NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

The NHRA Mello Yello points standings were thoroughly scrambled in all four Professional classes following the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals. None of the four champions was ranked higher than sixth coming into the event, and several of the points leaders went out early, which helps set the stage for what promises to be a thrilling conclusion to the 2016 season. 

Here are today’s highlights:

1. First-time Pro Stock winner
Alex Laughlin became the 63rd different Pro Stock winner when he defeated Bo Butner in the Pro Stock final. Laughlin also accomplished a rare feat as one of the few non-Countdown drivers to win an event during NHRA’s six-race playoffs. 

2. Langdon topples points leaders
Shawn Langdon won his third Top Fuel race of the year, and in the process, he defeated Antron Brown, Doug Kalitta, and Tony Schumacher, who were ranked first, second, and third entering the event.

3. Beckman gets back in the hunt
“Fast Jack” Beckman won just one race during the regular season, but he’s now just 70 points out of the lead in Funny Car after stopping teammate Tommy Johnson Jr. in the final round.

4. Savoie scores first of the season
Jerry Savoie didn’t get a win during the regular season in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, but the White Alligator rider made up for it with an impressive performance that included a final-round win over Angelle Sampey.

5. Coughlin takes Pro Mod title
Troy Coughlin kept his slim chances alive for a third title in the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series after he defeated rival Rickie Smith in a final-round battle between the class’ two most successful racers. 
 

Funny Car | Pro Stock | Pro Stock Motorcycle | Etc.

Points leader Antron Brown’s long victory streak at Gateway Motorsports Park was snapped at 16 when he was defeated in round one by Don Schumacher Racing teammate Shawn Langdon. The last time that Brown lost at this race was in round two at the 2010 event, against Doug Kalitta.

Brown, winner of the Countdown opener last weekend in Charlotte, entered eliminations here in the No. 12 spot after struggling in qualifying but kept heart because his last No. 12 berth, last season in Reading, ended up with him in the winner’s circle.

Despite his loss, Brown held on to his points lead after second-place Kalitta fell in the second round to – of all people – Langdon.

For the second weekend in a row, Pat Dakin played the role of spoiler when the class veteran defeated Steve Torrence in round one. Dakin, who last weekend in Charlotte upset Countdown runner J.R. Todd and rookie Cameron Ferre to reach the semifinals, made his best run of the race, a 3.77, while Torrence’s Capco Contractors machine went up in smoke 300 feet downtrack, which was the only loss in the favored right lane in round one.

Dakin’s run ended in the next round, where Todd got revenge for their Charlotte encounter.

Steve Torrence’s shocking first-round loss to Pat Dakin cost him immediately as he dropped from third place to fifth when his closest pursuers, Brittany Force and Tony Schumacher, won their races. The news got even worse for the Texan when Shawn Langdon went on to win the event, dropping him to sixth.

“We were lucky we only lost positions,” Torrence said. “We’re only three points further behind Antron [Brown] than we were going in, but we’ve dug ourselves a pretty big hole because now there are a whole lot of people between us and the lead. The next two races are critical – Reading and Dallas. We need to go rounds. It’s as simple as that.”

Clay Millican would just as soon forget about St. Louis 2016 after this weekend. Millican, who is taking part in his first Countdown since 2013, got to town midweek and was not feeling like his normal hyperactive self. By Thursday, he felt so bad he got some medical attention and was diagnosed with walking pneumonia.

He dropped from ninth place to 10th during qualifying, then lost in round one despite running the third-quickest pass of the stanza, 3.760; unfortunately for him, it was against the second-quickest pass of the round, 3.756 by Brittany Force.

Shawn Langdon took down points leader Antron Brown, second-place Doug Kalitta, low qualifier Richie Crampton, and Top Fuel’s winningest driver, Tony Schumacher, to round out a comeback Sunday at Gateway Motorsports Park that lifted him to fourth place in the standings, up three positions.

“It’s never an easy path to the winner’s circle,” said Langdon, who lost in round one at the Countdown opener last weekend in Charlotte. “Running Antron round one is not ideal, and he’s a teammate, but in the end, we’re all out here to win, and beating him and Doug put us into contention at the four remaining races, which is all we can ask for.

“We didn’t really have a dominant car in qualifying – we were fourth- or fifth-quick – but we just kept picking away at it,” said Langdon. “All in all, it was a great team effort. We had a couple of struggles throughout the day – including before the semifinals when we had an ignition problem and barely made it to the line in time – but Phil [Shuler] and Todd [Okuhara] gave me a great race car, and I just needed to hit the gas on time and keep it straight.”

Langdon defeated Schumacher on a holeshot in the final, 3.798 to 3.783.

“You try to treat every race the same, but when you get into the Countdown, you have that little extra spark or edge that you can feel,” he said. “[Schumacher] was good all day on the lights, and I think he had one of the best cars all weekend, so I felt we were a little bit of an underdog, but when you have a good team behind you, there’s nothing you can’t overcome.”

With 10 Countdown drivers and only eight second-round berths available, it was inevitable that at least two were going to have a setback in their championship hunt, and unfortunately for Team Kalitta, that hurt was shared in their pit as teammates Del Worsham and Alexis DeJoria both were defeated. Neither went down easy, both with three-second passes.

The loss was especially tough for Worsham, who entered the event in second place and lost to the man who was right behind him – and moved past him with the win – John Force. Worsham’s stock continued to plummet when Tommy Johnson Jr. went around him with his second-round win.

Saturday’s birthday girl, DeJoria, who lost to Johnson in the first round, remained in 10th place with her championship hopes dwindling. Both Worsham and DeJoria will stay Monday to test at the track.

When Jack Beckman dropped a cylinder in round one and ran just 4.04, it was almost the type of scenario for which longtime class runner Dale Creasy Jr. is always poised. Creasy, who qualified with a seven-cylinder 4.11, saved his best run for the first round, a solid 4.07 that, unfortunately for him, was not good enough to get around Beckman.

“Since I retired a few years ago and have been able to spend more time working on the car, everything has gotten so much better for us,” he said. “It was hard to only be able to work on the car two nights a week, but since I’ve spent more time with it, all of those little mistakes, like loose oil lines and stuff, went away. We know we can go 4.0s, and the other guys know they don’t have as much room against us as they did when we were running 4.20s. We’re there to keep them honest and pounce if they make a mistake.”

The event was the last race of Creasy’s abbreviated four-race season and gives him a chance to get long-awaited rotator cuff surgery to deal with the lingering effects of a previous guardwall encounter.

Tommy Johnson Jr. blamed himself for his team’s No. 8 qualifying berth as he allowed the car to get out of the groove in Friday night’s “hero” session, and he thinks that Gateway is one of the more challenging racetracks for Funny Cars due to a crown in both lanes, plus the heat. “The track is hard to drive,” he said. “A lot of guys have been having some issues, including myself. It's just so tough right now, and you can't be off at all. “

The problem for the Funny Car drivers has been exacerbated the last year with the addition of the laid-backer headers that provide better performance but less downforce, which promoted Funny Car toastmaster general John Force to have the line of the race: “Driving these cars is like dancing with a woman; sometimes she just wants to take control.”

When you’re the points leader in the Countdown to the Championship, there’s not much chance to relax –especially if you’re still looking for your first championship – but Ron Capps breathed a little easier when he was told that he had a bye run in round one after John Bojec’s mount went silent due to an electronics problem that caused his battery (and, thus, the ignition) to shut down.

“I was just trying to enjoy the moment,” said Capps, who ran 3.94 on the solo. “It’s not easy, man. As a kid, this is what you want, but points are so important right now. It wouldn’t hurt my feelings if that [an opponent shutting off] happened more often.”

The first round featured an interesting intramural match between Tim Wilkerson and his protégé, Brian Stewart. The Mustang that Stewart drives, affectionately nicknamed “Bessie” when Wilkerson drove it to victory earlier this season in Phoenix, is tuned by Wilkerson’s son Daniel, under Wilk’s advisement. Wilkerson took the win, 3.98 to 4.02, to continue his race toward the semifinals.

“Racing my own assassin there,” joked Wilkerson, whose current car is nicknamed “Faith.”

Crew chief Richard Hartman said there was never a thought of asking non-Countdown racer Stewart to take a knee for Countdown-hungry Wilkerson. “No way,” he said with a laugh. “Brian spends way too much money with us to ask him to do that!”


On the heels of losing in the first round last weekend in the Countdown opener in Charlotte and dropping three spots to eighth in the standings and after a qualifying effort at the tour’s next stop in Madison, Ill., in which his Infinite Hero Dodge only made it down the track on one of four passes, Jack Beckman admits that his spirits weren’t exactly at a zenith when he rolled into final eliminations Sunday, but four rounds later, the Chicago winner walked away with his second win of the season – “We swept Illinois!” he jokingly boasted – and jumped right back into title contention, leaping from eighth to third place.

“Our team was in a slump, and yet we did what we needed to do with a car that was acting unpredictably,” he said. “I’ve had some pretty mediocre outings as a driver the last few races, and the car has been smoking the tires, and my confidence was certainly down. I’m not quite sure what changed, but if I knew, I’d put it in pill form and sell it to everyone else – that doesn’t race in Funny Car – but I think I did my job as a driver, and the guys tuned smart, and we turned on the win light every time.”

Key in Beckman’s triumph was a narrow holeshot victory over Charlotte winner John Force, with Beckman lighting the win lamp by just .001-second. That win came after a close shave with unranked Dale Creasy Jr. in round one and was followed by victories over points leader and teammate Ron Capps and another teammate, Tommy Johnson Jr., in the final.

“When we left Charlotte, we knew that our chances of winning the championship were going to be predicated on other people stumbling because there comes a point where you can’t win enough rounds; someone else has to lose,” he said. “When we saw how the ladder lined up, with Ron Capps and John Force on our side of the ladder, we knew this was our chance to make a move.”
 

As much as Jason Line prides himself on his engine-building skills, he didn’t win eight races this season without doing his job behind the steering wheel, and that was evident when he defeated reigning champ Erica Enders in the first round. Enders did her usual superb job on the starting line with a .011 light, but she was second to Line’s .009.

“For once, I actually left on somebody; it was an accident,” Line joked. “Seriously, I try to do the best job I can, but it doesn’t always work out that way. I have been driving quite a bit better this year. The bad thing about this race is all three of our cars are on the same side of the ladder.”

No one hates to lose more than Greg Anderson, and even when he loses to one of his KB Racing teammates, it's a small consolation. Anderson lost to teammate Jason Line in round two, and the loss was especially painful because Line entered the event with a 50-point lead in the standings.

“That is not how we wanted to draw it up,” said Anderson. “We tangled a little earlier than we wanted to. The bad news is that we’re going to take a hit in the points. The only good thing is that one of our cars moves on and that we’ve also got four more races left to get something done.”

For Anderson, the damage in the standings could have been much worse. Line lost to teammate Bo Butner in the semifinals, and Alex Laughlin, who did not make the Countdown, went on to win the race. As a result, Anderson heads to Reading 63 points behind Line.

Bo Butner’s semifinal win over teammate Jason Line was one of the wildest races of the weekend. Akin to a kick returner who muffs a punt, picks up the ball, and runs 90 yards for a touchdown, Butner botched the burnout when he didn’t get enough water on the rear tires. His second attempt at a dry burnout wasn’t much better. Normally, those antics will fry a Pro Stock clutch, but Butner somehow made a solid run with a 6.67, and combined with a .003 light, he was able to beat Line and move to his sixth final. Even though Butner lost the final to Alex Laughlin, he kept his championship hopes alive, gaining ground on teammates Line and Greg Anderson.

“We keep getting close, but I just can’t seem to seal the deal,” said Butner. “Pro Stock is without a doubt the most frustrating thing I’ve done in racing, but I’m determined to stick with it until I figure it out. We’re getting closer and closer, but we still can’t get the breaks to go our way.”

Shane Gray began the day as the top qualifier but couldn’t finish the job when he lost in the semifinals against Alex Laughlin, one of his engine-leasing customers. Gray put forth a solid effort with a .030 light and a 6.623, but it wasn’t enough to get past Laughlin’s 6.634.

“It’s just one of those deals; I don’t know where that came from,” said Gray of Laughlin’s .009 light. “He just busted my tail. I’m pretty ticked off at myself right now, but really that’s just racing, especially when the competition is so close anyway with these Pro Stock cars.”

When he missed the Countdown to the Championship in Indy, Alex Laughlin was determined to make life miserable for the drivers who did make the top 10, and he more than held up that end of the deal by winning in St. Louis. A week after reaching the semifinals for the first time in Charlotte, the Gas Monkey driver went a couple steps further and became Pro Stock’s 63rd different winner when he defeated Bo Butner in the final. Laughlin also defeated Countdown contenders Vincent Nobile and his own teammate, Shane Gray, en route to the final round.

“I was definitely nervous; the last couple of hours have been just a big blur,” said Laughlin, who is in his second season in NHRA’s premier doorslammer class. “I don’t know if I have the right words to express how exciting this is right now. It’s not even real at this point. I was nervous until I let the clutch out, and when I got to 3rd gear, I was happy that the car wasn’t shaking; then in high gear, I looked over, and Bo wasn’t there, so that’s when I got pretty excited.”

Laughlin’s Pro Stock career began just more than a year ago in Sonoma. He had previously raced a six-second dragster in the Top Dragster class but hastily moved to Pro Stock when he landed his sponsorship with Gas Monkey Garage.

“I had three weeks to get ready for Pro Stock,” said Laughlin. “I didn’t have a car or a license. We got this car from the Gray family and made just enough passes to get my license. I was really lucky to qualify at my first race in Sonoma.

“I don’t have the same pressure that those [Countdown drivers] have, but I want to win, so I put that pressure on myself,” said Laughlin. "We’re definitely better now than we were at the beginning of the year. It’s a shame that we didn’t make the Countdown because I know we’d hold our own against those guys. Those guys didn’t take it easy on me earlier this year, so I’m not going to take it easy on them now. I just wish I was a part of it.”

Laughlin hinted that he might not run the rest of the races in Pro Stock, and he also hinted that he might make an appearance in something other than a Pro Stock car before the end of the 2016 season.
 

LE Tonglet admits that his chances of winning a second championship are almost nil after suffering a rare round-one loss. Tonglet had a clutch malfunction on his Nitro Fish Suzuki and slowed to a 6.911, making him fair game for Cory Reed’s 6.873.

“We could barely do a burnout up there,” said Tonglet. “I don’t know what went wrong, but I’m surprised it even went down the track. We’ve got a new engine, and it has a lot more power than our old one. That’s the good thing, but with all that power, we need a different clutch tune-up, and that’s where we’re missing it. We knew there was a problem after we only made one good run in qualifying; that’s not usually us. Since we have to go to Reading next week, we’re going to stay and test tomorrow. You know it’s a serious issue when we test because we never test.”

For the first time since the 2015 St. Louis race, neither one of the Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson V-Rods reached the semifinal round. Andrew Hines lost to Chip Ellis in a rematch of last weekend’s Charlotte final, and moments later, Eddie Krawiec (pictured) was also sidelined when he dropped a close 6.912 to 6.915 battle against Cory Reed’s Star/PSE Buell. Both riders are still in contention for the title, but they also admit that it will be an uphill battle.

“In this hot weather, we struggled with our setup; that’s about it,” said Krawiec. “We had a lot of heat and a lot of water grains in the air, and that’s not good for us. If it were in the 70s here, I think we’d be better, but that’s just speculation on my part. Now we just pack up and head to Reading and hope that it’s cool and dry there because those are the conditions we like. We ran 197 last night, and that shows what we’re capable of, even in these conditions, but we can’t do it consistently.”

Chip Ellis carried the momentum of his Charlotte win halfway across the country to St. Louis, where he qualified his Junior Pippin-owned Buell in the No. 2 spot. Ellis almost went to back-to-back finals, but his winning streak ended at six rounds when he lost in the semi’s to Angelle Sampey.

“This shows that we’re here to play,” said Ellis, who dropped from second to third in the standings but gained ground on leader Andrew Hines. “We have a great group of people tuning this bike, and it's fast. I just need to keep on riding the way I’ve been riding, and we’ll be just fine.”

If the 2016 season is indeed Angelle Sampey’s swan song with the Star Racing team, it’s entirely possible that she will end her run with a fourth NHRA Mello Yello world championship. Even though Sampey lost in the final round to Louisiana neighbor Jerry Savoie, she moved to second place and trails five-time champion Andrew Hines by just two points with four events remaining.

“I really wish we’d have won the final, but when you look at the big picture, we gained some points today, and that’s most important,” said Sampey. “We’ve got a great motorcycle, and we’re in this fight."

One good thing about back-to-back races is that it gives a racer a quick chance to atone for a mistake. That worked in Jerry Savoie’s favor when he defeated fellow Suzuki racer Steve Johnson in the opening round and then went on to win his first race since the Dallas event last September when he beat Angelle Sampey, who fouled, in the final.

“A week ago, I lost on a holeshot to Steve Johnson, and I didn’t forget that,” said Savoie. “I also lost to Angelle in the final in Englishtown, and I didn’t forget that either. We’ve been struggling against that gal lately. She’s a hometown racer [from Louisiana], and I have a lot of respect for her. I think it was just our turn.”

Savoie was the No. 4 qualifier and worked his way past Johnson, Matt Smith, and rookie Cory Reed to reach the final, where the team discovered a wounded engine moments before taking on Sampey’s Star/PSE Buell.

“The bike didn’t feel quite right in the semi’s, and when we got back to the trailer, Tim [Kulungian, crew chief] told me that he thought we’d hurt a motor,” said Savoie. “We didn’t have any time to change it, so I just went up there and hoped I could catch a break, and we did. It blew up in the final. I think we cracked a piston, and that’s why I only ran 189 mph. We’re going to have to do some work before Reading.”

Savoie, who won his first race in St. Louis two years ago, entered the second race of the Countdown in the No. 6 spot. He improved to No. 4 following his fifth career win and is now just 42 points behind leader Andrew Hines.

“We’re back in this thing,” said Savoie. “We’ve got a good motorcycle, and we’ve got some good races coming up like Reading, where we should be able to run really fast. I wouldn’t count us out.”

Race fans packed Gateway Motorsports Park to witness the action and drama of final eliminations at the second event in the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship.

Race day kicked off with the SealMaster Track Walk, led by AAA Funny Car driver Robert Hight, which allowed fans to walk on the actual race surface where 10,000-horsepower machines would soon pound the ground.

Mello Yello Top Fuel points leader Antron Brown got down low to greet some young fans during the pre-race ceremony.

The K.C. Flight Team thrilled fans with a flyby, trailing red, white, and blue smoke to kick off final eliminations.

Funny Car legend Larry Reyes, who drove Roland Leong’s Hawaiian to victory at the 1970 Winternationals, was honored as part of NHRA’s yearlong 50 Years of Funny Car celebration. 

Troy Coughlin’s victory in Pro Mod kept alive his slim chances of defending his J&A Service Pro Mod Series championship. He is within 93 markers of points leader Rickie Smith, whom he defeated in the final round. Had Smith won the final, he would have claimed the championship.

As it sits now, Coughlin still has an uphill road to knock Smith off the top perch at the class’ season finale in Las Vegas, the NHRA Toyota Nationals, where Coughlin will have to hope that Smith fails to qualify.

“We’re nipping at Rickie’s heels, and he knows it,” said Coughlin. “We were only able to qualify 15th, but we came out swinging and had low e.t. of a couple of the rounds, so we can’t be more excited. We knew we had a better car than we’ve been showing; it was just a matter of getting all the nuts and bolts in the right places.

“Our championship hopes are still there, but we have to win the race and he has to go out early, but we’re not going down without a fight.”


Among the seven Sportsman winners at the AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals were four first-time winners, including 69-year-old veteran Larry Cummings (pictured), who claimed the victory in Super Stock. Cummings’ sons, Slate and Britt, are both former national event winners. The other first-time champs were Terry Smith (Comp), Christopher Dodd (Super Comp), and 18-year-old Koy Collier (Super Gas). Other winners were Jacob Pitt (Stock), Matt Driskell (Top Dragster), and Tom Schmidt (Top Sportsman).

Your 2016 AAA Insurance NHRA Midwest Nationals Mello Yello winners: from left, Shawn Langdon, Jack Beckman, Alex Laughlin, and Jerry Savoie


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