2018 NHRA Route 66 Nationals Coverage From Chicago

Race day is underway here at the JEGS Route 66 Nationals as racers try to punch their ticket to the winner’s circle. The weather is perfect, the rubber is hot, and the air is filled with the sounds of horsepower.

Don O’Neal has been putting a lot of work into his Top Sportsman program over the past few seasons and that has started to pay off in a big way. He earned his first national event win at Charlotte this year and a trip to the finals at the JEGS Route 66 Nationals this weekend. In that final round O’Neal squared off against Lester Johnson and turned on the red bulb right at the hit, but the race actually wasn’t over. As Johnson went down the track his Chevrolet experienced some kind of mechanical failure that ultimately led to him clipping a timing block and giving the win to O’Neal.

Three-time Top Alcohol Dragster champion Joey Severance has experienced a season full of ups and downs in 2018. Coming into the JEGS Route 66 Nationals he had struggled at Topeka and was hoping to bounce back and he did just that. Not only did Severance win the JEGS Allstars event, he also picked up the win for the Route 66 Nationals, giving him the first double up win during the Allstar weekend of his career and a nice payday to boot.

Scott Udenberg has been a Mopar man his entire life piloting several different Plymouth products in Super Gas over his career. When it came time for a new car Udenberg decided he wanted to go off the reservation a bit and commissioned Dave Stevens Race Cars to fabricate a unique car. Instead of your typical Super Gas Corvette or Camaro roadster, Udenberg had Stevens create a 2015 Challenger roadster with a body from Suncoast Race Cars that used 543 cubic-inches of Mopar power under the hood.

You’re going to have a real hard time finding anybody who has more fun drag racing than Clay Millican. His million-watt smile never leaves his face the second he rolls through the gates at the track, and it shines even brighter when he’s winning. Millican’s victory at the JEGS Route 66 Nationals gives him back to back victories, but more importantly, it gives his team a huge boost of confidence rolling into this four-race stretch of the NHRA season.

“It’s really crazy. It took me 19 years to get that first win and then less than a year to get the second and less than two weeks to get the third. I like that trend. This place is really special. I got my first Top Fuel experience in competition on this race track in 1998. I was the very first car to pull out on this facility. Shortly after that, I did a reverse burnout and got to meet [late NHRA Chief Starter] Buster Couch live in person. That was not my most favorite conversation. He said. ‘I don’t know when you did before you got your Top Fuel license, but you might think about going back to it.’ He did not like me doing a reverse burnout,” Millican says.

Matt Smith is a successful Pro Stock Motorcycle veteran for a reason, he will find a way to win even when things are tough. Earlier this year he had a partner back out of his racing program and put his season in jeopardy, but in true Matt Smith fashion he pulled out an old bike and has turned it into an event winner at Route 66 Raceway. Smith fought all weekend and the final was no exception. When most riders might have aborted the run, Smith went hammer down to earn his Wally.

“We had to ride the bike in the final. It went left and kept going and going. I almost gave up on it. I glanced over and didn’t see LE over there. I said screw it. Richard Freeman is buying me a new body so if we tear it up, we’ll just tear it up. I’ve hit the wall before in Englishtown. The only time I’ve ever had an accident the foot peg went through my foot and I was out for the rest of the year but I’m just out here trying to win a race so I was willing to do whatever to make it happen, ” Smith says.

Robert Hight’s race weekend thankfully wasn’t defined by his qualifying efforts. During all four rounds, he struggled to get his Camaro down the track on a clean pass and barely made the field in the 12th spot. When the racing counted Hight and his team answered the call by ripping through a tough Funny Car field like a chop saw and they were rewarded with the event victory.

“This is my fourth final of the year, but I haven’t won any races. But, last year we won the championship and didn’t win until Denver so I’m way ahead of last year. Also, how about my boss John Force? After all he went through this weekend that was pretty impressive. You’re just not going to keep a guy like him down. There is a reason he’s won 16 championships. You can see how much he loves what he does. He was going to race this weekend. No matter what. I’m really proud of that team for making the semis. Also, one week ago, my daughter, Autumn won her first Jr. Dragster race. When I got here I heard quite a bit about how she won before dad won. Seriously, it’s been a cool week. I won my first race but it’s just as exciting, or maybe even more exciting having your daughter win her first race,” Hight says.

Jeg Coughlin Jr. had the kind of race at Route 66 Raceway that you might have thought was created in Hollywood. At an event where his family’s company JEGS was the title sponsor, he drove like a man on a mission during eliminations crushing the tree every round, and laying down some impressive times along the way. To end his four-year winless streak Coughlin went through number one qualifier Greg Anderson who happens to be sponsored by Summit Racing Equipment.

“The JEGS Allstars yesterday was an unbelievable event and I watched every single round. It just fired me up. I wanted to be in every race car that went down the track. I drove today like a true sportsman. I was aggressive and stayed consistent. The team gave me a great car and we were low E.T. four rounds in a row and didn’t’ look back. I think we did it in grand style to break the ice. We’d like to travel across the way to Richmond and put a nice exclamation point on it next week.”

The weather is significantly cooler for the second day of the JEGS Route 66 Nationals. Racing begins again today with the sportsman classes plowing through eliminations, followed by the JEGS Allstars, and then the pro classes will hit the track. Champions will be crowned today and fields will be set, so the racing action will be intense all day long!

Del Worsham and his family have been fixtures in the world of NHRA nitro racing for decades. Over the years Worsham and his father, Chuck, have raced together while amassing numerous wins. After leaving Kalitta Motorsports Worsham reunited with his father to run their own team on their own terms.

Recently Worsham had to park his own car due to funding issues, but was ready to jump in the field at the JEGS Route 66 Nationals — but he opted for a change of plans at the last second.

“When I get the funding back together for my car I will be running it on more of a full schedule. When I pulled into this place all the great memories started flooding back in and how great this track is … so well taken care of. I got sad and told my wife I was going to run, but then looked at the entry list and saw there were 19 good cars. It was just going to be a lot of work with the cars that are here and cost way too much money to do well. I’ll take a look at other events where it makes more sense for us to enter where it won’t be as tough to make the show on a limited budget,” Worsham says. 

Even if he’s not behind the wheel Worsham still plans on making as many events as he can with his team. Using his cars to make money in different ways helps to keep the doors open at his shop. When you spend your life as a racer sometimes you have to get creative on the business side of things and Worsham has mastered that art.

“I drag race for a living and things have to make financial sense for me. We have an agreement with Bill Liton and he’s been racing our Top Fuel car this year so that’s helped to keep some money coming in with how we qualify and race. We have a couple of Funny Cars we run; I have the one I raced in 2017, and that car we use and try to collect extra money. We’ve had several different drivers in it to help collect money and this weekend John Lawson, a local racer out of Joliet is driving it for us. It gives guys a chance to run, keep their licenses active, and us to make a few dollars in the process,” Worsham says. 

The Coughlin family has deep roots in the world of drag racing that began with Jeg Coughlin Sr. and has continued through his sons and grandchildren. With so much racing heritage within the family, it’s no surprise that Paige Coughlin, daughter of Troy Coughlin, has taken up residence in the cockpit of a dragster.

Just like her older brother, Troy Coughlin Jr., Paige began her racing career in the Jr. Dragster ranks and progressed from there. After gaining valuable experience at the Jr. Dragster level Paige has moved up to Super Comp for 2018 and has already run in a few national events and several divisional races.

“This is my first full year running Super Comp with some guidance from my brother Troy Jr. I’m really trying to follow in his footsteps and just learn as much as I can. He’s been showing me the ropes in Super Comp about how to work the car and drive the stripe better. It has always been a goal of mine to race in Super Comp and running in the juniors helped me get to where I am. When I got the opportunity to get my license at 16 for the faster cars I did and really haven’t looked back,” Paige says.

So far Paige is taking the new learning curve of the Super Comp car in stride and tries to make progress every time she heads to the track. The speed and challenge of the new class has really grabbed her interest and she looks at this style of racing as a growth opportunity for her skill set.

“The biggest change has been the 100 mph jump between the cars. It’s just so smooth and I love going to the quarter-mile in this car. Racing the stripe is a lot different because everything is so much faster, but it’s fun. The different movements between the cars is also pretty wild and I enjoy that as well when racing the Super Comp car,” Paige explains.

Scott Palmer has made some huge strides in his Top Fuel program this season. The team has been able to figure out a magical formula with the help of the Torrence Racing camp to start winning rounds and has even a final round appearance in 2018. Now Palmer is adding the help of Crew Chief Jason McCulloch, who has some NHRA Mello Yello championship experience to his team with the hopes of picking up their first event win.

Bringing McCulloch to the team is something that Palmer hopes will light a fire to assist them with making the leap to the next level in Top Fuel. McCulloch’s tuning credentials are stellar, but Palmer hopes he brings more than just a good tuning hand to the team.

“What he’ll bring is confidence and winning to our team. We’re just learning how to win rounds over here and he’s won races and titles with other teams. At some point, you need someone like him to raise the bar with the team to win even more. We’ve done this without a crew chief all this time and worked with the Torrence team, but that’s been hard since their crew chiefs need to be in their pits. Jason is going to be that bridge to help us get better by being here with our team,” Palmer says.

The collaboration between the Palmer and Torrence camps is what will help this new relationship work. With the world of Top Fuel racing being so difficult on the competition side of things Palmer hopes that McCulloch will be the final piece of the puzzle that helps the team capture their first Wally.

“If we wanted to run mid- to high-3.70s we could have stayed on the path we were on, but we’re trying to win a race and needed the boost. This is part of trying to run at the top and win races while helping Torrence win a title. We’ve been conservative because in the past we didn’t have someone to help make the last-second calls before a run. Now with Jason working with us on a consistent basis that will change and we can make those critical adjustments before a run,” Palmer explains.

The JEGS Route 66 Nationals plays host to the biggest display of NHRA sportsman racing talent you’ll find all year with the JEGS Allstar event. This race-within-a-race brings all the stars from the NHRA sportsman ranks to one place to see who is the best of the best. Racers fight for an entire year just to get an invite to this dance and when the racing begins it truly is epic.

Racers are broken up into teams based on their division for the team component of the event so the rivalries are extra intense. Every person in the JEGS Allstar event wants to not only win it all for their own personal glory, but they want to help their team reign supreme. For 2018 the team from Division 4 was able to pick up the overall victory with a narrow win over the defending champion Division 3 team.

The final round of Top Fuel qualifying at the JEGS Route 66 Nationals saw Steve Torrence remain on top going into Sunday. With the track conditions and weather changing yet again today between Q3 and Q4 it was a challenge to see how much power the Route 66 Raceway surface could handle. The Torrence camp was able to demonstrate why they’re the team to beat this weekend by remaining on top even after a wild final qualifying session.

“This makes me feel like I’m ten-foot tall and bulletproof. I’m not bragging at all but it’s pretty darn impressive when you go out and outrun the field by five-hundredths last night and three-hundredths today. This class is very close. There have been races where it’s been as close as Pro Stock. That’s not something that you see very often and it makes you feel good going into raceday. I’m pretty amped up,” Torrence says.

Matt Hagan was able to retain the top spot in Funny Car and is rolling into eliminations with a lot of confidence with his team’s performance this weekend.

“At the end of the day, I’m very confident going into tomorrow but then again, it’s a fuel Funny Car so you never know what’s going to happen. I’m blessed to have that No. 1 spot for now. For everyone thinking those Chevys are running up front, we’ve got those Mopars going again. Give Dickie Venables enough time and he’ll figure it out it’s just a matter of runs.”

The big story coming out of the final qualifying session in Funny Car was John Force crashing his Camaro. During the qualifying run Force’s car made a big and abrupt move to the right and made hard contact with the wall. The car then slammed into the wall several more times as it was on fire going down the track. Thankfully Force wasn’t hurt and the team has a long night ahead of them getting his backup car ready for eliminations.

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In Pro Stock, Greg Anderson continued to dominate the field during the final qualifying session. Just like the previous three sessions, Anderson laid down low E.T. for the round and did it effortlessly at the end of the session.

“It’s not me. It’s the team doing this. There is nothing the driver can do to make it go low E.T. This is the fifth time I’ve done it this year but this is the first time it’s been a clean sweep. We’ve had low E.T. of every session. That’s a good feeling going into Sunday. We all know I’ve had a great qualifying car all year but haven’t quite been able to get the job done on Sunday. If I can’t get the job done tomorrow something it wrong. Something is seriously wrong. The horse is under me. It’s just up to me to ride it.”

Pro Stock Motorcycle saw Andrew Hines keep the top spot in a wild session of qualifying. To extract such a big performance in the final session Hines and his team went back to what they knew worked and that decision paid off.

“We threw everything at it. We just kind of went back to some older notes and some new transmission ratios that we brought this weekend. It rides really smooth and really fast. It’s nice to get down the track really fast. It’s nice to run late at night. It’s a different scenario. It’s fun and the track was as tight as we could ask for. You could tell it was really good. We’re happy with the way our Street Rod is performing. My bike is good but we’re working to fix Ed’s bike but at least we have our Harley’s at the front.”

It’s a beautiful day here at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois for the Jegs Nationals. The sportsmen racers are on the track going through their first round of eliminations and the pro categories will be hitting the track later this afternoon.

During the for the 2018 season, the NHRA announced they would allow Pro Stock racers to use an engine in their car that doesn’t match the body of the car. Many Pro Stock purest were not happy with this choice, and it wasn’t clear how many racers if any would take advantage of this new rule. So far the only racer to give the hybrid engine model a try has been Mark Hogan, who decided to put a new Hemi between the fenders of his Pontiac Pro Stock machine.

Hogan was paying attention to the potential rule change, and as soon as it became a reality he sprung into action to secure the new powerplant for his Pro Stock program.

“When they changed the rule in December I was aware of a Mopar racer who had a lot of Pro Stock motors sitting around. We talked during the offseason about buying one and finally got the details worked out for me to get one. I didn’t have any spare motors before and we had run the same motor for 9 years. We wanted to try something different to see if we could go faster with this change.”

Making the change was a big leap for Hogan before he took delivery of the new Mopar mill he had never seen or worked on one of the engines. Over the course of his career, Hogan had always been a GM man and even used a GM engine when the change to fuel injection was mandated. Since that engine was well-worn at 9 years old, the switch to Mopar power gave him the opportunity to get a newer engine at a great price.

Running at the Topeka event Hogan struggled to get a handle on the new engine combination. Coming into the event this weekend the team is ready to try something new to get the car to respond.

“We learned there that the tune-up was way off for the fuel injection and needed work. We’re trying another setup to get the engine closer because it wouldn’t even get 200 at the last event. The fuel curves were just a mess and really needed to be tweaked. We’re trying a tuneup that is a better base to get us in the ballpark, “ Hogan says.

Even with these early struggles, Hogan remains very optimistic they will get a handle on everything and tap into the potential of the new engine package.

“I think this motor has even more potential than the previous motor, it’s just a matter of getting a handle on everything. Our goals and expectations are to be within a tenth of the fast guys and win a round of racing. We’re so far off right now there’s a lot of potential we need to get out.”

The JEGS Allstars race during the JEGS Nationals is the biggest collection of sportsman heavy- hitters you will see all year on the NHRA tour. The top-tier racers come to Joliet to represent their respective division in this battle of the best and getting an invite to this is a huge honor. David Rampy is a multi-time sportsman champion and he’s rolling into the 2018 JEGS Allstar race ready to win.

Being a crafty veteran, Rampy knows what it takes to win an NHRA national event and the Allstar race can pose an issue for some racers, but not Rampy. This event is just another day at the office for Rampy but with the added bonus of a bigger payday. “We really don’t change anything when it comes to this event. If anything, it might add more pressure because you want to do well for yourself, and you want to do a good job representing your team,” Rampy explains.

The weather has been a bit of a challenge for all the racers this weekend, including Rampy. The anticipated conditions have changed significantly so it has forced him to change his gameplan.

“We listened to the weatherman which is something you should never do and it’s already changing things for us. It was supposed to be really cool all weekend and that’s not the case at all. We have to make some adjustments based on this that we weren’t expecting but that shouldn’t be a problem.”

Rampy is fielding two cars this weekend, his Super Stock Camaro and Competition Eliminator altered and each car reacts differently to the changing weather conditions.

“When it comes to the altered it’s a bit more tricky than the super stock car so you have to be on your toes. It’s not a huge deal but it’s important to stay ahead of the weather and track. You’ve got a good race car, we have one, but with our index makes it hard for sure. Since it’s so tough it makes us and the car look bad but it’s not running terrible, it’s just that hard of an index, “ Rampy says.

TJ Zizzo may only run a limited NHRA Top Fuel schedule but you wouldn’t know it by his attitude and performance on the track. The Route 66 Raceway is practically in Zizzo’s backyard so this race is a way for him to showcase his racing abilities to his hometown fans. With more corporate backing that ever Zizzo plans on putting his dragster in the show and go some rounds when eliminations begin.

“We just renewed with Rustoleum so we’ll be burning nitro with them through 2021 and that’s great for all of us. This will probably be our only event of the year it looks like. We’re just to busy working on hot rods and cars at our shop to get back out much. Thankfully we’ll be able to do his for another four years when we get time again with the help of Rustoleum.  I will be missing my daughter’s 8th-grade graduation, I’m sad to miss it, she’ll get over it but we’re here to win,” Zizzo says.

What many don’t realize is that while Zizzo may be busy at his shop working on cars, it doesn’t mean he isn’t getting ready for his next NHRA event. His dedicated crew shows up to the shop to help him get the dragster ready when they do have time to make an appearance on the Mellow Yellow series.

“Just because we’re not out racing doesn’t mean we’re not working on the car. That’s why when we do come out after being gone for eight months we’re right in the middle of the pack and running better than some full-time cars. When we come to an event we have the correct funding to do what we’re doing, trust me,” Zizzo explains

To make sure Zizzo can get is sea legs back the team tries to give him a car that won’t be a bucking bronco for the first qualifying shot. Even with a conservative tuneup, Zizzo was able to run a stout 3.80 pass his first time on the track, more importantly, the run was smooth and right down Broadway. With that kind of data after their first run and being solidly in the field, Zizzo and his team can really turn the wick up on their hot rod.

“I found out last year at this event how much I enjoy winning again. We don’t come to an event to just qualify, our goal is to win. We have more parts and pieces than we’ve ever had our entire career, we have plenty of heads, engines, blocks, blowers, you name it we’re ready to do what’s needed to win,” Zizzo says. 

Friday Pro Qualifying Wrap Up

The conditions at Route 66 Raceway changed dramatically throughout the day and that had a profound impact on the pro teams final qualifying session Friday. During the night session, the weather made a huge swing towards the cool side, the wind picked up, and the recipe for horsepower was on the table. Every crew chief in the pits were licking their chops at the opportunity to get a crack at the track and play some ET home run derby when it was their turn to make a run.

The factory hot rods of the NHRA Pro Stock class can be tricky to tune based on the weather and, Greg Anderson was able to take advantage of what Mother Nature provided Friday by securing the number one spot. Anderson’s 6.546 blast at 211.03 put him on track to pick up his fifth pole of the year in Pro Stock.

“I think this weather caught us all a little off guard. We didn’t expect it to cool down like this. It was a neat change because every time stuff like this happens. When the temperature goes down and the humidity goes down it makes these Pro Stock cars come alive. We love that. You’ve got a great racetrack and you can crank the screws and give it everything you’ve got and run fast,” Anderson said.

Don Schumacher Racing funny car pilot Matt Hagan lept to the number one spot on Friday Night with an impressive 3.917 run at 326.79 MPH. That put Hagan over teammates Ron Capps, who had to bounce back from a massive explosion in the first round of qualifying, and Jack Beckman who landed in the third spot. Hagan’s team has been working towards catching the performances of the Force camp in 2018 and feels they now have a real chance at putting up some big numbers.

According to Hagan, he knew crew chief Dickie Venables was ready to throw the kitchen sink at his Mopar-backed funny car and he was ready for one heck of a ride. “

“I could see the wheels turning in Dickie’s mind and I was pulling myself in tight because I knew if we could get past the tree that we would make a good run. I think there’s been a lot of stuff we’ve had to change the last few races to get where we are right now, but it’s always difficult in a Funny Car no matter what the conditions are or what the track is. You’re always relying on so much stuff to go right when you get in one of these cars,” Hagan explains.

Defending event winner in Top Fuel Steve Torrence had a stellar Friday night qualifying session when he not only went to number one but also reset the track record on both ends with his 3.677 hit at 333.58 mph. Torrence is currently leading the Top Fuel points and this gives his team even more confidence coming into Saturday that they have one heck of a racecar that could go the distance on Sunday.

“It kind of surprised me a little bit because I saw a lot of cars smoking the tires a little bit. I was just hoping we’d go 3.70 or something and be in the game. But with these conditions, you either go out there and smoke the tires or go low e.t.. Our crew chief Richard Hogan has done a really good job doing some different things in the bell housing and it’s really coming around. I think that surprised me to see the 3.67, but I was glad to see it. Chicago has always been pretty fast, and we were able to go through there and go 3.76 on the first lap and then build on it, “ Torrence says.