New Winners, Double Winner, Comeback Winner Mark Seattle Race

A trio of first-time Seattle winners — Morgan Lucas (Top Fuel), Matt Hagan (Funny Car), and Vincent Nobile (Pro Stock) stood in the winners circle Sunday at the O’Reilly Auto Parts Northwest Nationals. But sportsman racers Dan Fletcher and Shawn Cowie stole a bit of the spotlight at Pacific Raceways, too.

VISIONS OF A CHAMPIONSHIP – Morgan Lucas’ Top Fuel triumph — which came 13 years after he raced here in his first NHRA national event, in the Super Comp class — ignited a spark of championship dreams in the driver who has been stuck in mid-pack, searching for the right set of circumstances through 15 races this season.

“This is the first one we’ve had since my wife [Katie] and I found out we’re pregnant. This is probably as big and cool as any one I’ve ever had,” Lucas said. “I can’t begin to tell you how proud I am of my team. We’ve had so many in consistencies with the car this year. We’ve just had our struggles. I feel like this is a symbol that we’re turning the corner.” Lucas won for the first time this season and eighth time in his career, defeating a tire-smoking Dave Grubnic, 3.908 seconds at 296.57 mph to  4.253, 296.57 on the 1,000-foot course.

Lucas said his mindset, even after his runner-up finish the previous weekend at Sonoma, was that getting close to winning was satisfying. Now, after improving to seventh place during qualifying and winning Sunday, he is thinking championship.
 
“I don’t want to feel like we get hot and peak. I want to feel like we get hot, the kind of hot you maintain consistency through the back half of the year, because I’d like to make a serious run at the championship,” Lucas said. “I feel like if we can maintain that consistency . . . and make this car as good as we possibly can, we actually have a legitimate shot.”

Grubnic sliced his top-10 deficit from 126 points to 78 with the runner-up finish. He’s 11th in the standings with two races left before the playoffs begin.

HAGAN’S HUGE TURNAROUND – Funny Car winner Matt Hagan is light years ahead of where he was this time last season. The 2011 champion and current points leader became the first in his class to clinch a spot in the Countdown with his second-round victory against Paul Lee. And he defeated Bob Tasca in the final round (4.171 seconds, 294.76 mph to 5.324, 164.81) to earn his fourth victory of the season. In this 16th race, he surpassed the total number of elimination rounds he won in 23 races last year. This time last season, he had won no races and had a losing elimination record (10-14). He heads to the Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd, Minn., with four victories in six finals and a 27-11 mark.

The Magneti Marelli/Mopar/Rocky Boots Dodge Charger driver, said, “The chemistry I have with these guys is unbelievable. I’ve never had it before. It’s showing on the racetrack. It trickles down from the top. Dickie (Venables) is a great leader. Hats off to my guys. I like to get patted on the back as much as anybody, but it is 100 percent them.”

‘EVERYTHING’S GOING OUR WAY’ – Pro Stock winner Vincent Nobile said, “Everything seems to be going our way,” after scoring back-to-back victories at Sonoma and Seattle and winning for the third time this year — all three times against Jeg Coughlin. Regaining the winning form he showed at the season opener at Pomona, Calif., in February, this East Coast college student from Long Island is favoring the West Coast these days. His 6.586-second E.T. at 210.84 mph in the Mountain View Dodge Avenger edged Coughlin’s  6.615, 210.60. Denver winner Allen Johnson, who supplies the motors for all three of them, had said the team would turn the Western Swing into a “HEMI sweep,” and Nobile helped him carry that out.

“Jeg Coughlin is probably the toughest driver in this class, and he’s been someone I’ve always looked up to and admired since I was a kid. I think it’s cool just to be racing against him. But to actually beat him three times in final rounds is almost hard to believe. I just feel very fortunate right now, because everything seems to be going our way.”
 
Nobile improved one place in the standings, to fourth, making a climb from as far back as eighth place. “This just goes to show you how quickly things can change in this class,” he said. “We had a lot of trouble earlier this year, but now I feel like we’ve turned the corner — and it’s just in time, because we have two more races and then the Countdown starts. Those last six races mean everything, and I want our whole team to be prepared.”

Jeg Coughlin is probably the toughest driver in this class, and he’s been someone I’ve always looked up to and admired since I was a kid. I think it’s cool just to be racing against him. But to actually beat him three times in final rounds is almost hard to believe. – Vincent Nobile

COMEBACK KID – The comeback story (and feel-good story) of the year centers on Top Alcohol Dragster winner Shawn Cowie, who returned to Pacific Raceways for the first time since he was critically injured in a motorcycle accident April 9, 2011, in Nashville, Tenn. Sunday’s victory was less a triumph over final-round opponent Garrett Bateman (5.372 second at 268.33 mph to 5.649, 252.80) than it was a triumph over injury and odds. Struck on Interstate 40 by a drunk driver who was later convicted, Cowie suffered a broken neck, back, and pelvis, a crushed ankle, and legs mangled so severely doctors thought they would have to amputate one. Medical experts told Cowie, of Delta, British Columbia, he might never walk again and definitely wouldn’t race again. But he proved them wrong July 14 at Woodburn, Ore., winning the Div. 6 race from the No. 1 qualifying position. So Seattle’s victory was his second in 18 days. Cowie told Ben Kuzma of The Province newspaper of Vancouver, B.C., “There are people up there watching out for me right from the accident scene to now. There’s a guardian angel cheering me on.”       

FLETCH, NATCH – After eight missed chances this year to claim double victories at a single event, sportsman ace Dan Fletcher , of Churchville, N.Y., sealed the deal a continent away from home. Fletcher won Sunday in both Super Stock and Stock Eliminator in his ’69 Camaro to achieve a second sweep of the Western Swing. With that, he recorded his 84th and 85th career victories and tied Bob Glidden on the all-time victories list. He’s the only sportsman-level racer to sweep the Western Swing, and he’s the only driver in NHRA history to do it twice.

Fletcher’s double-up was the third time here, and he is the 17th different driver to double-up. Sunday’s feat was the 28th time it has happened. And it was Fletcher’s 44th Super Stock national-event victory.

His achievement marks the third straight year in which a driver has doubled at Seattle. Local racers Jody Lang, of Puyallup, did it in 2011, and Brad Plourd, originally from Maple Valley, Wash., did it last year.

COULD HAVE USED TWO MORE SESSIONS – Ron Capps, the Sonoma winner poised to make a run at Matt Hagan’s Funny Car points lead, posted a startling DNQ Saturday in the NAPA Dodge Charger. Capps had arrived in Seattle in second place, just 27 points behind Hagan. Cruz Pedregon moved past him into second place, 117 off the pace. Capps is third, 134 points out of first. Rain robbed the pro racers of their two Friday runs.

That’s how this sport goes sometimes, especially when you only get two chances to qualify. – Ron Capps

“That’s how this sport goes sometimes, especially when you only get two chances to qualify,” Capps said after this race became the fifth this year when sessions were lost to inclement weather. Just the same, he said, “This hurts, because we had a chance to leave Seattle with the points lead, but I know how good our NAPA Dodge is and we’ll be ready for the next race.”

Capps’ previous failure to qualify was in April 2012 at Las Vegas, after which boss Don Schumacher shuffled his crew and traded his for Jack Beckman’s. With new crew chief Todd Smith, Beckman went on to beat Capps and former Beckman tuner Rahn Tobler for the championship by an NHRA-record two points.

FIELDS FILLING UP – The Pro Stock class has qualified seven for the Countdown (Mike Edwards, Allen Johnson, Jeg Coughlin, Vincent Nobile, Shane Gray, Jason Line, and Greg Anderson) and has three positions open. Matt Hagan is the lone Funny Car qualifier so far. Three (Shawn Langdon, Tony Schumacher, Spencer Massey) have secured berths in the Top Fuel class. Two more events remain before the fields are set.

SPORTSMAN WINNERS – Besides Cowie and Fletcher, sportsman winners were Clint Thompson (Top Alcohol Funny Car), Doug Lambeck (Competition Eliminator), Ed Hutchinson (Super Gas), and Larry Miner (Super Street). Steve Williams, who won at Sonoma, also won in the Super Comp class.

NHRA CHANGES LATCH, TETHER RULE – After a week of angry reaction to the latch and tethering system for Funny Car bodies following Johnny Gray’s engine explosion at Sonoma, the NHRA ruled the system optional rather than mandatory, starting with the Seattle race. Funny Car winner Matt Hagan and veteran owner-driver Tim Wilkerson were among those who said they appreciated the NHRA’s willingness to listen and work with the racers to figure a way to protect spectators and drivers alike. The NHRA instituted the system without testing it, and Gray’s engine explosion at Sonoma became the one and only test. And the device clearly endangered the driver. The purpose of the system was to keep the bodies from flying off the cars and into the grandstands, although Robert Hight’s incident in April at Charlotte was the only one in which that happened.