NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

There was a lot of drama during the opening day of the NHRA Carolina Nationals as the Countdown to the Championship, NHRA’s six-race playoffs to determine the Mello Yello champions, kicked off at zMAX Dragway. The action-packed day also featured qualifying and time runs for racers in the NHRA J&A Pro Mod and Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series.

Here are the day’s top highlights.

1. Funny Car track records shattered
Track records in Funny Car have fallen like dominoes this season, and the second stop of the year in Charlotte provided more of the same. Tommy Johnson Jr. reset the track e.t. record at 3.876, and John Force nailed the speed mark with a 331.04 blast.

2. Kalitta takes top spot
Seeking a long-awaited first championship, Doug Kalitta got off to a great start in the Countdown with a 3.721 in his Mac Tools dragster to grab the provisional pole in Top Fuel.

3. Line gets back in the groove
After a disappointing qualifying effort at Indy, where he finished as the No. 5 seed, Jason Line put his Summit Camaro back into the top spot with a 6.581. If it holds, it will be Line’s seventh pole of the season and 48th of his career.

4. Savoie’s flair
There are 22 Pro Stock Motorcycles attempting to qualify in Charlotte, and so far none of them have run quicker than Jerry Savoie’s White Alligator Suzuki. Savoie bagged three bonus points with his 6.850 effort on Friday evening.

5. Star power
Among the special guests at zMAX Dragway on Friday were NASCAR Sprint Cup star Dale Earnhardt Jr. and several members of the Carolina Panthers NFL team.

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

Leah Pritchett had an adventure-filled couple of days leading up to the start of the NHRA Carolina Nationals. On Thursday, she had the opportunity to go skydiving with the U.S. Army’s Golden Knights (below). Pritchett followed that up by getting a taste of what it’s like to be a firefighter, donning full gear and helping put out a fire in a training building as part of a FireAde appearance with the Kannapolis Fire Department (above).

On the track, Pritchett had a mixed day. She opened Friday with a solid 3.80 that had her fifth after the first session, but she encountered troubles midway through her second pass, slowing to a 4.94. Pritchett ended Friday ranked 11th.

Cameron Ferre made the first official Top Fuel run of his career today. Going into the first day of qualifying, Ferre and the Paton family team planned an early-shutoff pass in Q1, though it appeared that run didn’t entirely go according to plan because there was smoke near the middle of the track where he was going to click it off early. Either way, Ferre, who elected to sit out the second session, said just making a pass in a Top Fuel car was a dream come true.

“That’s something I’ve worked for my whole life,” said Ferre, a former Jr. Dragster national champion and winner in the Super Comp ranks. “I went to Pomona when I was 9 years old and saw the Top Fuel dragsters and told my dad, ‘Yep, we can sell everything else because this is what I want to do with my life.’ It’s been a long road getting here, but we’re here. We worked really hard to make it happen.”

Richie Crampton’s 2016 season has, for the most part, been a challenge. Crampton entered the Countdown ranked ninth with a 12-18 win-loss record, only one final-round appearance, and 10 first-round losses. However, there may be some light at the end of the proverbial tunnel because Crampton kicked off his Countdown on a high note. Crampton led the opening round of qualifying with a 3.77, earning three bonus points and the chance to run late in the second session.

“Before [the first] session, I would have been real happy to run in the 3.7s at all, but to run 3.77 shows just how hard Aaron Brooks and these Lucas Oil boys are working,” said Crampton, who improved to a 3.74 on his second pass and ended the day in the top eight. “We’re digging deep. It’s the business end of the year. To get in the show like that in Q1 is really exciting.”

Steve Torrence has been one of the most solid drivers in qualifying in any of the categories this season. During the regular season, Torrence tallied a whopping 117 qualifying bonus points, two behind Pro Stock dominator Jason Line for most in any category, and was the low qualifier eight times. In short, it’s rare Torrence doesn’t make it downtrack under power during qualifying. That rarity occurred in the first session today when Torrence admittedly made a mistake and double-stepped the throttle on his entry, which went into tire smoke shortly after leaving the starting line. Torrence was able to make up for the error on his second pass, posting a 3.73 that placed him fourth entering the final day of qualifying.

“I tell you what, I needed to redeem myself,” said Torrence. “I went up there and screwed that first one up pretty bad, and that’s embarrassing, especially the caliber of car these Capco guys have given me. These boys are working their tails off. We’re going to do what we can to make this Countdown pretty fun.”

Doug Kalitta entered the Countdown ranked second in the points, 30 behind leader Antron Brown, and he was able to take a tiny bite out of that 30-point deficit with a strong opening day in Charlotte. After ranking third in Q1 and earning a single qualifying bonus for it, Kalitta added three more to his tally when he made the best run of the second session, clocking a 3.721 that has him No. 1 heading into Saturday. If it holds, it would be Kalitta’s first No. 1 start at zMAX Dragway.

“Watching all the people in front of us, there were a bunch of 3.73s and 3.74s. When I was going down through there, I was really hoping that we were going to be ahead of those guys,” said Kalitta, who had three No. 1 starts in the regular season. “Just hat’s off to my guys. It was a good setup for the conditions. The thing pulled good. It was a good run for us. I’m just real happy with having a good run today, so we’ll see how tomorrow goes. We’re hungry, so we’ll take anything we can get. This was definitely a good start for us. I’m just real excited.”

Del Worsham entered last year’s Countdown to the Championship ranked fourth and flying a bit under the radar, but he caught fire early in the playoffs, winning in Charlotte and St. Louis and carried that momentum to his first Funny Car world championship. This year, Worsham is in a much different position. He’s ranked second entering this weekend and most definitely not under the radar thanks in part to his championship run last year and in part to the fact his team caught fire a little earlier this year, appearing in the last three final rounds, winning in Brainerd.

“I think they know our potential now whereas last year even we didn’t know what was out there. We were in kind of unchartered territory,” said Worsham, whose first day had mixed results with a 3.96 early and a tire-smoking effort in the evening. “We worked all summer long at making the DHL Toyota a faster car and a more consistent car, and there were some growing pains. The car we raced last year wouldn’t be competitive today. The cars have improved, elapsed times have improved, speeds have improved, the cars are more consistent, so we couldn’t just take the car that won last year and bring it out this year. We tried that and got whipped real good. It took all summer to kind of reinvent ourselves again, keep working towards that faster car, but I feel like we’re in pretty good position. It would be nice if everybody didn’t know how fast our car is, but they do, so we’ll just do our best.”

Ron Capps is driving the same NAPA Dodge that he switched to for Monday eliminations in Indy after his trip to the sand on Sunday, but while it may look the same outside, there are some changes to the car inside that his team hopes will prevent future problems like those that caused the top-end incident at the end of his qualifying run/first round of the NHRA Traxxas Nitro Shootout.

“What they changed inside with the parachute levers and how they are mounted is unbelievable, and now all the other crew chiefs are changing to that setup,” said Capps, who posted times of 3.93 and 3.87 on his two attempts today. “It just wasn’t optimal. What happened [in Indy] is I hit the button and nothing happened. I reached over to manually hit my chutes, and they were gone. They had broken off at the mount and fell down, so I had no way to reach over and get them manually. They reengineered everything.”

As expected, the Funny Car track records took a beating during today’s qualifying with both the e.t. and speed marks being reset multiple times throughout the two sessions. It began in the first session when John Force (pictured) set new standards for both with his 3.921 at 326.71 mph. That new e.t. record didn’t even make it through the first pair of Q2 because Tommy Johnson Jr. powered to a 3.876 that stood up through the session as both the track record and provisional No. 1 time. The speed mark also got bettered in Q2. First, Jack Beckman ran 327.82 mph, then Force reclaimed the speed mark with a 331.04-mph shot.

Though the times and speed were new bests for zMAX Dragway, neither Johnson’s 3.87 nor Force’s 331 rank in the top 10 all time. To crack the top 10, which has been reset multiple times this season, a driver would need to run at least 3.859 seconds and 332.43 mph.

Cruz Pedregon is in a somewhat familiar position, albeit one that he would rather not be in, trying to play the role of spoiler instead of being part of the Countdown to the Championship field. Pedregon was in the same spot in 2010, and he played the spoiler role quite well, winning twice during the Countdown. One of those wins came at this event, and the two-time world champion would love nothing more than to repeat that again this weekend. After a largely forgettable start to the season, Pedregon made strides in getting back to the form that would allow him to spoil the days of those in the Countdown. Pedregon opened with a soft 4.03 at just 298.93 before powering to a 3.94, just his 13th three-second run of the season (by comparison, the top runners had about 80 through the regular season).

“It’s a start,” said Pedregon. “To say that we’ve struggled with the Snap-on/Wix Filters Toyota would be an understatement. We brought some quality people on board to help us out. Hey, I can’t do it by myself. I appreciate Lee [Beard] and Ron Douglas here, along with the crew. These guys have hung in there, my core guys. It’s been a long year, but we sure can make it fun if we can finish strong these last six races.”

Last season, Tommy Johnson Jr. kicked off his strong Countdown run with a No. 1 start and runner-up finish at this event, and he is hoping to at least duplicate or better that this weekend. After one day, Johnson, the No. 3 points finisher last season, is well on his way to doing that. Running in the first pair of the second session after hazing the tires earlier, Johnson powered to the first 3.8-second pass at zMAX Dragway, a 3.876. The run withstood the challenges of a number of strong cars through the session, giving Johnson the provisional No. 1 spot.

“We went up first session, and we weren’t being shy. We were being aggressive, and it smoked the tires as soon as I hit the throttle,” said Johnson. “I was aggravated. I know the whole team was aggravated. That’s not how we wanted to start the Countdown, and to come back and rebound and run a 3.87, especially the first pair out, it just shows the team’s determination and how much we want this in the Countdown. I’m still shocked it held. We went 3.87, and I thought for sure low would probably be a 3.85, maybe a 3.84. We nailed it. They all missed it.”

Shane Tucker was not pleased with his performance at Indy, where he failed to qualify for the Pro Stock field, so the popular Aussie made major changes to his Auzmet Architectural Camaro ahead of the NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway.

“We scaled [weighed all four corners] of the car and send the shocks in to be rebuilt and did a few other things,” Tucker said. “Basically, I just didn’t like the way it worked at Indy. I also made a few mistakes with my driving. I definitely need to do a better job. We just need to start making better runs.”

Tucker didn’t get down the track on Q1 with a setup that he later deemed was far too aggressive for conditions. He later returned to run 6.777 but was not quick enough to make the top 12.

The Elite Motorsports Dodges of Erica Enders (pictured) and Jeg Coughlin Jr. entered the Countdown as the No. 9 and No. 10 seeds in Pro Stock, so they have little to lose by trying a radical approach to the last six events of the season. To that end, both cars are much different since their last appearance at Indy. Enders’ Dodge Dart is being powered by the new-generation 2.1 Hemi engine and under the hood of Coughlin’s car is a Hemi that was built by Madcap engines and last used by V.Gaines, who announced his sudden retirement in late June.

“V. Gaines’ engine is a lot different design than what we’ve been using, so we thought we’d give it a try with our fuel injection,” said Elite crew chief Mark Ingersoll. “It looks good on the dyno so we’ll see how it runs on the track. Erica’s car has the new 2.1 engine. I know A.J. [Allen Johnson] has been running it, but this is our first one. It also seems to make better power. We’re ninth and 10th, so we need to try something. There’s no harm in this.”

Coughlin is 11th after two runs following a best of 6.651, but Enders just missed the 12-car bump with a 6.678 best. The two-time and reigning Mello Yello champ nearly missed the second session after her Elite team was forced into an emergency engine swap just minutes before the start of the session.

“They had already called us to the lanes and we found out that we had a broken motor,” said Enders. “My guys, Vincent Nobile’s guys, and Jeg’s guys all pitched in to help. It reminded me of our 11-minute engine swap earlier this season. I was putting my helmet on when we were towing up to the lanes. Our e.t. sucked but it still says a lot about our team.”

Since he missed the top 10, Alex Laughlin is not a part of the Countdown to the Championship and cannot win the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Pro Stock championship, but he can certainly make life miserable for those who are pursuing the title. Laughlin got off to a good start in Q1 when he drove his Gas Monkey Camaro to a 6.597, the second-best run of the round behind teammate Shane Gray’s 6.595. He finished the day in the No. 4 spot.

“This [zMAX Dragway] is our favorite track,” said Laughlin. “We test here all the time, so we definitely got it going on. We're not in the Countdown, but everybody for sure knows we're here, though, and we're glad to be here and ready to get this Gas Monkey car in the winner's circle finally. As much as I’d love to be in the Countdown, I don’t have to worry about the pressure. I can focus on just winning some rounds.”

If Bo Butner can get a win during the Countdown, it will completely erase the bitterness of going winless during the 18-race regular season. Butner’s KB Racing-powered Camaro has been quick enough to win almost any event this season, but for a variety of reasons, the former Comp champ is still winless in nearly two seasons as a Pro. Butner was the low qualifier two weeks ago at Indy but lost in the first round when his Butner Auto Chevy rolled through the staging beams in round one.

“I still don’t know what happened at Indy,” said Butner. “We went testing last week and I made eight runs, and they were all just fine. Today is a different deal. This is the first race in the Countdown, so what happened before this week doesn’t really matter. This would be a good time for us to get a little luck and for me to figure out a few things.”

Jason Line is his own harshest critic, so when he says that he made a great run, there is every reason to think that he got the most out of his Summit Racing Equipment Camaro. That was Line’s take on his 6.581 pass on Friday afternoon, a run that was quick enough to lead the 17-car Pro Stock field.

“To be honest, I haven’t looked at the data, but my initial thoughts are that it was a very good run,” Line said. “I mean, it was quicker than anyone else ran, but it also seemed like the car did what we wanted it to do. There might have been a little left, there always is, but that was pretty good. I will sleep well tonight, in my own bed.”

In Q1, Line was fourth-quickest so he missed out on qualifying bonus points, but he padded his total by three following his run on Friday evening. With the distinct possibility that the championship will be a close down-to-the-wire battle, Line is happy to count every point.

“Those little [qualifying] points are huge,” said Line. “That’s especially true here at the first race. You have to get off to a good start. I’ve won two championships and one of them has been in the Countdown format, and that year I won this race. It’s almost mandatory to win here. Maybe you don’t have to win, but you need to get to the final here, and the best way to do that is to qualify at the top.”

For LE Tonglet, the 2016 Countdown to the Championship already feels like his memorable championship run in 2010. Tonglet isn’t a rookie anymore, and the 20-year-old kid has been replaced by a 26-year-old professional firefighter, but Tonglet does admit that he’s confident in his ability to once again challenge for the NHRA Mello Yello Pro Stock Motorcycle championship.

“I definitely have the best bike I’ve had since 2010, so I think we can make a run at the title,” he said. “We’re already making good runs, and we haven’t even found the sweet spot yet. We destroyed a clutch in Brainerd, and that was a setback. It killed our 60-foot times, and we’re just now getting them back. As if that wasn’t bad enough, we found a broken crank when we got here. We went to turn the engine over and it didn’t feel right. We’re down to just one engine this weekend, but that’s pretty much the way we raced in 2010, so yeah, I guess it feels familiar. We just need to qualify in the top half so we can stay away from the really fast guys.”

After Friday’s two runs, Tonglet is fourth in the field with a best of 6.867, and he’s got top speed of the meet to this point at 195.96 mph.

Chaz Kennedy, who has made only sporadic appearances on the NHRA tour in the last two years, made a surprise appearance at zMAX Dragway. Kennedy is riding an S&S-powered Buell V-Twin that is owned by John Hall. The bike is a former Chip Ellis Buell that is powered by a Vance & Hines-built V-Twin engine, which has been maintained by Blake Gann.

“John will probably ride again this year or next, but for now, he asked me to come out and make fun runs and see if we couldn’t get this bike sorted out for him,” said Kennedy. “I’m happy to do it. I’m almost done with school, and I’m starting to make some plans for next year, so hopefully I’ll be back out here more often. I’ve missed it. I’m definitely not done with Pro Stock.”

Racing without his father and crew chief, Greg, who left the track due to an illness, Jim Underdahl made one of his best runs of the season when he rode his Vance & Hines-powered Suzuki to a 6.871. Underdahl finished the day in the No. 6 spot, which is a huge relief for a rider who failed to qualify at two races this season. If he can hold on to that spot, it will mark the first time this season that Underdahl has been a top-half qualifier. In Greg’s absence, Gary Stoffer helped with the tune-up with input from brothers GT and LE Tonglet.

“We’ve made some changes to the bike, and it seemed to respond,” said Underdahl. “We’ve had a tough year; we’ve chased this new fuel-injection deal for most of the season, but that run was promising. We just need to be able to repeat it more often.”

Hector Arana Jr. finished the first day of qualifying in the No. 7 spot after riding his Lucas Oil Buell to a 6.876 in the first session. According to Arana, the run could have been quicker had the throttle cable not broken just before the finish line.

“I was scared to death because I thought I broke the engine,” said Arana. “The engine just shut off, and I thought it was hurt really bad. When I got the bike stopped and took a look at it, I saw it was just the cable. Thankfully, everything else is good. We just got this bike running good. We don’t need to be tearing up engines.”

Arana has every reason to look forward to the Countdown opener in Charlotte. In his last appearance at zMAX Dragway in the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals presented by Lowes Foods last March, Arana was the low qualifier, and he reached the final quad before taking a third-place finish behind Harley-Davidson teammates Andrew Hines and Eddie Krawiec.

Jerry Savoie fired off a strong 6.850 to lead the Pro Stock Motorcycle field after the first day of qualifying at zMAX Dragway. After missing out on the championship on the final day of the season in 2015, Savoie understands as well as anyone how critical it is to leave nothing on the table during the Countdown.

“After Indy, we found some issues that were staring us in the face,” said Savoie. “We had an engine problem, and it hurt us. I lost a really close race against Andrew [Hines]. We should be better this weekend. I’m looking for a really good weekend. The key is Tim [Kulungian, crew chief]; he’s a great tuner. I’d put him up against anyone out there. I say this all the time, but he’s especially good in the warm weather. Most guys want the weather to be cool so they can run fast; we want it to be warm and humid because that’s where we run our best. Tim picks our bike apart and it shows. We’ve been good this year, but we just haven’t been able to seal the deal very often. 

“On our first run, we got aggressive with the tune-up, and it got away from us,” said Savoie. “The second run, the bike was really smooth. It planted the [wheelie] bars, and it was gone. I figured someone would run [6].82, but we all struggled to find it. As for the points, those three bonus points are big, especially since the Harley guys didn’t get them. We chipped away at them a little. We just need to keep doing the same thing.”

Chip Ellis is revered by his peers as one of the most naturally gifted motorcycle drag racers in the sport, but he admits that when it comes to racing on four wheels, he’s very much an amateur. Ellis’ apparent lack of experience didn’t prevent him from landing a ride with Roy Hill behind the wheel of his low-eight-second Cobra Jet Mustang. On Friday, Ellis qualified No. 3 on Junior Pippins Buell Pro Stock Motorcycle but also made a solid effort in Hill’s Super Stock car with a quick 8.17.

“Riding that bike is definitely easier than driving that car,” said Ellis. “On my first run, I was pretty good, but on the second pass, I had a little trouble staging and never got on the two-step. I tested in Roy’s Stocker, which is a 9.50 car, but this [Super Stock car] is a whole lot quicker.”

For Ellis, the common thread between the two race vehicles is engine builder Lon Moyer, who built both the Buell V-Twin in Pippin’s bike and the 32-valve Ford engine in Hill’s Super Stock car.

“This was just something fun that I got a chance to do because of Lon,” said Ellis. “Roy asked me if I wanted to drive, and I said, ‘Hell yes.’ I’m surprised at how smooth that car is. It runs almost 170 mph, and if feels like you could take your hands off the steering wheel. It’s very steady. I’m still trying to figure it out, but it’s a lot of fun, and I think the seat time will help me focus when I get on the bike.”

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series is in the heart of NASCAR country this weekend, racing in Charlotte, and the two worlds collided a bit during qualifying when NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr., who has been sidelined for the remainder of the NASCAR season due to concussion-like symptoms from an injury earlier this year, spent part of his Friday checking out the pure, raw horsepower of the nitro-powered beasts in Top Fuel and Funny Car.

“It’s been about 10 years — a long time,” said Earnhardt when asked how long it had been since he had seen a nitro car. “I’m glad to be out here and come out here and see some runs. My fiancée, Amy, has never been down near the Tree for a run like that, so this is a thrill for her.

“They have more horsepower in one cylinder than we do in our whole engine, so it’s pretty incredible what they can accomplish out there, and what a treat to be down here and have this opportunity.”

Dale Earnhardt Jr. wasn’t the only athlete who ventured out to zMAX Dragway today to check out the action. Several members of the Carolina Panthers, including Bene Benwikere, Travell Dixon, Rob McClain, Leonard Johnson, Daryl Worley, and Teddy Williams (pictured), were at the track today as guests of Top Fuel racers Leah Pritchett and Steve Torrence.

“It definitely burns. It burns all in your eyes, your nose, and everything, but it’s a great experience,” said Benwikere when asked what the nitro experience was like. “We’re enjoying it right now.”

Steven Whiteley is still looking for his first win in the NHRA J&A Service Pro Mod Drag Racing Series, but the second-generation racer is one of the early favorites after driving his supercharged Cadillac GTS to the provisional pole at zMAX Dragway on Friday. Whiteley cranked out a 5.840 to lead the huge field, stealing the top spot from recent Indy winner Von Smith and two-time series champ Rickie Smith, who are second and third with runs of 5.847 and 5.856, respectively.

After two of three sessions, the 16-car bump spot for Pro Mod is held by Jay Payne at 6.031. The drivers who have yet to qualify include reigning champ Troy Coughlin, Billy Glidden, Sidnei Frigo, and Steve Matusek, who is battling for a spot in the top 10.