Latest NHRA News... (Click News button above for more)
-
Brown, Pedregon, Johnson leading opening day in Topeka
Cruz Pedregon raced to the qualifying lead in Funny Car with a track record performance Friday at the Dollar General NHRA Summernationals at Heartland Park Topeka.
Antron Brown (Top Fuel) and Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) also were qualifying leaders at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event.
Pedregon powered his Snap-on Tools Toyota Camry to a leading performance of 4.046 seconds at 315.56 mph, bettering both ends of the Funny Car track record, to hold off Bob Tasca III for the top spot. Tasca was second with a 4.062 at 315.56 in the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Shelby Ford Mustang. The two-time world champion is very pleased with the performance of his new Toyota Camry body.
Cruz Pedregon
|
Antron Brown
|
Allen Johnson
|
“We definitely have one of the quicker cars out there,” said Pedregon, a four-time winner at HPT and a two-time No. 1 qualifier this season. “So we just have to continue to do our job and not beat ourselves on Sunday.”
Pedregon was the quickest in both sessions, but his final run of the day continued the recent trend of his Snap-on team pulling out an impressive performance during a Friday evening qualifying session.
“To be honest with you, we don’t swing for the fence,” Pedregon said. “We try to race the track and be smart. We had 16 rounds in a row before we smoked the tires at our last race. That’s a credit to our thought process. The track was excellent, so there were a lot of good runs.”
In Top Fuel, Brown paced the Top Fuel division with a 3.797 at 324.98 in his Matco Tools dragster to move around recent first-time winner Steve Torrence, who ended up second overall with a 3.801 at 320.51 in his Capco Contractors dragster.
“It’s been awhile since our Matco Tools boys have been No. 1,” said Brown, whose last No. 1 came last season in Reading. “It’s not for lack of work. The class keeps getting tougher, so we have to keep digging deeper. It feels great any time you can take a swing and land it. You have to make some power to get through that clutch. We went out there trying to get after it. Brian [Corradi, crew chief] told me it was a little lazy coming off the starting line. We ran a .79, but the car did it from 150 feet through half-track, where it ran strong.”
Johnson, a past winner at this track who has earned two No. 1 qualifying positions this season and raced to one victory, led Pro Stock with a performance of 6.618 at 207.85 in his Team Mopar Dodge Avenger.
“We’ve got a great, consistent car now with the Mopar Dodge Avenger,” Johnson said. “We’ve finally climbed that mountain and have gotten settled on the top. We tested earlier in St. Louis and managed in similar conditions, and that helped us a bit this weekend. We’re trying to be close to the edge all the time now. You’ve got to do that to beat the Summit cars, Vincent [Nobile], and Mike [Edwards]. But we’re staying on this side of the edge so that we can maintain being consistent.”
Series leader Greg Anderson was second in the Summit Racing Pontiac with a 6.624 at 208.55, and defending world champ Jason Line was third with a 6.630 at 207.11 in his Summit Pontiac.
Qualifying continues Saturday with sessions at noon and 2:30 p.m. Sunday’s eliminations start at 11 a.m.
-
ESPN2 Topeka coverage will follow season's hottest stories
The NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series heads to the heartland and Kansas, where it all began. The first NHRA event was held in Great Bend, Kan., a short drive from Heartland Park Topeka, where the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series will be this weekend, May 18-20 for the 24th annual Dollar General NHRA Summernationals.
It should be a great weekend of racing in Topeka, and those not attending can catch all the action on ESPN2/ESPN2HD beginning with qualifying on Saturday, May 19, at 5 p.m. ET/2 p.m. PT. Sunday’s race-day coverage begins at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
Here’s what viewers can expect when they tune in this weekend:
Turmoil turns into success: In the first part of the season, there was nothing but turmoil on the Ron Capps NAPA Auto Parts Funny Car team. A new crew, led by tuner Rahn Tobler, has Capps looking for his fourth final round in a row and second NHRA Full Throttle Series win. Is it Capps' year?
First for Torrence: Ripe off his first Top Fuel win, Steve Torrence, who posted the victory one year after he started his own team, will be featured in-depth on the ESPN broadcast. Torrence, who overcame Hodgkin's lymphoma several years ago, won Indy in Top Alcohol Dragster as well as the championship in 2005. We'll break down his amazing story.
No wins but in the points: Seven-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher is leading the Top Fuel points without winning a race. Will his winless streak come to a stop in Topeka?
K&N Horsepower Challenge update: The battle for the final spot in the K&N Horsepower Challenge is heating up. Vincent Nobile overtook Greg Stanfield for the seventh and last guaranteed spot. This battle should go down to the final race in Chicago.
Prestone’s Ask the Expert with David Grubnic: You can ask David Grubnic, who scored his first Top Fuel win in Topeka in 2005, a question on NHRA's Facebook page under Prestone's Ask the Expert column, and one lucky fan will have his or her question answered on ESPN2's telecast. It just might be the one selected for the weekend’s ESPN2 broadcast!
-
Friday's Topeka pics
 |
 |
NHRA held its pre-event press conference yesterday at Top of the Tower in downtown Topeka. Kansas Governor Sam Brownback (left) was among the special guests on hand.
(Above) Ray Irwin, president of Heartland Park Topeka, addressed the media, who also were able to ask questions of NHRA Full Throttle stars Morgan Lucas, Spencer Massey, and Robert Hight.
(Below) NHRA Vice President-Racing Administration Josh Peterson, far left, and NHRA Division 5 Director Rob Park, far right, joined Irwin, Brownback, and the drivers in showing off copies of the official Proclamation from the State of Kansas declaring it Speedfest Week in Kansas and honoring the Dollar General NHRA Summernationals at Heartland Park Topeka.
|
 |
(Above) To help kick-off the event, Heartland Park Topeka and NHRA hosted Speedfest, a free event for fans in downtown Topeka. Show cars, food, music, fan giveaways, and driver autograph sessions were among the many activities. (Below) Among the drivers in attendance were, from left, Shawn Langdon, Brandon Bernstein, Terry McMillen, Scott Palmer, Spencer Massey, Robert Hight, Hillary Will, Erica Enders, and Allen Johnson. |
 |
The throngs of NHRA fans were greeted by the familiar large sign on Gary Ormsby Boulevard outside the Heartland Park Topeka facility as they headed through the gates to attend the Dollar General NHRA Summernationals. |
Lawrence, Kan., native Rob Wendland, crew chief of the NTB/Service Central Dodge Charger driven by Johnny Gray, is honoring Tim Baxter, who drove a long line of Jayhawker Top Alcohol Dragsters and took a young Wendland under his wing more than 20 years ago. Baxter lost his battle with cancer on Jan. 31 at age 56. |
Debuting his new Jerry Haas-built Camaro was seven-time F.I.A. European Pro Stock champion Jimmy Lars Alund. After this event, Alund’s Camaro will be airfreight from Chicago to Sweden, where he will start the 2012 European schedule at Santa Pod Raceway in June. |
Jason Line was No. 1 in the first Pro Stock session with a 6.646, and though he improved to a 6.630 in the second qualifying round, he ended up third in the order. |
Bob Tasca III set the pace with the Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang when he ran a 4.15 in the opening Funny Car session. That run kept him in the top spot until Cruz Pedregon recorded a quicker 4.13. |
Three Top Fuel drivers made their first passes of the season: Scott Palmer (above), Fred Farndon (below left), and Luigi Novelli (below right). Farndon is racing for the first time since car owner John LaPorte’s trailer was burglarized last year. |
 |
 |
Morgan Lucas led the first session of Top Fuel qualifying. The GEICO driver ran a 3.853, 313.22 to add three bonus points to his tally. |
Greg Anderson, who has struggled sometimes this year in the early qualifying rounds, came roaring out of the box this weekend with a No. 3 time of 6.650 in the first Pro Stock session and moved up to the No. 2 spot in the second stanza with a 6.620. Anderson also reset the track speed mark on both runs with respective top-end charges of 207.66 mph and 208.55 mph. |
After running a fourth-best time of 6.654 in the first round of qualifying, Allen Johnson drove his Hemi Dodge to the No. 1 spot in the Pro Stock night session with a 6.618, breaking Mike Edwards’ two-year old track record of 6.638. |
 |
After Mike Neff’s car went lean and backfired toward the end of an otherwise-excellent run in the opening session, the Castrol GTX driver/tuner moved up to the third spot during the Funny Car night session with a 4.063, 311.05. |
Reigning Full Throttle Funny Car champ Matt Hagan, who has never qualified in the top half at this event, is in the provisional No. 7 spot. He ran a 4.105 in the second session just as DSR teammates Johnny Gray and Jack Beckman did. |
Cruz Pedregon made the quickest runs of both Friday Funny Car sessions with a new Toyota Camry body. The Snap-on driver set both ends of the track record with a 4.046 at 315.56 mph. |
Atlanta winner Steve Torrence stayed hot with the second-quickest runs of both Friday Top Fuel sessions. The Capco Contractors driver is on pace to continue his trend of qualifying in one of the top two positions that he started at the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte. |
Antron Brown qualified No. 1 at this event in 2009 and 2010, and the Matco Tools driver is standing atop the Top Fuel field once more after running a 3.797 at 324.98 mph under the lights. |
|
|
