. He defeated Matt Hartford, local favorite Erica Enders-Stevens and Jeg Coughlin in the first three rounds. With the win he moves to fifth in points.  
 
“The big difference this weekend is that we made six good runs in a row, and the car responded well to the changes in our tune-up,” Line said. “That’s the first time we’ve been able to do that in a while.”
 
Arana Jr. recorded his third straight win of the year in Pro Stock Motorcycle with a final round performance of 6.912 at 194.74 on his Lucas Oil Buell to defeat  Scotty Pollacheck, who was in his first final round and ran 6.985 at 188.54 on his Sovereign Star Buell. Arana Jr. becomes just the third racer in Pro Stock Motorcycle history to win the first three events of the season, joining Matt Hines and Dave Schultz as the only drivers to accomplish the feat.
 
"This feels great," said Arana Jr., who raced past Shawn Gann, Hector Arana Sr., and John Hall in earlier rounds. "Of the three wins, this was the most nervous I've been because I know how hard it is to keep going. There are so many excellent riders out here. After I beat my dad, he just said. 'Good job'. My bike has not been the fastest but we've been the most consistent. As a rider, I've also been very consistent and that's a lethal combination. We just want to keep going."
 
The Mello Yello Drag Racing Series continues with the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals, May 3-5 at Atlanta Dragway.
 

SATURDAY - KALITTA, C. PEDREGON, COUGHLIN AND ARANA JR. EARN NO. 1 QUALIFYING POSITIONS AT ROYAL PURPLE RACEWAY
 
Persistent rain showers forced NHRA officials to cancel the majority of Saturday’s qualifying for the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway. The only racing of the day in the NHRA Mello Yello Series included one round of Pro Stock Motorcycle qualifying and 12 Pro Stock cars made an attempt before the rain became steady in the afternoon.
 
Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel), Cruz Pedregon (Funny Car), Jeg Coughlin (Pro Stock), and Hector Arana Jr. (Pro Stock Motorcycle) will start Sunday’s 11 a.m. eliminations as the No. 1 qualifiers in their respective categories.
 
Kalitta claimed his third No. 1 qualifying position of the year in Top Fuel with his Friday run of 3.791 seconds at 321.65 mph in his Mac Tools dragster. This is his third No. 1 qualifying position at Royal Purple Raceway and he will face Troy Buff in the opening round as he tries to earn his first win since the 2010 season and his second at the facility.
 
“This is our third low qualifier and now we can see if we can hopefully get to the final and deliver a win,” Kalitta said. “This rain will clean the track off and that should change our set-up a bit. I’m sure the track will be good but I can tell you that we probably won’t be the first pair out. We have a good car and I would have liked to see what we could have done today but we’re solidly in the field and so are all of our team cars so we didn’t have to deal with [the possibility of not qualifying]. We’re ready to go.”
 
Points leader Tony Schumacher qualified 14th and will face Shawn Langdon in the opening round. Antron Brown, currently second in points, will race Bob Vandergriff in the first round. Rookie Brittany Force failed to qualify for eliminations for the first time.
 
In Funny Car, Pedregon raced his Snap-on Tools Toyota Camry to his third No. 1 qualifying position on the strength of his 4.086 second pass at 310.41 mph on Friday. Pedregon has two career wins and nine No. 1 qualifying positions at Royal Purple Raceway. He will face Terry Haddock in the first round of eliminations.
 
“When I heard them say nine number ones in Houston, that stands out,” Pedregon said. “ I just wish we had that many wins here. When I got up in the morning and saw that the forecast was for about 30 to 40 percent, I thought that this would be no big deal. But it ended up being 100 percent later in the day, and that was it. Running under the cloud cover would have been ideal for us. I think you would have seen a 4.06 or a 4.07.”
 
Notable first round matchups include Don Schumacher Racing teammates Matt Hagan and Ron Capps squaring off in their Dodge Chargers. Hagan currently leads the Funny Car points with Capps lurking in fifth. Courtney Force and Alexis DeJoria will go head-to-head for the third time in their careers, while No. 2 qualifier Tim Wilkerson will meet versatile Del Worsham in another pivotal opening round matchup. 
 
In Pro Stock, Coughlin took his first No. 1 position in two years by powering his JEGS.com / Mopar Dodge Avenger to a performance of 6.569 at 211.20 to claim his 18th No. 1 qualifying position of his career. His first round opponent will be Steve Kent as Coughlin looks for his fifth career win at the facility.
 
“I think this speaks volumes about the operation of Roy and Allen Johnson, which we decided to team up with at the end of last year,” Coughlin said. “We communicate with them very well, along with Vincent Nobile, who also uses Roy Johnson engines, and to be number one in qualifying for the first time in two years is just fantastic.”
 
Current points leader Mike Edwards, who came into this event riding a five-race No. 1 qualifying streak, qualified third and will face Greg Stanfield in the opening round of eliminations. Houston area natives Erica Enders-Stevens and Rodger Brogdon both qualified. Enders-Stevens will race Larry Morgan, while Brogdon will take on defending world champ Allen Johnson in the first round.
 
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Arana Jr. secured his second consecutive No. 1 qualifying position of the season and 12th of his career with a run of 6.876 at 195.39 on his Lucas Oil Buell. He will face Shawn Gann in the first round of eliminations as he goes for his third straight win of the season. 
 
“I do have a lot of confidence after winning those two races,” Arana Jr. said. “Right now, I don’t feel as tense as I normally would. I’m very relaxed and that makes riding a lot easier. I was hoping to improve in the third session but we missed the tune-up a bit. We were really looking forward to the last run because we wanted to get some data. The weather also changed and all that rain will make the track tighten up.”
 
Scotty Pollacheck qualified second and will race Chip Ellis, while third place qualifier Andrew Hines will try to win his fourth consecutive title at this event as he takes on teammate and defending world champ Eddie Krawiec in a very rare all-Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson first round match up.

 

FRIDAY - C. PEDREGON, KALITTA, COUGHLIN AND ARANA JR. LEAD QUALIFYING AT ROYAL PURPLE RACEWAY
 
Cruz Pedregon continued his strong start to the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series  season as he powered to the qualifying lead in Funny Car Friday at the O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals at Royal Purple Raceway.
 
Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel), Jeg Coughlin (Pro Stock) and Hector Arana Jr. (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also led their respective categories at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event near Houston.
 
The two-time Funny Car world champion has one win this season along with one No.  1 qualifying position and is second in points. On Friday he raced to the top of the qualifying order in his Snap-on Tools Toyota Camry Funny Car with a leading performance of 4.086 seconds at 310.41 mph.
 
“This run was really good for us because we broke a couple of rods [on a 4.70 176.76 mph pass] in the first session,” Pedregon said. “It was a flawless pass that really set me back in the seat right at the hit of the throttle. It really pulled hard all the way through, and I knew it was a good pass. But we weren’t trying to knock it out of the park, and or goal was just to keep all eight cylinders lit all the way to the finish line. I honestly would have been happy with a 4.12 or a 4.13. So we were really thrilled with the 4.08.”
 
Pedregon has eight career No. 1 qualifying positions at the track, but knows that keeping it for eliminations on Sunday could be a tall order.
 
“Houston has always been a fast track, but our cars are making a lot more power than they used to, and we’re also getting used to some new parts and new tune-up ideas that we’re trying,” Pedregon continued. “And as good as the 4.08 run was, I think that if we have a cloud cover tomorrow, some of the other drivers like Johnny Gray or Courtney (Force) could pop a 4.07. So we have our work cut out for us on Saturday.”
 
Kalitta raced his Mac Tools dragster to the qualifying lead during a wild second session which saw the top spot change seven times during the course qualifying. Kalitta was in the final pair of cars and posted a run of 3.791 seconds at 321.65 mph to take the lead into the final day of qualifying on Saturday.
 
“The conditions were right and we made a good run and had the quick time of the day,” said Kalitta. “I actually think Jim O [Oberhofer, crew chief] was trying to run a 3.77, but we settled for a 3.79. I’m happy and I’m really proud of my guys.”
 
Kalitta has two No. 1 qualifying positions so far this season, but has yet to capitalize on them for a win. He has one career win at Royal Purple Raceway and is hoping to add another to his 32 career wins total.
“I think the chances are good that it will stay,” Kalitta said. “It should warm up tomorrow and I think mid-3.8s will be good, but you never know with these guys. The competition is this class is so good. We’ve been doing well lately, but we really need to turn that into a win on Sunday.”
 
Coughlin, a four-time Pro Stock world champion, raced his JEGS.com / Mopar Dodge Avenger to the No. 1 position with a performance of 6.569 at 211.20. Coughlin has 17 career No. 1 qualifying positions in his career but hasn’t posted one since the 2010 season.
 
“Roy [Johnson, engine builder] was pleased with the performance of the car, and the crew chiefs [Mark Ingersoll and Jim Yates] were very happy,” said Coughlin. “The temperatures might be a little warmer tomorrow, which will be in our favor, but we’ll still have to peck away at it if we want to stay No. 1.”

Arana Jr. continued his hot start to the season by racing to the top spot on his Lucas Oil Buell in Pro Stock Motorcycle. He has won the first two events of the season and if his 6.876 pass at 195.39 stays No. 1 it would be the 12th of his career and his first at Royal Purple Raceway, which already holds special memories for him.
 
"We’re doing so well so far this season that I just want to keep that momentum going and stay on top as long as I can,” said Arana Jr. “I like this track. This is where I qualified for the first time and got my first round win against my father. Last year, I also made my first final round so I like it here.
“The track was not bad at all today,” Arana continued. “It was a little warmer than it has been anywhere else this year but we still made good runs. Tomorrow, I hope to improve. I’m sure some guys will get close, but if we run in the morning and the weather is cool, I should run quicker.”
 
Qualifying continues on Saturday at noon and 2:15. Eliminations are scheduled for Sunday at 11 a.m.