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

EVENT GALLERY

 

 

SUNDAY RANDOM NOTES - JOHN FORCE, TOMMY JOHNSON ARE WINNERS AT EPPING; HALE GROUNDED; SCHUMACHER, LUCAS PUT ON FIREWORKS DISPLAY; DIXON FOILS BROWN’S GAMEPLAN; FANS GET APOLOGY; ENDERS NEARS MULDOWNEY’S RECORD; WORSHAM, SKILLMAN RUN WELL BUT FRUSTRATED; CAPPS’ FUEL TANK BLOWS UP; FORCE, HAGAN AT IT AGAIN; VENABLES LOSES HELP OF COMPUTER; MUSTANG GOES AWOL

 

SCHUMACHER STOKED BY TOP FUEL VICTORY OVER DIXON, MAINLY BECAUSE HE GOT EXCELLENT FIGHT - Tony Schumacher had missed Larry Dixon.

He always wants to beat him on the racetrack and never wants Dixon to creep any closer to his NHRA record Top Fuel victories (79).

But the eight-time champion always has appreciated the three-time titlist. And when Dixon sat on the sidelines, trying to secure sponsorship for his own team or find a suitable organization to join, Schumacher knew a part of drag-racing history was lying dormant. He could daydream about what it might be like to have those epic showdowns again, like they used to have when they dominated more than a decade and traded licks like championship prize fighters.

That was the stuff of greatness and glory for Schumacher, to earn his dozens of trophies against the best of the best. And that’s what Dixon is in his book.

So when Dixon joined Bob Vandergriff Racing this year and rejoined the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour as a fulltime driver, Schumacher was excited, rather than annoyed, to see a keen rival rise again. He had been waiting for moments like Sunday’s Top Fuel final round at New England Dragway at Epping, N.H.

It was classic Schumacher and Dixon. And to make matters even more appropriately matched, it was in one sense two racers with the same equipment. Bob Vandergriff Racing has a technical alliance with Don Schumacher Racing and is privy to its abundant resources.

“We’ve got all the same parts as he’s got,” Dixon said before their final-round battle in the NHRA New England Nationals. “You could swap motors, and it would be the same thing.” He said the difference would be “who makes the best adjustments and who does the best job on the starting line.”

By Dixon’s own yardstick – and a 3.809-second elapsed time at 321.35 mph in the U.S. Army Dragster against Dixon’s 3.881, 319.60 in the C&J Energy Services / Caseholed Dragster – that would be Schumacher.

Army Dragster crew chief Mike Green and assistant crew chief Neal Strausbaugh had made the right calls on a sometimes-finicky track to help Schumacher earn his 78th No. 1 start. And as the Safety Safari crew mopped up some moisture at the starting line just before the two finalists rolled up, Green and Strausbaugh made some last-second tweaks.

“Conditions got better, and they added some clutch,” Schumacher said.  

The result was a birthday gift from Don Schumacher Racing to the U.S. Army on its 240th birthday, a moment – and Schumacher is big into “moments” – that never could happen again.

“It’s a pleasure to be part of something so big,” Schumacher said of his association with the Army. “When you get that chance to win on the Army’s birthday, it’s right now. You can’t do it next weekend and call it this weekend. It’s a lot of pressure. You can’t get that close and leave something on the table.”

He said, “Mike and Neal did some thrashing five minutes before we ran. It gets my heartbeat up a little bit, but I trust that they know what they’re doing. The car was outstanding on the run.”

With that, Schumacher denied Dixon his 63rd victory and his first since the February 2011 Phoenix.

Schumacher, too, had his previous triumph at Phoenix, this February against Doug Kalitta. Schumacher had split a couple of finals with Doug Kalitta and was runner-up to Spencer Massey at the Gatornationals so was racing in his fourth final round of the season.

Dixon was making his third final-round appearance of the year. He was runner-up to Richie Crampton at both Las Vegas and Topeka.

With a 17-8 elimination-round record, Schumacher moved into second place in the standings.

Dixon improved two place, from seventh to fifth with a 14-10 elimination-round mark, as the circuit travels to Bristol, Tenn., Dragway this weekend for the final event in a three-races-in-three-weekends stretch.

Schumacher’s day wasn’t easy. In the first round, both he and Morgan Lucas blew up their engines.

“We blew everything up,” Schumacher said. “It’s a timing thing. You could have raced a car that can barely get down the track once in awhile and they would have beat you on that run if they were just skating down there. To win those races you have to have ‘that’ break. Almost every driver on any given day they win has ‘that’ break, somewhere throughout the day. You hate to get it and have that gift and then not use it correctly.

“I think Mike and Neal did an outstanding job. I felt like I drove good today. Together as a team, we went out and won,” he said.

He advanced past Clay Millican and Spencer Massey, as well.

“Spencer’s a bad-to-the-bone leaver. He makes me rise to the occasion,” Schumacher said. “That first run, when we had to run Morgan, he’s only out here for a few races. He has nothing to lose. He can go really fast on any given day and has done it many times. He has come to several races when he hasn’t been out in weeks and wins. You don’t go out there and take him lightly. We broke apart on that run, and we could have been in big trouble and on the first bus out of here had he gone down that racetrack.

“And Clay Millican’s got to win a race. And he had a better car. He went out and ran extremely good. We just got down the track. We raced better than they raced. We didn’t have the fastest car. Dixon ran way better than we did the run before and the first round of eliminations. They had a better car those rounds,” he said.

As for the classic nature of his rivalry with Dixon, Schumacher said, “I had missed it for years. When he was gone, I missed it for a long, long time.

“I think the pressure builds,” he said, “because we had 78 wins and he had 62. So he’s second. And if he wins, he’s closer. It’s intense.

“He’s a great driver, world champ. He’s as good as they come out here. When we race each other there’s good respect among the teams. Just a great job, no game playing – just a battle. You see some of the guys out there who like to do that stuff. He’s not like that – just a good solid racer. He’s going to give me his absolute best, and I’m going to give him my best, and the fans are going to get the best. That’s what happens when you get two get two good drivers who are going to give a battle,” Schumacher said.

He joined Funny Car’s John Force and Pro Stock’s Greg Anderson in the winners circle.

Schumacher said, “Amongst the winners today, there’s an awful lot of wins on that board. It’s pretty staggering. It’s a pretty good group of guys to be standing on the stage with. So often I get compared against people, and the people I get compared against are good drivers with great records, and that’s a gift to have that opportunity to be presented with those people. To be on stage with Anderson and Force, what else could you ask for? Those guys have earned championships. They’ve earned more wins than anybody in their sport.”

For Schumacher this was his second straight victory at New England Dragway. And his son Michael played a bit of role in that, perhaps.

“My son came here with me last year,” Schumacher said. “He had just won a baseball tournament in Cooperstown [N.Y.]. He called me yesterday, and said, ‘I’ve got a great feeling. We just won in football, and I made the winning catch.’ “

It was like the winning streak he had going when daughter Jacqueline was born.

“It’s not why you’re winning, but it helps. It’s cool. It’s calming,” the proud dad said.

He’s winning because he’s prepared. He’s winning because his team makes the right calls and focuses on giving Schumacher that moment he revels in. And he’s winning because he makes the most of his chances.

And that’s something Larry Dixon “gets” maybe better than any of his other competitors. 

FRUSTRATED FORCE USES EXTRA MOTIVATION TO COLLECT SECOND WIN OF THE YEAR - The last thing John Force needs is added motivation.

The 16-time-champion has accomplished everything - literally everything - there is to do in the sport of drag racing, so swinging a stick at the proverbial hornet’s nest probably isn’t the best strategy. But this is racing, and in this sport, playing nice isn’t always in the cards.

Following a turbulent offseason, one with plenty of speculation and more than a few whispers in the pits, Force and his John Force Racing stable have been born anew with several new sponsors and a revitalized racing program that has left the savvy veteran looking at the current season with a fresh set of eyes.

“When you are chasing money, your mindset is not where it needs to be. You are worried about breaking parts, you are worried about the little things. But we got our deal financially right a couple of weeks ago and it has changed my mindset knowing that we were going to be okay,” Force said.

Since that moment, the team has been more than okay. Since securing those new opportunities, Force has visited three final rounds in 10 races this season, adding his latest win over the weekend against Tommy Johnson Jr. at the NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway - the 143rd victory of Force’s career.

But Force’s win didn’t just come against Johnson, it also came against Johnson’s team boss and multi-car owner Don Schumacher, the source of Force’s recent frustration. And Force is more than happy to thank his rival for the win this weekend.

“Leave it to Schumacher to say something to me. He doesn’t mean to make you mad, but I almost felt like Schumacher was feeling sorry for me. Don’t feel sorry for me. I am the guy with all of the championships and I will figure out how to get out of this mess I am in,” Force said. “Financially, I have overcome that and now I am building crews. I have Jon Schaffer. He goes out there with Mike Neff and the braintrust and they make it work. So Schumacher, thank you for the motivation. Keep it up and help put me back in the winner’s circle.”

Force used that added motivation to pick up his second win of the season, driving the Peak Antifreeze Chevrolet Camaro SS Funny Car past Johnson in Sunday’s final. With the Wally on the line, Force drove deep into the staging beams and left second on the tree, but he was able to drive around the No. 1 qualifier by the 330-foot mark and cruised to the win with a 4.160-second elapsed time at 309.49 mph. Johnson, who had been fastest throughout the weekend, had his weakest run at the worst possible time, running a 4.195 at 304.25 mph in the runner-up effort.

“Tommy Johnson is a really good driver and he had the baddest hot rod of the weekend,” Force said. “He went down the racetrack every time, but we watched him. He spun the tires a couple of runs at the other end and you play that. Do you soften it? What do you really do? Jon Schaffer said ‘we are going to do what we know how to do.’ That was an Austin Coil, Mike Neff approach.

“We did what we did and I tried to make it up on the starting line. We know all about going deep and they say you lose lane choice and you don’t win, but I won today because I went the other way.”

From the third position on the ladder, Force added wins over Cruz Pedregon, Matt Hagan and Dave Richards on his way to his first career victory at New England Dragway. With the win, Force now has at least one victory at every national event track - both current and defunct - with the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

“I know this track. I raced on it for a lot of years. I came up here before the NHRA was prepping this thing and it is a good racetrack,” Force said. “That was exciting to get that win. I lost in the inaugural race here against my daughter. You want to win every race, but now that it is over you move on to the next one.

“Now I want to go win them all twice.”

Force’s team was strong throughout the weekend, with the trio of JFR cars qualifying third, fourth and fifth entering eliminations. On Sunday, a little extra heat made things a little more unpredictable, but Force and his crew were up to the task.

After an easy opening round victory, Force won on a holeshot against a very strong Matt Hagan - a 4.186 to a 4.182 - and he had an equally exciting win over Pedregon in the semifinals. In each, Force bumped his blue Chevy a little deeper into the beams hoping to get a little bit of an edge.

“Who am I kidding? Hagan leaves on me every time I race him. So does a lot of drivers. So I am trying to find any edge I can,” Force said. “I don’t care about the next round. I don’t care about lane choice. If you can’t get to the next round, then what good is it?”

Off of the strength of his second win of the season, Force moves up to third in the standings, 94 points back of Hagan. Over the last three races, Force has jumped from seventh to third in the standings, as he now sets his sights on the pair of DSR cars sitting in front of him.

“It doesn’t matter how many cars Schumacher has got. I can’t complain, I used to have the most cars. But he can only take one to the starting line at a time,” Force said. “I told my team, you have got to fight every round. And we are doing that right now.” Larry Crum

ANDERSON BELIEVES THIS MAY BE HIS BEST CAR EVER FOLLOWING NEW ENGLAND NATIONALS WIN - Greg Anderson has accomplished a lot in his nearly two-decade long professional driving career.

He is a four-time world champion. He has 77 career race wins and he has reached 122 career final rounds, nearly 30 percent of all of the races he has run. Yet, despite years of success and fantastic runs, it is this car and it is this team that Anderson feels is the best he has ever had.

That is a scary thought for the rest of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Pro Stock field.

Anderson won for the 77th time in his Pro Stock racing career on Sunday, besting another former champion in Allen Johnson to claim his second win in a row and third of the season at the NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway. And the team certainly is not showing any signs of slowing.

“It is the best racecar I have had, ever,” Anderson said, matter-of-factly, following his victory on Sunday. “We are definitely on the upswing. It has been awesome the last two months. Ever since we brought this little red Chevy out at Gainesville, the performance of the car has gotten better and better every race.”

That performance has included bracket-like numbers the past two weekends. In New England, Anderson’s four runs on Sunday were separated by just seven-thousandths of a second, with his best pass of the weekend coming in the final.

Anderson dispatched of Johnson in the final with a solid 6.512-second pass at 214.72 mph, losing the edge on the tree, but powering past the veteran by the 60-foot mark on his way to the fastest pass of the weekend. Johnson had a 6.530 at 213.50 in the runner-up effort, his second of the season.

“If you look back to Englishtown last weekend, I have made 16 near-perfect runs in a row. I can’t ever remember having that,” Anderson said. “It is so fun to drive right now. All you can do is screw it up as a driver.”

Anderson was either quickest or second-quickest during every session over the weekend, qualifying second and having little resistance on his way to his sixth final of the year and fourth in a row. The driver of the bright red Summit Racing Equipment Chevy Camaro had wins over Jason Line, Drew Skillman and Val Smeland on his way to the final, recording passes of 6.516, 6.519 and 6.515 respectively. Sunday’s win also gives the Chevy Camaro its 100th national event victory in Pro Stock racing.

“I have a great race team behind me. Everyone is doing a fantastic job and I can’t wait to go to the next race and the next race. It is a lot of fun right now,” Anderson said. “Regardless of how much pressure it puts on you, I would certainly rather have it this way.”

Anderson’s season to date has been one of atonement. After struggling the past few years, Anderson was thrown an additional curveball in 2014 when he was hospitalized with a heart condition that left him out of commission through the first five races. Since then, Anderson’s new lease on life has made the past few months even that much more special as he continues to eye a fifth championship in the Pro Stock category.

“I have had a great career and I have had a lot of good fortune along the way,” Anderson said. “Personally, it definitely feels better this year after what I went through last year, and really the last two or three years with the drought I went through even before the heart procedure.

“Between that and my second lease on life, I do look at things a little different. I realize how precious it is when you can go out and win at this level. Sometimes you get spoiled, but I realize now how important it is to make the most of every opportunity.”

After taking the points lead last weekend for the first time since 2012, Anderson has added to his margin over Erica Enders, sitting 70 points clear of the defending champion.

Still, despite his recent successes, Anderson admits that he can’t take his foot off of the gas, not even for a moment. With more than half of the season still remaining, anything can happen in the Pro Stock category, but at this point, nothing can phase Anderson and his KB Racing team.

“Every round is a challenge. You can always make a mistake any round you go up there, whether it is driver or race car, and of course anything can always break in the engine or the transmission,” Anderson said. “Anything can happen. I have had a great car and we are on a great run, but it can change in a heartbeat. You learn to love it while you have it.” Larry Crum 
 
WINNERS – The winningest drivers in each of the NHRA’s professional classes here at New England Dragway this weekend won a Wally trophy.
 
Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), John Force (Funny Car), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) shared the winners circle in this third trip to Epping, N.H.
 
Schumacher won his 79th victory on this 240th birthday of his sponsor, the U.S. Army. It was his second victory this year, his first since the February Phoenix race. The eight-time series champion defeated three-time champ Larry Dixon.
 
Force completed his list of NHRA venues at which he has won with this record 143rd triumph. He defeated No. 1 qualifier Tommy Johnson Jr. in his second final-round appearance at Epping in the three years since this event was added to the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour.
 
For the second straight weekend, Anderson bested Allen Johnson for the Pro Stock trophy. He increased his points lead with this 77th victory.   
 
GROUNDED – Funny Car driver John Hale is a good sport. The driver of the ālo Drink Dodge Charger for Jim Dunn Racing was the lone Funny Car driver to miss the 16-car cut this weekend. That might have been worth at least a pout and an early trip home to Addison, Texas. Instead he stuck around and eagerly watched the action, saying he likes to support the class.
 
And that experience Sunday took him back to his childhood.
 
“I remember when I was a kid and I got grounded from riding my bike. All the other kids were out riding their bikes, and I couldn’t ride mine. It’s just like that. These guys get to drive their cars, and mine is locked up in the trailer. But that just motivates me to do better.”
 
The successful nostalgia Funny Car racer is a nitro Funny Car rookie this year, and Sunday he blamed himself for squandering Friday his best opportunity to qualify. He got out of his routine at the starting line and didn’t take advantage of the weekend’s best conditions. 
 
KA-BOOM – Both Tony Schumacher and Morgan Lucas, the bookends of the Top Fuel lineup, blew up their dragsters during their opening-round race – Lucas first, then Schumacher in huge style at the finish line.
 
“Fireworks, man. It’s the 240th birthday for the Army,” Schumacher said. “It’s race day. In qualifying, we shut it off. It’s unfortunate you’ve got to blow parts up, but you do.”
 
Lucas said, "We both dropped cylinders. His car lost one right at the hit, so we were able to pull away a bit. But then ours lost a hole, as well. That just puts the whole thing out of whack and you know it's hurting the motor. I could tell I was ahead of him. I couldn't see any part of his car, so I just kept the hammer down.
 
"I think we broke a lifter, and that detonated the engine. He blew up about the same time, and for a moment there we were both coasting to the finish line. I think we would have won but my parachutes deployed, and that slowed us just enough that he was able to win,” Lucas said. “That's drag racing. It's wildly disappointing, but it happens."
 
WE’RE SORRY. REALLY, WE ARE – Morgan Lucas addressed the fans and apologized for the delay from his and Schumacher’s double-engine-blow-up spectacle.  
 
“We’re finding all kinds of new ways to lose this year. I definitely didn’t mean to make you guys sit out there in the sun with all our oil on the track. We dropped a valve. Sometimes you just can’t help those things. We did it at Englishtown [last weekend]. We did it here. At least we put some fire out there so they could have fun watching it,” he said. 
 
John Force delivered a rambling, sweeping public-relations reassurance for the packed grandstands, too. He even apologized, sort of, for teasing fans with a statement earlier in the week that they had an excellent chance of seeing national records established this weekend.
 
“I know I said the other day in the newspaper that national records could be set here. But you know, when you get air and a racetrack as good as this track here and the way Safety Safari preps it and NHRA and all of that, it makes for a great race. But then you get the heat and you know, boy, it just is what it is,” he said.
 
“These oildowns, I know it’s hard. Y’all got to sit up there and wait. But us racers, the drivers, the crew chiefs, they want to give you a great race. You don’t like it, but think about the money they lose when they blow up. So if you think you’re in pain, sitting there in the sun, well, get yourself something to drink and get back in the stands, because it’ll be ready to go here. Safety Safari’s working hard, and we do appreciate your patience ‘cause without you we don’t exist. So God bless ya.”

Public-address announcer Brian Lohnes signed off that interview with an appropriate “This has been a public service message from John Force.”    
 

 
DIXON INTERRUPTS BROWN’S ROLL – It was a match-up of Top Fuel champions, and three-timer Larry Dixon ended 2012 king Antron Brown’s winning streak, defeating the winner of the previous race.

“I’m thankful to get that round-win against Antron Brown. That ain’t the guy you want in the pairings. That team, they’re strong – they’re the best of the year so far. That’s why they’re leading the points. Mike Guger and everybody on this C&J Energy / Caseholed car have to fire their best shot just to have a shot at winning. Fortunately, we did get the win. I’m thankful to get to race here. I never had been here. My dad used to race here. The fans are wound up here.”

Brown had won nine of his previous 10 eliminations round. His only loss in that stretch, ironically, came against Dixon. The Matco Tools Dragster driver, who

Brown has won a race at all but three tracks on the NHRA Mello Yello Series tour, including New England Dragway.

ENDERS CLOSING IN ON MULDOWNEY – With 15 national event wins in her Pro Stock career, Enders is just three behind legendary Top Fuel driver and trailblazer Shirley Muldowney, a longtime idol who has become a great friend and confidant to the 31-year-old Pro Stock racer and reigning champion.
 
"I've been hearing about Shirley's mark lately because the media picks up on the numbers, but there is no comparing me and her," Enders said. "What she went through back when she raced was really tough. She opened the door for girls like me to even know we had a chance to race. Plus, they didn't run near as many races every year back then, so to compare her numbers to mine is crazy.
 
"Bottom line, Shirley will always be the first lady of drag racing. She is a great friend and someone I know I can call at any time of the day or night to ask her advice. She and Angelle [Pro Stock Motorcycle’s Sampey] were such a big help last year when the championship battle got intense. I'm honored just to be mentioned alongside of them."
 
Enders didn’t add a victory Sunday, but she twice reset the low elapsed time of the event, settling in at 6.506 seconds (in the second round).
 
KALITTA FUNNY CARS SHINE - The Kalitta Motorsports team was 0-2 on the Top Fuel side but 2-0 with its Funny Car tandem of Del Worsham and Alexis DeJoria in Round 1.
 
Worsham defeated Tim Wilkerson. Then DeJoria turned the tables on Ron Capps, who had beaten her in the final here last year.
 
“I did not see my win light come on,” DeJoria said. “I had my hands full. We had a cylinder out. We’re lucky we’re going to the next round.”
 
So, in that next round, after dispatching the driver who denied her a victory last June, she had to face this year’s top qualifier. And Tommy Johnson Jr. prevailed.
 
“My Toyota Camry was charging down the track until right at the end when it went silent. I’m still very pleased with the way things have turned around,” De Joria said, referring to the team’s cumulative four round-wins in the past two events. “We’re still trying to pick up that first event-win of the season for our fans and our sponsors. Bristol is up next, which is another good track for us, so hopefully we’ll be able to get it done there.”
 
Her loss left Worsham as the last Kalitta team member still in the running for a Wally, and he ran a 4.152-second pass against Cruz Pedregon. That would have been enough to top Johnson, Courtney Force, and John Force – the quarterfinal winners in the three pairings ahead of him. But it wasn’t enough to stop Cruz Pedregon, who advanced to his first semifinal of the season with a 4.119-second clocking.
 
“Eventually the luck will turn our way,” Worsham said. “Unfortunately, our solid run aboard the DHL Toyota Camry was not fast enough. My team is solid, and we will regroup and move to Bristol.”

Pedregon’s E.T. was a winner, but his 284.51-mph speed (compared to Worsham’s 308.14) indicated some sort of mechanical problem. “It was on a 4.0 for sure,” the Snap-on Toyota driver said. “Maybe I can get all these guys off my back: ‘When you going to win second round?’ Just right there.” He gave credit to Donnie Bender and Chris Kullberg and his whole team.
 
“We ran the second-quick time Friday night, the quick time of the day on Saturday and had a great pass in the second-round today,” Pedregon said. “We're getting things sorted out, and we're headed in the right direction.”
 
An engine glitch in the semifinal caught up with him, as John Force moved into the final at his expense.
 
“That was a disappointing finish. I thought we had a car good enough to win today,” he said. “I thought we had John there, but we lost something in the engine and just coasted the last 200 feet – and we still ran a 4.19. All in all, though, it was a good day for the Snap-on Tools Toyota Camry team.”  
 
HARD-LUCK CIRCUMSTANCES FOR SKILLMAN – A situation similar to Del Worsham’s happened for Drew Skillman in Pro Stock’s second round. His 6.533-second elapsed time in a losing effort to Greg Anderson (6.519) would have been strong enough to eliminate Allen Johnson (6.554) and Jason Line (6.615) who won earlier in the round. But it wouldn’t have been nearly enough to derail Erica Enders, who reset the low E.T. of the meet she posted in the first round. She took a weekend-best 6.506 into the semifinals.   
 
YIKES! - Ron Capps had a scary incident at the top end after he lost in the first round to Alexis DeJoria. He had wanted to win this race to give his NAPA Dodge crew chief Rahn Tobler his 50th victory. But he didn’t have time to mope about that. He was too busy dealing with his exploding fuel cell.
 
“I could hear her and I think we’re out front. It either put a hole out or started spinning [the tires]. One or the other right away made the other one worse,” Capps said.
 
“Then in the shutdown area, I saw her win light on and was coasting down there. It was probably as big a concussion as we had at Pomona when I blew the body off. It exploded our fuel tank,” he said. Thank God all the Dodge guys . . . and . . . everybody did a great job making these bodies. It easily could have been much worse. It completely destroyed the fuel tank. It could have been a lot scarier.”
 
Said Capps, “I really have to give thanks to all the Impact safety gear I wear and all the engineers at Dodge and SRT, and Joe [Fitzpatrick] and entire fab shop back at DSR. And I really can't thank everyone at Roush and the shop enough. It's happened before, I think once, but not like that. This one startled me pretty good. It was such a big explosion it jumped the car off the ground."
 
NEEDS SOME DANG ROUND-WINS - Allen Johnson said after reaching the semifinal round Sunday that his Team Mopar group is beginning to gel and that he is meeting his goal to “try to start winning some dang rounds.”

He not only won “some dang rounds” but made it to the final round for the second time in as many weeks – and against Greg Anderson for the second straight week. Anderson defeated Johnson at Englishtown, N.J.

“It’s my turn now,” Johnson said, with Anderson standing beside him. “This Magneti Marelli / Mopar team is getting better every dad-Jim run. We’ve still got a ways to get up to him. [Johnson, the 2012 class champion, entered the finals with 24 victories. Anderson, the four-time champion, was seeking his 77th.] But hopefully we’ll make another gain this run and make a good run out of it.”

Anderson laughed at Johnson’s notion that today is his day.

“Well, one thing I’ve learned over the years is they don’t give turns. You’ve got to go earn it. That’s not saying he’s not going to go do it, but you’ve got to go earn it. It’s going to be a great battle. It was last week. I certainly expect it’s going to be again – Chevy versus Mopar.” 

MAYBE HE IS IN BALLGAME WITH HAGAN – Following his half-car-length quarterfinal victory over current nemesis Matt Hagan, John Force said he hardly could believe his reward for outrunning Dave Richards in the opening round was to go against Hagan for the fourth time in six races.

“Then they told me I had Hagan, and I said, ‘Aw, you’re s-------me. He’s the baddest guy in the seat. He’s like trying to race Robert – kills me on the tree. I’m not in the ballgame with him.’ Then I get all hopped up on stuff that I drink,” Force said. “And I said, ‘That kid’s a hulk! He rips the throttle out of the car!’” His crew challenged him: “Well, why don’t YOU get out there and rip the throttle out?”

He said, “At the end of the day, he’s a great racer. I love to race him. He’s a great champion, but hey – I got a win. I’ll take it any way I can get it, even if I’m just dumb lucky.”   

VENABLES DOES IT THE OLD-SCHOOL WAY – Little did John Force know, when he was thinking about his upcoming semifinal Funny Car run against Matt Hagan that Hagan’s crew chief, Dickie Venables, was resorting to some old-fashioned tuning because of a computer being on the fritz.

Venables turned Hagan to low elapsed time of the first round of eliminations as his driver ousted Don Schumacher Racing mate Jack Beckman. Already he was doing his job the “old” way – without help from his computer. The technical problem left him with no data from the final qualifying session Saturday, and he didn’t have it fixed when race day dawned.

"We had some issues with our computer system, and we didn't have any data from first round today or the final qualifying run yesterday. So Dickie was kind of tuning this thing blind. And he did a pretty good job at it, to be honest with you," Hagan said. "To be able to go out there and just look at the parts and pieces and make calls is impressive."

MORGAN BLAMES TRACK – Pro Stock’s Larry Morgan, spoiled by his sponsor FireAde, his new Chevrolet, and his Gray Motorports engine. So these days he’s upset when he doesn’t win or at least go past the first round.
 
And he complained Sunday that his opening-round defeat to Allen Johnson was partly because of the condition of the racing surface at New England Dragway.
 
"I'm not the happiest guy right now," Morgan said afterward. "You go up there and you're the first pair out after the fuel cars, and they don't do a thing to the racetrack. I guess they don't care about us. Until someone gets thrown into the stands with one of these cars, nothing is going to change. I don't know why they didn't do anything.
 
"It's disappointing," Morgan said. "We had a good car, just like every week this year, but I got loose out there. The track is horrible. I didn't drive very good, either, and I'm upset about that, too. It is what it is. We'll go next week and try to kick their butts at Bristol."
 
SPORTSMAN WINNERS – Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series winners Sunday were Peter Luciano (Competition Eliminator), Joe Santangelo (Super Stock), Donald Pires (Stock Eliminator), Alan Kenny (Super Comp), Ray Sawyer (Super Gas), Keith Mayers (Super Street), Zac Biron (Top Dragster), and Tiina Duncanson (Pro Stock Sled).

SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - LUCAS MAKES FIELD BUT DRAWS TOP QUALIFIER SCHUMACHER, JOHNSON JR. AND McGAHA ALSO HOLD ONTO NO. 1 SPOTS,  McMILLEN WANTING TO ESTABLISH NEW HABIT, FRENCH CANADIAN ENTREPRENEUR JUMPS INTO TOP FUEL MIX, TONY PEDREGON MAKING PROGRESS, DE JORIA AND CAPPS PAIRED AGAIN, TASCA SCORES ON HAIL MARY PASS, GAYDOSH HAS SIMPLE GOAL, GRAYS LOOK FOR THRILLS AT EPPING   

TOP FUEL 

IN THE SHOW ANYWAY –  Morgan Lucas can take some comfort that his 16th-place performance Saturday didn’t put him in jeopardy of being bumped. The Top Fuel class has exactly 16 entrants to fill the field.

That means, though, that he’ll go against No. 1 qualifier Tony Schumacher, who said he’s planning to “show up, sit up in the seat, and drive like a machine” in search of his second victory of the season and 79 overall.   
 
Lucas said he wants to perform well Sunday for his parents and for sponsor Sig Sauer.
 
"Mom and Dad are here and they don't come to as many races as we'd like, so I really want to do well for them as well," Lucas said. "It's so cool to see them up at the starting line, giving me the 'thumbs up' before every run. I know they only want the best for us, and the guys know it, too.”
 
Moreover, the Sig Sauer / Lucas Gun Oil Dragster driver said, "You can literally walk to Sig Sauer's tactical training grounds from here. And their headquarters is just a couple miles past that. We're that close. So obviously we want to do well for them.”
 
But the cars don’t want to co-operate all the time here.
  
"The cars been a handful to figure out. It's an older chassis, and as these dragsters age it gets harder to make them consistent. That's what we're missing right now,” Lucas said. “This car can run huge numbers, but it's only doing it some of the time. You won't find a lot of success in drag racing if your car doesn't go down the track every time.
 
"There's certainly no lack of effort over here. You work just as hard, if not harder, when you're struggling as you do when everything is perfect,” he said. “Drag racing is just a never-ending puzzle that you're trying to solve, and it becomes a little harder when you're only racing select events. But no excuses – we have the ability to run well, and hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for us."
 
BIG TEST FOR NEW TEAM – For Stringer Performance driver Clay Millican, this so-called “Eastern Swing” of three races in consecutive weekends (at Englishtown, Epping, and Bristol) marks the longest stretch this newly formed team with rookie crew chief Dave Grubnic has been on the road nonstop.

“This is a very big test for our guys,” Millican said. “David Grubnic and Lance Larsen have been on these multi-week runs before, but most of our team is still relatively new to being out this long. We’re gone for three weeks. Did we get everything we need? Have we anticipated enough for potential problems? Those are some big factors that will come into play.”

With six consecutive championships, Millican is the winningest driver in IHRA history with 52 victories. But he wants that Wally trophy in NRA competition and has come close eight times.

To Millican, starting ninth at Epping might sound odd, The Parts Plus/ Great Clips Dragster driver was hoping for a much better placement, something with lane choice on this track he knows so well from his IHRA days of domination.

But in Sunday’s first round, he’ll race a familiar former IHRA Top Fuel driver in JR Todd, the No. 8 qualifier.

NO ADVANTAGE – Terry McMillen said he didn’t have any advantage over his Top Fuel peers, having raced here at Epping many times in his IHRA career. But he said he was mindful that the facility is surrounded by trees. That, he said, “makes it challenging to control the horsepower, because it’s going to make a whole lot more.” Regardless of how many visits he has made to Epping and how familiar he is with the idiosyncrasies of the surface, McMillen had the same troubles as many of his rivals and wound up 15th in the order for Sunday’s eliminations.

Still, McMillen is jazzed about his efforts in at least two of the past three races. He reached the semifinals at Atlanta and Englishtown, with a not-so-memorable weekend at Topeka, which he said he and his Amalie Oil / UNOH Dragster left “with our tail between our legs.”

He said this weekend, “We’re going to try to duplicate what we did at Atlanta and Englishtown. We want to make a habit of that.”

He said his Rob Wendland-led crew is “upbeat” this weekend. “[Topeka] hurt us. Rebounding like we did was a testament to my guys. If we keep doing that, sooner or later we’re going to win.”

Naturally, with a single-car team, gathering significant data is far more difficult a task than with a multiple-car operation. McMillen doesn’t have a lot of resources with which to go testing, so, as he said, “Every time we make a change, we’re doing it in real time. It keeps you behind the eight-ball a little bit more than normal.

“But I think we’re finding a path,” he said. “Once you have a good baseline, you can figure out how to tweak it. I think that’s where we’re at. We have a place to start. If we get lost, we can go right back to that and know we can get down the track. We don’t have to wait until we’re clear out in left field. We can recover from anything.”

He said Wendland, who came from a Funny Car background as a tuner like he did as a driver, is getting a handle on the dragster set-up. “Being a Funny Car guy, it’s probably a little more difficult for him. I know what it was like for me, coming out of a Funny Car, trying to drive this dragster. I’m sure for him tuning it, it’s got to be the same thing. Dragsters, you can get after them a lot harder than you can a Funny Car. They really need to move early. They can’t make up for it when they get out 200 feet. They try to run all over themselves. You’ve got to get it right, right at the step.”

 McMillen will work on his habit-forming from the No. 14 starting slot, against No. 3 Shawn Langdon in the first round.

MERCIER, IL EST EXCITANT! – Despite an engine fire Friday night, Quebec racer Dan Mercier managed to slip into the protected top 12 in his class debut. So – unlike veteran racer Morgan Lucas and experienced regulars JR Todd, Terry McMillen, and Clay Millican – he had an elapsed time to build on heading into Saturday’s final two runs.

In the third overall session, he improved his 4.837-second elapsed time and 151.77-mph speed with a 4.376, 197.86 but had another engine blow-up and fire in the Barry Paton-owned dragster. He and his crew opted to sit out the final qualifying session. As a result, he ended up in the No. 15 position and if his team can make the repairs, he’ll face No. 2 Richie Crampton in Round 1 Sunday.

Mercier is president of ABS Groupe in Montreal (a civil engineering firm which monitors construction, materials, and environment in Quebec building projects) and employs between 400 and 500 people. He also is owner of Restaurant L'Autre Version that serves haute cuisine in Vieux-Montreal (Old Montreal, the city’s historic center). “I invite everybody to come to see me and talk about drag racing,” he said.

 They would have plenty to talk about from this weekend at New England Dragway, Mercier’s first in the Top Fuel class – two years after he earned his Top Fuel license at Las Vegas in this car and had John Force and Spencer Massey sign it for him.

If he had forgotten how it felt to drive the 10,000-horsepower nitro-burner, especially in comparison to his beloved Top Alcohol Dragster, he got a quick reminder here.

“This car’s a lot different,” Mercier said. “Oh, the vibrations! My eyes! The G-forces! My A/Fuel Dragster is around three Gs. This one is 4.2, 4.5.” He said he’ll have to make more runs before feeling totally comfortable in the seat.

But he’s making progress from the first day he launched the car in early November 2013. He said that day was a cold Monday, in front of empty grandstands, with no pressure, and, in his words, “no stress around me.” Friday and Saturday at New England Dragway was about the exact opposite. Still, Mercier did a commendable job, although he bypassed the final qualifying session Saturday.

 “It’s just 16 cars, so I make eliminations,” Mercier said, elated to be part of the Top Fuel scene this weekend.  

“For me, it is a dream,” he said. “Thank you to my sponsors, W. Cote and Sons. This year I said, ‘Why not?’ I want to try a full weekend in NHRA.

“I’m very happy. The economy is looking good in Quebec, so maybe next year or around 2017, I will check for maybe a Top Fuel fulltime [deal],” Mercier said.

That might please his barber back home. It turns out Mercier and IndyCar racer Alex Tagliani both go to this barber, who teases Tagliani, saying, “You’re not very fast. The real fast one is Dan. You’re just cruising. You’re a Sunday driver.”

Said Mercier, “I like going A to B.” Open-wheel, oval-track racing, he said, “is boring. It’s not enough fast.”

FIRST-ROUND DRAWS – Other first-round match-ups include Steve Torrence with lane choice over Dave Connolly, who won this race last year in the Pro Stock class. Spencer Massey and Leah Pritchett, a couple of NHRA Jr. Dragster graduates, will meet in the opening round Sunday, as will Doug Kalitta and Brittany Force and champions Antron Brown and Larry Dixon.      

FUNNY CAR 

JOHNSON LEADS FUNNY CAR FIELD – Tommy Johnson Jr. used his 4.047-second pass from Friday night to take the Funny Car’s top-qualifying position Saturday for the Don Schumacher Racing team’s double-No. 1 feat.

That’s the first of the season and 11th in all for the Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger driver.

“I was happy last night. I’m thrilled today,” Johnson said.

He said he was happy the car repeated its performance in both hot and cold conditions.

PROGRESS AT LAST – Tony Pedregon’s first-round victory over Courtney Force last week at Englishtown is paying dividends.

It did more than give the Micro Strategies Toyota Camry Funny Car driver his first round-win of the season and a glimmer of hope that his and his team’s hard work is paying off. It also netted him a sponsorship extension.

“Things are starting to come around. We're making slow but steady progress,” Pedregon said.
 
“Our focus is to run good but not break parts. Being a smaller team, we always have to be conservative. We ran a 4.03 at Pomona and a 4.07 at the Toyota Summernationals, and when we brought the car back, everything was still together. So we're running stronger and still running smart. Racing is harder to do when you know you have to bring it back with everything intact than when you can just go for it and blow an engine and it's no big deal like some of the bigger teams can afford to do.”

Pedregon said, “We have a deal with Micro Strategies that has gone from a two-race deal to a four-race deal. It's an IT and software company, but they love racing. Truthfully, I don't know if I would be here this weekend if it wasn't for Micro Strategies. This was a race that we were thinking about skipping and didn't know we were coming until Sunday. After we won that first round over Courtney Force, the folks at Micro Strategies were so excited, they extended the deal for two more races through Bristol.”
 
The folks at Micro Strategies should be happy with his No. 12 starting position. Pedregon will begin eliminations by running No. 5 Robert Hight. It’s the second straight week he has opened runoffs against a John Force Racing driver. 
 
THREE-SECOND STREAK – Cruz Pedregon and Del Worsham are the only two Funny Car drivers with the opportunity to record three-second runs in three consecutive weekends. Neither pulled off the feat Friday in qualifying, and with track temperatures in triple digits Saturday, they had little chance to do it before eliminations. 
 
DEJORIA TO START WITH CAPPS REMATCH – Alexis DeJoria, driver of the Patrón XO Café Incendio Toyota Camry Funny Car, can’t seem to escape Ron Capps.
 
Last season she advanced to the final round but lost to Ron Capps. And this weekend, she entered fresh from a runner-up finish at Englishtown to Matt Hagan. Last week’s showing was her first appearance in a final round this season, and it pushed her into the No. 8 spot in the standings.
 
Her reaction after qualifying eighth Saturday and learning that No. 9 is Capps in his NAPA Dodge was one of mild disbelief.
 
“So I just found out that we’re running Ron Capps first round, which is kind of surreal. Last year we went to the finals here and we had Capps and he beat us, so it’s a rematch right off the bat,” she said. “I’m just stoked to be out here and making good, solid runs down the track, and we’ll see what happens tomorrow on race day.”
 
TAKING A PASS - Dave Richards elected to skip the final Funny Car qualifying session Saturday. He ended up as the 13th qualifier and is set to face No. 3 John Force in the first round Sunday. 

TASCA SCORES ON HAIL MARY PASS - Bob Tasca bumped John Hale from the Funny Car field in the final qualifying session Saturday.

“It wasn’t pretty,” Tasca said of his banzai run. “It felt good to leave the starting line.”

That was something he didn’t get to do in two chances Friday.

“We’ve been struggling with the clutch,” he said, remarking that his PPG Mustang got in on a “Hail Mary” pass.  

WILKERSON ACCEPTS 10TH PLACE – Tim Wilkerson took a tumble in the lineup Friday, from No. 3 to No. 10. He said his Levi, Ray & Shoup Mustang “ran like a banshee when maybe it just needed to run like a fast race car.” He had traction troubles late in his Q2 pass, and that left him hoping at least to make the top half of the field in Saturday’s final day of qualifying.

“We were either going to the top or we weren't going to make it,” Wilkerson said Friday night, “and unfortunately the second option happened.”

His two Saturday runs didn’t allow him to improve on his 4.095-second time, so he remained locked into the 10th spot. He’ll meet No. 7 Del Worsham (against whom he is 1-1 this year) in the opening round of eliminations.

"Good laps we can improve on, but I'll take it," Wilkerson said Saturday after qualifying. "It was hot out there and it was real easy to spin the tires a little and then put cylinders out. On the other hand, sometimes if you do keep all eight lit, you can have too much power and spin them that way too, so it was a narrow line we were walking. 
 
"I still enjoy tuning the car when the track is this hot, because it's a huge challenge to negotiate,” he said. “When it's a mine shaft out there, like Topeka was, you just throw the kitchen sink at it and see how fast you can go, and finally this year we were as fast as just about anyone. It's not really that easy, of course, but there's a neat challenge involved with tip-toeing down a hot track. You have to have some finesse to make these beasts go end to end. They're not easy to tame, and it's fun when you get it figured out."
 
MORE PAIRINGS – Courtney Force will face Dom Lagana in a match of second-generation drivers. California natives Cruz Pedregon and Jeff Diehl will meet. And Don Schumacher Racing teammates Matt Hagan and Jack Beckman will race each other in Round 1. 

PRO STOCK 

EVERYBODY IN THE POOL – Everyone entered in the Pro Stock class will race in Sunday’s eliminations. The field has only 15 entries for the 16-car grid, so No. 1 qualifier Chris McGaha will enjoy a first-round bye.

Other match-ups are: Allen Johnson v. Larry Morgan, Erica Enders v. V Gaines, Vincent Nobile v. John Gaydosh, Greg Anderson v. Val Smeland, Shane Gray v. Drew Skillman, Jason Line v. Alan Prusiensky, and Jonathan Gray v. Kenny Delco.     
 

USED TO THRILLS HERE – Shane Gray finished Friday qualifying in seventh place, one spot behind his brother Jonathan. While that certainly was respectable, it didn’t provide nearly the thrills he’s used to experiencing at New England Dragway.
 
Last year the Gray Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro driver was No. 1 qualifier with a track-record 6.485-second elapsed time (his second consecutive top position and second of his career). That was his career best until he went to Reading, Pa., in October and shaved a thousandth of a second off that time. And in 2013, at the inaugural New England Nationals, Gray qualified fourth, reached the final, and lost that by just .024 of a second.
 
Friday night his track record E.T. survived, as Chris McGaha led the field at 6.520 seconds. Gray ad said he wasn’t sure it would hold up. He said, “It's really a neat deal to have a track record that you can call your own – at least for the moment. I'm not sure that it will stay with us after this weekend here, but maybe we can better it ourselves.”
 
Shane Gray, who remained seventh in the lineup Saturday, will start eliminations against Elite Motorsports member Drew Skillman.
 
No matter what happens, Gray enjoys this newest addition to the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule.
 
"Any racetrack you go to and make it to the final round becomes a special place," Gray said. "New England Dragway has been a great place for me, and it seems like something good happens every time we get to go up here.”
 
Referring to Dave Connolly’s Pro Stock victory there against Jonathan Gray, Shane Gray said the team will try “to defend the title our buddy Dave won last year in our first all-Gray Motorsports title. If we can all do our jobs and maybe have a little bit of luck, we might have a pretty good outcome this time around, too."

Since this event began, Allen Johnson is the only non-Gray Motorsports driver to make a final-round appearance here. He claimed the narrow victory over Shane Gray in 2013.
 
LINE STAYS THIRD IN ORDER – Jason Line briefly wrested the provisional No. 1 qualifying position away from Chris McGaha late Friday. But he happily slipped into the No. 3 spot overnight behind McGaha and KB/Summit Racing teammate Greg Anderson.

"We came into this race knowing we had room for improvement with my car, and this is a tricky track, but we went the right way with all three of the KB Racing Camaros," Line said Friday night. "There is definitely more left."

After running his 6.530-second elapsed time  at 212.69 mph, he said, "I think everyone was a little challenged today, but we came out OK. New England Dragway is a fun place to race, and like everywhere else we run, the racing surface has its own unique characteristics. We just have to figure it out.”
 
He said he would “make a few changes” [overnight] but wasn’t sure how significant those would be.

Whatever they were, they didn’t help him gain a better E.T. Saturday. He will start from the No. 3 spot, facing off against No. 14 Alan Prusiensky.

NHRA New England Nationals is one of just five NHRA events where Line hasn’t won. He has won at 16 different racetracks on the current tour and at Memphis and Richmond, which no longer are on the schedule. The two-time Pro Stock champion has advanced to 77 Pro Stock final rounds for Team Summit and won 37.This will be his 270th Pro Stock race.
 
"With the history of this Summit Racing team, I believe that we can accomplish great things at any racetrack we go to," Line said. "I don't think there is any particular reason that we haven't yet won in Epping, except to say that things happen. This year, I think we have as good a chance as ever – our Summit Racing Camaros are good cars, and my teammate [Greg Anderson] has a great car. All of the cars in the KB Racing stable [including the KB Racing-powered Camaros driven by Vincent Nobile and Bo Butner] are performing well."

Nobile was fifth Friday, and Butner wasn’t entered in this race. Nobile stayed fifth Saturday and will race No. 12 John Gaydosh.

ENDERS WANTS ANOTHER WALLY – Erica Enders has an addiction, and it’s not one she particularly wants to shake.

She has a Pro Stock-leading three victories (Las Vegas, Houston, Topeka), along with the K&N Horsepower Challenge bonus-race triumph at Las Vegas. She joins Top Fuel's Antron Brown and Funny Car's Matt Hagan with three Wallys so far this year.

"I'm sure if you asked Antron and Matt, they'd tell you the same thing, that whenever you win a Wally, all you really want to do is win another one," Enders said. "It's addictive. It's the best reward for the crew and the engine builders for all the long hours they put in to make me look good. I get on TV, but they're the real heroes of this operation, no doubt."
 
Enders has been in and out of the lead this spring. She yielded it at Englishtown (no thanks to a misbehaving engine that forced her to halt her first-round run against Alan Prusiensky). Enders entered this event 22 points behind leader Greg Anderson, although her 20-6 elimination-round record is right there with his 21-7.
 
"Everything's been clicking for us," said Enders, a Houston native who lives in New Orleans with her husband, fellow racer Richie Stevens. "We even switched to a new car a few races back but really didn't miss a beat. In fact, we got even better. It speaks to the quality of work these guys put in every day. We expect the best from each other, and they deliver it time after time.
 
"Our team owner, Richard Freeman, is really good at getting the best out of people, and that attitude spreads throughout the team. We're not cocky,” she said. “We just know what we're capable of, and we feel a huge responsibility to prove ourselves every weekend."
 
Enders said as she exited Englishtown that she had anticipated the engine glitch would turn out to be “something little. It happens in this sport. We're running these motors at such a high RPM that stuff like this happens from time to time. I have the best team and the best engine guys in the world, so we'll get her fixed up.”
 
She was fourth in Friday’s order. Ditto for Saturday. As the fourth-place qualifier, she will lineup against No. 13 V Gaines.
 
"The bottom line is you need to be prepared to beat everyone if you expect to win the race, regardless of where you qualify," Enders said. "You come into a race with the initial goal of qualifying for eliminations. Then you aim for being in the top half of the field so you have lane choice in Round 1. Then you try to get as many bonus point as you can each qualifying session. Then if you're lucky, you're on the pole. We've clicked off all of those things but one so we're very happy.
 
"Tomorrow's a new day. We'll have lane choice but we still need to race hard. Having that No. 1 on the door (denoting her champion status) brings out the best in everyone we race. People drag their best stuff up there when they know we're in the other lane and everyone takes their best shot. It's been an adjustment for us, but we're used to now,” she said. “We have a lot of confidence in our car, our horsepower and our abilities."
 
GAYDOSH’S GOAL: TO WIN ONE ROUND – John Gaydosh has just one small wish, but no one really wants to help the Pro Stock racer fulfill it.

“Our goal this year is to win a round,” he said. “Our goal last year was to qualify for a bunch of races, and we did. This year we want to qualify for every race, and I want to win at least one round this year. That’s all – just one round. I’m not getting greedy. If I get one round-win, the next goal will be two rounds. But it’s a tough class.”

What’s playing in Gaydosh’s favor is his car. He bought it from Gray Motorsports, and it’s the one in which Jonathan Gary won two races and cut .000 lights. So the car knows the way to the winners circle.

“It’s very nice to drive. It’s smooth. It’s a good upgrade from the GXP, so we’re real excited,” Gaydosh said.

“I’m feeling comfortable in it now,” said the Baltimore resident who funds most of the operation from his own pocket, with a volunteer crew and some financial backing from Del’s Truck and Auto (Baltimore), Pypes Performance Exhaust, and Snappin Turtle Tie-Downs (Hatfield, Pa.). His crew members are Bobby Crouse (crew chief, clutch specialist, truck driver), Brad Wallace (engine specialist), and back-half specialists Bob Wood and Rich Maxwell.

This is only his second race in this 2013 Camaro. He ran it first at Englishtown last weekend, when he discovered that Friday night that he didn’t fit well the cockpit.

“I’m feeling comfortable in it now,” Gaydosh said. That’s thanks to some late-night work at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park by drivers Shane and Jonathan Gray; their car chief, Craig Hankinson; and Larry Morgan.

“Now we’re pretty good,” he said. “The car’s going straight, so now I have to make some good runs. We should be in good shape this weekend.”

Gaydosh qualified 12th and gave up lane choice to No. 5 Vincent Nobile in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations.

“We’re super-excited,” Gaydosh said.

Gray Motorsports also turned over all the data they had amassed, so Gaydosh (who used to help with Ron Krisher’s crew) said he hopes to make full use of that. “I can look at his data to see what he did, and I can try to adjust for me. And we can go out and have fun. I have their [Gray Motorsports] power in the car, too.”

THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY – Public-address announcer Alan Rinehart kidded Vincent Nobile Friday because the Dix Hills, N.Y., racer admitted he was emotional when his father, John Nobile, won the IHRA race here 10 years ago.

John Nobile provided the background about that weekend.

The elder Nobile had just lost his longtime personal and racing friend, Bobby Lasorda, to Cystic Fibrosis. He flew in and qualified No. 1 here at Epping that Friday, then flew home to Long Island for the funeral. In his absence, someone else had grabbed the top-qualifying position.

“It was a tough, tough situation for me,” John Nobile said.

But he returned to New England Dragway that Sunday and won the event.

That’s why young Vincent Nobile, then 13 years old, wept as he rode his scooter to the far end of the track to congratulate his father. 

SPORTSMAN CRASH – Comp Eliminator racer Ken Voight, of Bridgeport, Conn., was checked out and released by NHRA emergency services officials Friday afternoon following a wreck just past the finish line in his 2007 Chevy Cobalt during Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series qualifying.

FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - TOP FUEL RECORDS FALL, SCHUMACHER AND JOHNSON SCORE DSR A DOUBLE PROVISIONAL NO. 1 , BROWN LOOKS AHEAD ONLY, SCHUMACHER FONDLY CALLS NEW ENGLAND DRAGWAY ‘OLD-SCHOOL,’ KALITTA WANTS TO STEP IT UP, LANGDON SAYS THANKS, MONSTER BRINGS ENERGY TO FORCE DRAGSTER, TODD CHASES 100TH ROUND-WIN, CRAMPTON PUSHING FOR MORE, LUCAS GETTING HANG OF BUSINESS, BECKMAN SURVGIVES ROLLER COASTER RIDE, HIGHT’S ‘SLUMP’ BELIES HIS ACHIEVEMENTS, WILKERSON TIRED OF RACING CAPPS, CRUZ PEDREGON SAYS HE NEEDS TO CONVERT QUALIYING PROWESS TO RACE DAY, ANDERSON STILL PUMPED UP BUT CLEVERLY CALCULATING McGAHA REGAINS HIS THUNDER

TOP FUEL

E-TOWN IN REAR-VIEW MIRROR – Top Fuel points leader Antron Brown, coming off his emotional hometown victory at Englishtown, N.J., with his milestone 50th, isn’t one to look backward for long.
 
"Our Matco team was able to enjoy our big win at Englishtown, but we put that race in the books before we even got to Epping," he said.
 
As soon as his winners circle photo session was over, he and crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald were thinking about New England Dragway.
 
“They have a really, really great racetrack. It’s really smooth, and you’re able to go faster than the track temperature allows you to go at a lot of other racetracks. So that’s what is pretty cool about Epping,” Brown said. “You can run hard and you can run fast. There are lots of trees around. We’ve got plenty of oxygen in the air, and the barometer is right. So you can make some good power and run hard.”
 
A year ago at Epping, the Matco Tools/Toyota/U.S. Army Dragster driver qualified No. 1 but lost in the quarterfinals to Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher.
 
“Last year, we thought we were in a groove. We qualified well. We ran some low elapsed times in each elimination round. And then I met up with Tony, and he gave me the shaft. Man, he got me,” Brown said. “The thing about it is, when we race each other, we push each other hard. We always do. And we don’t like losing to each other. We’re teammates, but we push each other and it’s like bragging rights. Last year at Epping, he really got me. He caught me with my pants down. He took off, and it startled me so bad. I had like the worst light I’ve had in my career in an elimination round because he took off. I wanted to go with him, but I was late taking off. He went like a [3.]79 and I went like a 78 [3.78], and there was no way I was going to beat him. He got me. The good part is he went on and won that event. He brought it home for us. This year, I’m going to cut better lights and take it round by round like we always do and hope to keep doing like we’ve been doing, lately.
 
OLD-SCHOOL – Friday leader Tony Schumacher said he isn’t interested in the cosmetics of a racetrack – just safety and whether he and his fellow racers are able to put on a strong show for the fans. In his book, New England Dragway is just right – and that’s not just because he returns as this race’s 2014 winner.
 
“I absolutely love it. We won last year, and it’s always special to come back to a place as the defending event winner. One thing I really like about racing up here is that it’s old-school. It’s what racing is supposed to be like,” Schumacher said. “Our sport has always been grassroots, and it always will be grassroots.
 
“The fans really come out and support the event, and they really pack ’em in all weekend long. It’s just a great place to go to,” the U.S. Army Dragster driver said. “It’s the people up here that make the place so special – it’s what makes our sport so special everywhere we go.
 
“Yes, it’s very old-school and grassroots in nature, but who cares what everything looks like? As long as the racetrack is safe and competitive, like it is up here, that’s all that really matters,” he said. “It’s a facility that is fun to be at, and it’s a facility that is very conducive to putting on a great show for the fans.”
 
He put on an entertaining one in the first session. He was quickest and fastest in the class at 3.785 seconds, 324.28 mph. He came back to reclaim the tentative No. 1 label with a track-record 3.742 that wiped out the
 
WANTS MORE – Mac Tools Dragster driver Doug Kalitta said, “We have done well in Epping but just not well enough.”
 
At the inuagural New England Nationals in 2013, Kalitta qualified No. 1 and had a semifinal finish against eventual winner Spencer Massey. In his last visit here, he qualified No. 2 and lost in the final round to Tony Schumacher. Being the only top fuel driver to earn semifinal finishes or better in both races isn’t much consolation to him.
 
“We plan on making the third time the charm and driving this Mac Tools Dragster into the winner’s circle,” he said, buoyed by six consistent passes straight down the track at Englishtown, N.J., last weekend and a holeshot victory against Steve Torrence in the opening round.
 
THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU – At the moment, Shawn Langdon is particularly grateful to his crew for giving him a competitive car at Englishtown, to Toyota for keeping the Knuckle Sandwich/Bass Pro Shops/Toyota team on the road with its generous financial support, and to New England drag-racing fans for letting him know this effort is more than worth it.
 
“It’s definitely an adventure when you go to a track where the fans are overly enthused about the race weekend like they are in New England.  The fans are excited to be there at all of the tracks we visit, but to have people coming up to the pit, shaking your hand, and thanking you just for showing up before the racing even started was kind of a surprise the first year we went to New Hampshire,” Langdon said. “It’s always neat to see the New England fans so excited about NHRA drag racing and enjoying the weekend so much.  We really appreciate them spending their hard-earned money to come watch us do what we dream about doing – racing cars. The New England fans make it a great event for everybody.”
 
The search for long-term funding continues at Alan Johnson Racing, and that makes Toyota’s gesture even more remarkable.
  
“Everyone knows about our sponsorship situation this year, and it’s really incredible that a great company like Toyota has stepped up and funded our race team to allow us to compete while we look for a primary sponsor,” Langdon said. “Finding a sponsor is really difficult – especially when you start looking in January.  So we can’t thank Toyota enough for stepping up and helping us survive this difficult season.  They’ve definitely been our saving grace, and I know I speak for everyone at Alan Johnson Racing.”
 
As for the racecar itself, Langdon said it was “great in qualifying” . . . again – he has two No. 1 starts and has qualified in the top six at seven of nine events this season. But he said he and the car overpowered the Englishtown racetrack. He called that a “mishap” and said, “Overall the car was running strong, and we feel like we have a good handle on the race car again, like we did in the beginning of the year.”

MONSTER ENERGY, FOR SURE – Since Brittany Force secured Monster Energy as a marketing partner for her Top Fuel dragster, her performance has improved significantly. In the past two events, her first two with the new sponsor, she has started eliminations from the top half of the field and advanced to a semifinal and a final round.

“We just use that to keep moving forward and to keep pushing a little bit harder. Really, now having Monster Energy on board, we now have the power to push harder. We can be more aggressive and push the performance,” Force said. “We pushed it all the way to the finals this weekend. Earlier in the season we were playing it safe, because we didn’t have a sponsor and we couldn’t press as hard on the parts. We are a lot more confident, and we are proud to be teamed up with Monster Energy.”

She was as high as seventh place in the standings earlier in the season, then dropped out of the top 10. But her runner-up to Antron Brown last weekend at Englishtown, N.J., she moved to No. 8. She’s only 29 points behind No.7 Larry Dixon.

“Overall an awesome day for this Monster Energy team [in New Jersey]. I am so proud of every one of my guys. They put everything into this dragster. We went all the way to the final, and I don’t even know how that happened – it was just a blur. You can tell they are bummed and they really wanted to take home that win, but I am so proud of them and especially my crew chiefs, Todd Smith and Ronnie Thompson,” Force said.

TODD STILL CHASING 100TH ROUND-WIN – Team Kalitta’s JR Todd earned eight bonus points during Englishtown qualifying last weekend to lead all nitro-class pros (all racers in both the Top Fuel and Funny Car). On the verge of gaining his 100th round-win, Todd would like to go at least to the semifinals to hit that plateau. But he’d prefer to make it 102 career round-wins this weekend with a victory, which would be his first since last June at Denver.
 
“Epping is a good track surface and usually produces fast times,” Todd said before qualifying began. “We need to turn our qualifying results into race day results, and Epping is a great place to start.” The Kalitta Air Dragster driver is ninth in the standings.
"We have just been losing races that really could have gone either way," he said after losing a close first-round match-up against Terry McMillen at Englishtown. "My reaction times haven't been as good as I feel they need to be. That is something that I need to work on. The performance of the car has definitely been there. We just need the luck to fall on our side on Sunday. It’s a matter of getting things to go our way on Sunday.

“The Red Line Oil/Kalitta Air team has been qualifying in the top five or six the last few races, and qualifying has been extremely tight. So we are running with the frontrunners,” he said.

LOVES EPPING – Spencer Massey said is as excited and hopeful as a Presidential candidate to be in New Hampshire – make that back in New Hampshire. One of his 18 NHRA Top Fuel victories came in the inaugural race here in 2013. He raced here in his short IHRA career, as well.
 
"I'm definitely excited to get back to Epping," Spencer said. "This is definitely one of my favorite parts of the season. On the road all week, racing nearly every weekend. I wouldn't change it at all. It's the best. The fans in Epping are some of the greatest. The pits are always packed and it's cool to see everyone so excited about us being there."

Massey might sound like a broken record when he said his Sandvik Coromant/Red Fuel team from the Don Schumacher Racing organization continues to improve its consistency. Still, as the race began he was third in the standings, behind his DSR mates Anton Brown, the leader, and No. 2 Tony Schumacher.

“We're still working on our tune-up," Massey said. "It's getting to the point in the season where it's going to get pretty hot, and we need a good hot-weather tune-up for this summer stretch of races. With three races in three weeks, we're hoping to get a lot of good data and some momentum going to get us ready for races like Norwalk and Chicago, where you know it's going to be pretty hot and steamy.”

KEEPING UP WITH THE BROWNS – Antron Brown is the lone Top Fuel racer with three victories this year. (Matt Hagan in Funny Car and Erica Enders in Pro Stock have three apiece, as well.) But only one other dragster driver has won more than once: Richie Crampton in the Lucas Oil Dragster (at Las Vegas and Topeka).
 
"The parity in the class has really made for a crazy start to the season,” Crampton said. “It's wild that we're nine races into the schedule and only Antron and myself have won more than one race. It speaks to the level of competition in Top Fuel.”
 
Crampton, star of the show at Englishtown last year, said, "I'm pretty honored just to be mentioned with a driver like Antron. He won his 50th national event in Englishtown, which is astonishing, but for a new driver like myself, it's something to say we've won four times in less than a season and a half. Aaron Brooks and Rod Centorbi (tuners) and the guys that make up this team are first-rate."
 
He’s looking for his third trophy of the year but conceded with a grin, “The race you always want to win is the next one on the schedule, so I want to win Epping. After running so well in Topeka we hit a bump in Englishtown, didn't qualify all that well, and ended up losing early. That's the cruel nature of this sport at times.
 
"I know from experience, both as a crewman and a driver, that the best way to put a bad race behind you is to do well at the next one, so [we're] ready to roll.”
 
He certainly was. He was second-quickest in the opening session with a 3.791-second E.T. that was No. 2 behind Schumacher’s 3.785. Crampton and Schumacher were the lone Top Fuel racers in the 3.7-second range in the heat of the day.
 
LUCAS HAS CHANCE TO WIN ON, OFF THE TRACK – Morgan Lucas is wearing his role of businessman well these days. Instead of simply talking about how happy he is to race here again after missing this event last season or about how well crew chief Aaron Brooks handles the two-car team and its data-sharing function, the part-time racer said he’s excited about the business-to-business opportunities this event affords.
 
Lucas is driving his Sig Sauer/Lucas Gun Oil Dragster this weekend, and he certainly wants to impress with his 10,000-horsepower race car. But demonstrating value, proving a return on investment, and presenting the possibilities of this unique marketing partnership are on his mind at New England Dragway.
 
"This is the home race for Sig Sauer, and we plan on welcoming a bunch of the employees, their families, and friends to the racetrack," Lucas said. "It's really important to all of us at Morgan Lucas Racing that we put on a good performance for them. We're anxious to show off a different kind of high-level engineering and machining.
 
"The gun industry at the top level, where Sig Sauer is, relies heavily on flawless performance. That's what we strive for at the top level of drag racing. Hopefully we can go in there and show them they're partnered with people who are just as passionate about what we do as they are when they're crafting their guns."
 
Sig Sauer Firearms, based in nearby Newington, N.H., is a part of Team Lucas. The company provides weapons for the military, law enforcement, and personal protection. They also use Lucas Oil's high-performance firearm lubrication and cleaning products in all of their firearms.
 
Moreover, Lucas said, "The New England market is very important for NHRA, Lucas Oil, and all of our partners, like Sig Sauer. The fans up there went without an NHRA national event for so many years, and they've really supported this race since it's been on the schedule.
 
"I didn't race there last year, so it'll be good to get back and spend some time with all of our Boston-area friends. They are definitely passionate about their sports."
 
Lucas has been racing a limited schedule the past two seasons as he learns the family business from his father and mother, Forrest and Charlotte Lucas. Although he raced just seven times last year, Lucas won twice.
 
"It's hard to find a racing rhythm when you're just running select events, but this weekend will be a little different as we just finished Englishtown (N.J.) on Sunday," Lucas said. "I think it will help all of us. I know my driving could be better, and the guys always want to make as many runs as possible.
 
"Aaron (Brooks, crew chief) does a great job with both of our dragsters, and sharing data with the car Richie (Crampton, teammate) drives gives us twice as much information every round. That helps a bunch. These cars are very sophisticated, but there are still little things you can do between runs that can make a world of difference, even during a single round if the cars are spaced out enough.”
 
He vowed midweek to “be ready for this race. We want to start making an impact on these events like we did last year, and doing that in Sig Sauer's backyard would be perfect."

FUNNY CAR

HIGHS AND LOWS – Jack Beckman has been on the drag racing roller coaster.

"The last two races we definitely experienced the highs and lows of drag racing," the 17-time Funny Car winner and 2012 champion said.

"We left Topeka with maybe the most convincing win of my career. We came into Englishtown with high expectations and wound up stumbling in the first round and lost ground in the points chase and dropped one spot in the standings to fourth,” Beckman said.

The Infinite Hero Dodge team had a record-breaking weekend at Topeka, recording four straight runs in the three-second range and five totally and winning the event. It was Beckman’s second victory of the season, and it lifted him to third place in the standings. Things couldn’t have been much more the opposite last weekend at Englishtown. He qualified mid-pack, at No. 7, and lost in his first test Sunday to Alexis De Joria.

"This weekend is a golden opportunity to show everybody what we're made of, going to a track that doesn't have a lengthy history on the NHRA Mello Yello tour but goes back to the heyday of drag racing in the sixties when it was a destination stop for a lot of Funny Car match races. I'd love to add that to my list of tracks where I won a Wally.”

Beckman took the 13th position on the grid in the first session, and fared worse in Q2. His car hit the timing cones downtrack and cost not only himself an elapsed time but one, as well, for Tony Pedregon in the other lane.

"The nice thing about this time of year,” he said, referring to the string of three races in as many weekends, “is you only have to wait five days until you're right back in the car doing it again."

He has won at 10 of the 21 tracks on the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour.

HIGHT IN SLUMP BUT STRONG OVERALL – It might be hard to believe right now, with his recent performance of three consecutive first-round losses on race day, but Robert Hight has won more events – 34 – than any other Funny Car driver since 2005 and has earned 46 top-qualifying positions. He wants to start living up to his statistics once again, beginning with this weekend’s New England Nationals.

“We haven’t been showing our true potential the last two or three races,” Hight said. “There have been a few things that have tripped us up in qualifying or on race day. We need to get back to qualifying in the top half, and that will give us a better shot on Sunday. The competition is still getting tougher out here, so just because you are the No. 1 or No. 2 qualifier, that doesn’t mean you are going to get an easy first round opponent.”

His results at this race have been a mixed bag. At the inaugural event, his Auto Club entry was fifth on the race-day grid, but he lost in the first round to Del Worsham. Last year Hight recorded the facility’s first three-second run, with a 3.988-second elapsed time, to lead the field. But the John Force Racing President lost to his boss in the quarterfinals. (That was Hight’s second pass in the threes and his second-quickest official E.T. The quickest Hight officially has run is 3.986 seconds at the 2014 Winternationals at Pomona, Calif.)

Last weekend, the Chevy Camaro driver qualified 12th and was a Tommy Johnson Jr. victim in Round 1.The previous time Hight lost in the first round at three consecutive races was on this is same “Eastern Swing” through Englishtown, Epping, and Bristol in 2013.

Hight, who has a runner-up showing at Las Vegas and three early-season semifinal finishes (at Pomona, Phoenix, and Houston), remains in the top 10 at No. 7. For his career, Hight has averaged a semifinal finish better than every 2.5 races. That’s the truth he clings to.

“No one is hanging their heads on this Auto Club team,” he said. “We are back at it in Epping this weekend and then we will be headed to Bristol, Tenn. I love racing back to back, because you get into a good mindset of being at the track and being focused on what is important, like going rounds and making good runs. Mike Neff, my crew chief, has been trying a few things to get us ready for the Countdown. And part of that process is figuring out what doesn’t work.”

NEED TO DO IT WHEN IT COUNTS NOW – Cruz Pedregon’s goal this weekend is to start converting excellent qualifying performances into race-day round-wins. Last weekend in the “eastern Swing” opener at Englishtown, N.J., the Snap-on Toyota Camry driver recorded his third top-qualifying position of the year. That also was his 60th time to lead the field, and it pushed him past one of his drag-racing heroes, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme.

“I was totally excited to learn that I passed ‘The Snake.’ He’s a legend in the sport, so this is thrilling for me,” Pedregon said.

“Each race, the team is doing what needs to be done, but we have to find a way to translate the great runs into a victory,” he said. “This is only Year Three for the New England Nationals, so there’s still a bit of a learning curve for all the drivers. But, we’re looking for good things to happen this weekend.”

Chris “Warrior” Kullberg, the Snap-on crew chief, said, “The cylinder and fuel pump problems are resolved, and we are ready. This crew knows what needs to be done when the races are back-to-back. There is a lot of maintenance and care to ensure problems don’t linger or become bigger problems. We all do a fantastic job of catching things, and we’re really finding that rhythm as a team. Cruz and the car are ready for more great runs.”

One of Pedregon’s honored guests this weekend is one he’ll surely have to introduce to Top Fuel driver Steve Torrence. The gentleman, a Snap-on franchisee who has been associated with the company since 1988, is Stephen Zawisza (pronounced za-VISHA). In his spare time, Zawisza, like Torrence, is an avid bow hunter of elk.

‘IT STINGS’ FOR WILKERSON – First the juicy news: Tim Wilkerson wants to “break up” with fellow Funny Car driver Ron Capps, wants to see other racers. No word from Capps about how he’s taking it.
 
Then the not-as-racy racing news: Wilkerson is getting tired, too, of putting forth his best and still seeing it not be enough to win rounds.
  
The Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang driver did conquer Capps to win the Atlanta trophy last month. Bu more often than not lately, Capps has been a bother more than a brother. That includes their meeting here at Epping last season.
 
"Last year in Epping, we qualified OK with a 4.063 [-second elapsed time], and then we stepped up to a 4.061 in the opening round, which was not just low of the round but low of the day," Wilkerson said. "I cut my ordinary standard run-of-the-mill .086 light, but Ron left on me by about a hundredth of a second and he squeaked by me. We had just been the runner-up in Bristol the week before, so we were feeling pretty good about ourselves, but that one got away. And those are the kinds of rounds that sting a little. If you totally mess up, like if I'd have lost on a holeshot where Ron left with a .086 and I was asleep at the line, then you're just mad at yourself. When you do everything right and still lose, it stings.
 
Again, Wilkerson was feeling happy about his performance this month – after improving form as far back as 13th to eighth place – when along came Capps again. Wilkerson was encouraged with five straight round-wins at Atlanta and Topeka. But even with qualifying in the top half of the order, he drew Capps again as his first-round opponent. Capps got the better of him, and that cost Wilkerson a spot in the standings.
 
Already Wilkerson was a tiny bit bummed. He was spoiled with his 3.971-second E.T. at Topeka, so his 4.005-second qualifying best at Englishtown didn’t have the luster it might have earlier in the year. And of course, it was no help that Wilkerson was ahead of Capps at about the 660-foot cones, he smoked the tires and lost to Capps. All that did was remind him of other tough losses to Capps, including one from a year ago here when he lost to him by mere inches.
 
"We've been seeing a little too much of Capps lately, and it's tough when you're outrunning a team that good but they find ways to beat you,” Wilkerson said. “We got him in the final round at Atlanta, but he came back to get me in the first round in Englishtown. And let's not even talk about Gainesville, where he beat me in the semifinal by one ten-thousandth of a second. How can two cars both be running over 300 mph and one of them wins by an inch? You wouldn't think that's possible, but it happened. No offense to Ron, but maybe we should spend some time racing other people."
 
What put him in a better mood as this race approached was the huge fan turnout that Epping, N.H., always produces. 
 
"When you look out beyond the ropes from your pit, and all you can see is a sea of people, taking up every square foot of the pit area, you can't help but notice," Wilkerson said. "It was wall-to-wall, and the people from that part of the country sure let us know how much they wanted an NHRA Mello Yello national event up there in the Boston market. 
 
"It was a bit hard on both the fans and the racers the first year, but they figured out some new traffic patterns and it went way better last year, which I think allowed everyone to have a better time. They're great fans, and they often just walk up to say 'Thank you' to us, which is neat,” he said. “Now it's up to us to start a new streak and put some more rounds in the 'W' column. It all starts with qualifying.” 

 

TOO STRONG FOR NO WINS – Del Worsham has back-to-back semifinal finishes in his most recent races in the DHL Toyota Camry Funny Car and has earned elimination-round victories in both of his starts here. And as the third-ranked driver in the standings, he just might be the best nitro driver without a victory this year.
 
“I really want to get this DHL Camry team a win. We are working really hard and have been so close so many times this season. It’s bound to happen soon,” Worsham said.
 
He came off the trailer strong Friday, seizing the tentative top position in the opening session with a 4.073-second, 313.66 run. “What a great run,” he said after climbing from his car.

His lead didn’t last long. By the time he came back to the starting line for his second attempt Friday, Worsham was No. 6 in the order. He smoked the tires and wound up with a 6.630, 100.93, and had to watch Tommy Johnson Jr., running in the opposite lane, blast to the No. 1 spot overnight at 4.047 seconds. Worsham will try to improve from his tentative No. 7 berth. 
 

TWO TRAXXAS SPOTS OPEN TO WINNERS – Points leader Matt Hagan heads the class with three victories, and No. 2 Ron Capps and No. 4 Jack Beckman have two each. All are out of the Don Schumacher Racing shop. No. 5 John Force and No. 9 Tim Wilkerson grabbed the other two victories to join the DSR trio in the Traxxas Shootout at Indianapolis. Only two more spots remain for race winners in that lucrative bonus race before the eighth and final spot goes to the winner of a fan-vote-aided lottery.  
     
JOHNSON AMONG THOSE WHO RACED HERE IN IHRA – Funny Car racer Tommy Johnson Jr. agreed with DSR teammate Tony Schumacher that New England Dragway’s “track surface is good, and the facility has an old-school feeling to it. That's something fun, to race at a place that has that vibe.” And the Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger driver agreed with Top Fuel’s Shawn Langdon that the Epping fans are unique: “The fans are very enthusiastic, and it's refreshing to have them coming up to you and thanking you for coming to the track. They appreciate that NHRA is there, and they have a lot of support for us. It's great for us to have New England Dragway as a stop on our tour, and it gives us the opportunity to bring racing back to those folks again. It's good for all of us."

But one thing he doesn’t have in common with Schumacher or Langdon is a trip to the winners circle for team sponsor Terry Chandler and the dozens of Make-A-Wish children who are Tommy Johnson fans now. Still, his performances have been strong enough to keep him in sixth place in the standings.

Johnson is among the few drivers (including Clay Millican, Terry McMillen, JR Todd, Spencer Massey, Matt Hagan, and Del Worsham) who had competed here before it became an NHRA-sanctioned racetrack in 2013. Johnson raced here in IHRA action in his family's Top Fuel dragster.

"I love the feeling [here], and I appreciate the rich history the track has," Johnson said. "It's very cool to be racing there again, and last year we made some pretty good runs there. It would be nice to do it again and to go a little further."

So far so good for Johnson, who said, “It’s not like we’re off in left field” but “we need the racing breaks.” He was No. 1 overnight at 4.047 seconds. He said, “The 4.04 was a real good number.”

PRO STOCK

SO FAR SO GOOD FOR McGAHA – Pro Stock owner-driver Chris McGaha had a couple of unfortunate incidents with his engines at Englishtown last weekend and ended up losing in the first round, thanks to a broken valve. He said when he got the two offenders back home to Odessa, Texas, this past week for repairs, he said he discovered the problem and said, “Oh, Lordy.” (That’s never a positive sign.) “The sinking feeling, he said, was that “that could happen to every one of ‘em [all his engines]. We know what the problem is, but the problem could exist with every one of ‘em. It’s not always that way [with a problem], but in this case, yes.”
 
While he was waiting to go to the staging lanes, he said, “We’ve tried to take measures to fix it. So we’ll see. We’re going to know on this [first qualifying] run.” Someone asked him if anything exciting was going on with him, and he said, “Let’s go make the run and we’ll know exciting.”

He made the run, and it was exciting, for sure. He zipped to the No. 1 spot in the order early Friday with a 6.542-second elapsed time (at 212.23 mph).

He said he had banked on clouds to roll into the area and tuned for that before they moved in.

“We have our moments,” he said with a grin. “We were anticipating the clouds to come. We had no cloud cover, and all of a sudden, here it is.”

But McGaha figured after the run that it wouldn’t hold up as No. 1 qualifier. “Surely somebody can do better than that,” he said, even outdoing streaking Greg Anderson by nearly two-hundredths of a second. (Anderson established the class’ best speed of the weekend at 212.83 mph.)   

Again, McGaha was right. Three drivers, indeed, ran better in the second session – including himself. Jason Line took the top spot for a few moments with a 6.521-second pass, and Anderson – running side by side with McGaha in the final Pro Stock pairing of the day – cranked out a 6.521. But it was McGaha’s day, and he regained the provisional lead by a thousandth of a second over Anderson at 6.520.

The engine he decided to use Friday, he said, is one he jokingly called “One-Hit Wonder, No. 7.” He said, “You know when you shoot craps and you see a seven and you win, but then you see a seven and you lose? That’s what we’ve got in there now, No. 7.”

After it performed Friday as flawlessly as American Pharoah in the Belmont Stakes, McGaha said, “It has made two great passes. Maybe it can make six more.”

He hasn’t let first-round defeats at Atlanta and Englishtown – two in the past three races – upset him too much.

“I don’t feel like we’ve gone backwards,” the Harlow Sammons Camaro driver who’s in fourth place in the standings said. “We did go to that final in Houston, and we did go to the semifinals again in Topeka. It’s been a couple of rocky races, but every week’s a new week. Every day’s a new day.”

PRO STOCK COUNTRY – Greg Anderson’s patience is paying off. Sidelined because of heart surgery early last year, he took a little while to find his winning rhythm. With a victory last Sunday at Englishtown, the four-time Pro Stock champion has been itching to see if he can keep his momentum rolling. And being in the Northeast excites him all the more.

"Just like Englishtown, New England Dragway is a great Pro Stock racetrack. The whole Northeast supports this class like you wouldn't believe, and we love it," Anderson said. "Epping is another fast racetrack that's close to sea level, and our cars can be very fast there, especially now, with the Summit Racing Camaro I have under me. It's just a great time of year for us.”

The KB/Summit Racing Camaro driver said winning at Epping is “on my bucket list. I've won at every other racetrack on the circuit right now, and when they added Epping to our tour, I just knew it was one trophy I had to get. I haven't been able to conquer it yet, but it would sure be a wonderful thing if I could get to win here this weekend and have a trophy from every racetrack."

Odds are in his favor.

"We're racing better than ever right now," Anderson said. "We are, without a doubt, a threat to win at every track we pull into. I can't wait to race this weekend, because right now, it sure is a lot of fun to drive this Summit Racing Camaro. I've got a big smile on my face every time I get to go down a dragstrip. Our team is trying to get as many trophies as we possibly can to hand over to the folks at Summit Racing when we roll into their home track in Norwalk in a few weeks. We hope to have something to brag about at the end of this weekend."

GRAY RETURNS TO SCENE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT – Jonathan Gray has a special spot in his heart for New England Dragway. It’s where as a rookie last year he was runner-up in his second consecutive final-round appearance and raced teammate Dave Connolly in the first all-Gray Motorsports final round.
 
"It was a little hard to believe that we were going to the second final round in a row," Gray said. "It was kind of a fairy-tale situation, to be honest. You just can't believe it's happening, but you're happy about it. I'm excited to [be] back. We were runner-up last year, and maybe we can finish it this year. Maybe we can get it done.”
 
He said he isn’t certain about "what it is about that place that really plays into Gray Motorsports. I think some places are just better than others for certain teams, but really, I think it's more if you're on that weekend or not. It doesn't really matter where you are."
 
Like so many nitro-class racers, Gray noticed how strong the fan base here is – but he also said he appreciated the love they give the Pro Stock class.
 
"The reception we get there for Pro Stock is just phenomenal. This class doesn't seem to get as much support as the nitro classes in general, and that's a shame because a lot of hard work goes into this deal by a lot of people, and the racing is just so close," he said. "It's really exciting if you pay attention to what's happening with this class. But you get up there to a track like New England Dragway, and those people love Pro Stock. It makes it a lot of fun to race [here]."
 
WORTH A CRY – John Nobile, the retired longtime IHRA and NHRA Pro Stock driver and outlaw-circuit regular, won here at New England Dragway 10 years ago. Today his son Vincent, driver of Nick and Irene Mitsos’ Mountain View Tire Camaro, is making his third NHRA appearance here.
 
He started the New England Nationals with a tentative No. 7 showing at 6.602 seconds, 211.79 mph, then improved to No. 5 with a 6.552.
 
“I remember that day,” he said of his father’s triumph here. He was just 13 years old at the time. “I came down [to the top end] on a scooter, crying my eyes out. Maybe I can do that again this weekend.”
 
Presumably he meant bring the family another victory here near their home at Dix Hills, Long Island, N.Y. But he wouldn’t be ashamed to grab for a tissue.       
 
FAST FIREADE HAWKER – To hear veteran Pro Stock racer Larry Morgan tell it, he isn’t sure whether he wants to start his next 600 NHRA races with a victory or be a FireAde pitchman. Actually, with his situation, he could do both.
 
On the track, he’ll be going for his 12th Pro Stock victory and first at this former IHRA-sanctioned facility.
 
"I haven't had a car that could run fast there, but I have one now,” Morgan said. “I've never won there, but I'd love to, of course. I've won at the last three racetracks we've been to, but never at Epping."
 
In the NHRA's first two races here at New England Dragway, Morgan struggled in his Ford, but with technical support and horsepower from Gray Motorsports and a switch to Chevrolet, Morgan has turned into a threat at every event. He's seventh in the Pro Stock standings.
 
"I've got something to run with for the championship," Morgan said. "I'm going to do the best I can do, but it's the best chance I've had in 20 years."
 
And that brings him to the point he is with his marketing effort. Part of his renewed enthusiasm is his relationship with Gray Motorsports. "I can tell you right now, they treat me like I'm their dad," Morgan said. "They're so good to me. Anything I want over there, they give me -- anything. Those boys are so polite to me, and I appreciate that. Terry and Johnny are really good people, and I'm proud to be hooked up with them. They're all wonderful to me."
 
And part of that is his association with FireAde. It makes him want to be an evangelist of sorts.

"The fans are unreal,” he said. "They really are. I look forward to meeting as many fans as I can and talking about FireAde to all of them. It's a great product, and people need to have one in their homes."