Checker Schuck’s Kragen NHRA Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec
Phoenix
(March 5-7)
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20th Annual |
| Sunday |
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Bernstein, K.J., also take victories |
Funny Car veteran Del Worsham won his title sponsor's main event, the 20th annual Checker Schuck's Kragen NHRA Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec, to move into the POWERade points lead for the first time in his career. Worsham, who also won this race in 2002, beat reigning series champion Tony Pedregon in the money round to send a huge throng of CSK employees into party mode.
In Top Fuel, Brandon Bernstein successfully defended his Phoenix title with a win over Doug Kalitta to remain a perfect 4-0 in final rounds. Pro Stock ace Kurt Johnson joined Bernstein and Worsham in a jubilant winner's circle celebration after taking care of first-time finalist Dave Connolly.
Starting the day as somewhat of a sleeper in the No. 6 slot, Bernstein really impressed Sunday with a string of four 4.5-second passes down one of the trickiest racetracks on the circuit. In the final, Kalitta had a cosmic .019-second light to Bernstein's .073-second launch, but the rest of the race belonged to the Bud machine as Kalitta soon lost traction and Bernstein marched by for the 4.537-second, 326.63-mph win. Kalitta gave up halfway down the track and coasted through with a 5.83 at 184 mph.
 Brandon Bernstein
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Bernstein, the reigning Rookie of the Year, is now 8-0 at this racetrack and undefeated in four career final rounds. He is a solid third in the points, just six points out of the lead. Kalitta stayed second in the points with his second runner-up finish of the season but took some solace in the fact he closed the gap on points leader Tony Schumacher to two.
"Tim and Kim [Richards, co-crew chiefs] and the rest of the guys did a great job of dialing this car in to the hot conditions we faced," Bernstein said. "They just kind of finessed it down the track each round. From my standpoint, the car felt great. It just went straight down through there every time. It was easy to drive.
"To come back out and get another win at the track where I got my first career win after being laid up and out of the car for so long is really special. Having won here before I had a level of comfort and once we got past the first round and I saw how we were running and how everyone else was running, I felt like we had a good chance to win this thing.
"What a battle it's going to be this year in Top Fuel. Three of us are within six points at the top. You have to run 4.4s to qualify and 4.5s in the heat to win, and there are probably four, five, or six cars out here that can do that. It's not a two-car beer wars race any more."
Prior to their final round victory over Kalitta, Budweiser Racing's barrage of quick and consistent passes carried Bernstein to wins over John Smith, Darrell Russell, and Pomona winner Schumacher.
Kalitta and his Mac Tools crew reached their second successive final round and Doug's 34th overall by racing past Rhonda Hartman-Smith, current champ Larry Dixon, and Cory McClenathan. None of Kalittta's passes were exceptionally pretty - his best was a 4.64 in the morning round - but he still moved to within two points of the POWERade championship lead. Top Fuel results
Worsham was certainly focused for the final, despite the sea of red-clad supporters from CSK. He launched with a stellar .044-second light and never looked back, pulling away from Pedregon all the way down the racetrack to win with a 4.970 at 303.78 mph over Pedregon's 5.098 at 251.58 mph. This was Worsham's 15th career win.
 Del Worsham
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"I said it back then and I'll say it again now, winning at the home track of your sponsor is about as good as it gets," Worsham said. "The only thing better would be winning the championship and hopefully that's coming pretty soon.
"It's cool to have the points lead. The last time I won here I had been the runner-up in Pomona but I still didn't have the points lead because [John] Force had out-qualified us so he was ahead by a few points. Obviously, we have a lot of races to go so it doesn't mean that much but you have to earn a lot of points now to be in the points lead late in the year so we're doing the things we need to do.
"We used the same engine all weekend and the same set of tires since halfway through qualifying. The car didn't need a bunch a parts. It's cool because last year we ran well when it started getting hot and today the conditions seemed catered for us."
The dream day for the Checker Schuck's Kragen crew started with an upset win over the higher qualified car of Tim Wilkerson. Worsham's Pontiac Firebird then bettered Whit Bazemore and CSK stablemate Phil Burkart Jr. to carry him to the 25th trophy round of his career.
In just his second race as a team owner, Pedregon, who turns 39 Monday, raced his new Quaker State flopper to the 49th final of his career by beating his brother Cruz, former teammate Gary Densham, and his replacement at John Force Racing, Eric Medlen.
Pedregon rose to the occasion in the semi's when he raced against the car and team he won the championship with last year. After failing to execute a burnout, Medlen, a rookie, gave up a huge .077 to .270-second starting line advantage to the reigning champ and then smoked his tires just off the starting line. Even so, he had a chance to get back in the race when Tony also lost traction a few hundred feet into his run. But at the other end, the pedalfest went to the veteran, 5.89 to 6.26. Funny Car results
Johnson had to overcome a big deficit in the final after spotting Connolly a .032 to .057-second headstart. In fact, Connolly led the race through all of the incremental timers only to be beaten by three inches at the finish line. The final numbers showed Johnson winning with a 6.835 at 203.49 mph to Connolly's game 6.860 at 202.39 mph.
 Kurt Johnson
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"We made four absolutely perfect runs today," Johnson said. "I was glad to be within two-hundredths of Greg [Anderson]. To get to the other end first is what it's all about. It worked out for us today. We won a battle, but the war continues on.
"Dave's a good driver and I know he works on the Tree. He had a good light and I could feel him next to me all the way down. I wanted to look so bad but I didn't. I just waited for a win light. I suffered for seven seconds like you're supposed to."
K.J.'s win helped him replace his father Warren at second place in the POWERade points standings. The younger Johnson did manage to close in on the lead Anderson had coming into this race, as he trails by just five points. For his runner-up effort, Connolly moved up two spots to fifth place.
Both Connolly and Johnson used holeshots to reach the final round, Connolly's first and Johnson's 51st. Connolly used a fantastic .017 start to Larry Morgan's .054 launch, while Johnson got a .027 to .063-second jump on points leader Greg Anderson.
Connolly's Bullet Motorsports Chevy also helped him dispatch former series champs Darrell Alderman and Jim Yates. On the other side of the ladder, Johnson's ACDelco Cavalier rolled past JR Carr and Warren Johnson. Pro Stock results
Winternationals Stock champ Toby Lang scored his second straight victory, driving his G/SA '69 Chevelle to victory over Micci Walter, who red-lighted in the final round. In Comp, David Rampy stopped Dean Carter from accomplishing the same feat when Carter red-lighted in the final round.
Ken Serpan took a close win in Super Comp, tying a .006 light to an 8.929 while Thomas Bayer broke out by one-thousandth of a second with an 8.899 while Rod Fuller took Super Gas honors on Glen Smith's final-round red-light. Ray Carlson captured Super Street with a final-round 10.923 to edge Richard Tucker's 10.938.
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