NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

TOP FUEL ROUND ONE

An early-evening rainshower last night poured wet stuff on the zMAX dragstrip, but it looks great this morning — "Plenty of bite out there," was Antron Brown consultant John Medlen's assessment — and the temperature is a cool 68 degrees with swirling winds, alternatively a headwind and a crosswind, as action kicked off, but just as the first cars completed their burnouts, sprinkles began to dot the track and all four in the first quad — Tony Stewart, Billy Torrence, Josh Hart, and Tony Schumacher — were all shut off. 

As from this arose such a clatter ... some were saying that Schumacher's supercharged had seized and the team was in the process of shutting the engine down before the call came to shut down all cars for the sprinkles. Much debate ensued among the other three crew chiefs in the quad — without agreement, apparently — about whether the Schumacher team should be allowed to go back to the pits to fix the blower since NHRA had shut down all of the cars for the rain. The Schumacher car left the starting line to head back to the pits, and NHRA officials went to the videotape to see the sequence of events and, ultimately, after the Schumacher team reported that they could not quickly fix the problem, the other three got to race without him.

Stewart took the win with a 3.72 with Torrence's 3.73 finishing second to advance, with Hart headed to the trailer despite a fine 3.75.

Top Fuel's most successful active four-wide racer, three-time winner Antron Brown, had a massive engine explosion, and Doug Kalitta raced into the final with a stout 3.685 and will be joined by "Maddi the Baddie," rookie Maddi Gordon, whose 3.77 took her to the next round.

Mass lane swapping took place with Leah Pruett, scheduled to run behind Brown in Lane 1, had overall lane choice and went to Lane 2, and Will Smith, with second lane choice, went to Lane 4, displacing Ida Zetterström to Lane 3, while Justin Ashley, with no say in the matter, ended up in Lane 1.

Ashley, who had left first on all six two-wide opponents so far this season, left on all three in his quad and ran a 3.699, but it wasn't enough to win the quad as Leah Pruett steamed to a 3.673, low e.t. of the meet. Three of the cars in that semifinal quad ran in the 3.60s this round, the outlier being Gordon.

Shawn Langdon equaled Pruett's run to advance to the semifinals alongside Spencer Massey, who used a 3.822 holeshot to beat Dan Mercier's 3.800 to the stripe for the second advance spot. It's Massey's first race as a team owner after having been a hired gun his whole career and it's going exceedingly well.

Semifinal matchups (lane choice first): 
Shawn Langdon vs. Tony Stewart vs. Billy Torrence vs. Spencer Massey
Leah Pruett vs. Doug Kalitta vs. Justin Ashley vs. Maddi Gordon

***

FUNNY CAR ROUND ONE

Low qualifier Ron Capps reset low e.t. with a sterling 3.865 to win his quad ahead of Chad Green’s 3.95 with Spencer Hyde finishing third and world champ Austin Prock again bowing out in round one after shutting down early after great early numbers.

Saturday’s Mission Challenge champ Jordan Vandergriff tacked on another win light with a 3,874 and was joined in the advancement duo by Dave Richards. Dan Wilkerson and Jeff Diehl were eliminated from competition.

J.R. Todd, one of two drivers o make three-second runs on all four qualifiers (Capps being the other) won his quad with a 3.896 and was joined by former teammate Alexis DeJoria’s 3.962 with Hunter Green and Jeff Arend falling to the wayside.

Semifinal matchups (lane choice first): 
Ron Capps vs. J.R. Todd vs. Chad Green vs. Alexis DeJoria
Jack Beckman vs. Jordan Vandergriff vs. Matt Hagan vs. Dave Richards

***

PRO STOCK ROUND 1

The sun decided to peak out from behind the clouds as the first quad took to the starting line. The group that featured the No. 4, 3, 12, and 13 qualifiers went first. Matt Hartford got to the finish line first, followed by Aaron Stanfield as the runner-up. Stephen Bell was third, and Kenny Delco struggled to get down the track and finished last.

Cody Coughlin pulled out a holeshot win, going .009 on the tree to advance to the next round. Matt Latino made the next best run of the quad with a .037 reaction time and a 6.560 e.t. This sent Cody Anderson and Jeg Coughlin Jr. home early.

Greg Stanfield raced to a double holeshot win over Dallas Glenn, who runnered-up. Erica Enders will still have to wait for her breakthrough win as they continue to experiment over at the Elite Motorsports camp. Deric Kramer was the fourth racer in the quad and came in last.

No. 1 qualifier Greg Anderson won his grouping, and Eric Latino also moved on but gave up lane choice to Hartford in a speed tiebreaker. Latino clocked a 208.78 while Hartford ran a 210.87.

Semifinal matchups (lane choice first): 
Greg Anderson vs. Matt Hartford vs. Eric Latino vs. Aaron Stanfield
Dallas Glenn vs. Cody Coughlin vs. Greg Stanfield vs. Matt Latino

***

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE ROUND 1

Jianna Evaristo, who openly admitted that she struggled in qualifying, stated that she showed up today and dominated her quad, so much so that she will have lane choice, with a 6.788. Her Matt Smith Racing teammate, Angie Smith, will also be advancing to the next set. Rounding out the quad was Steve Johnson, who just wasn’t quick enough, and Brayden Davis, who had a stellar Buell all weekend long but pulled the clutch in about half track and coasted to the finish line.

The Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty winner, Gaige Herrera, took the winning honors in his quad with a 6.775, which will give him lane choice. John Hall had a .006 reaction time on the Christmas Tree and was 6.833 at the finish line to move on to the second round. Marc Ingwerson did not make the call.

“Flyin’ Ryan” Oehler took his qualifying momentum and translated it into race day, a 6.802, which will move him on to round two. Kelly Clontz’s 6.850 outran the reigning champ, Richard Gadson’s 6.858, but since he recorded a holeshot, Gadson will be moving on.

Perhaps the biggest shock of round one was that Matt Smith went red against Clayton Howey and Chase Van Sant (Michael Ray Jr. sat the round out). Howey and Van Sant punched their tickets and will move on to meet Evaristo and Angie Smith in round two.

Semifinal matchups (lane choice first): 
Jianna Evaristo vs. Chase Van Sant vs. Clayton Howey vs. Angie Smith
Gaige Herrera vs. Ryan Oehler vs. John Hall vs. Richard Gadson

***

RIGHT TRAILERS OUTLAW STREET ROUND 2

The Right Trailers Outlaw Street Series made its official Sunday debut in the NHRA, and it was one to remember. Scott Taylor bested Shawn "Murder Nova" Ellington by nine thousandths of a second, 3.680 to 3.689. Earning lane choice, Taylor also moved first on the tree with a reaction time of .015; however, Ellington was a bit late as he recorded a .124.

Ryan Martin gets the win over Carson Baker, as he lost as soon as he left the starting line when he went red. Martin wheeled his "no named" gray Camaro to a 3.708. 

Final round matchup (lane choice first):  Scott Taylor vs. Ryan Martin

***

TOP FUEL ROUND 2

Some drama ensued before the round as Shawn Langdon’s Kalitta Air dragster popped a steering heim joint turning into its lane, and Brian Husen and crew dived in to get it fixed while on the clock. The crew raced back to its pit for a replacement and had their Mac Tools twirling and got ‘er done.

The work paid off as Langdon steamrolled to the win with a 3.74, with Tony Stewart finishing second with a 3.77, but just by thousandths of a second over Spencer Massey, with Billy Torrence coming in fourth.

With one Kalitta team and one member of the Stewart family already in the final,we added one more of each as Doug Kalitta punched out a round-leading 3.707 to edge Leah Pruett. Justin Ashley and Maddi Gordon are done for the day.

Pruett and Stwart both leapfrogged Jsoh Hart in the standings to sit 3-4 behind Langdon and Kalitta, so the final-round will be the top four in points.

Final-round matchup (lane choice first): Doug Kalitta vs. Shawn Langdon vs. Leah Pruett vs. Tony Stewart

***

FUNNY CAR ROUND TWO

Dave Richards, who crossed the centerline after the final in round one, looked like he was headed to the final round behind Matt Hagan's 3.94, but the Bluebird Turf Ford washed out the rear end, and the back end clipped the wall, disqualifying him and moving Beckman into the final.

J.R. Todd made it three Kalitta cars in the final with a ripping 3.88 at 336 mph, but the team will have a ton of work to do after the parachutes failed to deploy on the DHL Toyota. Todd did a masterful job of laying on the brakes until just before the sand trap then, using his real and online simulated dirt-track experience, pitched the car sideways so it slid to a stop in the trap shy of the net, which probably would have damaged the chassis. Ron Capps will join him in the final with a second-across 3.923.

“I waited too long to get on the brake,” he admitted. “I hit the ‘chutes, and I see a lever go, so I'm expecting the shoots hit any second they didn't. So I'm all over the brakes and just not enough time to get it woahed up. It's bouncing pretty good, and you’ve got to ease up on the brake because the hotter the brakes get, the better they are in these things, being carbon fiber, but it's bouncing like that. Then you're going into the sand and I thought it was going over. That's a badass PBRC car right there, but the good thing about it is we built two identical ones and ran them both in Gainesville testing, and they ran within like two thousandths of each other. So I'm sure the boys are getting the car No. 2 unloaded and ready.”

Final-round matchup (lane choice first): J.R. Todd vs. Ron Capps vs. Matt Hagan vs. Jack Beckman
 

PRO STOCK ROUND 2

Matt Hartford not only found more horsepower throughout the weekend, but he also improved his reaction time - .048 - to win on a holeshot to move onto the final round. Greg Anderson's reaction time started with a one, a .103. His Hendricks.com Camaro bailed him out, and he will need to work on his starting line prowess before he heads to the final round. Unfortunately, Aaron Stanfield's car went silent about half track, and Eric Latino just didn't have the e.t. to advance him.

A lane swap occurred before the second quad took the starting line - Greg Stanfield, who started in lane one, ended up in lane two, while Cody Coughlin, who was in two, ended up in lane one. This obviously didn't bother Coughlin as he and Matt Latino got a double holeshot win over the guy known as "Double-Oh" Dallas Glenn. Latino's been saying he's coming for everyone with his reaction times, and he put his money where his mouth is and showed his quad he meant business.

Since Glenn will not be moving on to the final round, Greg Anderson has a chance to take the points lead away from his teammate. All he needs to do is finish in one or two in the final quad.

Final-round matchup (lane choice first): Greg Anderson vs. Matt Hartford vs. Matt Latino vs. Cody Coughlin

***

PRO STOCK MOTORCYCLE ROUND 2

Clayton Howey won his quad with a 6.815, and Chase Van Sant followed in second with a 6.824 to put both of the Matt Smith Racing bikes of Jianna Evaristo and Angie Smith packing. 

Then Ryan Oehler's stellar weekend came to an end, as reigning champ Richard Gadson and Gaige Herrera rode past him and John Hall. Herrera ran his best time of the day with a 6.756, and so did Gadson with a 6.785. Since the two-time Pro Stock bike champ Herrera won his quad, he will have lane choice in the all-Suzuki final round. 

Final-round matchup (lane choice first): Gaige Herrera vs. Richard Gadson vs. Clayton Howey vs. Chase Van Sant

FINAL ROUND RESULTS

Kalitta, Capps, Hartford, Herrera claim four-wide victories in Charlotte

***

RIGHT TRAILERS OUTLAW STREET FINAL

Ryan Martin won right at the step when Scott Taylor left the starting line too early by two-thousandths of a second.

If you remember, Martin was the No. 8 qualifier, but he gets to walk away with the special 75th anniversary Wally as he etches his name in the history books.

"I wanted a Wally, and we were able to get one. I'm excited, and I'm stoked," Martin said at the top end. "We struggled in the qualifying rounds, but we pulled it off. I've been racing for twenty years, and I've never had a Wally.

***

LUCAS OIL DRAG RACING SERIES RESULTS

TOP ALCOHOL FUNNY CAR

Sean Bellemeur def. Phil Esz def. Bob McCosh def. Chris Foster

TOP ALCOHOL DRAGSTER

Joey Severance def. McKenna Bold def. Jamie Noonan def. Jackie Fricke

COMP

Monty Bogan Jr. def. Joey Carnasciale

SUPER STOCK

Kent Hanley def. Patrick Glade

STOCK
David Barton def. Jeff Strickland

SUPER COMP

Lauren Freer def. Vance Houston

SUPER GAS

Tim Powell def. Keith Mayers

RIGHT TRAILERS TOP DRAGSTER

Walter Zalak vs. Robert Houston

RIGHT TRAILERS TOP SPORTSMAN
Frank Altilio def. Carl Freeman

JBS EQUIPMENT NHRA PRO MOD SERIES

Mike Stavrinos def. Justin Bond def. Jason Collins def. Stan Shelton

FLEXJET FACTORY STOCK SHOWDOWN

Jonathan Allegrucci def. Jason Dietsch def. Raymond Nash def.Taylor Dietsch

RIGHT TRAILERS OUTLAW STREET

Ryan Martin def. Scott Taylor

SUPER STREET
Keith Mayers def. Gleenwood (Ray) Drew