NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

DON SCHUMACHER RACING

ANTRON BROWN

“Looking forward to racing at World Wide Technology Raceway. St. Louis has always been a great place for us. We won there four years in a row, and we want to get back on that trend. We fell short last year, and this year we want to rebound. We feel really confident in our Matco Tools Toyota dragster. We’re looking for great things to happen. This is ‘go time.’ St. Louis is a crucial, pivotal race for us. It can make or break our championship hopes this season. The pressure is on; the intensity is there, and I know we’re fully committed and ready to go.”

LEAH PRITCHETT

“An object in motion stays in motion, and that is exactly what our Okuma Top Fuel team is doing. We are looking forward to using our strong, forward, fast, and consistent progress on the track this weekend. The St. Louis race is one that we have proven well at going rounds, and we have nothing else in our scope but our strategy of picking at qualifying points, winning, and climbing within the ever-so-close standings.
 
“We knew races ago that defending a championship title in Factory Stock given the rule changes was near impossible, yet we continued to chase wins. Going into St. Louis, we have made some in-house updates, and feel we will have the most competitive car we’ve had all year. We have a car capable of winning this race, and although not a championship contender, one that could really spoil some championship chasers’ hopes and dreams. Just because we couldn’t dominate the season, doesn’t mean our development, hustle, and heart has fallen off. We expect a turnaround of results and win lights starting this weekend for el Bandito, and there’s nothing better than knowing we’ve got a shot to take down the heavy hitters.”

JACK BECKMAN

“After our Infinite Hero team finally got our first win of the season at Maple Grove, I almost didn’t want the week off, but the schedule is what it is. I was glad to get home, spend time with my family, and celebrate the win with many of our friends. I think we made an absolute statement at Maple Grove – we are a championship-contending team. I’ve said that all year; it’s one thing to believe you have a shot at the championship, but it’s an entirely different thing to stand there with your team holding the trophy at the end of the day. Doing that at the first race of the Countdown was exactly the shot in the arm our Infinite Hero team needed, and getting vaulted into first place in points was the icing on the cake. Now our job is to stay there for the rest of the year.”

RON CAPPS

“We’re heading to the second race of our NHRA Countdown. We love Chris Blair and his whole team at World Wide Technology Raceway. We’re coming off of such a great performance by our NAPA team in Maple Grove. We were able to jump one spot in the Countdown. As I mentioned heading into Maple Grove, the goal is to try and capture as many of those little qualifying points as possible and have a great Sunday. At Maple Grove, we had a good Sunday but didn’t have a great Sunday. But, we did manage to get a lot of qualifying points. 

MATT HAGAN

“I’ve never won St. Louis and I’d like to check it off the list. We blew the tires off second round at our last race in Reading, Pa., and it wasn’t the weekend we were looking for. We’ve got to bounce back. We’ve got five races left, and there are no do-overs. It was great to see our teammate, Jack Beckman, pull down the win, but things change fast in the Countdown. We need to have a good showing in St. Louis so we can put ourselves back in contention. We’ll have the DSM Precision Engineering Dodge Hellcat Widebody this weekend, and it’s cool to be able to represent DSM. Not a lot of people are aware of all that goes on at DSM back at our race headquarters in Brownsburg, Ind. We make more than 250 parts and do CNC machining work for not just race cars but automotive and aerospace customers as well. It’s a huge operation, and whether it be chassis, engine, clutch or supercharger components, (crew chief) Dickie (Venables) and our guys know they can count on DSM to get them what they need.”

TOMMY JOHNSON JR.

“We didn’t start the Countdown the way wanted; we’re in a little bit of a hole. You can’t have a bad race in the Countdown, and we’ve had one, so that means we need to have five exceptional races. It’s important that we go to St. Louis and do really well. To have any shot at the championship, I think we need to go to at least to the semis, probably finals, and get some points. We’ve had two bad races in a row, and before that, we hadn’t had two bad races all season, so I expect big things from our Make-A-Wish team this weekend.”

ELITE MOTORSPORTS

JEG COUGHLIN JR.

"We feel like we're arriving in St. Louis with a lot of momentum. We had a great start to the playoffs in Reading. The JEGS Elite Camaro was running very well and if not for the smallest of miscues in the semifinals where we went red by -.002 seconds, we would have had a great chance at taking the trophy home.

"There's no reason to think that we won't be strong again this weekend, considering how well we ran in Reading. Some changes were made before that race and everything we hoped would happen appears to be happening now so we're charged up to drop the clutch Friday and see how we stack up."

"Certainly, we've enjoyed some great times and had some big runs in St. Louis. Any time you go to a track where you've won races in the past it gives you an extra dose of confidence. It's a really fun track, a Midwest track, so we know there will be a bunch of JEGS fans and customers cheering for us. That's exciting."

JOHN FORCE RACING

BRITTANY FORCE

“The Advance Auto Parts team is coming off a great weekend in Reading, Pennsylvania. We qualified No. 1, made it to the semis where we had trouble, but we moved up in the points and we set the national E.T. record running a 3.623 which is just incredible. That’s David Grubnic for you right there, Mac Savage and all the Advance boys. We’re very proud to carry that with us through the rest of this season and going into next season too. That’s a huge accomplishment for this team and I’m very proud of it.”

AUSTIN PROCK

“We had another strong Sunday in Reading. I had a career-best E.T. and I’m looking to translate that into this next race in the Countdown. We’re continuing to learn each weekend to make this car quicker and more consistent and I think we’re getting where we want to be. Mike Green and Ronnie Thompson have been working close with my dad, too, which gets me excited. It’s cool to be able to share this with him.”

JOHN FORCE

“We had a good race day in Reading. Went to the final but Beckman, with the .028 light, I can’t beat that on my best day. My PEAK Chevy is consistent though. Brian Corradi and Danny Hood, Tim Fabrisi and the PEAK team have given me a great race car. That was the first race in the Countdown and we’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing and I’ll do my job and get ‘Old Blue’ down the track. We’ll see what we can do in St. Louis this weekend.

“Well, we’re all headed to St. Louis and I’m ready to get there. We’re all in the Countdown. Robert and I are back-to-back in the points, Brittany is No. 2 and the Prock kid is seventh. The championship is coming fast and it would be nice to win another one. I’ve done pretty good at this track in the past so we’ll see what we can do to get another win and keep up in the points.”

ROBERT HIGHT

"When I was on the run, I knew something wasn’t quite right. But it was the finals, I didn’t want to lift. I even looked over to see if I could see Wilkerson in front of me. I didn’t. If I had seen him out in front, I probably would have lifted. I remember getting out of the car and I knew something in my shoulder area was hurt but what hurt most was no one could tell me if I had won or not. That was brutal.

"We didn’t get to celebrate, I had to go to the hospital, so there was no winner’s circle. I think there’s one photo when I came back to the pits and was standing around with my guys and that was our winner’s circle photo. We’re going to change that this year, we’ll be defending our win and looking to get a proper winner’s circle, the whole team together.”

KALITTA MOTORSPORTS

DOUG KALITTA

“We know we have the points lead but that doesn’t change how we are running this Mac Tools dragster. We have been to back-to-back finals and picked up the win in Indy by being consistent and taking advantage of every opportunity that was presented to us. We are going to come out of the trailer on Friday ready to make quick runs and hopefully start from pretty high up in the qualifying order.

“We have won a lot of rounds in St. Louis I would like to get four more on Sunday. The field is so tough. We lost a close race to our teammate Richie Crampton in Reading and he made a big jump in the points. Our goal will be to just race as hard as we can with the conditions that are presented to us. You can’t start thinking about races down the road. We are going to focus on taking care of business in St. Louis.”

RICHIE CRAMPTON

“The win in Reading was big for this DHL team for sure. We have been battling through a tough stretch of first-round losses on race day. No one ever gave up which shows the strength of the team Connie (Kalitta) and Kurt (Elliott) have put together.
 
“After every race in the regular season I would look at my personal performance and see where I could have improved. I wasn’t being negative I just knew that every hurdle was a chance to get better. In Reading we ran well in qualifying and once we got the first round win I knew we had a really good race car. We had three really tough opponents the rest of the day and got some luck in the semis. You have to be ready to take advantage of those opportunities and we did.”
 
“I am not going to get ahead of myself. We are one race into the Countdown and we are off to a good start. I am going to head into St. Louis looking to keep making quality runs. You need that data and if you can get four good runs on Friday and Saturday you will be set up really well on Sunday. It will be an exciting weekend for sure and I just hope at the end of the day on Sunday this DHL team will still be in the mix for the Mello Yello championship.”

J.R. TODD

“We were going for three wins in a row at Indy and almost made the final. Two weeks ago we had a great car on Sunday and just missed another final. I think these Yella Fellas on the DHL team have a great handle on this Camry and I am excited to get back on the track. We tightened up our position in the points and I think with four win lights on Sunday we can make a good move.”
 
“It is tough to maintain peak performance for a long stretch. We got hot right about this time last year. We won Reading and had a semifinal in St. Louis. If we can get a win this weekend we will be on track to do some more damage the rest of the Countdown. We have been working really well as a team and I don’t see any reason why we can’t get the job done in St. Louis.”
 
“I am not focusing on winning another championship right now. I am focused on winning in St. Louis and then we will take on the next race. Round wins put you in position for championships this time of the year. We need to get some bonus points in St. Louis and then take care of our business on Sunday. I like our chances because we have been in this position before. I wouldn’t want to be chasing this championship with any other guys than my teammates on this DHL Toyota Funny Car team.”

SHAWN LANGDON

“The Countdown definitely didn’t start the way we wanted it to. We hadn’t had a first-round loss since I don’t know when and we struggled in qualifying for the first time in a long time. We finally got a handle on the tune-up and took a first-round loss. You can’t afford those in the Countdown but luckily some of the top teams also lost in the first round so we are very much still in the fight.
 
“It is great to come to tracks where I have won in Top Fuel and look at doubling up. You look at the list of guys that have won in both Top Fuel and Funny Car and it is a Who’s Who of drag racing legends. They are all Hall of Famers so just to be included in the conversation is great. Our goal this weekend will be to park this Global Electronic Technology Funny Car in the winner’s circle regardless of history. We want to get more wins this season and I think we have the Camry race car to get that done.”

“We have a really consistent and fast race car,” said Langdon. “You look at how we finished the regular season with round wins on Sunday and top half qualifying efforts. That is the race car we will be looking for over the last five races of the Countdown. Del (Worsham) and Nicky (Boninfante) got a good handle on the tune-up on Sunday in Reading we just had a tough first round. We all want to qualify high up in the top half and then do some damage on race day. I am confident we can get that rolling in St. Louis.”

LEX JOON RACING

LEX JOON

"We're really enthusiastic about the power the car is making. Q3 we ran again Jordan Vandergriff. Had a hole out early and had to click it off but we still moved up three spots! We did not run Q4. We finished out qualifying in the #15 spot which was good enough to get us in the lanes against Leah Pritchett for E1. Weather was great so we were really looking forward to a nice run. Car had other ideas! We started to drop cylinders and had to click it off. All in all, we were quite happy with the results. We're learning so much about the new power of this car and learning more that will get us to where we will be down the road. We even moved up from nineteenth to eighteenth in the points standings and that's cool!"

"Since St. Louis, we've upgraded to a larger size lifter, this is part of the valve train which will allow the car to withstand the current power we are making. With help from Todd Paton at Performance Data Systems, the dashboard is fixed and for the first time ever the lights are working! Lots of work and a big investment in parts and labor but we know it's all worth it. We will do what we have to do to make sure we make it into the top 10 in the near future, starting in 2020. For a small, independent team this may seem like a huge undertaking, but that doesn't scare us off. The team has been supercharged with the support coming from Chip Lofton/Strutmasters and Lance Larsen, just over the top! We're looking forward to attracting new companies to join with us for the future."

TIM WILKERSON RACING

TIM WILKERSON

"St. Louis is going to be a big race for us, and hopefully we'll have something for them like we did last year. That was a very good weekend, and if we can keep our momentum up and go a couple of rounds at a time like we did last year, we'll be in good shape. I'm excited – we have a pretty decent car with this 40th anniversary Ford Mustang. To head to our home track and have everybody cheering for us, that's a lot of fun. Our sponsor, Dick Levi, was real pumped after we won first round in Reading; it'd sure be cool to get a win for him and all the folks who stand behind us. It's going to be a good Countdown."

TORRENCE RACING

STEVE TORRENCE

“It’s one race. Did we plan to go out in the first round? No. You never plan to do that. To be honest, we got behind in qualifying and we never caught up. We qualified eighth and instead of getting a reasonable first round (opponent), we got the ‘Hillbilly’ (Clay Millican) and he took us out.

“I don’t know why anyone would think this was going to be easy for us or anyone. There are bad asses top to bottom in this class. Terry McMillen didn’t even make the playoffs and he could win any of these races. 

“All we can do is what we can do. This week we’ve got St. Louis, after that Charlotte and Dallas and then Vegas and Pomona. There’s no going back; you just gotta move ahead.”