DSR in control of the Fuel Classes heading to Atlanta

Defending Southern Nationals winner Hagan ready to regain points lead this weekend with Venables, Mopar Express Lane team

BROWNSBURG, IN – The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series heads to Atlanta Dragway this weekend for the NHRA Southern Nationals in Commerce, Ga., for the final stop on a three-race “Southern swing.”

Last weekend at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte, the Mopar Express Lane team with Matt Hagan, crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen reached the final round of the unique Four-Wide event but hazed the tires at the starting line and finished last in the four-car championship round.

“The thing about drag racing is, you can’t dwell on what happened last week or even last round,” Hagan said. “That’s the good thing about this three-race swing. We’ve moved on from Charlotte where we didn’t have the qualifying effort we wanted to but we rebounded and we made it to the final round on race day.

“It didn’t turn up like we wanted it to but we roll down to Atlanta this weekend and get another shot at it. We started out so strong and of course we want to win them all but realistically we are happy with where we are at six races in.”

The Southern Nationals is the third race in three weeks for the Mello Yello tour.

Venables tuned Hagan to back-to-back event titles at the first two races of the season in the Mopar Dodge Charger R/T Powered by Pennzoil. They are also the defending event winners of this weekend’s Southern Nationals.

But teams could be thrown for a loop this weekend where typical “Hotlanta” conditions won’t be the case. Friday’s forecasted high is 57 degrees with Sunday’s high in the low-70s.

“It’s going to be interesting for sure,” Hagan said. “I feel so confident no matter where we go with Dickie (Venables) making the calls. If the track can hold the power, I have no doubt he’ll be telling me to pull my buckles down tight and hold on.”

Four-Wide runner-up Beckman moves up to fifth in points with new Infinite Hero team, heads to Atlanta for year’s first win

– Jack Beckman has said consistently throughout the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series that the key to success this season is patience.

That mindsight is coming to fruition.  With three new crew chiefs and a nearly all new crew, Beckman and Terry Chandler’s Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car progressed to another level Sunday when he was runner-up for the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals title. That was a week after advancing to the team’s first semifinals round.

Beckman will compete this weekend near Atlanta in the NHRA Southern Nationals at Commerce, Ga.

“I’ve said since testing (in February) that with new chiefs and new crew that it would take about 30 runs on this car understood the language this car is talking so we could make good decisions as to what it wants,” said Beckman, who won at Atlanta in 2009 and 2011. He advanced to the final round a year ago after starting as the No. 1 qualifier.

The Infinite Hero Dodge with crew chiefs John Medlen, Dean Antonelli and Neal Strausbaugh qualified 10th last weekend in Charlotte, their lowest in six races this year, but improved on each of three runs on Sunday that culminate with its best pass of the weekend at 3.959 seconds.

“We missed getting the trophy by 26-thousandths of a second with a run that was not in the best conditions of the weekend,” Beckman said.

“We’ve seen that the more runs we make the more consistent we become and the more competitive we are. We’re ultra-confident going to Atlanta this weekend. We’ve made it into the top-five for the first time this year and our short-term goal is to win our first trophy this year this weekend.”

NHRA Southern Nationals marks one year for Leah at DSR as Papa John’s Top Fuel driver heads to Atlanta with points lead

– At times, it’s hard for Leah Pritchett to fathom what has happened to her career since debuting with Don Schumacher Racing one year ago in the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.

Her tenure with the most successful organization in drag racing began at Commerce, Ga., because Ron Thames committed to sponsor her for four races last season with his Atlanta-based Fire Service Plus Inc. and its FireAde 2000 personal fire suppression system.

From there, further backing would come from Pennzoil, Mopar and Papa John’s Pizza.

“The past year might not have happened without Ron Thames,” said Pritchett, who has won three of this year’s six titles in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series to earn the No. 1 ranking in the premier Top Fuel dragster category with crew chief Todd Okuhara and assistant Joe Barlam.

“If Ron didn’t get this wild ride started those other doors might not have opened for me and my team at DSR.

“When I get into our Papa John’s dragster I’m racing for my team and all the people who have made this dream come true.”

Not even Pritchett, who graduated from Cal State San Bernardino with degrees in marketing and communications, could have imagined what would transpire in the first four months of this year. Consider that she:
Has held the points leads after five of six events;
Set and holds the NHRA world elapsed time record by completing a run in 3.658 seconds during the second event at Phoenix;
Became the first Top Fuel driver in modern since1974 to open the year with two wins from the No. 1 qualifying position;
Became only the 10th Top Fuel driver since 1974 to win three of the first five races;
And has appeared in national television commercials for Dodge, and will star in one for Papa John’s this summer.
Her biggest challenge as she continues to juggle managing sponsor and media requests has been finding time to work on her dragster at races although she continues to pack her parachutes after each run. Because she also prepares her team’s blend of nitromethane nearly all the time, she had her fueling station moved to the front of her pit area so she’d be within a few feet of her fans.

“There’s is so much to do, but I’m not complaining,” she said. “I’ve worked so hard to get here and love it. I just worry about neglecting someone, especially the fans.”
So far she’s winning at that too.

Two-race winning streak earns Capps, NAPA Dodge points lead heading to Coca-Cola Champions dinner, Southern Nationals

– Ron Capps has dreamed of a weekend like he will experience beginning Thursday night when he arrives at The World of Coca-Cola in downtown Atlanta.

He has been waiting a long time for an invitation to attend the annual dinner for Mello Yello Drag Racing Series world champions. He punched his ticket when he won the 2016 NHRA Funny Car world championship for the first time in his illustrious career.

Then on Friday he’ll be about an hour north at Commerce, Ga., to compete in the NHRA Southern Nationals where be held in the backyard of NAPA AUTO PARTS, his sponsor since 2008.

Capps will arrive at the track on a two-race winning streak that enabled the Don Schumacher Racing driver and NAPA team to take over the Mello Yello Funny Car points lead.

After being the Funny Car championship runner-up for a category record four times, that ended last November when his team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant Eric Lane along with the NAPA AutoCare Centers crew earned the No. 1 for the side of their 2017 Dodge Charger R/T Powered by Pennzoil.

“The championship was great and my favorite part about winning the championship has been going to racetracks where I haven’t seen fans since we won it,” said Capps, whose win on Sunday near Charlotte moved him into a tie with legend Joe Amato with 52 event titles.

“These fans have followed my 20-year career, some of them religiously. It’s like they know me better than I do. They follow me on social media. It can be scary sometimes how much people know about you but that’s why I share what I do.”

Capps will host a couple hundred members of his NAPA family who will drive about an hour north of Atlanta to join him in Don Schumacher Racing’s Club Nitro hospitality pavilion adjacent to his pit area.

“Every race we’ve gone to this year it’s like winning the championship all over again,” said the Californian who lives near San Diego. “You get people grabbing your arm and going ‘Dude, I told you you were going to win it last year when you were here!’

“It’s crazy at every race how many people come by and tell me that they’ve been pulling for me for 20 years to win a championship. And, man, that gives you goosebumps.

Three-time Top Fuel champion Brown looking forward to this weekend’s NHRA Southern Nationals event at Atlanta Dragway

– This weekend’s NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga., is the final event in the three-consecutive race “Southern swing” in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.

After winning the fourth race of the season at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Antron Brown and the Matco Tools team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald with assistant Brad Mason are looking forward to returning to the facility north of Atlanta where Brown has four Top Fuel event titles.

“We’re starting to pick up speed,” said the three-time Top Fuel champion and host of BBC America’s “Top Gear America” show. “Every weekend, we feel like we have a car to beat and we have been going rounds. We feel like we let that one in Charlotte slip away when we smoked the tires in the second round.”

With six of 24 Mello Yello Series events completed, the Matco Tools team ranks third in Top Fuel points standings with Don Schumacher Racing teammates Leah Pritchett and Tony Schumacher in first and second, respectively.

“DSR dragsters have been strong this year,” he said. “But the competition is tough out here and we just have to keep plucking away at our tune-up.”

For a place typically nicknamed “Hotlanta” NHRA teams will be facing the opposite this weekend at Atlanta Dragway. Friday’s forecasted high is 57 degrees with overcast skies.

“Oh boy,” Brown said. “You can bet all of the crew chiefs are keeping an eye on that. The potential for some great runs is there, but it all comes down to the track. (Track specialist David) Fletcher will be taking a closer look at the track this weekend and letting our crew chiefs know how good it is.

“No matter what, I’m looking forward to this weekend. We’ve had a lot of success there and hopefully we can have some more.”

Chandler’s Make-A-Wish team with Johnson need to go rounds this weekend in Southern Nationals near Atlanta to snap slump

– Tommy Johnson Jr. is honest about how he feels about Atlanta Dragway: It isn’t one of his favorite NHRA tracks.

This weekend at the 37th annual NHRA Southern Nationals, he’s hoping to change his feelings about the track in Commerce, Ga.

Terry Chandler’s Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team led by crew chief John Collins and assistant Rip Reynold, has never advanced to a final round in the Southern Nationals. Johnson hopes this weekend’s race will have a different outcome.

“In the past, I’ve had some not so great things happen there,” Johnson said. “It’s one of those tracks that you want to break the curse one of these days and see if you can’t win one there.”

The Make-A-Wish team is also looking to get back some momentum from their win in Las Vegas in early April. They have yet to win a round since their win.

“We struggled a little bit the last few races on race day. We did OK in qualifying and were in the top half of the field but just weren’t able to make that successful on race day.”

For two weeks in a row, the Make-A-Wish team has qualified No. 7 and has been knocked out of competition in the opening round by a lower qualified car.

“We stayed and tested Monday after the race in Charlotte and hopefully we learned some good stuff that we can use and get back on track and maybe win some rounds in Atlanta.”

Weather forecasts for Atlanta looks very uncharacteristic. Typically, when the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series travels to the Southern Nationals, crew chiefs plan for a hot, sticky racetrack but this weekend weather forecasters are expecting cooler temperatures.

“If the weather forecast stays like it is now, you’re going to probably see the best race we’ve ever seen in Atlanta,” Johnson said. “Usually we go there and it’s hot and humid and with the temperatures they’re calling of now, there could be conditions that we could see some new records.”

The Southern Nationals is the final race of a three-race swing for the NHRA circuit.