Edwards Proves To Be A Quiet Threat In NHRA Pro Stock Title Battle

Mike Edwards just wants to be left out of it.

In one sense, he can’t be.

He can’t be excluded from the NHRA Pro Stock fight for the 2012 championship, not when he has won two races, has a 16-8 elimination record, and has been no worse than fifth place in the standings. And the Penhall / Interstate Batteries Pontiac GXP driver certainly can’t escape notice with that indescribably close victory over Allen Johnson a week ago at Bristol, Tenn., in the Ford Thunder Valley Nationals.

But Edwards is exempt from the mischievous mouthiness that Johnson, Jason Line, and Greg Anderson have started, uninvolved in the good-natured pranks that go on in the pits.

Actually, the other three, who rank above Edwards in the standings, don’t want to draw him into the silliness that they know is just mock trash-talking. They don’t expect him to engage in the name-calling and faux feuding. To witness Edwards suddenly start speaking sassy would be like hearing Billy Graham start cussing in the middle of a sermon.

But Edwards is exempt from the mischievous mouthiness that Johnson, Jason Line, and Greg Anderson have started, uninvolved in the good-natured pranks that go on in the pits.

Both Anderson’s and Line’s KB/Summit Racing Camaro team and Johnson’s Team Mopar / J&J Dodge camp regard Edwards as one of the elite to beat. But they never have directed any of their antics at Edwards.

“It’s hard to say anything mean about Mike,” Johnson said. “Mike and I are great friends, as are Jason and Greg.”

Neither has Edwards volunteered any outrageous remarks. Actually, as late as last Saturday morning, he was oblivious to this war of words that has caught on since Johnosn won the Topeka race in May.

“They can say anything they want. I didn’t know they were saying anything,” Edwards said before Saturday qualifying at Bristol.” That tells you how much I know about what’s going on out there. We’re just trying to catch up.”

He and his crew were keeping their eye last weekend on that goal of earning a fourth straight victory at Bristol Dragway, a feat few drag racers have achieved at any racetrack.

Bob Glidden won five straight times at Columbus, Ohio (1979-83) for the Pro Stock record. In Top Fuel, Tony Schumacher has won four straight at both Indianapolis (2006-09) and the season finale at Pomona (2004-07). Funny Car’s John Force owns five consecutive Gatornationals victories (1992-96). Joe Amato grabbed four Top Fuel victories in a row at Denver, and the late Dave Schultz was indomitable at Atlanta in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class from 1990-96.

Edwards wasn’t so sure it would happen for him. “Those three race weekends went better than any one could script. I know it probably will not be the case and we will have to fight and work our tails off to walk away with the trophy again. I have a group around me that is not afraid to put that extra time and effort to make that happen, and behind the wheel I will do everything I can.”

He has qualified in the top half of the field at all 10 races and only twice started lower than fourth place. But he was intent upon racing well, not just qualifying well.

“It is all well and good to be fast in qualifying,” he said, but he add that he knew the key was to be “strong enough to get over the hump into the final and have a shot at the Wally.” He said for most of the season he has focused on “being faster when it comes to eliminations. We think we have fixed a few things and straightened out a couple other areas that will allow us to reach that goal. Now we just need it to translate into a summer run.”

He’s on his way after his Bristol performance.

Yet even Edwards didn’t know quite how to react to his unfathomable victory margin of less then one-ten thousandths of a second. That’s a difference of .0000 seconds, a virtual tie. It never had occurred in the final round of any event in NHRA history, never mind how difficult it was for any driver to pull off a fourth consecutive victory at one specific racetrack.

That’s Pro Stock racing at its best, When it’s your day, it’s your day. It just wasn’t our day. We’d rather shake the tires, hit the wall, do anything as to lose like that. We all thought we had it there.

Both Edwards and Johnson were stunned, and both reacted in a classy manner. Edwards didn’t over-rejoice, knowing how much a first victory on this “home track” in front of friends and for father and engine builder Roy Johnson on Fathers Day would have meant to Allen Johnson. And Johnson didn’t protest or complain.

“I don’t even know how to describe it. Words can’t describe it. How do you describe something like that?” Edwards said moments after receiving his second Wally trophy of the season and 34th overall. “That was just unbelievable, four zeroes for the win margin. Hats off to Allen Johnson. They did an awesome job, too. It’s tough to lose in front of your home crowd.”

All he could offer by way of explanation was: “Sometimes it’s just your day.”

Said Johnson, “That’s Pro Stock racing at its best, When it’s your day, it’s your day. It just wasn’t our day. We’d rather shake the tires, hit the wall, do anything as to lose like that. We all thought we had it there. We done what we needed to do today. He just done a better job in the final.
“Somebody told me it was the closest race. We’ll get in the history books one way or another,” Johnson said with a gracious smile. “Biggest thing I hate is that I really wanted to give that to my dad for Fathers Day. And our whole crew, employees, everybody — we wanted to give them the excitement of a win here at home. But you know what? We’ll come back next year and keep clawing.”

Both drivers had tested earnestly at Bristol, because a victory there on the mountain meant so much to each of them.

Edwards, of Coweta, Okla., said, “We’ve struggled all year a little bit, and it seems like we come to this place and we get healed up. I love this old mountain. I could race ’em all right here.”

But he has to come off the mountain if he is to add a championship to the one he earned in 2009. He and the rest of the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series tour will head to Joliet, Ill., for the O’Reilly Route 66 Nationals next week.

Fans and racers alike still will be talking about the “Miniscule Margin on the Mountain” when they get to Route 66 Raceway. But flying below the radar suits Edwards more.

“We’re just doing our deal and laying low,” Edwards said.

Johnson will keep on clawing, ever more mindful about Edwards being one of the contenders, not just Anderson and Line. And likely he’ll keep up the banter with the KB / Summit drivers. That, too, is fine with Edwards.

We’re just doing our deal and laying low.

“Look at NASCAR. I’m not saying we’re NASCAR or anything like that,” Edwards said, “but those fans dig that over there. It could create some interest in the Pro Stock class. It’s probably good for the class. So tell them to keep at it.”

Even without Edwards’ amused encouragement, Johnson and Line — or Line and Johnson, if you prefer — have been entertaining with their verbal salvos.

The trash-talking is all tongue-in-cheek. They truly do want to thrash each othe ron the track, but they respect and like each other away from it.

Like pro wrestlers or boxers hyping their upcoming matches, they have poked fun at each other’s car manufacturer and hinted at a chance they might have a fistfight sometime beyond the finish line. The jousting continued at Bristol.

“I’m willing to shed a little blood for the cause,” Line said.

Would Johnson try to give him a knuckle sandwich?

“Oh, yeah,” Johnson said eagerly after grabbing the No. 1 qualifying position. “He thinks just because he’s bigger than me that he can whup me,” Johnson said. Johnson is a strong 5-foot-9 and 190 pounds, and Line is 6-foot-3, 215 pounds.

But Johnson is an East Tennessee self-made mountain man, a scrapper one might not want to mess with.

“I’ve been trying to tell him that,” Johnson said.

It’s highly unlikely they ever would throw any punches. But likes to call Johnson and his fellow Mopar drivers (Vincent Nobile, V Gaines, and Jeg Coughlin) the peculiar name “rubber-cranks.”

Fired back Johnson Friday night, “I’ll show ’em my d— rubber crank.”

Anderson laughed and said Line must have made up the word. He didn’t. He says he didn’t, anyway. The term, Line said, “is a derogatory comment about Mopar’s engines. I didn’t make it up. I’ve heard people say that since I was a kid. It’s not very nice, but that’s what makes it a good insult.”

He smiled at that, proud of himself.

Johnson — who pooh-poohed Line’s label, saying, “A lot of people call Mopars ‘rubber-cranks.’ — has a name for Anderson and Line, too. But he isn’t going to say it publicly. The KB/ Summit duo knows what it is, though.

“I don’t think you can say it and be politically correct,” Johnson said. “I just say they drive those off-brand cars.”

During the Bristol weekend, Johnson had a surprise for Line and Anderson. He took a Traxxas radio-control truck, decked it out with Mopar stickers, sneaked it under their new Camaros, and rolled it out to their annoyance.

In the interest of clean journalism, DragZine cannot repeat what Anderson groused in response. But it rhymes with “one of a witch.” And on it goes with those two teams.

But Edwards is not out of their rear-view mirrors.

Johnson said, “I think we do have the best car [in the class] right now. We’re going to run up against a chain saw every now and then. We did with Mike in the [Bristol] finals. We could race 10 times and do that again and I’d win half and he’d win half. That’s how close Pro Stock racing is this year.”

The Greeneville, Tenn., native wants to join Anderson, Line, and Edwards in claiming an NHRA Pro Stock championship. Anderson has four, Line two, and Edwards one.

“We are embroiled in a bitter rivalry now with KB and Mike Edwards,” Johnson said. “I want to kick their butts so bad every time I go up there that I can’t stand it. Our team is the same way. We’ve learned how to win, and we like it.”

As for his vocal opponents, he said, “We’ve just developed this rivalry, and Mike [Edwards] has beaten on us a bunch, too. I’ve got my teeth gritted this year. I want to win this thing, and I’m not going to take any prisoners.”

Edwards is simply keeping his arms elbow-deep in his engine, his eyes on his computer data, and his mouth shut.