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Defending Indy champion Richie Crampton returns as bona fide contender

INDIANAPOLIS – Richie Crampton surprised more than a few people last year when the rookie driver piloted his Richie Crampton - Lucas Oil Nationals winLucas Oil Top Fuel dragster to the Winner’s Circle at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis. That won’t be the case this time through as Crampton arrives in his adopted hometown with four victories on his 2015 résumé and a lofty third-place ranking in the Mello Yello championship points.

“Chock all that mate, I still feel like we have a lot to prove,” the affable Aussie from Adelaide said. “There are just too many great drivers and strong teams in this category to have any kind of swagger. You have to prove yourself every week, and we’re going into this race with the same mindset as we did a year ago.”


Although last year’s victory at the sport’s biggest and longest-running event wasn’t his first — Crampton broke his duck earlier in the 2014 season in Englishtown, N.J. — he certainly wasn’t among the favorites at the start of the race. That’s not the case this year as wins in Las Vegas, Bristol, Topeka, and Brainerd place him among Top Fuel’s elite. He’s currently tied with Antron Brown for most wins in the class.

“We feel good about our performance to date but these nitro classes keep you humble, believe me,” Crampton said. “You can be on top of the world one day and knocked to your knees the next.

“Our mantra all year has been ‘let’s try to be consistent.’ Of course, that’s extremely tough to do week after week because the weather is constantly changing, parts fail, and each track is different. But I think everyone will agree that consistency has won more championships than pure luck, so we’ll continue down that path the best we can.”

Crampton has history to back up his game plan. The 61st annual U.S. Nationals is the final regular-season NHRA event before the six-race Countdown to the Championship, which qualifies the top 10 racers in each pro category to race for the title. Since the inception of this playoff format, eventual champions have come from the top, bottom, and middle of the pack, with those who put together the best six-race stretch nearly always coming out on top.

“They reset the points and separate us all by 10 points each according to where we finished the regular season,” Crampton said. “So the teams with better regular seasons do have a bit of an edge over the ones at the bottom that have some catching up to do, but everyone is a lot closer after they reset the points than they are now, so it places a premium on how you perform down the stretch.

“It makes for exciting finishes every year. We’re just happy to be a bigger part of it all this year than any time in the past. But first things first, we would all love to defend this race win. Indy is Indy; it’s the single biggest race on the schedule and the prestige of winning it is unparalleled. We did it once, and that will stay with us forever. Now we will try to double up and really charge into the Countdown.”

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