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

JOHNSON, LANGDON ‘MAKE MAGIC HAPPEN’ IN TOP FUEL - When NHRA Top Fuel racer Shawn Langdon learned his Alan Johnson Racing team unexpectedly had lost funding on the eve of preseason testing, he said it felt like a “gut punch.”

Less than two months later, by the end of the season-opening Circle K Winternationals, Langdon and AJR had delivered a powerful blow of their own.

Make that a Knuckle Sandwich.

With initial funding from celebrity chef and Food Network Host Guy Fieri and his brand of cutlery and apparel, Langdon capped his dominating weekend in the Knuckle Sandwich / AJPE Dragster by defeating Antron Brown in Sunday’s Top Fuel final at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Calif.

He joined Funny Car’s Matt Hagan and Pro Stock’s Jason Line in the winners circle.

For Langdon and for his entire team, the Winternationals results were more than a sum of their stupendous parts: recording the quickest elapsed time in NHRA history at 3.700 seconds, leading the Top Fuel field, posting low E.T. in five of the event’s seven session, coming within .065 of a second of backing up the 3.700 for a national record and 20 bonus points, and winning the race.

The results were a statement that this team was staggered but not stopped, surprised but surprisingly strong.

They were a tribute to the brotherhood, the coalition of crew members, with Brian Husen, Jason McCulloch, and Nick Peters leading the way. They continued to work at the Brownsburg, Ind., race shop from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every single day, as if they never had heard they had lost their once-generous funding.

Sunday’s results were determination distilled.

“Alan’s one of those guys when he gets that look in his eye, he’s tough to beat. I think he’s the type of guy when he gets his back against the wall a little bit and feels like he has something to prove, he makes magic happen. I think this weekend was one of those cases,” Langdon said after using a 3.799-second, 309.91-mph pass to defeat Brown’s 3.804, 310.70 in the Matco Tools / U.S. Army Dragster. “He’s made a lot of magic happen here at Pomona. He’s had a very successful career here at Pomona. If you ever want to make stuff happen, he’s the guy.

“We’ve had some pretty successful weekends where we felt like we’ve dominated, but this weekend was a little bit different because of the current situation the team’s in,” Langdon said. “We had to do it.  We need to come out here and make a statement. We need to show everybody that we’re serious. We want to race this 2015 Mello Yello season. We want to contend for the championship. What better way to do that than the quickest pass in history, No. 1 qualifier, and winning the race?”    

He eliminated Steve Chrisman, Leah Pritchett, and Spencer Massey before claiming his first victory since last June’s event at Bristol, Tenn., and avenging Brown’s victory over him last fall at St. Louis. Langdon became the first No. 1 Top Fuel driver since 1999 (since Mike Dunn) to win the Winternationals. He also earned a berth in the $100,000-to-win Traxxas Nitro Shootout bonus race that is scheduled for Labor Day weekend during the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis.

Langdon, the 2013 series champion who lives near Indianapolis but grew up in nearby Mira Loma, is a two-time Winternationals winner. His victory was the third straight at this event for Alan Johnson Racing and the fourth in the past five years.

“There’s things that happen in life. There’s things that . . . just everything falls into place. I think that this weekend was one of those moments that when you put your heart into something and you put your mind to it and you surround yourself with great people, like here with this Alan Johnson Racing team, miracles can happen,” Langdon said. “This weekend we had a lot of positives going on.”

Langdon told the fans at Auto Club Raceway, “Throughout everything that went on, we have the best fans in the world. You boosted my confidence so much, reading everything on Twitter and seeing things on Instagram. It’s the best feeling in the world to have such a good support system behind this team.”  

He offered the Wally trophy to Fieri, who said, “I’ve been a fan for 25-30 years. This is the greatest sport. This is everybody’s sport. Talk about a way to kick off the season.”

Solidarity, skill, and miracles aside, the fact remains that the organization still has the burden of finding several million dollars by the end of the Phoenix race that’ll be over in two weeks. They have enough certain funding to compete there, and Fieri is helping with the search. But Johnson knows that “deserving” doesn’t always deliver, and they know their effort likely won’t yield immediate results.

“We’re still in the same position that we were coming in here: still trying to find sponsorship for the 2015 season. At this point, we just take what we did here, move on to Phoenix, and try to continue what we’ve been doing, and hopefully we can move on to Gainesville after that. We’re just trying to do the best job that we can.”  

Langdon said the team has had to “refocus, regroup, [and] reassess.” And Alan Johnson, despite this flash of on-track success and high spirits, has his back up against the wall again, starting Monday morning.

And the NHRA community will watch to see if Alan Johnson can spin some economic abracadabra and make some more magic happen. Susan Wade

MATT HAGAN OPENS SEASON WITH POMONA VICTORY - Matt Hagan, the reigning NHRA nitro Funny Car world champion, began defense of his title in grand fashion.

Hagan, who drives the Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots 2015 Dodge Charger for Don Schumacher Racing, won his first career Winternationals title Sunday in Pomona, Calif.

Hagan clocked low elapsed time of eliminations with a 4.011-second run at 320.89 mph to defeat his DSR teammate Ron Capps who came across the finish line in 4.078 seconds at 314.90 mph at Auto Club Raceway.

Hagan disposed of Tony Pedregon, John Hale and Del Worsham before ousting Capps in the finals.

It was the inaugural title for the all-new Dodge Charger R/T in its first race and marked the 241st event title for DSR. Don Schumacher didn’t attend the race.

“Obviously our thoughts and prayers are with Don,” said Hagan, who qualified No. 12 at 4.090 seconds. “He’s in his third week of radiation and obviously not feeling good. We need him to get better, get healthy and come back out here and support this awesome sport that we have that is NHRA drag racing. He supports a lot of people out here and we can’t do what we do without him. Don is such a key component in everything and he’s the glue that holds it all together. We are definitely thinking about him and hoping he’s feeling better. Maybe sending that trophy down to Houston will help put a smile on his face.”

Hagan, who also was the 2011 world champ, registered the 15th win of his career, which began in 2008.

"It speaks volumes for Dickie Venables, Mike Knudsen and these guys that put our car together,” Hagan said. “They worked so hard to put a good car underneath me. It's cool for me to say that I'm the first to win with this new 2015 Dodge Charger.”

The win didn’t come easy for Hagan. On Friday during qualifying he survived an engine explosion.

“Friday was really kind of unexpected,” Hagan said. “It caught me off guard. It went through the lights out there and kind of banged the blower and put the rods out in the pan. The fire got pretty big, pretty quick. You know you have a pretty big fire when you pull the fire bottles and nothing happens. It just sucked up all that stuff and I was like ‘here we go.’ The windshield melts in and you are just trying to get out and get everything stopped and get out. I could pick out pieces of the wall here and there, kind of figuring out where I was at and I was trying to stay near the wall and off of Cruz (Pedregon) and stuff. You just knew it wasn’t going to be good because it was such a big fire that your guys were going to have to work so hard that night. I think they finished up at 3:30 (Saturday morning) and went back, got two hours of sleep, and rolled back out here to the race track on Saturday and we got that one hit.”

By Sunday evening, Hagan was celebrating an improbable victory.

“Pomona is very special to me and it’s an historical track,” Hagan said. “The fans are awesome here. It’s been great. The history of this track and everything that’s happened here through the years, it puts it in perspective for me and makes (winning here) even more special.” Tracy Renck

JASON LINE CAPTURES WINTERNATIONALS PS WIN - Some drivers may have felt lingering effects of losing a world championship in the finals of the last race of the season.

Jason Line obviously was able to compartmentalize losing the 2014 NHRA Pro Stock world championship to Erica Enders Stevens when he registered a redlight in the finals of the Auto Club NHRA Finals on Nov. 16 in Pomona, Calif.

“What happened? I don’t remember,” Line said when asked about what happened to him in November. “I don’t know. You always want to win, but you can’t avenge that loss. That’s a huge hit, you miss the big trophy and you miss the big paycheck, and there’s no way to fix that. It is done and over. You just have to look ahead.”

Line returned to the scene of the tough defeat and beat Drew Skillman to win the season-opening Winternationals Sunday at Auto Club Raceway.

Line grabbed the title with a 6.545-second lap at 211.83 mph to upend Skillman’s 6.556-second run at 211.13 mph. Skillman was making his Pro Stock debut.

“It was good start,” Line said. “I wish I could win the fall race. I can’t win that one, that one is tough. It is great to get off to a good start. To come here and win feels phenomenal. I say it every year if you want to win all the races you have to win the first one. To be honest, I didn’t expect to come here and do this well. I didn’t think the offseason had gone good enough for us, but apparently it has and it feels great to win. It was a really exciting day. We have some new faces and congrats to Drew Skillman for just making the final at his first race, that’s phenomenal.”

This was Line’s 36th career victory, and fourth at the Winternationals. Line won NHRA’s Pro Stock world championship in 2006 and 2011.

Line beat Joey Grose, Shane Gray, Rodger Brogdon and Skillman on his way to the winner’s circle. Line collected his win over Brogdon, thanks to a holeshot.

“It was just steady the whole time,” Line said of his Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro. “It was very good right from the start. We were both steady and when you can have days like that, when the driver and the car are both in sync you get lucky enough to be up here in the tower.”

Line also addressed the use of the new Goodyear tires.

“The tires, as far as I’m concerned, they are great,” Line said.

Line qualified second at 6.523 seconds, but said he could’ve used the fourth qualifying session which was rained out Saturday.

“As a team it was really not good for us to miss Q4,” Line said. “We were struggling with Greg’s clutch and that cost us (Sunday). I hate to miss a run any time, and I don’t think it was a good thing for us, but things have a way of working out and we’re lucky enough to be sitting up here.”

Anderson, Line’s teammate lost to Shane Gray in the first round. Tracy Renck

SUNDAY RANDOM NOTES

TOP FUEL’S FIRST – Doug Kalitta has the distinction of causing the first Top Fuel oildown of the season. His winning 3.763-second, 330.88-mph against a tire-smoking Terry McMillen came with a $1,000 price tag and a five-point deduction. Kalitta said his Mac Tools Dragster was running strong but “had some issues at the top end.”
 

WOOING POMONA – Antron Brown said Saturday that he and his Brian Corradi/Mark Oswald-led Matco Tools/U.S. Army team have “been trying different things and we haven't had things happen the way we want them to happen. The thing about Pomona is, it hasn't been that nice to us at the first race of the season.”

All that changed in the first round of eliminations Sunday. He registered low elapsed time of the round at 3.732 seconds at 326.87 mph and defeated the reigning class champion, his own Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher.

‘WORKING TAILFEATHERS OFF’ - Following her opening-round victory over Brittany Force, a grateful Leah Pritchett said her Gumout/Dote Racing crew “have worked their tailfeathers off. That’s all this Gumout girl could ask for. I’m very, very blessed.”

Pritchett jumped off the starting line first, then drove her Doug Kuch/Rob Flynn-tuned dragster to a 3.791-second, 323.04-mph victory over Force’s 3.811, 321.19. She bowed out in the quarterfinals against Shawn Langdon.
 

UPS AND DOWNS OF FUNNY CAR RACING – Bob Bode had a roller-coaster experience at the Winternationals. He finally defeated 16-time champion John Force, who was making his record 35th Winternationals start and gunning for his eighth victory here. Bode won what turned out to be a wild pedalfest from about the 330-foot mark. Bode won the round by more than 100 feet.

“We were 0-11 against Force all these years. My little boy [Bobby] keeps asking me, ‘Dad, why do you let him beat you so bad?’ We figured sooner or later, Force is going to have to [lose]. He can’t be perfect forever. He was going to have to have a problem,” Bode said. “We’re glad it came today, and I don’t know how we won it. But 1-11 against Force! That is awesome!”

The downhill part of the performance came in the second round. Bode’s car broke on the starting line. The culprit was a malfunctioning electronic box, which made the engine unable to fire. His team pushed the Toyota from the starting line, and Ron Capps advanced on a freebie.

SWING AND A MISS – Chad Head didn’t have a real chance Sunday to see if he could give close pal Del Worsham a run for his money in the first round of eliminations. Something broke on his TaylorMade AeroBurner Toyota Camry during the burnout. Head backed it up against the right-side wall and parked it, giving Worsham a solo pass into the next round.  

“It was just an embarrassment for us,” Head said. “I hate it for the fans. This is a big clean-up. That’s no way to do things. Obviously, we didn’t do it intentionally. Something broke with the oil tank or what-not. That’s a great run by Del Worsham and that Kalitta team. With this Head Inc./TaylorMade AeroBurner car, that’s definitely not the way you want to start the year off.”

Worsham, driver of the Kalitta Motorsports DHL Toyota Camry, said, “We weren’t taking him lightly. Chad’s car runs well. He’s done a lot of testing. Chad has become a great driver.”

Head was the early qualifying leader Friday, No. 2 at the end of Friday’s action, and he settled into the No. 9 starting position.

CAPPS FLEXES HIS REPAIRED MUSCLES - few days after November's NHRA Finals, Ron Capps had surgery on his right arm to repair three triceps muscles that tore from the bone midway through last season. The Don Schumacher Racing driver might not be able to arm-wrestle anyone for a Wally trophy right now, but he had little problem muscling the NAPA Dodge Charger through his first two assignments Sunday.

He used a holeshot to eliminate Alexis DeJoria with a 4.137-second elapsed time to her better 4.110.The difference was his .062-second reaction time, quicker than her .096. Then he slid into the semifinal when opponent Bob Bode was unable to start his car.

Dr. Robert Gelb, of CORE Orthopaedic Medical Center at Encinitas, Calif.,had his handiwork tested at the beginning of the weekend.

"On [Friday] night's run the tires came loose way further down the track than a driver expects. It turned sideways on me and was headed toward the wall. So I had to make a good move with the steering wheel,” Capps said. “Then only one [of two] chutes came out, so I was on the brake pretty hard with that arm.”

He said he has been icing his arm and “as long as I didn't tear anything I'm OK. I'm still blown away with how quickly I recovered. The off-season was grueling with all the therapy, but it was worth it now."

Capps was able to work out Saturday morning to maintain his strenuous training regimen and credits the rapid healing to Gelb and to his physical therapy.

"It's amazing that I can strap into a Funny Car and pull six Gs,” he said. “That's phenomenal when I stop to think about what they did inside my arm."

HALE AND FAREWELL, CRUZ – Nostalgia-racing veteran John Hale, making his first start with Jim Dunn Racing, earned his first NHRA Funny Car round-win in the Moon Equipped Dodge. “It wasn’t pretty,” Hale said. But the Addison, Texas, resident said he would take it, even if that meant he had to face Matt Hagan in the quarterfinals.

Tony Pedregon, a two-time Pomona winner whose No. 5 starting spot was his best since the 2013 Denver race, didn’t have enough power to outshine Matt Hagan. Pedregon had a cylinder out right away, then had smoke coming from his Toyota engine shortly after that.

MORGAN STARTS OFF 2015 RIGHT WAY - Larry Morgan scored a first-round victory over Jimmy Alund, marking only his second elimination-round win since the September 2013 Dallas event. Morgan’s previous side-by-side triumph was at this event last year – his only race-day success all season – as he beat Allen Johnson. Morgan’s fun ended in an oh-so-close race against No. 3 qualifier Rodger Brogdon. Brogdon was alert on the tree at .014 seconds and nicked Morgan with a 6.565-second pass at 211.46. Morgan exited with a plenty-respectable .041-second reaction time and run of 6.566 second and a faster 212.36 mph.

NOBILE BEARS BRUNT – Allen Johnson never forgot his first-round elimination against Larry Morgan here last season, and he carried out his mission of atonement against Vincent Nobile Sunday. Johnson, who said, “We’d been struggling all weekend with the Mopar/Magneti Marelli Dodge Dart.” It behaved well enough Sunday to defeat Nobile on a holeshot. Johnson cut a .013 light and ran 6.574-second elapsed time, while Nobile had a .036-second reaction time and posted a quicker but losing 6.561. “We lost here last year in the first round, and it really pissed me off,” Johnson said.

TWO SHADES OF GRAY – The Gray Brothers, Jonathan and Shane, were bracketed on opposite sides of the ladder, and their only chance of meeting Sunday would have been in the final round. But parents Johnny and Terry didn’t have to take sides. Jonathan Gray red-lit against Chris McGaha to kick off Pro Stock qualifying. Shane Gray moved on by ousting Greg Anderson.

STARTS CAREER WITH TWO WIN LIGHTS - Drew Skillman’s first elimination pass was a winner. The rookie Ray Skillman Chevrolet Camaro driver beat veteran V Gaines, using a better reaction time (.056 seconds to .094) and a 6.570-second, 211.53-mph clocking over Gaines’ 6.586, 210.93.

Skillman’s quick success marks the first time in 19 years a Pro Stock rookie has qualified as well as No. 4. Tom Martino was the previous driver to accomplish that.

The Bargersville, Ind., native proved he had no qualms about facing veterans, knocking off Allen Johnson in the second round. Skillman and Johnson ran identical 6.595-second E.T.s, but Skillman won on a holeshot by virtue of his .028-second reaction time (versus Johnson’s .033). The rookie clocked a 210.90 mph, slower than Johnson’s 211.10. The margin of victory was about five-thousandths of a second.

Shane Gray did about everything he could do to beat Jason Line. But Line prevailed, thanks to his .042-second light that was a mere four-thousandths of a second quicker than Gray’s .046. Line drove to a 6.564-second, 211.56-mph effort, trumping Gray’s 6.574, 211.

A BEVY OF CHEVYS - No matter which Pro Stock finalist won the Wally, Chevrolet was destined to earn its 91st NHRA victory in the class.


SATURDAY - LANGDON, MASSEY, CRAMPTON MAKE BIG STATEMENTS IN TOP FUEL; COURTNEY FORCE POSTS THREE-SECOND FUNNY CAR RUN; RAIN DOUSES BECKMAN’S CHANCES; ENDERS-STEVENS VAULTS FROM LAST TO FIRST TO LEAD PRO STOCK
 

TOP FUEL
 

QUICKEST EVER - Top Fuel’s Shawn Langdon shook off sponsorship worries early Saturday afternoon and reeled off the quickest elapsed time in NHRA history, a 3.700-second pass at 328.30 mph in the Knuckle Sandwich / AJPE Dragster, to lead the field for Sunday’s eliminations.

He needs to record a pass at 3.737 seconds or quicker this weekend to back up the 3.700 for a national record and the 20 bonus points that come with that.

Langdon’s pass was one-thousandth of a second quicker than the 3.701 Antron Brown ran at Reading, Pa., in 2012. Langdon owns three of the top eight quickest Top Fuel times.

He said he “really wasn’t” expecting” a “3.700” to flash up on the scoreboard, especially on a 100-degree racetrack.  

“It was just a picture-perfect run,” Langdon said.  “It was accelerating hard, and it pulled all the way until I shut it off. I thought I caught a glimpse of a 3.70 on the scoreboard, but I wasn’t really sure.  When I turned the corner and saw everyone hootin’ and hollerin’, I thought, ‘I guess I did see that 3.70.’  It was an excellent job for the guys – very rewarding for them.

“We knew the potential was out there. It was a matter of getting the right conditions and setting the car up for them,” he said. He said team owner Alan Johnson and crew chiefs Brian Husen and Jason McCulloch “have been putting their heads together, and we felt there was an opportunity for it.  It was just a matter of everything falling together.”

It’s unclear whether Alan Johnson Racing will secure enough funding to complete the 2015 season or just how many more times this season Langdon will be able to pursue a second championship.  

“Once you get inside the race car, you tend to block a lot of stuff out, whether it’s personal stuff or sponsorship issues,” he said. “Inside of the race car, you’re focused on what you’re doing. It couldn’t have happened at a better time for Alan Johnson Racing. We think it’s crucial to make a statement early.”

 We’ve nailed everything we’ve set our goal on. It’s going to be tough, but I think we’ve got a chance.”

LOSES GROUND BUT HE’S REALLY FAST - Ever the cheerful NHRA pitchman, Top Fuel’s Spencer Massey remarked following his early Saturday run, “It’s great to be drinkin’ Mello Yello and smellin’ nitro.” He could have added, “Oh – and setting track speed records that equal national speed records.”

He drove the Red Fuel Powered By Schumacher/Sandvik Coromant Dragster to a 332.18-mph clocking, which eclipsed Doug Kalitta’s 2014 track mark of 330.15.

Massey improved his Friday-best elapsed time of 3.761 seconds to 3.745 on that third overall session but lost one place in the provisional lineup. He dropped from third to fourth, as Richie Crampton jumped in at No. 2 with a 3.730-second effort and Friday leader Doug Kalitta lowered his weekend-best E.T. to 3.733 seconds.

The 332.18-mph speed matched Massey’s own national record he set in April 2012 at MAX Dragway at Concord, N.C.

"We are really confident because we got points in all three of the Top Fuel sessions, and that's definitely a booster. We ran 332 mph and tied my career-best speed, so that's a big deal,” Massey said.

He’ll face No. 13 Clay Millican, who like himself is an IHRA Top Fuel champion, in Sunday’s first round of eliminations. And Massey expressed faith in his car and co-crew chiefs Phil Shuler and Todd Okuhara: “Coming out of West Palm Beach (Fla.) testing, we had a good car. And it's showing signs that it was to run fast – and when it runs fast we can win with it."

STILL TRUCKIN’ – Richie Crampton, whose GEICO/Lucas Oil Dragster was one of the top-performing cars at this track last November, moved up to second place in the starting grid with a 3.730-second in his only pass Saturday. He’ll face No. 15 qualifier JR Todd in Kalitta Motorsports’ Red Line Oil Dragster in the opening round of runoffs.

HANG TEN - Terry McMillen, the Top Fuel racer with the alligator on the side of his Amalie Oil/UNOH Dragster, has a “Surfer Dude” working in his pit this weekend. Funny Car owner-driver Jeff Diehl, known for years to drag-racing fans as “the Surfer Dude,” has known McMillen since their racing days with the International Hot Rod Association, when McMillen drove a flopper, too. Besides crew chief Rob Wendland, who’s new to the operation, Diehl might be the most experienced team member McMillen has this weekend.

GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS FOR BVR – Dave Connolly found the magic touch for the C&J Energy Services Dragster – and just in time. He finished Friday last in the 17-driver order. But in what turned out to be Saturday’s only opportunity to qualify, he cranked out a 3.803-second pass at 323.81 mph for the No. 10 spot. That was the good news. The bad? Bob Vandergriff Racing teammate Larry Dixon, a three-time series champion, will be his first Top Fuel opponent.

PRITCHETT SET TO GO ON HOME TRACK - Leah Pritchett called her 3.83-, 3.79- and 3.78-second elapsed times during qualifying in the Gumout/Dote Racing Dragster “consistent” and “a good baseline for Sunday’s eliminations,” which she’ll start against Brittany Force. They qualified in the middle of the pack, at eighth and ninth, Force with lane choice by one-hundredth of a second (3.779 to 3.789).
 
Pritchett said it was a “shame we didn’t get to run again on Saturday.” However, she knows crew chiefs Doug Kuch and Rob Flynn will be preparing differently because of the late-afternoon washout. “The rain brings a new element for first round of eliminations. It’s a new track on Sunday morning. We’ll have to adjust to the new conditions,” she said, adding that her team “is really getting a handle on the new chassis.” This will be her first race in her Brad Hadman-built car.
 
She has even more to be happy. The Redlands native, who raced here at Pomona at age eight in the Jr. Dragster program, will have a large cheering section Sunday.
 
“For years, we sat in Section 24 on row 24 at Pomona as fans,” Pritchett said. “I would watch the cars make their passes down the track and then run to the pits and stand at the ropes. We would watch all of the work being done on the cars. I was about 10 years old then. I still run into my old friends at the Pomona track each year. I saw my first high school boyfriend this week.”
 
ODD MAN OUT - Steve Faria, of Tulare, Calif., was the lone Top Fuel entrant to miss the field.  He had been 15th in the order at the close of Friday qualifying, but Clay Millican and Dave Connolly passed him by Saturday. Faria was .055 slower than Steve Chrisman’s bump spot. Chrisman has the dubious honor of lining up against No. 1 qualifier Shawn Langdon, who recorded th quickest elapsed time in NHRA history Saturday.

OTHER DUELS - A pair of East Texans highlights the remainder of first-round pairings Sunday: No. 5 Steve Torrence, of Kilgore, and No. 12, Troy Buff, of Spring. But one of the key matches in the first round surely will be No. 6 Tony Schumacher and No. 11 Antron Brown, Don Schumacher Racing and U.S. Army-sponsored colleagues.   

FUNNY CAR

SHE’S THE EMPRESS OF IMPRESS - Camaro driver Courtney Force said she was hoping to impress sponsors Traxxas, Chevrolet, Auto Club of Southern California, Mac Tools, and Peak this weekend. She certainly did Saturday, making fans and fellow Funny Car racers take notice, as well, with the Funny Car class’ first three-second elapsed time of 2015.

Her 3.995-second, 322.69-mph performance marked the first three-second run for a Chevrolet Funny Car. It was Force’s first, officially, and therefore her personal best as she became the 12th different Funny Car racer to run in quicker than four seconds. She had posted the envelope-pushing number during testing sessions, but this was the first time she did it at an event.

“I feel like I just ran a marathon. That Traxxas car, it flew down there,” she said after hopping from the car with the tentative No. 1 qualifying position for this race she won in 2013 from the top spot.  

Co-crew chief Dan Hood, her brother-in-law, was slightly more subdued with his reaction. He said the car “is running as it should.”

Force has lowered her E.T. each time, recording her personal best with the early Saturday pass. She started qualifying Friday with a 4.132-second, 302.75-mph, then closed the day with a 4.097, 293.25. Both Friday efforts belied a dropped cylinder.

Although the three-second pass lifted her from ninth place in the order to first, she said she .

She has won seven times and will seek her eighth victory Sunday, starting with a first-round pairing against Gary Densham, a former John Force Racing driver, in eliminations.

RAIN ROBS BECKMAN OF LAST-CHANCE EFFORT – Jack Beckman entered this race with such high hopes after landing successful crew chiefs Jimmy Prock and John Medlen, getting full funding and having the honor of promoting the Infinite Hero Foundation that helps veterans. He was optimistic, despite virtually all new personnel on his team. And he was able to stay at his home at nearby Norco. He knew he might not have instant success this year, but he certainly didn’t expect instant disaster, either.

However, a rainstorm came and swept away the last chance Beckman had to make the field of 16. His failure to qualify ended his streak of 65 event appearances that dated back to the Houston race in the spring of 2012. It is just the seventh time in Beckman’s 205-race career that he has missed making the grid. But it hit harder because this was the event that was supposed to break him out of his 2014 funk for not qualifying for the Countdown to the Championship.

"I am disappointed,” Beckman said, “but I think a lot of our sport is about timing. If this was November and we didn't qualify, I would be devastated. I think the reason that I'm not feeling that bad right now is that I recognize that there are 23 races left, we are going to do some fantastic stuff this year with the Infinite Hero team, and we are going to challenge for the championship.”

He said he was “stunned” at the development. "I am perplexed at all the things that went wrong,” he said. “I never would have even thought that we would be close to this situation, but I'm going to be philosophical about it. We are going to go test this thing before Phoenix. We will figure out what's wrong with it and come out ready to win that race.”

TEAM WILK NEW. IS IT IMPROVED? – Tim Wilkerson’s Levi, Ray & Shoup Ford Mustang got a fresh engine overnight in an effort to push the veteran Funny Car driver from 11th place into the top half of the field.

Evidently it helped some, for Wilkerson improved from 11th to 10th on the grid in the third overall session. That earned him a date with No. 7 rival Robert Hight in the opening round of runoffs Sunday.

It was another learning experience for this Springfield, Ill., team that has been making excellent strides as a virtually new group. Ryan Wirth is the lone crew member who is working in the same capacity as he did last season, and he has welcomed four new teammates: Mark Dritt, Daniel Grinnell, Joe Serena, and seasoned tuner (and former Wilkerson on-track competitor) Richard Hartman. Nick Shaff has switched from cylinder head specialist to clutch guru.

"We had two guys go over to another team during the winter, and we had another guy who wanted to move into our machine shop, so we're a pretty different bunch right now,” Wilkerson said. “But they're smart guys, and they seem to be coming together pretty well. One of the guys we lost was my clutch guy, and that's an important slot on the team, so I asked Nick if he'd be interested in making the switch, and he dove right in. I figured I'd rather have a guy I know and trust learn the clutch procedures than a totally new guy, and I expect Nick to be right on top of it.
 
"Another guy we lost was more or less my right hand out there when the car was being serviced, and I wasn't real sure how we were going to fill that spot, until I thought of Richard Hartman. You don't often get a chance to bring a guy with his kind of experience and talent into the group, and he's really going to be a big addition to this program. There's probably not a situation he hasn't seen or addressed, and we're a better team just having him."
 
Hartman has a dual role: overseeing mechanical operations and giving Wilkerson tuning input.
 
No matter what, Wilkerson definitely is ahead of his usual season-opening baseline. “We haven't done too much testing the last few years, trying to save our budget for the real deal, and I've had to admit that our testing was really getting done at the first two races, in Pomona and Phoenix, which usually got us off to a slow start,” he said.
 
But he splurged in late January and took his reshaped team to Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park at Chandler, Ariz. There he experimented with two different approaches on the track, mainly to see how his clutch and engine responded to aggressive set-ups. Both set-ups produced 4.04-second, 313-mph runs. So that was a pleasant discovery, as was the way his team began to gel in its first real-time drills.
 
All this will serve Wilkerson well, considering the team might face some adjustments at Gainesville, Fla., in Race No. 3 of the season. His fresh paint scheme will come on a brand-new body.
 
Even before Winternationals qualifying kicked off Friday at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, Wilkerson said, “I honestly think we're a win just looking for a place to happen." If it’s going to happen at Pomona in the season-opener, he’ll have to get past Hight.
 
OOPS AND OUCH – Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car drivers Jack Beckman and Matt Hagan were the first to incur the NHRA’s new $1,000 fine and five-point deduction for oiling the track for the first time. That was Friday. They got company Saturday, as owner-driver Bob Bode and veteran Jeff Arend, in his first event in Steve Plueger's car, messed up the racing surface. The Safety Safari worked 20 minutes to clean the track after the engine in Bode’s Toyota blew up in the third overall session. Fifteen minutes later, Arend followed with an oildown in Steve Plueger’s ’10 Chevy Impala (and a fire under the car, as well) that cost another 15 minutes.
 
BREAKOUT WEEKEND FOR TONY PEDREGON – If Tony Pedregon had been feeling like it was light years since he earned his second Funny Car series crown, Saturday brought the good memories flooding back (no pun intended with the rain that shortened qualifying Saturday). Pedregon qualified fifth, only three-thousandths of a second behind older brother Cruz. And he did it by jumping seven places in the Funny Car line-up early Saturday with a career-best 4.030-second run at 304.39 mph. That represented his best result since 2010.

“”It was a good run,” the driver of the local Mark Christopher auto dealership-sponsored Toyota Camry said. “I was expecting to do that for a long time. Cruz told me if you give these cars what they want, they’ll do that for you. That’s a pretty impressive run for us. I’m a Southern California guy, so it’s nice to do that in front of the hometown crowd.”

Tony Pedregon will meet 12th-place qualifier Matt Hagan, the reigning class champion.

BENDER JOINS CRUZ PEDREGON – Cruz Pedregon is starting his 28th season as the No. 4 qualifier, in a brand-new Snap-on Toyota Funny Car, with three new crew members, including veteran tuner Donnie Bender. Dennis Healy II and Anthony Marquez are new to the team and will help the two-time champion Pedregon sort out the new chassis, fuel system, slide valves, and evacuation system on the Camry.

Chris “Warrior” Kullberg will serve as car chief, and he said Bender “will be a real asset to the team, just as he has been to the sport of drag racing.” He said, “Donnie helped us out during Pomona 2 last year and with some testing runs.”

At recent testing at Phoenix, Pedregon coaxed a 4.011-second run at 313 mph from the car, and that has him energized.

“Nothing like a new car and high-performing equipment to get you fired up for the NHRA season,” Pedregon said. “Last year we fought for consistency, and this race car is capable of running 320 [mph] each time down the track. That’s the goal, and we’ve got the systems and people in place to accomplish it.”

Pedregon qualified fourth with a 4.027-second pass that was a mere six-thousandths of a second slower than No. 3 starter John Force. His first test in eliminations Sunday will come against John Hale, the No. 13 driver.

Snap-on announced at the end of last season its renewal as Pedregon Racing’s primary sponsor, taking its long-standing partnership into its 25th year.

HAGAN’S BIG BANG THEORY – Current Funny Car champion Matt Hagan (and the world, thanks to the Internet) has seen his share of spectacular engine concussions. Of course, having another one happen to him – with the newest version of the Dodge Charger body and the No. 1 on his wing – seemed rather undignified for his triumphant return to Pomona. But that’s what happened. And Hagan has a philosophy about that.

"The Countdown (to the Championship) proves that you can have a couple of struggles early. We did last year. We have a couple solid races then had a streak of a bunch of first round losses and came back to win the championship,” Hagan said. “I want to win them all, but realistically, if we can get some of these issues and gremlins out of the way early, then hopefully we can get back on track and do what we've done in the past."

After Hagan’s 4.09-second pass at 310.70 mph in the Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots Charger, Hagan lifted off of the throttle, and the engine erupted in fire. That’s the run he had to rely on to secure the No. 12 starting position for Sunday’s eliminations, the one that arranged a first-round meeting with fellow two-time champion Tony Pedregon.

The fire heavily damaged the body underneath. All of the wiring had to be replaced, and that process takes hours. The Don Schumacher Racing team stayed at the track into the early Saturday-morning hours to finish the work. They had to use the back-up body.

"It says a lot for my team," Hagan said. "There are not too many jobs where you work all day long and then half the night. I come in late and leave early and they come in early and leave late. It makes me have so much more respect for them, because they have such a passion for this. It's not just about a paycheck. They do it because they love it, and to me that is special, because they do whatever it takes to get the job done. It's a pretty special group that we have."

Hagan actually believed that already and didn’t need calamity to reinforce that.

"It was obviously not what we were expecting on the first day of the race season," he said. "The first lap it went out there and put a hole out, and we came back and tried to adjust for it and leaned it up. And I guess it just had stuff not go the right way. We caught it on fire, and unfortunately it was a pretty good fire."

"I'm not sure that it really showed it that well in the video, but it was a pretty good boomer in there,” Hagan said. “And for this new body to stay in one piece and not get beat up too bad was really good. Plus it kept that firewall down on me and didn't allow all of the fire to come in around me. So that was huge for the safety aspect. These new cars are definitely going to be safer for us, and I'm tickled to death to be running one."

SO THERE - Tommy Johnson Jr. said Friday night he was surprised his 4.018-second pass at a class-best 314.46 mph held up as Funny Car’s quickest. He was .042 of a second ahead of closest competitor Chad Head and opened nearly five-hundredths of a second over provisional No. 5 Cruz Pedregon. Johnson was in the fourth pairing in that second session, and that concerned him.

“Sometimes you can go out and make a really good run, and it shows everybody how good the track is and they make changes and you end up five or six. So I was a little surprised. But at the same time, it’s early in the season, it’s tricky, and they [his competitors] don’t have a lot of runs to go off of. So I was surprised. I thought we’d end up three or four. There was a lot of good cars behind us.

“I’m not sure why everybody struggled. I don’t care, if you really want to know the truth,” he said. “I don’t get paid to worry about them.”

The only one he might have to be concerned with at the moment, unless he strictly races himself and his own conditions, is No. 2 qualifier. Jeff Arend, at No. 15, will be Johnson’s first-round opponent Sunday.

NO TIME FOR HERO RUN – Alexis DeJoria was safely in the Funny Car field when the clouds opened up Saturday afternoon. But she said she was disappointed that she didn’t get a last qualifying chance to move up in the order. Weighing more on her mind, she indicated, was the missed chance to match or better her pal Courtney Force with a three-second run.
 
“We were going to try and make a ‘hero run’ and try and get back in the three-second range during Q4, but with the rain, we didn’t end up getting that chance. So that was the end of our day. We ended up qualified in the No. 11 spot. It’s all good, though. We’re qualified, and anything can happen on race day as long as you’re qualified. We had a good run yesterday with that 4.085, and we’re going to hold tight and hope for the best tomorrow,” she said.

IN FIGHT MODE - No. 3 starter John Force said that when his first-round bout with No. 14 Bob Bode approaches, “I want to be in racing fight mode. I was in fight mode yesterday and today to do hospitality for the first time. It has all worked, thanks to a great team.”

This will be Force’s 643rd Funny Car race, but it will be his first with new crew chief Jon Schaffer, who’s not nearly as excitable as Force but is equally optimistic.

“Our confidence is pretty good, but a lot depends on track conditions tomorrow,” Schaffer said. “I wasn’t worried about being the quickest today, but it was nice to get that last run under our belt. If the track gets that good tomorrow, we have a set up for that. We have a 4.02 and a 4.06 to work with, and between those two runs, we should be able to make something happen.”

OTHER PAIRINGS – Among the Funny Car match-ups are best buddies Del Worsham, with lane choice as No. 8, over No. 9 Chad Head; a for-some-reason-always-dramatic side-by-side with No. 3 John Force and No. 14 Bob Bode; and No. 6 Ron Capps and No. 11 Alexis DeJoria.

PRO STOCK

BOUNCES BACK TO LEAD FIELD – Erica Enders-Stevens’s return to Auto Club Raceway didn’t go quite as she might envisioned it. She didn’t just pick up where she left off. She couldn’t make a full pass in either of Friday's two qualifying sessions, but she leaped from last place in the 17-car list to first with a 6.516-second blast at 213.10 mph to knock Jason Line, her Countdown nemesis last fall, from the top qualifying spot.

"That's a little nerve-wracking if you drive a Pro Stock car," Enders-Stevens said. "You're uncertain of track conditions, so you have to be a little conservative to make sure you get down. But my guys stepped up, as they always do, and we made a great run."
 
The afternoon rain that cancelled the remainder of qualifying sealed her career 13th top position. That means she’ll meet No. 16 Matt Hartford when eliminations start Sunday. But more importantly, it meant he team could buck adversity and come through in a pinch.
 
"We were able to stay No. 1," Enders-Stevens said. "That's all that matters for my Elite Motorsports team. I wish we would have gotten that last run, because we wanted to try some things. But tomorrow should be a good day."
 
With a new tire compound from Goodyear and new fuel to incorporate, Enders-Stevens and her team struggled at first, but father-son crew chiefs Rick and Rickie Jones hit on a good combination during testing earlier this week.
 
"It was very interesting but we figured it out," she said. "We made two full hits in [testing at] Phoenix, and then we were able to come here. Going into Sunday with only one run under your belt isn't ideal, but I know if anybody can do it, we can. I've got the best guys in the world, and I'm excited to see what tomorrow brings."

FOR WHOM THE ISBELL TOLLS – Utah racer and relative newcomer to the Pro Stock class Jeff Isbell missed the field.

SALVAGED A SPOT – Matt Hartford began his day with the daunting prospect of being 15th in a 17-car field, with Vincent Nobile and reigning champion Erica Enders-Stevens behind him, vying for spots in the starting 16. But he drove the oldest car among his peers, a 2009 Pontiac GXP, to the bump spot at 6.611. So he’ll square off against Enders-Stevens, the No. 1 qualifier.    

GROSE IN MIX - Joey Grose missed Friday’s top 12 by two-thousandths of a second. V Gaines took the modest honors with a 6.623-second elapsed time, while Grose posted his day’s-best 6.625. He found some extra power early Saturday and improved to take the No. 15 spot. And for his effort, he has to start eliminations against two-time champion Jason Line, last year’s Pro Stock winner here.

THE MATCH-UPS – Nos. 8 and 9, Chris McGaha and Jonathan Gray, will meet Sunday in the opening round, as will No. 4 Drew Skillman and No. 13 V Gaines, No. 5 Vincent Nobile and former teammate No. 12 Allen Johnson, No. 7 Greg Anderson and No. 10 Shane Gray, No. 3 Rodger Brogdon and No. 14 Deric Kramer, and No. 6 Larry Morgan and No. 11 Jimmy Alund.

 

 

FRIDAY - LANGDON MAKING MOST OF SITUATION; TITLE CARRIES NO FAVORS FOR HAGAN; NEW SPONSORS HELP SEVERAL TEAMS; LINE SAYS WIN LIGHT THREE MONTHS TOO LATE; F.C. OILDOWNS SPOIL REPEAT OF QUICK FIRST SESSION

 
THEY CAN DO IT - The first pro session Friday – all three classes – wrapped up in just an hour and 40 minutes. Pro Stock started at 12:30 p.m. The Funny Car class started at 1:01. Top Fuel racers took to the track at 1:35 and ended at 2:05. So it was a promising start to the season.
 
However, a combined 25-minute delay because of fire/oildowns from Jack Beckman and Matt Hagan threw off the timing in the second session.
 
OIL-FREE AWARD – Last week, the NHRA announced increased fines and points penalties for Top Fuel and Funny Car teams who deposit oil on the racetrack surface during NHRA Mello Yello Series events. An oildown violation is defined as any incident requiring the use of NHRA Safety Safari equipment to cleanup an oil spill. The details of that didn’t receive a lot of applause in some areas of the pits. But Friday, the NHRA announced an incentive program that will reward individual Top Fuel and Funny Car teams who make it through the 2015 season without an oildown.
 
A bonus fund of $50,000 will be split among the top 10 nitro-fueled race teams with the greatest number of oil-free runs at season’s end.
 
In 2014, 27 nitro teams out of a total of 74 raced all season without an oil violation. John Force had the most oil-free runs in Funny Car with 160, and Shawn Langdon had the most in Top Fuel with 154.
 

TOP FUEL

KALITTA RISES TO THE TOP - Doug Kalitta posted a 3.733-second pass at 327.59 mph in his Mac Tools dragster during the final pair of the day at historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. In the first round of qualifying, Kalitta ran a 3.809-second run at 323.12 mph, which put him in the No. 2 spot after round one.

“We’re real happy with those two runs,” Kalitta said. “I’m not sure with the weather, I think it might be a little cooler tomorrow. There’s just a lot of good running cars that can run better than we did. So, hopefully I’m hearing again tomorrow talking to you guys. We’ll see how it goes.”

Kalitta was the No. 1 qualifier at this event last year and finished the race as runner-up. He earned six No. 1 qualifying positions in 2014 and appeared in nine final rounds en route to a fifth place points finish.

A ROOKIE NO LONGER - Richie Crampton said he's happy crew chief Aaron Brooks didn’t monkey with the GEICO/Lucas Oil Dragster during the winter break. And it's no wonder. Crampton drove it to the fourth-quickest elapsed times in NHRA history (3.711 seconds) right here in November. (Team owner Morgan Lucas, in a part-time role, won the Finals that weekend and recorded both the second- and third-quickest, 3.704 and 3.707, in the process.) Crampton, the No. 1 qualifier, also grabbed a share of the ninth-quickest E.T., tying Antron Brown at 3.720 seconds at the Finals.

"We haven't changed a thing, really, in the off-season on the race car," said Crampton, the 2014 Auto Club of Southern California Road to the Future Award recipient as the NHRA's top rookie. "And that's largely because we had a fantastic run at the last race of 2014 in Pomona. It's always a great feeling to be able to take that same car back to the same racetrack and try doing it all again."
 
Crampton indicated he's also glad to shed the rookie label. "Last year I was an unknown rookie and I felt like I had a lot to learn. Starting out the 2015 season with a year under my belt is pretty exciting. I'll be on the front foot instead of the back foot when this year starts. Hopefully I can help this GEICO/Lucas Oil team contend for a championship right from the get-go," he said.
 
"I'm really comfortable in Pomona. That's a racetrack we get to race at twice a year. There's also the fact that it's one of our favorite races to compete in, being in Lucas Oil's backyard. It gives us a lot of confidence to go out and run well at that race, especially with it being the season opener," Crampton said.
 
He was a respectable seventh in the first session.
 
LANGDON WEATHERING 'DISTRACTIONS' WELL - Always understated, 2013 Top Fuel series champion Shawn Langdon called Alan Johnson Racing' separation from Al-Anabi Racing and the paring of Khalid alBalooshi's team as "some distractions." Despite the team's new task of finding enough funding to operate for a full season, he said he's optimistic about his chances to win here again. He won both races here in 2013.

"This weekend, it’s all about winning the Winternationals," he said. "Our team won this race last year [with alBalooshi], and our plan is to do everything we can to repeat as Winternationals champions and get Alan Johnson Racing’s next chapter off to a great start."
 
Among the reasons he's excited to race here is again are the fact that this was a quick track last November, especially for former teammates Morgan Lucas and Richie Crampton and the fact that this is home for the Mira Loma, Calif., native who lives near Indianapolis today.
 
"At the end of the year, there were some really fast times there.  We’re excited to get back on the track [here] for a lot of reasons. Pomona's always a fun race with all our friends and family in the area. I think especially at this point, with all that’s happened to our team, it'll be good to have our friends and family there for support," Langdon said.
 
His car didn't always perform its best last season, but Langdon said with crew chiefs Jason McCulloch and Brian Husen working together this year, results should improve. "We struggled quite a bit last year with some changes we made on the car. Having Jason and Brian working together, maybe both of them can learn a little bit from each other under Alan Johnson's master plan. I think having more eyes on the car will definitely be positive this year, and still having [assistant crew chief] Nick Peters on the car is also very positive. The majority of our crew guys came from what was our gold team last year so we have some guys with a lot of experience.
 
"We've made some changes we hope will help our car and open up the tuning window. Everything always looks good on paper. You just have to get out onto the race track and see how it works out," he said. "We think we’re onto something good, and we're excited to get our race car back."

PRITCHETT HAS PLAN DOWN TO A SCIENCE - Leah Pritchett, a communications and sports marketing major at Cal State – San Bernardino, was quick to trade on sponsor Gumout's marketing slogan: "Science In. Performance Out." She said her Doug Kuch / Rob Flynn-led crew "decided to adopt a little bit of that and add more science to our effort with more engineering, a new chassis, and some better parts. Now we're definitely ahead of last year, and I feel we have those parts, pieces, people and maybe even that science to compete for a victory. Top Fuel is a tough category . . . but we believe we can run with the top teams now. Last year, we were a little behind when we came to Pomona for the Winternationals. We announced the new Gumout sponsorship there, and it took us some time to get everything up to speed. But we worked very hard to get the car competitive by the end of the year, and the team really came together."

It certainly had its act together from the start of the season Friday. Pritchett was a top-five qualifier in the opening session and was eighth in the second session.

Pritchett, 26, who grew up in nearby Redlands, isn't interested in just science and marketing. She had a bit of literature and storytelling on her mind as she returned to this track where she raced a Jr. Dragster as an eight-year-old. "I’m living my childhood dream now. Our focus is to win races and advance to the Countdown, and it starts this week at Pomona. I grew up racing at the Pomona track. So winning the Winternationals in the Top Fuel division would be the ultimate thrill for me," she said. "It's a great story if it can happen. That's our goal right now."
 
The versatile Dote Racing driver – who has licenses in the Top Fuel, Funny Car, Nostalgia Funny Car and Pro Mod classes – said a Brad Hadman chassis that her team debuted last fall at Las Vegas should account for some performance gains. "All of the best Top Fuel teams run the Hadman chassis, and we felt like we needed to upgrade our program to be competitive in 2015. We were able to test it in Florida last month, which went well. Let's just say I'm very excited to get to Pomona. I feel like this team has put the best foot forward to contend each weekend."
 
She’ll have extra help this season from Sparkling ICE. The brand, part of the Talking Rain Beverage Company, announced it will support the Dote Racing Dragster as an associate sponsor throughout 2015 and as primary sponsor this October at the Reading, Pa., event at Maple Grove Raceway. Sparkling ICE and Pritchett will collaborate on custom Sparkling ICE driver and crew uniforms, as well as promotional items such as co-branded apparel, autographed merchandise, and tickets.
 
ALWAYS A TARGET - Tony Schumacher said it doesn’t matter where in the standings he finished the season before – he still will be in the crosshairs of every driver's sights. "I go, 'Oh, man, they're going to be really gunning for us,' and then I go, 'Wait a minute – they're always gunning for us.' We had the No. 7 on our car last year. The quickest runs in the history of last season were against me, and it didn't have the No. 1 on the side of the car. I think that Army car is so cool [that] people love racing it. It's a great car and great team that's been successful and done a lot over the years, so it's always a target. That's the way it is," Schumacher, the eight-time and reigning Top Fuel champion, said. "I'm glad to be the driver. I enjoy it mostly because I like to know that the guy racing me finds it worthy to try hard, and it's cool. I think we're just proud to have the No. 1 on the car, not that we've got to try harder or do this or do that, but we're happy that the year ended like it did, and grateful for the same guys returning back and doing the same jobs, and we're getting better and stronger every day."

This is only the first of 24 races on the 2015 schedule, yet already Schumacher is motivating himself by thinking of those miracle moments, his favorite kind, the do-or-die performance challenges.

"You know, I sit in the car a lot of times and think, 'Why do I do this? This is so intense.' Before a big run that you have to be really great at, sometimes you sit in the car and you just think, 'This is nuts. This is just so much pressure.' And what I'm so happy to be able to do is look back on all the times that it's been so difficult and how we've pulled it off. It makes it so much easier to get through those moments, because there was a time where it was deer in the headlights. It was so big, you thought, 'There's no way.' And then you win a few of those and your team pulls off these miracles, and you start to believe. Some of you guys actually joke about it. I believe in stuff that doesn't seem possible. Well, I do. The funny thing is I've kind of lived a lot of those moments that have made it easy to believe. That run in '06 that was physically impossible. I'm not sure we even knew what it was we thought – 'Oh, well, there's a snowball's chance, but really? Are we really going to be able to do this?' And then you pull it off and you start to think, 'Wow, this is absolutely possible.' World records are broken all the time because it's never been done before. I like those moments. If you want to see me get beat, come to a race where it's not important, because we drop our guard a little bit, and that happens. But we're good when it's important. We're good when it's a must, and that's just how our team is."

GREEN – BUT THAT MEANS GO (!), RIGHT? – New C&J Energy Services Dragster driver Dave Connolly said he's "very, very green to the class still" after coming to Top Fuel from the Pro Stock class. Before his first competitive pass, he said, "It's going to be exciting Q1 just to try to make a full pull and get to the uprights under full power."

He has had some excellent teachers in team owner Bob Vandergriff and three-time series champion Larry Dixon. "Between and Larry, you're talking about 40 years' experience behind the wheel. Larry has been a very big help, and any questions that I may have and even things that he foresees me maybe experiencing, he's kind of given me a heads up on. Having those guys in your corner is obviously going to be a huge factor in speeding up the learning process, but they keep telling me it's all about seat time, and the more laps you make, things will start to slow down and you'll start to adapt to them a little quicker. Again, Top Fuel session 101 is definitely in order."

What he's enjoying about a dragster, he said, are "the Gs that they continue to accelerate all the way down the track. It's a fun ride for 1,000 feet, not 900 but 1,000. These things are impressive. The amount of power that they can apply to the racetrack continually for that period of time and go for 1,000 feet, you're covering up the last 320 or 340 feet of the track in about seven-tenths of a second, and to me that's just mind-blowing."

Connolly began his To Fuel career with a 13.570-second, 23.48-mph tire-smoking pass that left him 16th among 17 racers. Only Steve Faria had more trouble and opened in last place, tentatively. Connolly had more than his share of problems in the second session. His car had problems backing up, and it didn’t go forward, either. He sat there after pre-staging, 0-for-Friday.

SCHUMACHER COMPLIMENTS CONNOLLY - Champion Tony Schumacher, the class' most successful driver with 77 victories and eight titles (and a No. 4 ranking in NHRA triumphs, behind Funny Car's John Force and Pro Stockers Warren Johnson and Bob Glidden), said he liked Connolly's humble approach.

"It's the only way to go," Schumacher said. "Once you get in those cars you can think you're the coolest guy in the world. They start up the cars, and all that goes out the window. And the funny thing is he does have a great leader. He's got Larry Dixon and Bob Vandergriff as a team owner who's made so many laps. But when the car starts and they step away, you are 100-percent alone, and that's the humbling part. There's no one that can help you.

"My first time I started a Top Fuel car, I was in Denver, Colorado. And after they started it, I looked around. I'm sitting in this car buckled in, and there wasn't one guy that's ever driven a car around me," the U.S. Army Dragster driver said. "I could see the crew chief leaning forward, and it looked like he gave me a thumbs up and said, 'Good luck,' but you can't hear. And you're thinking to yourself, 'Oh, my - this is insane,' because you are going to hit the gas and go over 100 miles an hour in under one second, and there's no way to practice it."

Schumacher complimented Connolly, saying, "I think he's a great driver. I think Vandergriff made an excellent choice." However, he said the reality is that "it's going to take him time to get used to a Top Fuel car, the difference in staging. There's so much that's different. But he understands how to race. He's got the perfect attitude, and he's a good athlete. All those things are going to play right into it, and he'll go out and make some laps, and he'll get used to it and become a great driver like everyone expects. That's why Bob put him in the car."

TESTING A WEE BIT LONGER - Clay Millican took his Parts Plus/ Great Clips Dragster for a few test drives Monday and Tuesday as his first official acts for Stringer Motorsports. After debuting crew chief David Grubnic and general manager Lance Larsen watched his passes at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Millican said, "I am really impressed with how the test went, with what this group has done in such a short amount of time. I'm really happy with how everything has come together, especially starting from the ground up with a new group that has never worked together.  We are going to put some big numbers up."
 
He said he considered Friday's first two qualifying sessions here as an extension of his testing. He said he would "make another test lap or two before we let this thing loose. We look to qualify solidly in the field on one of the last two runs and then take a big swing at it on Sunday. Sunday is anybody's day, and there's no reason we can’t go out there and come away with a Wally."

Millican, the six-time IHRA Top Fuel champion, is looking for his first NHRA victory. He raced on a limited basis in the NHRA for nine seasons, then competed in his first full season in 2007. Since then, he has raced fulltime since 2012.

'BUSTED ALL COBWEBS OUT'- Antron Brown said he "busted all the cobwebs out" at preseason testing last month in Florida and that he and his Matco Tools / U.S. Army Dragster team are trying to parlay performance into a better showing than seventh place last year, a year in which Brown recorded a class-best six victories. "It's right there," he said. "All we have to do is reach up there and grab it and, trust me, we are going to be grabbing hard with everything we've got. All of our guys are seasoned, poised and they have communication energy, where they can see each other's eyes and actually know what's going on without even talking. That’s very important, especially in a class that's getting so competitive, because you have to have some kind of edge. We just want to be consistent and make every lap that we can, but we also want to go as quick as we can every lap so we are on that edge. We're teetering on that edge where it will go or not go, but we ran those great times [in testing]. We want to make it down the track eight out of 10 times – that's the goal. That's the window that we were shooting for, and we were getting closer and closer to it each and every run. That's the goal of testing, not to go fast but to go downtrack. That's what wins rounds, that's what wins drag races, and that's what wins championships."

HUNTING FOR MORE WALLYS - Away from the racetrack, Top Fuel driver Steve Torrence is an avid hunter. But hunting trophies, he said, are all the trophies he has had lately. "Hopefully, we can put some more Wallys in the trophy case this year," the four-time winner from Kilgore, Texas, said. His last victory came June 16, 2103, at Bristol, Tenn.

What makes this longest victory drought of his pro career so annoying is the fact he finished sixth in the final standings last year but with three more round-wins, he could have finished second. What's more, if Torrence has earned as many victories as he had in 2012, he could have been the first driver ever to win NHRA series championships in both the alcohol and fuel divisions. (He was the NHRA’s 2005 Top Alcohol Dragster champion.)

But he isn’t one to ponder, at least not too long, what might have been. He said he's proud of his effort and looking ahead to this season's chances. "We raced hard last year, and we proved that as a family racing team, going up against the Schumachers and the Kalittas and everyone else, we have the people and the parts to race for a championship," Torrence said. "What we didn’t have was racing luck, but it’s been my experience that all of that evens out over the long run.  At least I hope it does."

TODD DRIVING THE RED LINE DRAGSTER - JR Todd received a boost Thursday, when Red Line Synthetic Oil stepped up as primary sponsor of his Kalitta Motorsports dragster at selected events throughout the year. Red Line sponsored the Connie Kalitta-tuned Top Fuel car for multiple races in the 2006 NHRA season and has been an associate sponsor of the Kalitta Motorsports race cars since 2001. Todd, the 2014 series runner-up, said, “I am excited about our new look with the Red Line Oil car and look forward to representing Red Line with some great results at the Winternationals. We’re ready to get the season started and we’re thrilled to start the year off with such a great team. We can’t thank Cameron Evans and the entire Red Line family enough for the opportunity.”

Cameron Evans, Red Line president, said, “Red Line’s closest relationship in racing is with the Kalitta organization. The opportunity to work even closer with the team came about and we welcomed the opportunity to brand the car. We feel that JR Todd is one of NHRA’s best drivers and to brand the car that Connie Kalitta personally runs is great fun for our customers and employees.”

Jim Oberhofer, vice-president of operations at Kalitta Motorsports, said, “We’ve been proud to represent Red Line Oil for close to 15 years. They’ve been one of our most supportive associates through those years, and we’re excited to grow the relationship by running the primary colors of Red Line. Connie and JR are ready to get out there and give the fans a good show.”

Todd was in the top 12 in the first session Friday, at 4.621 seconds, 161.96. He remained 12th with two Saturday sessions scheduled before the field is set for the season-opener.

FUNNY CAR

WISH COMES TRUE - Tommy Johnson Jr. recorded a 4.018-second, 314.46 mph performance in his Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger, earning him the top qualifying position.  Johnson posted a career-best third place points finish last season in his first season driving for Don Schumacher Racing.

“The team has just picked up right where we left off and gives me a lot of confidence,” Johnson said. “I know we have a very competitive team. We can roll it right off of the box at Pomona and pick up right where we left off. I think we’re on the right track to have a great season.”

HAGAN KNOWS IT'S A NEW, TOUGH SEASON - During a test session in South Florida last December, Matt Hagan and his Don Schumacher Racing-owned Mopar Express Lane / Rocky Dodge recorded, unofficially, the quickest run ever by a Funny Car: a 3.954 seconds at 323.97 mph. But the reigning class champion has it all in perspective.
 
"We just have to make sure our car goes down the racetrack and we continue to do the things we've done that put us in the position we're in right now, with that No. 1 on the side of our car,” Hagan said. We have a lot of positive things going for us right now, but it is a 10,000-horsepower car, and anything can happen."
 
Hagan owns two of the past four Funny Car world championships, and with the new body and its aerodynamic improvement, he aims to make it three in five years. He said crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen “have the combination we left there with so I'm feeling confident." Moreover, he said, "Having a new Dodge Charger R/T body is just huge. The guys at Mopar and SRT did a phenomenal job with this body, and there are so many improvements to it. And the visibility is much better for me as a driver. All in all, I think it's a great piece, and I can't wait to race it this season."
 
Hagan reached the final round in each of his previous three events at Pomona and won the past two Finals. In each of those three finals he faced rival John Force, and he knows 2014 series runner-up Force will be trying to earn his 17th championship at Hagan’s (and everyone else’s) expense. "It's going to be another tough season, for sure," Hagan said. "We have a great car and we had a great couple of test sessions during the offseason. The last couple years at Pomona, our car has been great.”

In Friday’s first pass of this season that counts, Hagan ran a 4.191-second E.T. at 296.24 mph to close the session in 11th place. Despite a fire that took the Safety Safari 17 minutes to clean up, Hagan will start Saturday’s final day of qualifying eighth in the order.   
 
GREAT OPPORTUNITY - Jack Beckman knows that to whom much is given, much is expected. So who cares about extra pressure? Beckman said he'd rather have that than a car that doesn't perform, no prospects of winning, and a second straight fall unqualified for the Countdown to the Championship.

"With [crew chief] Jimmy Prock, I realize that the expectations are real high. We are going to be expected to win, and I'm going to be expected to drive at a consistently high level – and I love feeling that way. I'm not going to take it as added pressure. I'm going to take it as an opportunity to go out there and achieve what we are capable of."
 
Among his benefactors is Terry Chandler, who added his car to her second-year sponsorship of Tommy Johnson Jr.'s Make-A-Wish Dodge. That has enabled him to race with a full season of funding for the first time since he joined Don Schumacher Racing in 2006.
 
Through that expansion of Chandler’s unique partnership with DSR, Beckman again will carry the Infinite Hero Foundation as his sponsor, this time not for only six races but for the full 24-race season. The non-profit organization is dedicated to providing critical funding to programs that combat mental and physical injuries facing returning military heroes and their families.
 
Once again, fans can support the Infinite Hero cause and receive a military challenge coin that has gone down the track with Beckman. This year, a new edition of the coin will be available for purchase with a donation of $100 or more to Infinite Hero Foundation at the Oakley store on the Manufacturers Midway during NHRA races and online at InfiniteHero.org.

Beckman will be available at races to sign and record the track time for coins after each run. Last year, fans and sponsors raised $150,000 for the Infinite Hero Foundation. Its president, Oakley CEO Colin Baden, said the foundation has donated nearly $2 million to 10 different veteran service organizations. Added Baden, "We are honored to continue the partnership for 2015 and couldn't ask for a better spokesperson than Jack Beckman."
 
("Through both the Make-A-Wish and Infinite Hero teams last season, I was able to meet so many inspirational people being served by both organizations. To be able to fund both teams to raise awareness and support for these causes means the world to me,” Chandler said. “It brings so much joy to my life and I hope it inspires others to help too.")

"I'm such a huge believer in the Infinite Hero program," Beckman said. "It's more than a feel-good thing. It's empowering, helping our veterans get back to a new normal."
 
Moreover, Beckman has an all-new 2015 Dodge Charger R/T carbon-fiber body developed by Mopar and SRT at Fiat Chrysler Automobile headquarters at Auburn Hills, Mich. All four DSR Funny Cars will use the body, but for Beckman, the upgrade is especially significant. "It's unbelievable. I have never driven anything in my nitro Funny Car career other than the previous style Charger," he said. "It wasn't until I got into this one with all the improvements that I was like, 'Wow - there is a better way to do this.' The Mopar engineers nailed this car. It is beautiful-looking, the performance is great, and from a visibility standpoint, it is nothing but improvement."
 
He'll have the respected John Medlen as his assistant crew chief, and about the only other familiar face will be that of assistant crew chief Chris Cunningham. But Beckman is used to that. He has had his entire team switched on him during the season. But this group seems to be different, Beckman said. "I'm terrible with names, and I've never learned names this fast. There is an immediate comfort level," he said.
 
The 2012 Funny Car champion is hoping that will translate soon to a victory, something he hasn't enjoyed in the past 51 events. "Winning the race is always my goal. I just want to win a race. It has been over two years since I held a Wally up at the end of the day on Sunday. I miss that. I miss that sense of being around a group of people that were the best at what they did on that day," Beckman said. "You don't want to be cliché, but to win the trophy you first have to qualify and you have to get past first round." And when it comes to making the 10-driver Countdown field, he said, "The points will take care of themselves. I'll take six runner-ups to get in the Countdown."
 
JOHNSON OPTIMISTIC - Tommy Johnson Jr. is an optimistic sort. And as this season starts, he has an extra-sunny outlook. "We finished 2014 on a really high note, and we were making a late charge there at the end of the season. With what we were able to accomplish last year, we have high expectations. Last year, we wanted to have a good season. This year, we want to have a great season for this team, for our sponsor Terry Chandler, and for Make-A-Wish and all of the Wish Kids," he said. "Our Make-A-Wish Dodge has a legitimate shot at winning the championship."

What makes him so confident are the new Dodge body and the John Collins-led crew who are building on recent successes. One was preseason testing results.

"We were able to work on the tune-up and different things we've changed over the winter, iron out a few bugs that always arise at the beginning of the season, and it gave us the opportunity to get back into the routine. Everyone is back up to speed on their servicing, and we had the chance to work on improving the performance of the car," Johnson said. "The new 2015 Dodge Charger R/T body is phenomenal for the driver. The vision is so much better, you feel safer, and it's easier to keep the car in the groove. I know the crew chiefs are looking forward to the better aerodynamics."

Assistant crew chief Rip Reynolds remains in place, as have the remaining team members who have worked together on the same DSR Funny Car for several years. "It's all about chemistry on these teams," Johnson said. "Building chemistry and being able to keep a good team together is really important. Going into this season, we only had one crewmember change. We have a strong team, and after finishing third last year, we know we have something to build on."

HALE AND RELATIVELY HEARTY - John Hale was the No. 13 qualifier in his nitro Funny Car debut in Jim Dunn’s entry. The Addison, Texas, resident drove the Dodge Charger to a 4.440-second pass at 224.02 mph. That E.T. was 16th in the order by evening.

HEAD GETTING IN SWING OFF FIRST TEE - John Force is used to battling one specific young Funny Car driver: Matt Hagan. But another younger, up-and-coming competitor bested him in Friday’s first qualifying session.

Chad Head took the Funny Car qualifying lead in the first session Friday with a 4.060-second, 309.63-mph blast in his Toyota Camry. His elapsed time was one-thousandth-of-a-second quicker than Force’s (4.061), but Force’s speed was more than four miles an hour faster in his new Peak Chevy Camaro.

Head also has a new sponsor this weekend, TaylorMade Golf, the company that produces the lightweight metal wood AeroBurner driver. The fastest, most aerodynamic driver in company history, is designed for an increased sweet spot and reduced spin. It’s built for speed, just as Head’s Funny Car is.

“We are excited about the opportunity to showcase the TaylorMade AeroBurner on our Toyota Funny Car and can’t think of a better parallel between the AeroBurner product attributes and the sport of NHRA,” Head said. “This is a great chance for TaylorMade to introduce AeroBurner to the NHRA fan base, both in Pomona and on the ESPN2 broadcast.”

For golfers, the state-of-the art AeroBurner driver features an advanced aerodynamic shape designed with a rounder toe, raised center crown, and new hosel fin to deliver maximum distance.

Nick Robbie, director of marketing at TaylorMade Golf, said, “We are excited to be partnering with Head Racing as part of the release of the new AeroBurner driver. We want golfers to know that the AeroBurner driver delivers unparalleled speed that leads to substantial distance. The AeroBurner Funny Car will be a thundering example that reinforces Made of Speed.”

Head unveiled the car’s design for TaylorMade employees and media members earlier in the week at the golfing company’s headquarters at Carlsbad, Calif.

Head yielded his lead in the second session to Tommy Johnson Jr., who bested him by about four-tenths of a second (.042).

PRO STOCK

TOEING THE LINE - Jason Line, a three-time winner of the Winternationals and series runner-up a year ago, took the qualifying lead in Pro Stock with a 6.523-second run at 212.76 mph in his Summit Racing Equipment Chevy Camaro.

“It was a good run,” Line said. “It was a nice run. I know I usually whine and say it wasn’t perfect but it was a nice run. It’s nice to be up here and I’m pretty happy about that. It’s fun to start day one of the 2015 Mello Yello drag racing season this way.”

NOT MUCH CHANGED FOR ENDERS-STEVENS – Anyone who thinks Erica Enders-Stevens might be just a little bit satisfied or complacent now that she has won a Pro Stock championship might be in for a rude awakening.

"I haven't gotten unfocused," the Elite Motorsports driver said. "What we accomplished last year doesn't change anything ever. It's a great accomplishment and really cool, but you can go from hero to zero really quick, week in and week out. I learned that a long time ago. We've got our work cut out for us, and we're going to swing for the fences just like we did last year.
 
"I don't think anything will change from our angle," Enders-Stevens said. "We're going to stay focused on racing our car and our lane. We know the target is on our back, for sure, but to be honest, it's been on our back. I don't know if anything has changed. Last year, we had a very dominant car, and when some people would race us, they'd swing for the fences both performance-wise and from the driver's seat.”
 
She indicated she isn’t caught up in her achievement, for she said, “I guess it really hasn't completely sunk in. Some days it'll just cross my mind and I can't believe it. It's pretty cool. The offseason is busy as always, no different than any other. We're hard at work trying to find money and horsepower.”
 
While she might not think about her 2014 championship night and day, Enders-Stevens nevertheless is understandably proud of it – and eager to have one for 2015, as well.
 
"We're the defending world champions, and it's a pretty awesome place to be," she said. "I've never been in this situation before, and we're really excited and honored to carry the No. 1 this year. It'll be a memorable year, and we're going to go to Pomona and give it our all and hopefully carry the No. 1 into 2016 also.”
 
PUTS MISSED CHANCE IN PERSPECTIVE - Jason Line might have some idea how the Seattle Seahawks felt following their Super Bowl defeat earlier this month. He missed out on his third Pro Stock championship on the last pairing of the season in a do-or-die moment against Erica Enders-Stevens. Both red-lit. His foul was earlier than hers, so she took the victory and all the spoils, while Line was left with frustration and at least a small bit of strategy to ponder: If he hadn’t moved, if he had even broken down at the starting line while Enders-Stevens had a red light, he would have the title again.

But it's a helpful thing that the KB / Summit Racing team driver said, "I don't dwell on the past. If you do that you’re probably going to trip and fall." Line said, "I would be lying if I said I don’t think about it, but I try not to do it too much.
 
"I'm trying to get better so I don’t repeat the same thing, which means trying to go forward. If not, you're not going to have a lot of longevity in this sport. You constantly have to be analyzing and dissecting your own performance in order to get better," he said. "We’re just moving forward, trying to make more horsepower and get better. We've got a great team, and I'm looking forward to what we can accomplish. We're always thinking about where we can improve and get better, and that's a continual process on this team."
 
Line said Pomona fans always bring energy. "That's always nice to see, and it reminds you that this is fun and racing is fun. I want to do the best job I possibly can for the people I represent, and we’re excited to get the season started. I’m always excited for Pomona and to see what we can do."
 
Although his pairing with Enders-Stevens in Friday’s opening round of qualifying had no bearing on anything except their tentative spots in the order for this event, Line saw the result he would have liked to have seen last fall. He posted a 6.539-second elapsed time at 212.46 mph, she a 9.708, 113.01 after slipping out of the groove right after launching.
 
“The light [on the scoreboard] worked. It was three months too late,” Line quipped. He said of the side-by-side with the reigning champion, “It was entertaining.”
 
He started the day in third place on the Pro Stock list and improved to the provisional No. 1 by day’s end with the quickest and fastest numbers of the day (6.523 seconds, 212.76 mph). Enders-Stevens got a No. 13 baseline, then dropped to 17th of 17 in the last Friday session.
 
ANDERSON EXCITED, CONFIDENT – Greg Anderson missed this race last season because he underwent open-heart surgery. So he said he's especially thrilled to be here this weekend: "The best part for me is that I'm here this year. I get to start the season in Pomona, and I'm excited."

He said the offseason "flew by in no-time flat. My teammate, Jason Line, and I had the opportunity to go overseas for 10 days and spend a little time with the troops, and wow, that was great. We came back home, took a short break to enjoy the holidays with our families, and then we went down to Florida and tested twice. We didn't get quite as much time in the shop as we would have liked, but we used what time we had to the best advantage."

The happy news is that he didn’t have to make too many tweaks. "We didn't really see the need to change anything major at this point and potentially get ourselves off base, but we are working on some new projects for down the road," Anderson said. "We'll start the season with the same tested and true Chevrolet Camaros, and hopefully we'll start off with a bang like we did last year when Jason won the Winternationals. I'm anxious to get started and be part of this special race again."

He had a positive return Friday, starting fifth on the grid, then improving to No. 3 with two sessions left before the field is set.

Anderson's most recent victory was the 2012 race at Englishtown, N.J., and he said he thinks he and his team are in their best shape in a long time. "We'll definitely be able to contend this year," he said. "It came down to the wire last year with Jason, and we made some improvements over the winter. We are honestly and cautiously optimistic, and we think we can start out this season very well and contend all year. When it comes down to playoff time, we're going to be an even better team yet. I'm looking forward to this whole year, from start to finish, with no crazy stories – just a very good year for KB Racing."

Anderson is a 10-time winner at Auto Club Raceway, with five Winternationals victories.

SWEDISH SUPER-SUB BACK – Jimmy Alund, who subbed for the recuperating Anderson and won at Charlotte in only his fifth race (and final one as the seat-minder), is back with his own operation in a Pontiac GXP. It's the car Jason Line used to win the 2011 championship. The Swede, who for the ninth time won the European Pro Stock title after his super-sub role in America last year, said he's hoping to compete in as many as four races if he gets the funding. "Who knows?" he said. "Maybe we will be able to do five or six." He should have decent performance numbers to show potential sponsors, for this car – which he calls "a barn find" – produced a 6.4-second elapsed time back in 2011.

Alund is partnering with J&J Performance Racing. "I have my guys with me, and we will have all the help we'll need from KB Racing. For us to do this is like a dream come true. It feel comfortable to have these guys behind me, and you know you’re going to get a great product both under the hood and with the race car," he said. "I love driving these race cars, working on them, and just being around this."

It showed, and so did his skill, Friday. Alund’s 6.568-second pass at 210.80 mph early Friday was strong enough for an eighth-place showing. In the later session Friday, he slid to 10th in the order as Shane Gray and Allen Johnson improved from 16th and 17th, respectively, to leapfrog him.  

Line called Alund “a character,” “a lot of fun,” and “the Swedish Greg Anderson.”

Sponsoring Alund at this race are Los Angeles-headquartered AJ Furniture and Classic Graphix, Sweden's Hansen Racing, Miami business Shipping Cars R Us, Liberty Gears, Kendall Oil, and various sponsors from back in Sweden.

‘WOW. AWESOME. GOOD DEAL.’ - Pro Stock rookie Drew Skillman kicked off the season for NHRA professional racers, making the first pass down the Auto Club Raceway quarter-mile in 6.559 seconds at 211.53 mph in his family-owned Chevy Camaro. That was good enough for the provisional No. 7 position in the lineup. He jumped to No. 2 in his next chance with a 6.527-second E.T. at 212.09 mph. He was four-thousandths of a second off Line’s pace.

For a few minutes, Skillman had the No. 1 distinction. And the young man’s understated excitement came out with a reaction of “Wow. That’s awesome. Good deal.”

KRAMER VERSUS KRAMER - The last time NHRA fans saw Deric Kramer in action, he started in the right lane during Saturday qualifying at Las Vegas. He got out of the groove and barrel-rolled across the center line behind Aaron Stanfield, and crashed into and slightly over the left guard wall. The car ricocheted, tumbling, back across the track and into the left wall, coming to rest on its roof. Kramer was uninjured. He was back on the track in Friday’s opening qualifying session and was 15th-quickest despite a 14.185-second, 62.07-mph showing in his Dodge Avenger. He got his troubles sorted out and came back to improve to No. 11 at the finish of Friday with a 6.614-second effort at 210.37 mph.

BROGDON BUOYED – Rodger Brogdon made some test passes Tuesday and said, "It was great getting in my first run of the year, even though it wasn't the best. It just felt good to finally get back in the car, even though it was only testing. I'm just ready to be in Pomona and start racing.
 
However, based on that first outing of the year in his Chevrolet, he said, "I think we're going to have a really fast car. I made one of the fastest passes of the day in testing Tuesday, and it was one of the first passes we made from A to B successfully. Everyone is very excited." He said he expects "to get off to a fast start this weekend."
 
Brogdon said he has a couple of strategies: "to get momentum going in our direction by going a few rounds in Pomona and hopefully all the races from there on out" and "to try not to beat ourselves on each pass we make." He said the plan for the moment is "just waiting and seeing what happens," but he said, "It's a humbling sport, for sure, but I do feel better right now than I did at this time last year."
 
He felt pretty satisfied early Friday afternoon. He was the tentative No. 1 qualifier after the first session, clocking an identical 6.538-second elapsed time as Chris McGaha but leveraging that with his 212.26-mph speed. McGaha was second after the opening runs with his 211.56 mph. He’s no worse than fourth heading into Saturday’s qualifying action (with his 6.538-second elapsed time only three-thousandths of a second slower than No. 3 Greg Anderson).