Keep up with this weekend's NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals by reading our behind-the-scenes event notebook. We bring you the stories behind the numbers and win-lights throughout the course of the weekend. Tune in daily for the latest news from the pits.  

 

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

 

 

SUNDAY NOTEBOOK -BROWN CAN DELIVER; CAPPS AND ACE – DRAG RACING’S THUNDER AND LIGHTNING

ROLLING THUNDER – When you hear the thunder just know the lightning isn’t far behind and don't say they were not warned.

Antron Brown delivered a subtle hint in preseason testing at the National Time Trials at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, Az., when he laid down the quickest elapsed time.

He came back two weekends later and delivered a No. 1 qualifying effort and the quickest elapsed time in the history of 1,000-foot drag racing, a run that was later disallowed over faulty NHRA clocks.

An unfazed Brown returned to reach the final round, losing to a destiny-driven Doug Kalitta.

This time Brown lit the scoreboard four times on Sunday at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals to record his third career Top Fuel national event victory and first for the Mike Ashley-owned Matco Tools-sponsored team.

The message should be crystal clear at this point considering the former Pro Stock Motorcycle standout now leads the NHRA Top Fuel point standings for the first team in his short dragster-driving career.

“I think this [win] just shows how strong our team is,” Brown said in the post-race press conference. “I looked to the man upstairs as if to ask why is all of this adversity coming down on us during the off-season. We had thought headed into this season we were going to be able to challenge for a title because the whole team had stayed intact, and then the whole team got switched around; I wondered what was going to happen.”

Brown lost the only crew chief he’d known in his short driving career. He was replaced by a duo of crew chiefs known for their prowess in tuning Funny Cars.

“I knew that Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald were going to be good,” Brown admitted. “I just wondered how the team was going to gel together. Once we came to the test session … I knew we didn’t need any glue or adhesive, we were going to stick together.”

The sophomore driver believes his tuners have made positive moves and he’s more than obliging to take the ride.

“They’ve taken us to a new level, for sure,” Brown added.

“We were bummed after Pomona because we felt like we had the car to beat. We came into Phoenix with the objective just to race each round to the best of our ability. Then we saw [Larry] Dixon go that 3.80 after we had gone 3.88, we looked at our run and we had actually broken and coasted across the finish line. We were on a 3.82 pass, we knew we were right there – we just needed to go A to B.

“When we ran the 3.81 in the semis, we knew we had shown our potential. In the final round, we just wanted to go to the finish line and getting that win light gave us the confidence we need heading into Gainesville.”

Save for the first round of eliminations, Brown was the quicker reacting driver against his final three competitors.

THE BIRTHDAY PRESENT - Brown might have been scratching his head in January when Ashley removed him from his Lee Beard comfort zone and delivered a pair of seasoned Funny Car tuners in Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, but now in late February he can't help but think the move was pure genius on his team owner's behalf.

No disrespect towards anyone, but Brown wouldn't change a thing about his tuners.

"Brian and Mark’s determination together is awesome," Brown said. "We three have the same determination and vision and everything. We all have our visions set on going out there and winning on the race track and we want to do it in a fun way. Everybody on this team, if you go around and ask them, they are living their dream. That’s the special thing about this, there’s nobody out here just doing it because this is the only job they can do; they do this because this is their dream job.

“That’s what’s been the blessing to me, is to be on a team like I am on. Like Mike Ashley, he loves this sport. That trickles down to everybody on this team, we are a true team. Nobody on this team says I, we all take responsibility for the bad things and we all take part in the success. I know that is what sets us apart from everyone else."

Last Thursday was Oswald's birthday and this Thursday is Corradi's, Sunday's victory worked well for Brown in delivering a birthday present for both.

"That's about the best gift I could give them," Brown said.

CAN YOU SMELL WHAT THE ACE IS COOKING? - The odds say that it was just as well that Mike Neff drove his broken race car to the finish line without backing up from the burnout.

Ron Capps would have been a monster to beat anyway.

Who said that? It wasn't Capps. Maybe it was “Fate” talking.

Capps ran a 4.048 elapsed time in the final round, just .001 off of Neff’s 4.047 in the semis. Clearly from the first round of competition the NAPA Auto Parts-sponsored driver has had just enough to win every round of competition during the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals in Phoenix, Az., starting with his triumph over Jeff Arend and continuing through wins over teammate Matt Hagan, Del Worsham and then Neff in the finals.

While many might give the lion’s share of credit to the driver, the driver turned the spotlight on his tuner Ed “Ace” McCulloch. The tuner was clearly cooking throughout the event.

“He's the man," said Capps in the winner's circle. "He's done well in his career, driven Funny Cars, Top Fuel dragsters. He's my hero. I can't tell you how I feel right now. More than anything [this win is great] for the NAPA guys and for Ace. He really worked hard in the off season and kind of started from scratch with the tune-up.

"It's like a really good cook learning how to cook again completely differently. The car is just so different to run, to feel, and it puts me in the trunk at half-track. It's so much fun to drive and when the win light comes on, it's even better.”

When the meal tastes this good, you go back for second helpings and on this day, Capps returned for a third helping and finished off the meal with a nice desert prepared by Chef McCulloch.

"To run the 4:04 in the final was awesome,” Capps added. “Ace could've just tried to go down the track, but he wanted to give the fans the best run this weekend.”

If you think this season strikes an eerie resemblance to the team’s strong 2007 start, Capps warns that 2009 will present its own unique flavor, one intended to provide heartburn to the competition.

"Our focus this year is to roll into each race and rip their hearts out in each run; focus on winning each race,” Capps explained. “The points will come, the Countdown will come. Honestly, Ace had this look in his eye like, 'get out of my way, and [to me], 'you'd better hang on because you're going in the trunk of this car when it gets out there.'

"It's a great feeling, because we were embarrassed by not winning any races last year. We flat out didn't give NAPA what they deserved. And they came on board when they saw what we did in 2005-2007 (11 wins) and those three years were great. This is what we should have been doing last year."

Sunday’s victory marked the 28th career victory for Capps, and second consecutive in 2009. He now holds a 97-point lead over second place Del Worsham, a semi-finalist on Sunday.

DON’T MESS WITH THE ACE - In many circles of drag racing folklore, Ed "Ace" McCulloch carried a rather potent right hook.

That was then. This is now and he's channeled his aggression elsewhere.

The 22-time winner as a driver is having fun in racing again and his run of good fortunes with a driver he describes as being as close to a son as one can have, has everything to do with his renewed passion.

"I'm not sure that it's really sunk in yet," McCulloch said, of the NAPA Auto Parts team's second consecutive victory. "We struggled a little bit. We struggled in testing, we went to Pomona, struggled a little bit, got through there. We came here, struggled a little bit. I told some of the guys earlier, I don't like racing the car the way it is. I'm not happy with it, but when it comes time to step up to the plate, we've got to step up to the plate."

The opportunity presented itself to deliver a knockout punch and the crafty veteran left no doubt.

Call it running up the score, call it what you want.

McCulloch's actions called it leaving no doubt.

"It was good running what we did in the semifinals and then when Zippy (Neff) had his malfunction out there, Ron asked me, 'Do you want me to shut it off?’ If we shut if off there is always the thought [by the competing team] that 'Well, if we had only made it we'd have beaten 'em.' I told Ron, Don't shut it off, because if it makes it down there it's going to run pretty good. Let's send a message. Run it."

Adding to McCulloch's blockbuster weekend was the fact that along with son Jason, tuner for Larry Dixon, they combined for the first father-son No. 1 nitro qualifying effort in drag racing history, regardless of sanction.

MONKEY BUSINESS - The thud you thought you heard on Sunday, about 6:04 E.S.T., was Jeg Coughlin Jr. body-slamming the monkey off his back.

Coughlin extended his edge over good friend Kurt Johnson to 31 wins and 27 losses by capturing the Pro Stock title at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals at Phoenix, Az. The win represented the first of the 2009 season for Coughlin.

If Coughlin holds a winning edge over Johnson, and this was only the second race of the season, where does the monkey on the back come into the equation?

Coughlin had never beaten Johnson in a final round. Seven times they had battled for the trophy and every time, until now, the ACDelco-sponsored driver had beaten the Jegs Mail Order driver.

"That's a crazy stat," Coughlin admitted. "Any time you race Kurt you know you're in for a battle and it definitely means a little more to beat a driver of his caliber. I'll have to make sure and give him a hard time about this."

Just as he had all day, Coughlin used expert driving to secure his victory against Johnson. He left ahead of his rival with a .030-second reaction time to Johnson's .049-second start, and led all the way down the track, winning with a 6.643 at 208.01 mph to a 6.647 at 208.46 mph.

"Sometimes you really have to fight your way through a race and that was certainly the case this weekend," said Coughlin, a 42-time winner in the Pro Stock class. "We're still trying to fine-tune this new Chevy and we're not at full speed just yet. My Dad and Roy (Simmons, crew chief) just kept at it every pass and the car was there for me. It's really cool to win for them and for my little man, Jeggie III, who came along this weekend. He's always good luck."

Starting from the No. 4 qualifying position, Coughlin beat Steve Spiess with a 6.619, Pomona winner Jason Line with a 6.653, and Ron Krisher with a 6.651 to reach his 69th final round. His average reaction time on the day was .032 seconds and he had the quickest reaction time of the last three rounds.

This win moved the back-to-back and four-time series champion to second place in the Full Throttle points and leaves him just two markers behind first-place Line and 14 ahead of third-place Greg Anderson.

"We're having some fun," Coughlin said. "I don't care how many of these things you win they're all special. This team that Victor Cagnazzi has put together is just so talented. It's a heckuva lot of fun to drive this racecar."

TOUGH PILL TO SWALLOW - Mike Neff rode a wave of emotion to the finals of the Lucas Slick Mist NHRA Nationals at Firebird International Raceway. Handling the majority of the onsite crew chief duties for the Ford Drive One Mustang in the absence of crew chief John Medlen, who was in Indianapolis recovering from a heart procedure he received prior to the race, Neff reached his fourth career final before a broken clutch linkage forced him to abort his final round run versus red hot Ron Capps.

“The clutch linkage broke and there was no was no way to push the clutch in to put it in reverse. It must have happened during the burnout. I tried to push the clutch in and there was nothing there. I tucked my foot underneath the pedal to see what was going on and I could feel that the clutch pedal was broken. I knew we were dead so I just had to take off to get out of the way.”

Even though Neff had one of the strongest funny cars on the property all three days of the event the loss was easy for Neff to rationalize. His relationship with Medlen is very close and he communicated with him constantly throughout the event. Not being able to share the possible winning moment with Medlen in person weighed heavily on the 2008 Rookie of the Year.

“Medlen is one of the smartest guys I know, without a doubt. It is his car and he set all this stuff up. I didn’t come in here and wave a magic wand. I just picked up and tried to do what he would do. I tried to continue on how he would do it. There is no question our performance would have been the same. We didn’t do anything differently,” said Neff. “It wasn’t meant to be. We had a good weekend. We came here and we were dealt some bad circumstances with Medlen not being here. Our number one concern is his health and him getting better. That is more important than winning a drag race. We are just hoping he gets better and back out here. We’ll save that win for another day.”

OVERDRAWN AT THE LUCK BANK? - Tim Wilkerson learned a valuable lesson Sunday in Phoenix; the more things go wrong, the more they can work in his favor.

The Springfield, Ill.-based driver of the Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Cobra Mustang realizes this turn of events is certainly not the norm, but when you DNQ the first race of the season as he did two weeks ago in Pomona, you learn to not look a gift horse in the mouth. He made withdrawals from the luck bank all day at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals until he reached the semis.

"Well, I think there's probably a fixed amount of things that can go wrong on one of these cars, and we're checking them off the list at a pretty good clip, so that's good," Wilkerson said. "We sorted through some issues that about killed us on Friday, got better on Saturday, and got by a few big guys today without running all that well, but even those first two rounds were something we learned from. You just don't get to the semi-finals this way very often, but there's no such thing as an ugly win. Every team out here has run great and lost, plenty of times, so you take the wins any way you can get them."

Wilkerson only made one full under-power lap during eliminations and even that run was fraught with anxiety after an air regulator appeared to malfunction before magically fixing itself, reaching the later rounds of competition by out-pedaling his first two opponents to take his first two round wins on the season.

The veteran driver will admit Phoenix provided far more of a "learning experience" than anything else, as he continues to learn the intricacies of his new chassis.

"There's a learning curve here, for sure, and we're (crew chief and driver) learning a lot," Wilkerson said. "This new chassis reacts a lot differently than my old car, so we have to find what works for it and not try to force it to do things it doesn't want to do. And, like any new car, house, or boat, there are things that just aren't right and you don't know what those problems are until they show up."

SMOKE ON THE WATER -  Jerry Toliver needed just one look over his shoulder to invoke a lot of memories.

Just outside of the nitro pit area at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, Az., lays Firebird Lake, a 1.1-mile drag boat strip. The calm waters serve as a reminder as to how the veteran Funny Car driver ended up in drag racing.

A violent crash at Puddingstone Lake in San Dimas, Ca., in October of 1995 ended his boating career. Two years later he was drag racing on asphalt behind the wheel of a nitro Funny Car.

Toliver qualified for and lost in the first round at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals, but that was still a better day than the day he was knocked unconscious with a broken back and hand. His boat flipped upside down and broke the driver’s capsule off. When the International Hot Boat Association [IHBA] reached Toliver, the capsule was taking on water.

“I hit a roller going through the lights and flipped upside down at about 214 [mph],” Toliver said. “I was out of the hospital in a week but it took me a year to heal up right.”

Thoughts of that fateful day always seem to pop into mind every time the Canidae-sponsored driver looks over at that 120-acre lake.

“There’s not enough money in the world to get me in a drag boat again,” Toliver emphatically said when asked if he’d ever consider making another run in a drag boat.

“No way,” he continued. “I think to myself and I shiver because I can’t even believe that I ever drove those things because those things are so dangerous.”

He still keeps in touch with his former comrades and maintains a friendship with Don Ermshar, driving of the Lucas Oil Top Fuel Hydro.

“He’s been driving these things forever,” Toliver explained. “God bless him because he’s almost sixty and still racing one, the bottom line is he’s got bigger ones than I do because that stuff is just too damn dangerous.”

Then his attention switches to those friends who were injured and lost their lives. He knows that day in San Dimas could have made his life a memory as well.

“Lost a lot of friends and seen a lot of people get hurt,” Toliver said. “That stuff is just extremely intense and extremely dangerous. I mean I loved it, it was fun, and it’s sexy. It’s all the right things for the fan experience but for me, I’m really too old to drive Funny Cars much less Drag Boats.”

WORKING THE ANGLES - Terry Haddock never figured that winning an IHRA Funny Car world championship in 2008 would lead to running a Top Fuel dragster on the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series.

That’s how drag racing has turned out to be for Haddock this season.

He’s approaching this season from a pure business standpoint and he’s going to let the bottom line dictate which car he rolls out of the trailer in 2009.

“My plan for the dragster originally was to use it as a rent-a-ride kind of car, if a driver had enough money to rent it for a couple of races they could,” Haddock explained, discussing plans for the dragster formerly owned by Evan Knoll and driven by Scotty Cannon.

”We’ll give them a good competitive race car to compete in and that would allow me to stick to Funny Car where my heart is,” he added.

Two weeks ago Haddock entered competition at the NHRA Kragen Auto Parts Winternationals with the Funny Car and leased the dragster to European champion Andy Carter, who traveled to the United States to compete in Top Fuel.

Without Carter racing in Phoenix, Haddock studied the entry list and deemed his chances of a better paycheck were in driving the dragster in the desert.

“We looked at the list of drivers in both classes and the deal is there are 17 Funny Cars out there that at any moment can run really fast,” Haddock admitted. “Our Funny Car is very competitive; we won a championship with it. I learned to run [quarter-mile] 4.90’s on a dirt road but I couldn’t run quicker without encountering a learning curve.”

Haddock’s business model, not to mention his budget doesn’t allow for a learning curve at this moment.

“It made better business sense to run the dragster,” Haddock said. “The chances of getting the qualifying check were a whole lot better. I want to drive that Funny Car as much as I can but I have to be smart. I have to think about business and not going out of business and losing money just because I want to drive the Funny Car.”

One lesson that Haddock has already learned is the difference in tuning the two diverse approaches to nitro racing.

“When we first starting running a dragster everyone told us that you need to run the dragster harder and tune it harder and all of this stuff,” Haddock said. “I’m running it the same way that I would run my funny car and the parts are coming out looking beautiful too.”

“The window for tuning is so much larger,” Haddock continued. “It’s easier to run a dragster than a funny car, by far in my opinion. Some of these guys out here would probably have a differing opinion, but this thing is out here trying to run well so I’m not going to complain.”

Right now Haddock believes he’s the weak link in the dragster chain.

“I’m still kind of struggling on reacting in the car because I still feel like I’m sitting on the floor, so my reaction times have been terrible but hopefully we’ll work on that and we’ll get better,” Haddock explained.

Haddock says he’ll continue to work the ropes on both combinations, hoping and praying that the ability to perform in either situation will not only pay for itself in racing, but the world of sponsorship.

“I’d like to think there would be a lot of sponsorship opportunities because we won the championship but the world is in such tough times right now, so everyone is struggling to get any amount of money,” Haddock admitted. “So now you have to be really creative and make things last, over the years we have been really lucky because we have had the little deals that have stuck with us and made everything so much easier.

“Let’s say we run the dragster well [and] get a qualifying check, then get a little bit of help; then it can keep going. It’s my hope that at the end of the day when things turn around that people will see that we have spent some good time of the day to keep getting better. People will see that all this team needs is a sponsor. I don’t need someone to come buy us a truck and trailer and all this stuff.

“We have two very good race cars and plenty of parts. Hopefully someday people will see how hard we work at it and give us that break. At least we’re here and ready, so if they came here tomorrow we’d say bring your stickers…and your check.”

 

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SATURDAY NOTEBOOK - FATHER/SON HISTORY, EDWARDS MAINTAINS PERCH ABOVE PRO STOCK

THE MIGHTY MCCULLOCHS - Saturday’s nitro qualifying at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals in Phoenix, Az., produced a memory for the generations.

For the first time in NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing history a father and a son tuned their drivers each to a No. 1 qualifying position in their respective nitro divisions.

Saturday in Phoenix was a good day to be a McCulloch.

Ed McCulloch tuned his driver Ron Capps to the top spot in the Funny Car qualifying.

His son, Jason McCulloch, in only his second national event as a crew chief tuned his driver Larry Dixon to the No. 1 position in the Top Fuel division.

“I am obviously proud for the both of us,” Ed McCulloch said. “I’m really proud of my team here and all of the work they put in. On the flipside, those guys [Jason's team] had a mishap in Pomona and didn’t qualifying. They came back out here and put it on the pole. They’re an extremely good race team. I’m proud of Jason for being a part of that.”

“These kinds of things [being the first father/son nitro tuners to qualify No. 1 on same day] are bonuses,” Jason McCulloch added. “Those are things you always hope for but never dream of.”

Understandably the last month has presented a lot of sleepless nights for them. Jason joined mentor Alan Johnson at the conclusion of the 2008 season, literally walking across the street where he played a pivotal role in creating a new team from absolutely nothing. The shop he walked into didn’t even have any equipment.

Ed was coming off of one of the toughest seasons as a tuner, having been shut out of the winner’s circle in 2008. A painful season, which followed a year where he and driver Ron Capps lost a championship after leading the points for much of the season.

This year, Ed won the first race of the season with Capps in Pomona.

Jason’s new team failed to qualify in the first outing.

“I don’t think either one of us has gotten much sleep in the past few weeks,” Jason remarked.

Tonight they will rest just fine but come Sunday morning, they’ve been around long enough to know being the No. 1 qualifier means nothing on race day outside of presenting lane choice for the first round.

“It’s good to qualify No. 1 and get the car down the track,” Jason explained. “The main objective is always to win the race.

Ed can’t really say whether he’s gained more pride by landing his first low qualifying effort since 2005 or in seeing Jason score his first low qualifying effort in just his second race.

“I’m not really sure that you can compare the two,” Ed admitted. “I’m happy we did what we did and I’m happy he did what he did.”

There’s the father in Ed that makes the black and white lines sometimes gray. He’s not always going to be a crew chief but he will be a father.

That fatherly role came into play when Jason was first presented with the opportunity to pursue his first crew chief appointment. They worked for many years on the DSR team, with Ed tuning a Funny Car driven by Ron Capps and Jason working under the tutelage of Johnson with the U.S. Army team.

“Jason came to me about taking the job and asked my advice and said that he’d been with DSR for a long time and Don had been good to him,” Ed recalled. “I let him know that he was my son and I had enjoyed working every day alongside of him but the father in me had to remind him that this was an opportunity that he couldn’t turn down.”

THE OLD FASHIONED WAY - Anyone who keeps pace with the Pro Stock news is well aware that
Mike Edwards has been on a tear since last spring.

It just so happens his improved performance coincides with the debut of his new engine. Those who know the ever-determined Edwards say this impressive display of potential is really no shock.

“We’ve made strides on our program this winter and it’s starting to pay off for us,” Edwards said. “We have the engine shop and the race team at the race shop. We’ve worked some long hours and put in some hard time and I think it has showed off this weekend but it’s a long season. We feel good about the results we have had. Hats off to my team and all of my guys, for sure.”

Edwards races No. 16 qualifier Johnny Gray in the first round of Sunday’s NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals and he’s not about to take the versatile driver lightly.

“It doesn’t matter who you run, they are all tough competitors,” Edwards admitted. “Johnny’s been around as long as I have, it’s just another day, you pull up there and you just go for it and you race. It doesn’t matter if you are one or sixteen you still have a chance - that’s the way I look at it.”

The way Edwards also looks at it, the harder he and his team work at the engine program, the better they are going to get. Money and aggressive spending isn’t putting them at the front of the pack; hard work and dedication is getting the job done just fine.

“We haven’t hired anybody or anything or switched any engines,” Edwards said. “We just started our program this time last year so we have been just gradually getting a little bit better as time went on. That just gives you an idea of what the engine shop has really done. They have really stepped up and moved our engine program right along as the year went on last year. Over the winter we have steadily improved, there are other teams that have improved, too. We feel like if we keep making those gains we can get up there close to those guys.”

For at least two days in Phoenix, Edwards passed them.

STAYING PUT – A team of wild horses, or to be more accurate, sixteen other Funny Car teams couldn’t budge Ron Capps from the top qualifying position at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals in Phoenix, Az.

Capps maintained the No. 1 qualifying position he set on Friday driving the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Funny Car to an elapsed time of 4.023 seconds at 305.63 providing his eighth career pole position and his first since the 2005 NHRA season.

Capps was also No. 1 at Firebird Raceway in 2000.

His final two passes on Saturday were a 5.290/137.27 and a 4.119/304.53. His first run out of the box on Friday was a 4.116/294.82.

"Considering what we went up there to do, that was more of a test run," he said of the 4.116-second pass in his final try. "Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) and Ronnie (Thompson, assistant crew chief) and the NAPA guys were wanting to experiment with a couple of things for the second half of the track and it did what we wanted it to do. It ran 304 mph, which was great. We weren't shooting to run a low 4.0 again.

"In the earlier run today, in qualifying No. 3, it pulled the tires loose quite a ways out there at half track, and that's the benefit of running so well on Friday and getting in the show then. We can experiment and try some things on Saturday that we needed to try. And that's what we did," added Capps, the winner of the first national event of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season in Pomona, Calif., last week.

"We learned a lot in that first run today. We learned the track wouldn't take what we wanted to give it. And then we were able to experiment to try to run some better mph that second run and that worked, as well.

"I'm excited about first round of eliminations. We won Pomona from the 13th position so anybody in the field can win, but to give NAPA a No. 1 qualifying spot is huge."

Capps faces No. 16 qualifier Jeff Arend in the opening round of Sunday's eliminations.

TOP FUEL, TOP COMPETITION - Sometimes you can’t help but notice when a car is giving off good vibes.

Larry Dixon remained No. 1 in Top Fuel qualifying at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals in a car that could seemingly do no wrong and with a crew equally determined to keep every mechanical element in check.

Pomona’s DNQ is all but a distant memory.

“We were able to make four runs in qualifying and have the car do exactly what we wanted it to do,” Dixon said. “On both runs [Saturday], the first one they thought it was going to run a 3.81 and it ran an 3.82 because it burnt a piston at the other end. We’ll go up there and make some adjustments, if we don’t burn a piston we should run a 3.81 and it did. You know they are really good at what they do.”

The Alan Johnson Racing/ Al-Anabi team has to be that way. Even though the struggling economy has decimated the Top Fuel field of full-time cars, it has had little effect on the competitiveness of the class. Combined with the 1,000 foot race course and you have dog-eat-dog competition.

“I used to say when you’re only on the track for four seconds, now you’re only on the track three seconds,” Dixon explained. “It’s cutthroat. There’s no margin for error at all, so you have to go up there and do your best and hope it’s enough.”

IT'S GETTING HOT IN HERE 

 

THE NEXT GENERATION - Grammy Award winning singer Whitney Houston sang a chorus of prophetic words in her hit song “The Greatest Love of All”.

Top Fuel racer Antron Brown can recite those same words on demand.

Brown truly believes the children are our future, teach them well and they’ll lead the way.

That’s why it’s not an uncommon sight to see the driver of the Matco Tools-sponsored dragster at the ropes of his pit area not only signing autographs for the kids and young adults in attendance, but also interacting and learning about their dreams and wishes.

Brown will be the first to admit at 32 years old, he’s still a kid at heart.

“I’m still a kid myself and if you ask my wife she’ll tell you the same thing,” Brown said, recalling his childhood ambition to be a drag racing champion.

“It wasn’t too long ago I was on the outside of those ropes looking in, wanting to know how to get in and do what I’m doing now,” he continued. “This has always been a dream of mine and these kids have dreams too. You always want to give a little bit back and encourage them to keep going and try and accomplish their dreams like I have.

“I still feel like I’m dreaming right now, every morning I wake up and pinch myself and make sure I’m really alive. If I can just help those teenagers and those young adults to be successful in life, even if they’re not racing, if I can just give them some inspiration to just achieve some things in life then that’s awesome. Because I wish I would’ve had somebody talk to me back then to make my road a lot easier.”

Brown had a few good mentors along the way including ex-football star Troy Vincent and the late Pro Stock Motorcycle Champion Dave Schultz, who assisted him in his way up the ladder into and beyond Pro Stock Motorcycle where he captured 16 national event victories and has already earned two in Top Fuel.

“I just want to go out there every day and strive to be better,” Brown said. “I also want to help these teenagers and kids to do the same thing in their lives.”

TOWING THE COMPANY LINE - Ford’s new slogan encourages consumers to drive one today.

Erica Enders remembers when she got her first opportunity “to drive one today”.

She was standing in the staging lanes with friend and fellow Pro Stock driver Richie Stevens when a concerned crew chief for Ford racer Jim Cunningham approached her in the staging lanes at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, just last year.

“Mark walked up to me and asked if I wanted to drive,” Enders recalled.

Without hesitation, she obliged and made the next qualifying session.

Enders learned a long time ago, a quick reaction will pay winning dividends in drag racing. There was only one concern for the obviously talented driver. She hadn’t launched in a Pro Stock in almost 16 months when she accepted the offer.

“It was crazy to get in there after so long and it was also crazy to be in front of all those people at the U.S. Nationals,” Enders revealed. “Of course, I had butterflies that first time. I was so happy though and like they say it’s just like riding a bike. You get back into in and it all comes back to you but nothing replaces seat time and I’m stoked to be driving.”

Enders is even more stoked with the potential of the Cunningham Motorsports Ford team, which will receive vital Ford parts direct from the factory.

“The new parts from Ford should be here next week,” Enders said. “Then the blocks and heads and stuff, so we’ll get to work with that and hopefully do some testing before Gainesville. We’re going to make some improvements and we get the new stuff from Ford this summer. The beginning of the year is like R&D for us, with learning the new parts and everything.”

Ford isn’t providing factory backing, but their assistance in the development of new parts and encouragement of Cunningham’s Pro Stock team is enough incentive for Enders to get excited.

“Ford getting back in and getting involved is so awesome,” Enders said. “I’m so proud to be driving the only Ford in Pro Stock. It’s really incredible considering what’s going on out there. I’m very, very proud to be driving that car.”

She’s driving a car that requires more than just finesse to commandeer.

“These cars are a true challenge to drive,” Enders added. “I’ve driven a lot; I haven’t driven as long as some other people but I drove Juniors for nine years, Super Comp and Super Gas for five years, and an Alcohol Funny Car, that was a handful.

“This is freaking hard, it’s a true challenge. You learn so much in every pass and as long as you’re learning you’re not making the same mistakes. I love it. It’s my passion; it’s where my heart is definitely.”

THE ROOKIE RIDE - If hindsight is 20/20, then it’s understandable why Matt Hagan is glad he spent more than the usual amount of time at Firebird Raceway testing during the National Time Trials last month in preparation for the 2009 season.

Though he only lasted atop the qualifying list for Friday’s opening session at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals for one round, he couldn’t help but believe the previous time at the track in the desert afforded him that short opportunity.

“I owe it all to coming in here about a month ago and testing,” Hagan explained. “We got some really good baselines from coming in here and having those test sessions. We have been able to come back out here and put in a similar tune up and Tommy [crew chief Delago] has got this car under control.”

Hagan is in his first full season on the NHRA Full Throttle Series having stepped into the Funny Car division last year under the IHRA sanction, and making select appearances on the NHRA tour. He’s also a candidate for the 2009 NHRA Rookie of the Year Award.

Last year Paul Smith turned the wrenches on his ride and this year, as a member of Don Schumacher Racing, Tommy Delago has been assigned the task of tuning for Hagan.

Delago tuned Jack Beckman to the Funny Car title last year in Phoenix.

Even though he’s got that ace in the hole, Hagan is doing his best to take the challenge slowly and safely.

“You want to win every one you go to but you have to take it one lap at a time,” Hagan explained. “I think if you get ahead of yourself it’s too easy to get wrapped up in everything that going on so you just get in the car and concentrate on that lap and that moment. You have to make sure you do your job in the race car. “

Delago is making sure he’s doing that.

“Tommy is just a great asset to have around you,” Hagan said. “You know he’s got great experience with this car, it’s real good to bounce stuff off of him but he’s really got a handle on this race car. I think it’s starting to show a little bit.”

Ironically it was Ron Capps who knocked him from the perch in Friday’s qualifying. Hagan says he’s learned quite a bit from Capps in his short time with DSR.

“He’s really been taking me under his wing and just show me how to do things here and there,” Hagan added. “It’s just really cool to cut up with Ron, if nothing else. He’s a unique individual but he’s definitely a really cool guy. It’s good to be around people like that.”

Has he gotten any advice from the boss? After all, Schumacher is an accomplished Funny Car legend.

“Yes and no,” Hagan answered.

“I don’t really have too many conversations with Don, which is probably a good thing because no news is good news,” he continued. “I mean he’ll come up to me and tell me when I need to pedal the car and stuff like that because they are his parts and we try to take care of them. We don’t want to do anything that he wouldn’t want us to do.

“But on the flipside, we’re out here and we have to make decisions. He’s been kind of laid back, at least on my deal, but maybe if we do poorly that will all change. “

SATURDAY'S ESPN2 SHOW REPEATS - To accommodate NHRA's East Coast fans who don't want to miss ESPN's qualifying highlights from this weekend's Lucas Oil Slick Mist NHRA Nationals from Phoenix but can’t stay up to watch Saturday night’s original broadcast (scheduled to air at 9 p.m. PT, midnight ET), the program will be shown again Sunday at 11 a.m. ET on ESPN2 and ESPN2HD.

NHRA's regular pre-race show, NHRA Race Day presented by Lucas Oil, will follow the re-air, at 12:30 p.m. ET.

Final eliminations from the event, the second in the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, will air that night in prime time, beginning at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2 and ESPN2HD.
 

 

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FRIDAY NOTEBOOK - POMONA FINALISTS ON A ROLL, DIXON’S BACK AND DOUBLE DUTY FOR NEFF …

GOT IT GOING ON - You know you’ve got it going on when you start quoting your crew chief in the interviews.

Funny Car driver Ron Capps couldn’t help but to make good use of his crew chiefs words on Friday evening after he sped to the quickest elapsed time in provisional qualifying at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals in Phoenix, Az.

"I quoted Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) at the top end, 'confidence breeds success,'" said Capps. "That's so apparent now. Obviously, [when] you win, you have a lot of confidence, but I really left there knowing we had a great car. And you always want to show up at a race after winning and at least in the next couple of runs show that you did win because you were the best car. And we proved that already. So, it's just nice to keep doing that.”

Capps recorded the second quickest 1,000-foot elapsed time with a 4.023-second run at over 305.63 miles per hour.

If Capps had a different swagger about himself after Pomona, the Phoenix effort added to it.

This confidence began for Capps not at Pomona, but weeks earlier in West Palm Beach, Fla. He led most of the testing until a last minute stretch by Del Worsham overtook him.

That didn’t bother Capps in the least. He was already on a roll, his confidence building with each passing moment.

Then, the announcement by the NHRA limiting testing by nitro teams to just four days in 2009 hit home.

The team began to test more than usual in Phoenix knowing they’d have to be frugal with testing during the season.

Pretty soon they found themselves trying to cram as much into their “free” test time as possible. What could have been a negative, turned swiftly into a positive.

“I didn’t have a whole lot of confidence headed into Pomona,” Capps admitted. “Ace didn’t either. We tried so many things that when we tried to put it [the combination] back to where it was, it took a few runs to get it back.”

Capps said throughout testing that McCulloch wouldn’t allow him to run past half-track. On the last pass he was given permission, if the car felt alright.

Capps ran a 4.14 elapsed time on that run.

“We were still a bit apprehensive,” Capps admitted. “We had to pedal it to get in the field and had to pedal it in the first round. He went large on race day.”

McCulloch went large in Friday’s Phoenix qualifying too.

After last season’s shortcomings, they’re not holding back – even if it is only the second race of the season. Their last national event win before the NHRA Kragen Winternationals two weekends ago was in St. Louis in 2007.

"We think about it every morning...about how we should have done last year,” Capps explained. “I just haven't had a car that when we got to the starting line on a Friday night session that we've threatened to be on the pole. And Ace is just a guy who wants to keep a good baseline on the car. We just never [have been] guys who threw the shot out there. Now he's feeling comfortable."

The shots are coming too.

LIVE OR MEMOREX? - In the desert, one can easily confuse reality with a mirage.

That’s the excuse Mike Edwards could make for not making his way to the media center for his post-qualifying press conference following the first day of qualifying at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals in Phoenix, Az.

The Coweta, Ok-based driver of the Young Life Pontiac drove his way to the quickest run in each of the two sessions on Friday, finishing the day with a track record 6.605-second run.

Heading into the race Edwards described Firebird International Raceway as one of the venues on the 24-race NHRA Full Throttle tour as “one that has stumped me over the years and I have never really got a solid handle on.”

Friday night he gripped that handle tightly and didn’t let go.

“Qualifying isn’t over yet, but at least we’re leading today and that means a lot. We really needed a run like we got on the first day.

“The first run I made didn’t feel like a No. 1 run but the second did. There are a lot of good teams out here that are capable of stepping up tomorrow with a good number.”

This season has begun with a blast for Edwards. Not only did he start off the season with a final round appearance in Pomona, but now he has this provisional No.1 qualifying effort to use as a pillow tonight.

Not bad for a man, who could easily be construed as spread thin between maintaining his new in-house engine program and tending to newly signed engine lease customer Ron Krisher, who was seventh after two sessions.

“I am a little spread thin, but more importantly I am just trying to do the best that I can for both teams,” Edwards said. “We made a lot of headway on Friday and both of these cars have more left in them, especially Ron’s.

“For now, I am just going to celebrate our small victory today and be ready to battle it out tomorrow. You know how this Pro Stock class is. You’re on top one day and someone else can be there tomorrow.”

LIGHTS -

 

WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN - Larry Dixon fully believes his first run in Phoenix during the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals, was essentially the non-existent second qualifying session from two weekends ago in Pomona, Ca.

Dixon missed the field in rain-abbreviated qualifying at the season-opener but more than made up for that shortcoming with the provisional top qualifying effort during the second event on the tour this weekend.

“Alan [Johnson] and Jason [McCulloch] made the adjustments from that first run in Pomona to the first one here in Phoenix and the car went down the track,” Dixon said. “That is what they wanted to do and I had all of the faith in the world that they would have done the same thing in Pomona.”

Dixon leads the Top Fuelers headed into Saturday with a 3.807 elapsed time at 313.95-miles per hour. He also led the first session with a 3.843-second run.

The 12 days between Pomona and Phoenix didn’t present any undue stress for the Alan Johnson Racing/Al-Anabi driver Dixon leading into Friday’s start of the next event.

“As dire straits as it may have appeared to be, I’ve been in worse situations,” Dixon said. “You have to keep it all in perspective.”

Dixon refused to let himself get down after Pomona, yet he wasn’t going to celebrate heavily following this first day Pomona success wither.

“With my personality, I try not to get too down or too up,” Dixon admitted. “I have a good ride in a good car and it’s simple – you just do your job. I just try to hold up my end of the deal.

“I know it’s cliché, but you can only go one round at a time and that’s what I am trying to do.”

 

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NEFF’S DOUBLE DUTY DAY - 

TEQUILA! - AsomBroso Tequila, in association with Affliction Clothing, announced the sponsorship of popular veteran driver, Gary Densham and his nitro funny car team beginning with the 2009 Lucas Slick Mist NHRA Nationals at Firebird International Raceway.

“The sponsorship of Gary’s Funny Car is a great way to expose my high-end brand of tequila to a select audience. I’m also a fan, so it allows me to combine my passion for tequila with my passion for racing,” explains Ricardo Gamarra, founder of AsomBroso Tequila. “Plus, I’m friends with the folks at Affliction Clothing, so I was able to convince them to join me in helping to sponsor Gary’s effort.”

Today at Firebird International Raceway, the Asom Tequila flat black and pink funny car was unveiled and drew quite a crowd. Upon seeing the fans’ reaction Gamarra explained more about how the deal came together.

“I received a call from my friend, Craig Hoelzel with John Force Racing, about helping out Gary Densham this weekend. I wanted to come to the race anyway and it worked out to be a great opportunity for exposure for Asom Tequila. We added some tracking software to our website so we can measure the exposure. If we pull good numbers I am here to stay. We are in forty-two states now so the national exposure we can get is the perfect medium for us,” said Gamarra.

“We are also helping to expose and support the Danny Fund, a melanoma charity fund started in memory of Danny Federici, former member of Bruce Springsteen’s famous E Street band, by his son Jason to fund research and raise awareness of melanoma cancer. Jason Federici is the Director of Design for AsomBroso Tequila,” advises Ricardo, “so this charity is close to our hearts.”

WE HAVE IGNITION

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UNFAMILIAR TERRITORY - One would think a five-time NHRA Top Fuel champion would have already become accustomed to change, considering the turmoil of late 2008. The 56-time NHRA national event winner has reached yet another chapter of unfamiliarity in the novel known as the 2009 season.

A second round loss to Brandon Bernstein during the waterlogged NHRA Kragen Winternationals in Pomona, Ca., has Tony Schumacher entering this weekend’s stop on the NHRA tour in Phoenix, Az., in a strange position – fifth in the champion standings.

For the first time since 2007, he’s reading unfamiliar wording.

“It’s true – we haven’t been in this position in quite some time,” he admitted. “But, this weekend we’ll be focusing on returning to the number one spot. Our Soldiers operate at the highest of levels, so we should be following suit.”

Like Schumacher's current position in the point standings, the 2009 season-opener was just as far from the norm. Final eliminations were completed on Tuesday afternoon after the fields were set on Saturday with just one qualifying session.

“The Pomona weekend was a little out of the ordinary and quite challenging for everyone,” offered Schumacher. “Even though we went out as early as we did, I felt like we put forth a solid effort. We definitely have something to build on heading to Firebird.”

Schumacher’s weekend is a return to the site where he lost a tough final round match to Larry Dixon in 2008. A strong pre-season test with new crew chief Mike Green has him positive of a better performance than the team turned in two weeks ago.

“We put up some good numbers out there at the National Time Trials,” he said. “If we can improve even a little bit, that should definitely put us right in the ball game. Listen, it’s not going to be easy for any one driver or team this year. We’re going to have to dig deep with every run to win rounds and races.”

Schumacher is a three-time winner at Firebird.

KABOOM!

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WEDNESDAY NOTEBO0OK - PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING FOR BERNSTEIN, FLYNN; 

 

COMBINED SUCCESS - Brandon Bernstein will have one thought and one thought only hanging in the back of his mind this weekend at the Lucas Slick Mist NHRA Nationals at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix, Az.

The thought – 323 miles per hour; the mark Berstein set during the National Time Trials in January at Firebird Raceway.

Bernstein, told CompetitionPlus.com with a degree of certainty, the run felt fast.

First year Bernstein tuner Rob Flynn was skeptical of the run at first, but the more he looked at the computer read outs and the overall performance, the run checked out.

The run “checked out”, using youthful slang, when it’s noted Bernstein ran five miles per hour faster than anyone had run before in the history of recognized 1,000-foot drag racing.

Flynn was the tuner for Hot Rod Fuller when he ran over 318-mph at the fall Las Vegas event in 2008 and admits that Bernstein’s run showed faster speeds than the previously established mark. He’s checked, double checked and triple checked for good measure.

Each time the numbers add up, at least to him they do. While he understands there will always be skeptics, Flynn conveys there’s nothing skeptical about the data the computers provided.

“The front and rear wheel speeds were definitely above what they were on Hot Rod Fuller’s 318-mph runs,” Flynn revealed. “We were skeptical of the run until we downloaded the data. Once we downloaded the data, we realized that if it didn’t go 323, it had just run faster than it ever had before.”

Flynn understands the reluctance to include testing runs as legitimate passes, but in his first year as tuner for Bernstein, such a performance makes for a good first impression.

“It was great,” he added. “It was by no means a perfect run, other parts of the run were not up to what we would like see, it didn’t provide the kind of elapsed time we wanted, but it did point us in a good direction.”

That direction could get even better considering the history of both driver and tuner at Firebird.

Flynn has two victories at Firebird with Fuller dating back to the 2006 and 2007 seasons.

Bernstein has two victories to his credit in Phoenix, dating back to 2003 when he won in only his second race as a Top Fuel driver and successfully defending the title a year later.

In 2005, Bernstein clocked a career best and top [quarter-mile] speed of the meet with a 333.74 mph blast.

“When you’ve had success at a track, it gives you a certain amount of confidence when you return,” Bernstein said. “In pre-season testing here, we ran a stunning speed. We had the right set up at the right time of day. Hopefully we can repeat that kind of performance for the national event.”

 

AUTOGRAPH SESSION - NHRA Rookie-of-the-Year contender Matt Hagan, who drives the BrakeSafe Rear-End Collision Avoidance System Dodge Funny Car for Don Schumacher Racing in the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, will make a special appearance at Moore Chrysler Jeep in Peoria, Ariz., on Wednesday, Feb. 18, in advance of this weekend's NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird Raceway.

Hagan will appear alongside his race car and the BrakeSafe team transporter from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. at the dealership to sign autographs. Moore Chrysler Jeep is one of BrakeSafe Rear-End Collision Avoidance System's largest customers in the Phoenix area, which is also BrakeSafe's home base.

Moore Chrysler Jeep is located at 8600 West Bell Rd., Peoria, Ariz. 

TO THE WINNER GOES THE SPOILS -  Winning a national event has more far-reaching benefits than just earning a nice payday and the accompanying championship points. At least that’s how defending NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals champion Jack Beckman sees it.

"It's always fun to go back to a race as the previous event champion," said Beckman, who defends his title in Phoenix this weekend ranked eighth in the standings after one event in the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. "You usually get your name in the fan guide and in the program and the announcers talk about you a little bit more. So that's always cool.”

Last season’s victory was important in the grand scheme of his championship aspirations, but the real push towards the title came much later in the season.

"Last year, even though we did win Phoenix, we didn’t really hit our stride until Denver,” Beckman said. “And there's no panic right now. We’ve had a couple of minor hiccups with the tune-up that I think we're close to getting worked out, but the way the Countdown format goes, you can take four or five races to work them out. I don't see anybody showing any signs of dominance this year.”

A great deal of last year’s success story at Phoenix can be attributed to his familiarity of Firebird Raceway, the drag strip located just south of Phoenix, in the small town of Chandler.

"I've done a lot of Sportsman racing at Firebird," said Beckman, the 2003 NHRA Super Comp champion in only his third full season of pro Funny Car competition. "I've also made a lot of passes there in testing, so I'm very comfortable at that race track. “

 

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UNFAZED - A leading dictionary defines the word "rebound" as meaning "to recover, as from discouragement, failure, or ill health,"

among other references to trampolines, basketballs, and scorned lovers.  With that first definition in mind, while also looking strictly at the record and seeing a DNQ listed as Tim Wilkerson's result from the first race of the year, it might seem appropriate to assume the driver of the Levi, Ray & Shoup Shelby Mustang needs a rebound this weekend, at the second race of the '09 campaign in Phoenix.  It might seem appropriate, but the popular driver/tuner doesn't see it that way, because the definition doesn't fit the story.

Had Wilkerson left Pomona with that same DNQ, but with four qualifying runs on his record, he might very well feel differently, but his lone shot at the tricky Pomona track left him much more philosophical than frustrated, and more forward-looking than retrospective.  After all, it was a bizarre and weather-plagued weekend for everyone, and in the end two Funny Car teams were going to draw the short straws.  Wilkerson just happened to be one of the two.

"Seriously, if we had gone out there and smoked the tires four times, I'd be pretty worried and pretty upset right now, but the way it happened was just a fluke and there wasn't much we could do about it," Wilkerson said.  "We thought we'd be getting two shots at the track, and we weren't sure how they were going to set the field anyway, so the whole thing was just kind of a strange deal.  We went out there for the first run of the year, had some problems, and before you know it it's pouring rain again and they're coming by to tell us 'We're done and we're setting the field.  Sorry about that.'   I could hardly even get mad.  It was just a weird weekend, from start to finish.

"So, it's not like we stunk the place up and feel like we really need to bounce back, get well, or fix the whole world.  We just need to get to Phoenix for this weekend's race and have a regular two days of qualifying and then Sunday eliminations.  If we get good weather, everything will seem back to normal, because nothing seemed normal about Pomona.  To be honest, I don't even really know if we need to rebound or not, because I still don't know very much about how this car will run.  We didn't learn a single thing in Pomona."

With only one aborted run on his '09 record, Wilkerson is clearly giving up some valuable data to the teams that did race, eventually, on Tuesday in Pomona.  But, with a moderate approach in mind and a fine track record to his credit, Wilkerson has yet to feel any pangs of real uncertainty or doubt.  He's just ready to race and make progress.

"I learned last year that you don't need to set the world on fire every week in qualifying," he said.  "The first and most important thing you have to do, is get in the field.  These days, you can win out of any position on the ladder, because all of the cars out here are tough, so it almost doesn't matter if you're at the top or at the bottom, and if the lanes are equal it might not matter at all.  We qualified at the top at both Pomona and Phoenix last year, and left Phoenix still 0-2, without a round win.  So, if we get in the field this weekend and win a round, we'll be ahead of last year in those terms.

"We're still a bit in test-mode with this new car because it's not just a new chassis, it's a three-rail car and they're the newest thing out here.  It's a whole new car, so we're a bit blind in terms of how it reacts leaving the line and going down the track, and we have the new Shelby Mustang body on it, which may handle differently than what I'm used to when it's up to speed and the aerodynamics really kick in.  The best thing for us to do is to just concentrate on going from A to B, and get it in the show.  It's one step at a time, right now, but last year made us all realize we can rise to the occasion, and I don't have any reason to expect anything less from us this year."

Confidence.   Whether it relates to his car, his abilities, or the marketing value of a team association, Tim Wilkerson has plenty of confidence.  And that explains why he doesn't see the need for rebound as much as he just needs a chance to race.

 

SEAT TIME, PLEASE? - None of the professional racers that experienced six days of rain delays at the season-opening race in Pomona, Calif., had much fun, but for rookie driver Shawn Langdon, the shortage of racing action was almost unbearable.

"You dream your whole life about turning pro and driving a Top Fuel dragster," said Langdon, the back-to-back Lucas Oil Series world champ in Super Comp. "Then you finally get that chance and the lead up to that first race is so emotional. I was really excited and pretty nervous before the race. I couldn't sleep. You just want to do everything right for your team. Then you finally get to the track and all that anticipation is literally washed away by the rain. It was tough for me to take."

The lack of racing in southern California -- Langdon made just two passes in his Lucas Oil/Dixie Choppers dragster -- has the 26-year-old revved up for NHRA's second stop in Phoenix. That and the fact he tested at Firebird International Raceway just a few weeks ago and that his main sponsor, Lucas Oil, took over title rights for the race a few days back through its Lucas Oil Slick Mist brand.

"It's going to be a big weekend for all of us associated with Lucas Oil," Langdon said. "The fact we took over naming rights to the race makes it even more important for everyone on the team. It would mean the world to me to have a big outing at a race that Forrest and Charlotte Lucas sponsor. They've done so much for me.

"Of course, I'm just flat-out excited to get back in the car and make some passes. We made about 12 passes during testing at Firebird so I know that track better than any other one out there as far as running a Top Fuel car goes so that makes it a lot more comfortable for me.

"During all that rain and ever since then I've made hundreds of passes in my mind and when I do that I'm always at the Phoenix track, because that's where it all started for me. It's the track I have stuck in my head."

Prior to the event, Langdon and his Lucas Oil Racing teammate Morgan Lucas, will rev up Phoenix fans at the Craftsman Court in Old Town Scottsdale for a giant prerace Fan Fest.

"The only good thing about the rain in Pomona was it gave us all more time to hang with the fans, which was cool," Langdon said. "This deal in Old Town Scottsdale is going to be huge. They've got tickets to give away and some hot rods on display. Hopefully, lots of people will come out and party with us and get the weekend kicked off right."