O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals
Dallas, Texas
(Sept. 23-26)
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19th annual |
| Sunday |
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Pro Stock title; Del and D.C. score |
POWERade points leader Tony Schumacher scored his eighth Top Fuel win of the season Sunday at the 19th annual O'Reilly NHRA Fall Nationals presented by Castrol Syntec in Dallas. The victory helped Schumacher pad his championship lead to 217 points with just four races left on the '04 schedule.
Schumacher shared the spotlight with Greg Anderson, who completed the quickest title run ever with his second successive Pro Stock world championship, which he wrapped up in the opening round of eliminations. Funny Car winner Del Worsham and Pro Stock victor Dave Connolly also squeezed onto the Texas Motorplex podium and celebrated their big wins before an adoring Texas crowd.
Schumacher gave up a slight five-thousandths of a second head start to Dave Grubnic in the Top Fuel final, but he quickly caught and blew past the Australian and went on to win his 19th NHRA race with the quickest elapsed time of the day, a 4.575 at 325.85 mph. Grubnic posted a game 4.623 at 323.97 mph in his attempt to become the first non-North American professional class winner, but he came up well short of Schumacher's time.
 Tony Schumacher
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Schumacher's win, the 19th of his career in 41 final-round showings, helped him stretch his POWERade championship lead to 217 over Doug Kalitta, a substantial gain of 57 points.
"This was a big day for us," Schumacher said. "I feel good because I have a great team. Even if we started [the points chase] over again right now I'd still feel confident about our chances because if you look at the four races we've got left, I'd stack my guys up against any other team. We've won at all four places in the past so I feel like we can win any of them again.
"I love this track. I won my first race ever after eight runner-up finishes at this racetrack in 1999 and we went on to win the champion ship that year so maybe we can do that again this year.
"There are 16 rounds left and we have almost an 11-round cushion over [Doug] Kalitta so it looks good. We're also looking at our win total. We have eight wins now and the [class] record is nine so maybe we can go after that too."
By his standards, Schumacher had a sub-par qualifying effort, starting the day in fourth place. But the U.S. Army racer looked like his usual self Sunday as he rolled past Andrew Cowin, Cory McClenathan, and Morgan Lucas to reach his 10th final of the year and third in the last four races.
The toughest round for Grubnic was the opener against John Smith when he labored through a 4.91 while spraying oil down the back half of the racetrack. Fortunately for the Red Line Oil pro, Smith was in more trouble as he fought to gain traction several times. Grubnic then used a huge .012 to .078 holeshot to beat Larry Dixon before getting past teammate Scott Kalitta with a 4.63.
Grubnic has raced to five finals in the last eight races but he still remains winless in NHRA competition. Overall, this was his fifth runner-up ending of the year and the seventh of his career. Top Fuel results
Worsham remains perfect in Funny Car final rounds this year after scoring his fourth victory of the season over Cruz Pedregon, who falls to 0-4 when there's been a trophy on the line this year. Worsham was certainly pumped up for the finale, posting a .077-second reaction time to Pedregon's .097-second launch. He then managed to stay just ahead of his foe as they traversed the quarter-mile, winning with a 4.934 at 315.56 mph to Pedregon's 4.948 at 307.02 mph.
 Del Worsham
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The victory moved Worsham past Whit Bazemore and into third place in the POWERade ranking, 236 points behind leader John Force and just eight behind second-place points earner Gary Scelzi.
"We started building a new tune-up about this time of the year in 2000," Worsham said. "We rode it for a long time and really had a lot success, but when they changed the rules to 85-percent nitro and made us switch tires, it basically made 700 runs of data useless. We were hard-headed for awhile and tried to adapt that tune-up but it didn't work.
"We finally came to our senses during the Indy test and built a new tune-up. This is the first real chance we've had to run it and, even though we got a little lucky with a couple of red-lights against us, we still got this Wally trophy at the end of the day.
"It's cool being 4-0 in finals this year but we haven't always been unbeatable in final rounds. Go look at my record in the '90s. We do love running here though. This place is awesome for Funny Cars."
Worsham had a 4.9-second bracket car Sunday as his Checker, Schuck's, Kragen Chevrolet Monte Carlo chugged past heavyweights Tim Wilkerson, Whit Bazemore, 12-time champion John Force, and Pedregon with a string of 4.9s.
Pedregon climbed from 10th to eighth just by reaching his fourth final of the season. The Advance Auto Parts pro survived an off-pace 5.44-second Round 1 win over Ron Capps before downing Scelzi and Eric Medlen, who was shut-off after his burnout. Pedregon needed the break to reach his 48th money round as he coasted through the lights with a 5.86 as a dejected Medlen watched from the starting line. Funny Car results
Sophomore Pro Stock racer Connolly picked up his second career victory at the expense of local hero Bruce Allen of the Dallas suburb of Arlington. The end result was never in doubt as Connolly left first with a large .013 to .079-second headstart and never looked back, crossing the finish line well ahead of Allen with a 6.810 to Allen's 6.891.
 Dave Connolly
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"They were kidding me and saying that everyone I beat is twice my age," said Connolly, who is 21. "But I said I've got the edge anyway because Grump [engine builder Bill Jenkins] is probably twice as old as all of them.
"I looked over in the final and saw all those people behind [Allen's] car and one of them yelled over, 'Hey, let him win, he's from Texas.' That's when I remembered he was from here. But I wasn't going to give it up that easy.
"We're running real well right now but the scary part of this class is we could go into the off-season and everyone could catch us and pass us and make us look stupid by the spring. You have to ride it when you can and that's what we're doing. Hopefully we can finish in second place. That would be pretty good for our first full year out here."
Racing to his fifth final in the last six races, Connolly's Bullet Motorsports Chevrolet Cavalier was quicker than the hot rods of Ken Koretsky, Kurt Johnson, and Allen Johnson. He carried a .035-second advantage into the final.
It took Allen 365 professional starts to reach the final round of his hometown race but the Reher-Morrison/Speedco racer finally got it done by beating Ron Krisher, six-time champ Warren Johnson, and "Tricky Rickie" Smith. Krisher gave away a better elapsed time with a red-light, while Allen used a nifty .02-second holeshot advantage to beat Smith. This was Allen's 39th career final and first of the 2004 season.
Greg Anderson lost to Kurt Johnson in Round 1 but still clinched his second consecutive POWERade title when teammate Jason Line, who is second in points, lost to Greg Stanfield just ahead of Anderson. Pro Stock results
Danny Rowe, of Laguna Hills, Ca., claimed his his second AMS Pro Modified Challenge win of 2004 as he defeated Tommy Gray in the final round. The InfiNet Insurance/Unique Performance-sponsored driver recorded the quickest run of the day, a 6.230, 229.19, for the victory.
Rowe defeated low qualifier Fred Hahn and Kirk Kuhns to reach the final round of the ninth outing on the ten-race AMS Pro Modified Challenge.
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