NHRA Wrap-Up: Wild Brainerd Sets Stage For ‘Big Go’

Say “Brainerd” and the next word from a drag-racing fan’s mouth most likely would be “Zoo!”
 
Northern Minnesota’s Brainerd International Raceway is infamous for its wild campground and uninhibited National Hot Rod Association fans. But the Lucas Oil Nationals had plenty of wild results of its own in both qualifying and Sunday’s eliminations. In the end, Spencer Massey (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car), and Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) stood on the podium.
 
Here’s what made this weekend a whole different animal — in addition to the fact it fed the excitement as the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour heads to the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis  . . .

DSR GETS 40TH DOUBLE-UP – In a battle between two International Hot Rod Association Top Fuel champions, Spencer Massey defeated Clay Millican to give Don Schumacher Racing its sixth double nitro-class victory this year and 40th overall. Winning with a 3.811-second elapsed time at 322.11 mph in the Battery Extender Dragster, Massey claimed his fourth victory of the season and 14th total, which ties him with former boss Don Prudhomme on the Top Fuel career-victories list.
 
This was the NHRA’s 750th Top Fuel race, and it marked the third one this year (after Gainesville and Joliet) in which Millican has been runner-up. Millican (3.856, 320.66 in the Parts Plus Dragster) didn’t take home his first Wally statue, but he did earn the distinction of owning the most NHRA race-day starts (146) without a victory — and that’s among all pro drivers.
 
Massey said, “Every round was tough.” He had a first-round fire in his race against Brittany Force that burned everything from the driver compartment back through the parachutes. He said he sliced his thumb working on the car afterward.  He was rewarded for his diligence in Round 2, beating Tony Schumacher to pass him for the No. 2 place in the standings. He defeated Khalid alBalooshi to make the final. This was the first time Massey had won so much as one Top Fuel round at Brainerd, although he won the Top Alcohol Dragster trophy here in 2007.

REBOUNDING RON – Funny Car veteran Ron Capps rebounded from a DNQ at the previous race (at Seattle) and a spectacular explosion in Saturday qualifying to cool down hot-streaking points leader Matt Hagan in the all-Don Schumacher Racing final round. The NAPA Dodge driver did it by one-thousandth of a second —  4.063 seconds at 312.28 mph with a .083-second reaction time — over Hagan’s 4.095, 312.78 in the Rocky Boots Dodge. After capturing his fourth victory at Brainerd, his third of the year, and his 41st in all (to put his career final-round percentage at .500), Capps is one round-win away from No. 500.

 “That’s crazy — it seems like you’re talking about somebody else,” he said of that last statistic. “When I started out, Funny Car has [Chuck] Etchells, [Al] Hofmann, and [Dean] Skuza, and Force was winning everything. You had to respect your elders or you got taken out in the field and got whooped. Some of these guys now coming in, they have no idea what it was like when I came in a s a rookie. Same thing with Top Fuel. My first round-win was against Joe Amato in an unsponsored car for Roger Primm. I pulled up next to my hero. I raced Scott Kalitta almost every first round I went to, which means he was either [No.] 1 or 2 and I was 15th or 16th. I got to be around the best of the best. It kept you on the straight and narrow. If you were a poseur, they wanted nothing to do with you. And I had that respect for Matt Hagan going up there [for Sunday’s final].”
 
Capps leapfrogged Cruz Pedregon for second place in the standings and is 124 points off Hagan’s pace. However, Hagan would have to stop earning points for Capps to be eligible mathematically to pass him. So Hagan appears to be set to gain the No. 1 seeding for the six-race Countdown playoff that begins Sept. 13 at Charlotte.
 
“Wow — what a weekend!” Capps said following this rematch of the February final at Phoenix. In just the past four weeks, Capps improved from fourth place to second with a victory at Sonoma, lost a spot by failing to qualify at Seattle, and climbed back into second place with this triumph. “That’s the nature of our sport, and that’s for sure the Funny Car division. I wish some of these guys would go over to Top Fuel and get out of Funny Car. You’ve got to be your absolute best. I wasn’t today as a driver, but [crew chief Rahn] Tobler made up for it. We had our backs against the wall. Tobler had to do what he did, and that was step up. And he saved me.”
 
BEATS HIS BUDDY – Points leader Mike Edwards led V Gaines wire to wire in the Pro Stock final round for his class-best fifth victory. His 6.629-second E.T. at 208.68 mph in the K&N Filters/I Am Second Chevy Camaro earned him his 39th overall victory. Gaines drove the Kendall Oil Dodge Avenger to a 6.665-second, 208.84-mph effort.

Edwards said the two of them had tested together at Tulsa this past week “then we dove in the car and drove all night long” to reach Brainerd. He said while standing in the staging lanes before the first round, he told Gaines, “It’d be cool if me and you would get in the final.” So, Edwards said, “to be in the final with my buddy V Gaines was pretty special.” Edwards has a 150-point advantage over No. 2 Allen Johnson. As for Countdown readiness, Edwards said his team’s ready “but the driver needs to get better. It seems like we’re off a tic somewhere. Hopefully we can find it. It’s going to be anybody’s race. All 10 of ’em [Countdown drivers], really, have a chance to win.”

 
 COUNTDOWN CLINCHERS – When the Funny Car racers showed up at Brainerd, only points leader Matt Hagan had secured a spot in the Countdown to the Championship field. He left with lots of company: Ron Capps, Cruz Pedregon, Johnny Gray, John Force, and Courtney Force. That gives four more drivers the chance to get in at Indianapolis, the last venue at which a driver can get into the mix.
 
In Top Fuel, five more joined Shawn Langdon, Tony Schumacher, and Spencer Massey. With Doug Kalitta, Antron Brown, Khalid alBalooshi, Clay Millican, and Morgan Lucas in the field, two places remain open.
 
Seven Pro Stock drivers already had qualified for the chance to earn a title. This past weekend, V Gaines, Erica Enders-Stevens, and Rodger Brogdon filled the field.
 
MANZO MARKS MILESTONE – Frank Manzo recorded his 100th Top Alcohol Funny Car national-event victory (101st in all), while Gord Gingles in Top Alcohol Dragster won his first. It was Manzo’s 40th consecutive final-round victory and his seventh at BIR. Other sportsman winners were Bruno Massel (Comp Eliminator), Tommy Phillips (Super Comp), Bill Feist (Stock), Jim Thune (Super Stock), Kevin Dyck (Super Gas), Larry Demers (Top Sportsman), and Louie Wirbel (Pro Stock Snowmobile).
 
OUCH – Funny Car driver Jeff Arend , driver of the Jim Dunn Racing/Grime Boss Dodge, qualified 12th but had to bow out of eliminations. He discovered his heel was broken in three places from a Friday-night accident. The injury occurred when he climbed over an eight-foot-tall locked gate (trying to leave the track at a reasonable hour, he said) to reach his rental car. He landed awkwardly but said he thought his foot was sprained. He raced Saturday before learning the heel has three fractures.

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FIRE THEN REIGN – Ron Capps’s massive explosion and Bob Bode’s fire spiced up the final Funny Car qualifying session. “It took me awhile to get my bearings. It was a big one,” Capps said Saturday. “That front latch system, it’s got to be here to stay. That’s a great system. I felt like I was at Eldora in a dirt modified. Everything the NHRA did [to modify the system following Johnny Gray’s incident at Sonoma], I’m praising it right now, because I can walk away.” After winning Sunday, Capps said his ears were ringing still, as if he had been at a rock concert. “Everything did its job, and I couldn’t be happier,” he said of the safety features. Then he made a bold statement: “It’s too bad we had to learn from Scott Kalitta’s accident, but at least it went to something good. We lost him . . .  But we fixed everything. Had he had it [this new front-latching system], he wouldn’t have died. That’s how good this system is.” Bode’s car was engulfed in flames, but he stayed on the throttle to make the field at No. 16. “I’ve never been that warm sitting in that race car,” Bode said. “It was a handful. It got my attention. You can’t lift. You’ve got to drive it to the finish line.”