On the record-setting final day of the NHRA Virginia Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park, Brandon Bernstein, Del Worsham, and Mike Edwards enjoyed much-needed get-well moments at the fourth event of the six-race NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Countdown to 1 playoffs.
Both ends of the Pro Stock national record were reset, and the points scenarios in the nitro classes got a shake-up. There wasn’t a top-two car in the semifinals of Top Fuel or Funny Car; Funny Car’s final four was staked out by drivers in positions 5 through 10. Top Fuel’s top two, Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon, went to the trailer in back-to-back races in round two, and Funny Car points leader Ashley Force Hood was a first-round casualty to red-hot Jeff Arend, who beat her for the third time in their last four meetings. Though her teammate Robert Hight, who entered the event in second place, fell in round two, he nonetheless passed Force Hood for the points lead.
Brandon Bernstein
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Bernstein had been winless in Top Fuel for more than two years and eight straight final rounds, since the 2007 Brainerd event, until Antron Brown smoked the tires in the final. Bernstein, who entered the event in seventh place, reached the fifth spot with the win, the 18th of his Top Fuel career. He sealed the win with a 3.84, 307.09 pass while Brown coasted to a nine-second run.
“We needed a win for our team and for our confidence,” said Bernstein. “I can’t say enough about our Budweiser/Lucas Oil team because with that long of a drought, it could get easy to get really down on themselves and not get out of that funk, but they just stayed positive. Our whole team, my dad, everybody was just so positive, and we just kept at the grind. We knew that eventually we were going to knock down that door and get that win again.
“We had a great race car today, and it was real consistent. Rob [Flynn, crew chief] did a great job of tuning this thing today, and it was just fun to drive. It was just so smooth, and it just stayed dead straight all day long. It didn’t move around. We just had it hooked up; we really did.”
Bernstein’s path to the final round, the 32nd of his Top Fuel career and his fifth this season, was made quite a bit easier when first-round opponent Scott Weis had to shut off on the line against him and second-round foe Scott Palmer, who had upset No. 3 qualifier Spencer Massey with a fireballing pass in round one, was unable to make it back to the line to oppose the Budweiser/Lucas Oil dragster. Bernstein then moved past engine-blowing Cory McClenathan in the semifinals on a 3.85 to 3.90 score to reach the final.
Brown, who led the points for 13 of the 18 regular-season events but had won just one round in the first three playoffs events and fallen to fourth place, got a big outing when he needed it. He raced to his ninth final of the year by driving his Matco Tools digger past Chris Karamesines, Schumacher, and Doug Kalitta with a steady blitz of low-3.8-second passes. Brown’s win over Schumacher was especially important in Brown’s bid for the title, and he did it on a holeshot, 3.833 to 3.827, in a race decided by just .004-second.
Schumacher still leads the points battle by 47 over Dixon, with McClenathan third and Brown fourth, just 68 and 81, respectively, behind Schumacher.
Del Worsham
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There were a lot of similarities between Funny Car finalists Worsham and Tim Wilkerson beyond the first letter of their last names. Both had been shut out from the winner’s circle after back-to-back wins earlier this year, in Madison and Bristol for Worsham and in Seattle and Sonoma for Wilkerson. Both needed a good outing to maintain any hope of a championship – Wilkerson entered the event in eighth place, Worsham in 10th -- and both got it, but Worsham’s turned out just a bit better when he beat Wilkerson’s fading entry on a 4.09 to 4.17 decision for his milestone 25th win.
“I had a good feeling this morning,” said Worsham. “You know, things were just kind of going my way. I was in the car right before first round, and I was just running through everything, and I felt the reverser. It felt OK, and then all of a sudden, it just felt too loose, and the reverser cable wasn’t hooked up. Right before they started the car, I’m screaming for the clutch guy, ‘Hook up the reverser cable.’ When you find things like that, it’s just kind of your day, and you can’t make a mistake.
“Dickie Venables and Kurt Elliott brought just an enormous amount of experience to the team — all the championships and all the runs — and all their dedication to the car just showed today. Conditions were changing all day, and they were able to stay with it. Nothing but experience can get you there, and they were able to do that.”
While his opponents were struggling, Worsham’s Venables-tuned Al-Anabi Racing Solara made three passes within two-hundredths of a second, besting tire-smoking Matt Hagan with a 4.10, blower-banging Memphis champ Arend with a 4.12, and tractionless Ron Capps with a 4.11 to reach the 38th final of his Pro career and his third this season.
Wilkerson reached his 23rd Funny Car final by moving his Levi, Ray & Shoup Mustang past defending event champ Cruz Pedregon, new points leader Hight, and Mike Neff, each time with the best pass of the round: 4.064, 4.097, and 4.106.
Worsham moved up one spot to eighth place, 135 points out of the lead; despite finishing second, Wilkerson is fifth, just 82 markers behind Hight. The top six drivers are separated by just 86 points.
Mike Edwards
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The Pro Stock final had a lot riding on it, too, as it featured the top two points runners, Edwards and Greg Anderson, each shooting for his second win of the playoffs. Charlotte winner Edwards, whose driving had come under fire this year, all but put the lock on his first Pro world championship with a huge win, and he surprisingly did it on a holeshot, 6.526, 211.43 to 6.522, 212.03 after gaining a .019 to .027 starting-line advantage. With the win, scored by a narrow .004-second, Edwards leads the points by 128 markers, or six rounds, with only eight rounds of racing left.
Although Dallas champ Anderson was 30-7 career against Edwards coming into the final, he was 1-3 this season, and Edwards had the better car entering the money round. Edwards, the No. 1 qualifier at the last seven races and 13 of 22 this season, scored his fifth win of the season and the 20th of his Pro Stock career.
“This day was near-perfect,” said Edwards. “It’s unbelievable what I did here today, what my team did here today. My team was phenomenal. I know it sounds like the same ol’ story, but they’re just so good at what they do. To come out here and have this kind of performance and this kind of day is unbelievable, but I’m the same ol’ redneck I’ve always been. If I win or I don’t win, I’ll be the same person. I’m going to enjoy it while I can because my daddy always told me, ‘One day it will start raining, so get ’em while you can.’
“I’m thinking [championship], but I don’t have it yet. It’s close, but you’ve still got to stay focused. You’ve still got to keep your goals ahead. Those two Summit [drivers] are going to be burning the midnight oil to try and get back up there with me. I’m not going to count my chickens yet before they hatch. But I’m living my dream right now, and I’m real close to it right now.”
Edwards got his day off to a big start by pounding out a 6.509, the quickest pass in class history and a new national record (backed up by his 6.53 qualifying pass), to dismiss V. Gaines. After running 6.53 in round two, the sixth-quickest pass in class history, to trailer Rodger Brogdon, Edwards caught a real break when Jason Line red-lighted against him in the semifinals. Edwards’ ART/Young Life Pontiac experienced tire shake and got very loose, almost crossing the centerline, but he hauled it back under control and coasted to a 17-second win to reach his 10th final of the season and the 39th final of his Pro Stock career.
Anderson, who was going for his 60th win in his 87th final, had reached the money round, his fifth of the season, with a strong car of his own. Anderson’s Summit Racing Equipment Pontiac had been spectacularly consistent in the first three rounds, running a career-best 6.517 at 212.36 in round one to defeat Dave Northrop and reset the national speed record. Anderson then beat his brother-in-law, Ronnie Humphrey, in a narrow 6.528 to 6.55 battle, then raced past upset-minded Larry Morgan, the 12th-place driver in points, with another 6.528, both of which were the third-quickest passes in class history.
Lucas Oil Sportsman wins went to Bucky Hess, who collected his first win in Super Stock, as well as Brad Zaskowski (Stock), James Antonette Sr. (Super Comp), and Michael Ruff (Super Gas).
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