Our Picks For The 2013 NHRA Champs: How’d We Do?

They say “close” only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. Unfortunately, that means we have little to salvage in our picks for the 2013 NHRA Mello championships.

Last year, we were saved in the eleventh hour when Brandon Bernstein denied Tony Schumacher of the Top Fuel championship in the final round of the final race with all the marbles on the line, allowing our pick for the title, Antron Brown, to hang on by the narrowest of margins and give us a paltry 1-for-5 finish on the season. This year, however, no amount of heroics at Pomona could save us. But hey, we were close!

Here’s a look at our picks and those that squashed their dreams (and ours) in 2013…

Top Fuel

Our Pick: Tony Schumacher

After coming up ever-so-short in his title bid just three months earlier, Tony Schumacher opened the year with a final round appearance against eventual champion Shawn Langdon and left Pomona second in points – the lowest spot he’d find himself in until Denver in July. The Sarge won in Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Chicago, and added runner-up finishes in Charlotte and Topeka to enter the Countdown seeded in second place, but early losses at all of the Countdown races but St. Louis doomed the U.S. Army team, relegating them to an uncharacteristic seventh place finish. Langdon, meanwhile, won seven times and qualified No. 1 eight times in 2013, only spending four races all season outside the top two in points. Unlike 2012, Alan Johnson and the Al-Anabi camp were running on all cylinders.

Funny Car

Our Pick: Ron Capps

Nobody in the professional ranks is more due for a championship than Ron Capps, who has finished second in the standings four times in his career, losing the title by just two points in 2012 and by eight in 2005. Like Schumacher, Capps opened the year in Pomona with a runner-up finish, and added a victory at the next race in Phoenix to take over the points lead. But it was the only time he’d sit at the top of the heap all year. Capps and his NAPA team entered the Countdown as the second seed, but just two round wins at the first three playoff races moved them down to sixth, where Capps would ultimately finish the year.

John Force, meanwhile, was as dominant as he’s ever been before – and that’s saying something – as he went to the final at all but one of the six Countdown races and won three of them (in a row, no less). We should know better than to count the Champ out, but we didn’t see that one coming.

Pro Stock

Our Pick: Allen Johnson

 
Allen Johnson and his father, Roy, broke though for their first title in 17 years of Pro Stock racing in 2012, and had plenty of momentum going into the new year. Out of the gate, the Dodge’s were strong, but it was Mike Edwards who once again had the car to beat during the regular season, holding the points lead at a staggering 17 of the 24 races on the schedule. But the title ultimately stayed close to home for the Johnson’s, as teammate Jeg Coughlin went to the final twice during the Countdown and won them both, allowing himself a cushion that his competition could not overcome in Pomona.

Johnson, for his part, went to the final Sunday in Pomona, leapfrogging Edwards, Jason Line, and Shane Gray to finish second in the standings.

Pro Stock Motorcycle

Our Pick: Eddie Krawiec

Given how the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidsons struggled just to qualify at the beginning of the year following a complete overhaul of their engine program in the off season, our selection on the two-wheeled division seemed bleak, at best. But the reigning champion forged on and made this one a lot closer than anyone could have imagined early in the year.

Krawiec qualified in the bottom half of the field at all but two of the regular season races, but scratched together round wins at the starting line to garner enough points to make the Countdown as the seventh seed. A win in Dallas, a runner-up at Reading, and another victory at the Finals in Pomona gave the Harley-Davidson rider enough points to close out the year third, just a round win back behind second-place Michael Ray. 

Matt Smith, meanwhile, went to the final eight times – half the schedule – and won four of them (including three straight) during the Countdown to seal the deal with little drama. 

Pro Modified

Our Pick: Troy Coughlin

Like Pro Stock, we weren’t far off on this one. Coughlin, the reigning champion of the NHRA Pro Mod Series, finished second in the points, ahead of 40 other challengers that entered a race at some point during the year. But it was the veteran “Trickie” Rickie Smith, in his final season as a driver, who just toyed with the field in his nitrous-assisted Camaro, finishing off the title in just nine races and celebrating his final hurrah by hoisting the hardware in St. Louis.

Although we laid a goose egg with our picks this year, the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series will be back at it in February, and so will we, making our bets on the season champions once again. We’re gluttons for punishment, after all.