Capps, NAPA head to New England with 4-event, 15-round streak, aim to defend pole, title earned there a year ago in Mello Yello Series
BROWNSBURG, IN – It’s bad news for the opposition on rare occasions when Ron Capps and NAPA AUTO PARTS 
Funny Car team lose in the first round of NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series competition.
After Capps lost in the first round at Topeka in 2016, the NAPA team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant Eric Lane went on to win three of the next four NHRA Wally trophies and fell one title short of sweeping the Eastern Swing that covers June.
The next time the world championship team lost in an opening round was this year’s Las Vegas Nationals on April 2, and since then, Capps and NAPA team are unbeaten while winning the last four NHRA Wally trophies, including the last race two weeks ago at Topeka, Kan.
The “foursome” began started with the NAPA Dodge Charger R/T sweeping the three-race Southern Swing with wins at Houston, Charlotte and Commerce, Ga., the backyard for NAPA AUTO PARTS headquarters in Atlanta.
A week off didn’t slow the NAPA 2017 Dodge Charger R/T at Topeka, and Capps and the NAPA AutoCare crew are eager to get back to Epping, N.H., on Friday and are ready to repeat their performance from 2016 when they earned the No. 1 qualifying position and won the event title for the second time.
Capps has won 15 consecutive rounds and 2013 is the last time a pro driver (John Force) accomplished that.
The current run has enabled Capps to extend his points lead to 119 over Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan.
“Unbelievable,” said Capps, whose top speed of the weekend was 325 that paled compared to 338-mph runs by Hagan, who set the world record, and Courtney Force and Robert Hight of John Force Racing. “We couldn’t go toe to toe with those guys in qualifying but no one is better than (crew chief) Rahn Tobler on race day.
“Those speeds are great, they’re great for headlines, (but) Mello Yello championships are won by E.T.s and especially race wins.”
Capps, who qualified seventh at Topeka for his team’s worst start of the year through eight races, was surprised when he arrived at the track Sunday morning and learned Tobler had the NAPA AutoCare crew changed the fuel pump.
“To change a fuel pump for Sunday is incredible,” he said. “It took a lot of guts for him to do that and look what happened.
“Trust me, I’m just the luckiest dude in the world, man. I had nothing to do with it (winning at Topeka), I just stepped on the gas and held the car together in the right lane. I’m just so blessed.”
Brown enjoys weekend ‘off’ at racetrack with family before Matco Tools team treks East for four straight Mello Yello events
– Three-time Top Fuel champion driver Antron Brown turned into crew chief over the weekend at Lucas Oil Raceway near Indianapolis.
The father of three had his fleet of NHRA Jr. Dragsters competing in the Midwest Jr. Super Series event near his home in Pittsboro, Ind. It was a well-deserved weekend “off” for the host of Top Gear America that finished filming two weeks ago with it scheduled to begin airing in July on BBC America.
“It was a great weekend,” Brown said. “It’s been non-stop a few months for me so being able to be to a racetrack with all of my family and seeing the kids race is exactly where I needed to be.”
The Matco Tools team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald with assistant Brad Mason won their second event title of the Mello Yello season two weeks ago at Heartland Park Topeka. It was the first time Brown had scored a title at Topeka leaving only Bristol Dragway in Tennessee as the only facility on tour at which he has not scored a title.
“The only thing we know is we have to race as hard as we can every lap,” said Brown, who his career-best speed of 333.16 at Topeka.
“This sport is so humbling. You have to give it your all every round. You have to be fast, quick and consistent. That’s the new game. You have to run these cars on edge every lap, the competition is so tight.”
The Mello Yello Series begins a stretch of four consecutive races this weekend at New England Dragway in Epping, N.H., where the Matco Tools team is the defending champion.
“We’re looking forward to the start of this four race stretch with our Matco Tools boys,” Brown said. “It’s a lot of work, a big stretch of races that these guys will be gone from home but we are a team and we
Chandler’s Infinite Hero team still hunting for season’s first win, Beckman looks for nostalgic visit to New England Nationals
– Jack Beckman and Terry Chandler’s Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Funny Car team travel to Epping, N.H., for this weekend’s fifth annual NHRA New England Nationals.
“It’s the newest race on tour, at one of the oldest facilities on tour,” Beckman said of New England Dragway.
“I’m a historian and there’s so much Funny Car history in that area. The fans are unbelievably grateful for us coming to their town to race. It’s kind of a ‘pinch me’ moment. It’s like a throwback to bring in the contemporary NHRA show into a facility that looks like it could have come out of a time machine from the mid-70s.”
In 2016 at the New England Nationals, Beckman entered race day as the No. 6 qualifier with a time of 3.895 seconds at 329.99 mph. He advanced to the quarterfinals before losing to Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tommy Johnson Jr.
The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series heads to New England Dragway for the ninth event of the season and the first of a four-race swing in June called the “Eastern Swing.”
“The schedule is what it is. We don’t have any say in it and I’m comfortable with however they want to do it. I would say I’m maybe more anxious than some to get back out there.
“I would say that the drivers who haven’t won their first win of the year are chomping at the bit for the four in a row because it will maximize our chances of getting that first trophy.”
The team, led by crew chiefs Neal Strausbaugh, Dean Antonelli and John Medlen, has advanced to two semifinals round and one final round but has yet to earn their first win of the season.
Mr. 338-mph Hagan slows down for farm work after setting NHRA world records with Mopar Express Lane team, crew chief Venables
– Matt Hagan’s life seems far from “extreme” when he’s back on his cattle ranch in rural Virginia while the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series took a break.
The same guy that set the NHRA world records of 3.802 seconds and 338.85 mph in his Mopar Express Lane Funny Car powered by Pennzoil two weeks ago at Topeka, Kan., spent the past week behind the wheel of a tractor taking care of more than 700 cows and 21 bulls.
“It’s all about balance,” the two-time Funny Car world champion says. “When I’m home I’m busy keeping everything under control on the farm and spending time with my family. But out at the racetrack, it’s a different story.”
Hagan couldn’t imagine anything more extreme than his record-setting run at Heartland Park Topeka. He was the No. 1 qualifier and lost in the final round to Don Schumacher Racing teammate and points leader Ron Capps.
“This is as extreme as it gets,” he said. “At 338 mph with a steering wheel in your lap, I mean there is nothing on planet Earth that is cooler than that. I’ve never flipped two or three times on a dirt bike, but they can’t be close to this. It was just awesome. I don’t know what everybody else is looking at, but this is it. This is the extreme of the most extreme.”
The Mello Yello Series heads east for four consecutive weekends of racing beginning this weekend at New England Dragway in Epping, N.H.
“We’re at that point in the season where we’re going to start clicking these races off real fast,” said Hagan, who ranks second in points with two event titles. “I feel very confident in (crew chief) Dickie (Venables) and our team that we are in a good spot.
“We really felt like Topeka was our race to win so we are set on picking up a win this weekend in Epping. You always want to win, but when you let one slip away, it only makes you want it more and that’s where we are at right now.”
Make-A-Wish team travels to New England where Johnson hopes to break first-round curse and begin climbing Mello Yello standings
– After four first-round loses, Tommy Johnson Jr. and Terry Chandler’s Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team hope to break their slump as the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series begins a four-race swing in Epping, N.H., this weekend.
“Epping is one of my favorite tracks of the season,” said Johnson who was runner-up at the NHRA New England Nationals in 2016.
At last year’s event, Johnson and the team led by crew chief John Collins and assistant Rip Reynolds entered race day as the No. 3 qualifier with a time of 3.885 seconds at 326.95 mph.
Johnson advanced to the final round of competition before coming up short to Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps.
“The track has an old school feel, the fans in that area are tremendous and it’s beautiful there,” Johnson said. “It’s a place I look forward to every year. We’ve done well there the past couple years. Our team seems to turn a corner about this time of the year so I’m excited about going.”
This weekend is the fifth annual NHRA New England Nationals located at New England Dragway and the ninth event of the 2017 season.
Johnson and the Make-A-Wish team earned their only win of the season in Las Vegas but have yet to win a round since during eliminations on Sunday.
The Make-A-Wish team hopes to capitalize having four races in four weeks.
“The momentum builds when you go four in a row so why not bang them out? We’ll try to get out and do well for that stretch of racing.”
Pritchett to honor 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon with special dragster this weekend in New England Nationals
– Leah Pritchett will be driving a Mopar HEMI®-powered Demon this weekend in the NHRA New England Nationals, but it won’t one of the coveted 840-horsepower, 21st century muscle cars that are the fastest-ever production vehicles in a quarter-mile.
For the next two weeks, she’ll be in an 11,000-horsepower “Demon” when she joins with Pennzoil to salute the 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon that will be available to the public later this year.
Pritchett’s dragster will carry a special “Demon” paint scheme in the June 2-4 NHRA New England Nationals and the following week at Englishtown, N.J., for the Summernationals. Pritchett’s firesuit and crew shirts will also sport Demon branding.
The limited-production 2018 Dodge Challenger SRT Demon is the first-ever production car to do a front-wheel lift, as certified by Guinness World Records, and it’s the world’s fastest quarter-mile production car with an elapsed time (ET) of 9.65 seconds at 140 miles per hour (mph), as certified by NHRA. It also registers the highest g-force (1.8 g) ever recorded at launch in a production car.
Pritchett already has been a “demon” to competitors in Top Fuel this year through eight events in the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series for Don Schumacher Racing by winning three event titles, setting the world elapsed time record, winning two poles and resting atop the Mello Yello standings after all but one event driving the gold Papa John’s Pizza dragster that will have her ranked No. 1 to start the New England Nationals.
Her DSR dragster and all seven DSR racecars – like the Demon and other new Dodges – are Powered by Pennzoil.
“We get to represent the quickest, non-modified production car with the Demon, and we get to do it on the track in the quickest, modified, non-production car on the planet,” she said of her Top Fueler that holds the quickest run in NHRA history with a time of 3.658 seconds recorded early this year near Phoenix.
“Both are No. 1 in their own right. For our team to be able to represent the Demon lets us pay homage to what Mopar, Dodge and Pennzoil stand for: power, legacy and the future.”
The 29-year-old Southern California native living near Indianapolis has a special affinity for the Demon.
Pritchett was involved in testing the Demon and added her 330-mph touch to its development before the Demon was introduced in April at the New York International Auto Show.
“My role in development of the Demon started at the Englishtown track last year and it will be very cool to see it come full circle when I drive my 330-mph Demon Top Fueler this weekend at Epping and then take it to Englishtown,” she said.
And she won’t have trouble temporarily adjusting from her gold Papa John’s dragster to the black and red Demon dragster for two weeks.
“The gold is in the heart of our entire team, but this new dragster will bring out our inner demon.”
