Johnson, Make-A-Wish team hope to extend final-round streak to three but leave a winner at Sunday in NHRA Sonoma Nationals 

Sonoma, CA – Tommy Johnson Jr. has driven Terry Chandler’s Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car to two straight final rounds and he is ready to finish the job this weekend in the 30th annual NHRA Sonoma Nationals in the wine country near San Francisco.

“We’ve been happy with the way the car has been performing the last few races,” Johnson said. “The last six races have been a pretty good stretch for us. But more than anything, we’d like get a win. Going rounds is great, but winning is awfully nice.”

The Make-A-Wish team Powered by Pennzoil and led by crew chief John Collins and assistant Rip Reynolds advanced to the final round of competition at Chicago but came up short two weeks ago to their Don Schumacher Racing teammate and NHRA points leader Ron Capps.

Last weekend in Denver at the first race of the annual three-week Western Swing, Johnson advanced to the final round but was bested by Robert Hight of John Force Racing.

Sonoma marks the second race of the Western Swing. It is the goal of every NHRA team to “sweep” the Swing and win all three events including the last one near Seattle. Johnson and the Make-A-Wish team have a history of “breaking brooms” and stopped another driver from completing the three-race sweep the past two years at Seattle.

In 2015, Johnson’s DSR teammate Jack Beckman won Denver and Sonoma but Johnson defeated him in the semifinals. Last year, he beat John Force who had also won Denver and Sonoma.

“If we can’t sweep, we don’t want anybody else to do it,” Johnson said. “Maybe we can do a semi-sweep and be in all the finals of the Swing. I’d definitely enjoy breaking a sweep again this year. I think we’re up for the challenge of doing that again this year.

“We were runner-up in Sonoma in 2015 so we know we have a car that is capable of getting it done. We just have to put four good runs together on Sunday instead of three.”

Rare early losses in Mello Yello events lead to winning streaks for Capps, Tobler, NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge heading to Sonoma

– Losing in the first round Sunday near Denver was not good news for reigning NHRA Funny Car world champion and current points leader Ron Capps and his NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T team.

But it could be even worse news for his competitors this weekend when the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series heads to Capps’ home track and the Sonoma Nationals in the wine country near San Francisco.

Rare first-round losses for the team led by Rahn Tobler seem to produce magic for the NAPA team.

After the team’s only other first-round loss this year, Capps went on a career-best four-event winning streak that propelled him to a big lead in the regular season standings. Last year, after its only first-round loss, Capps won three of the next four events that contributed greatly to earning his first NHRA world championship.

Capps heads to Sonoma, which is the closest Mello Yello track to his hometown of San Luis Obispo, Calif., with a 186-point lead over teammate Matt Hagan. Despite the early exit in the Mopar Mile-High Nationals Sunday, Capps became the first in Funny Car to clinch one of 10 coveted spots in the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoff that begins in September.

Tobler, who has led Capps to a career-best six event titles this year in 14 of 24 national events, had a plan going to the mountain that will pay dividends for the rest of the season and Countdown.

“I can’t say enough about our NAPA AutoCare Center guys,” Capps said. “They put together the car for Denver that we replaced in Bristol, and thanks to the DSR fab shop, they put a new front half of the chassis. Tobler decided to go to Denver and run that car to make sure that it was good enough to go upstairs in one of our (race car) transporters for us to have as a backup. I brag about his NAPA Know How and being ready for anything.”

Before leaving Denver for Sonoma, the team prepared their primary NAPA Dodge for racing back at sea level.

And Capps was able to return to his annual family vacation at  Paso Robles on California’s central coast about 250 miles north of Sonoma.

“It’s a crazy time,” said Capps, whose daughter, Taylor, celebrates her 21st birthday this week.

“Home cooking, fun, staying in the motorcoach up on the hill with family, friends and high school friends always makes this race the most run for me.

“I’ve gotten a lot of win lights at Sonoma and taken four (NHRA Wally trophies) home from Sonoma. So we always look forward to this race.”

California native Pritchett ready  to sea level with Papa John’s after being runner-up Sunday in Mopar Mile-High Nationals at  Denver

– The Papa John’s Pizza/Mopar team with driver Leah Pritchett accomplished everything it wanted in the NHRA Mopar Mile-High Nationals last weekend near Denver except leave with its fourth Mello Yello Drag Racing Series title of the year.

The team Powered by Pennzoil set a Bandimere Speedway elapsed-time record to earn its fourth No. 1 qualifying position in 14 of 24 Mello Yello races.

And Pritchett took a big bite out of points leader Steve Torrence’s margin over her.

The native of Southern California and graduate of Cal State San Bernardino also advanced to her fifth final round of the year. Unfortunately, she faced Don Schumacher Racing teammate Antron Brown in the championship round and the three-time and reigning world champion edged her for the NHRA Wally Trophy.

Brown also was able to move around her for second in the standings as the Mello Yello Series heads to Northern California this week for the NHRA Sonoma Nationals in the wine country near San Francisco.

“It’s hard to be disappointed with a weekend like we had,” said Pritchett, who trails Torrence by 70 points and Brown by 16. “We had success all the way around with a few ups and downs.

“We experienced a little bit of carnage in the thin mile-high air to start off the weekend, but Todd backed off the power a little and that helped. Our Mopar power really came through on our last qualifying run when we got the pole. We got it with a 3.733-second run and the quickest anyone had ever gone on the mountain was a (3.767). We’re fairly confident our record will stick for a number of years.”

But she wanted to win the trophy badly as the event marked the 80th anniversary of the Mopar brand.

“I can’t tell you any other race that I’ve ever wanted to win so much for a partner,” she said of Mopar. “We’re incredibly proud to represent Mopar, and wish we could have won.

“We were bleeding Mopar blue all weekend long, like we normally do. And the passion of the fans on the mountain doesn’t get any higher. I think they were a driving force in our success, and I’ve never been around so many Mopar fans.”

Hagan ready to return to normalcy after Mile-High Nationals with 80th anniversary Mopar Dodge this weekend at Sonoma Raceway

– For people who visit the mile-high city of Denver, leaving the mountain could be a much-needed boost for their lungs that have been deprived of oxygen.

But for an 11,000-horsepower Dodge Charger R/T, it’ll be a return to normalcy and everyone on the 80th Anniversary Mopar/Express Lane Funny Car will be breathing easier. To say that the Mopar Mile-High Nationals was a challenge for two-time Funny Car champion Hagan and the Mopar team would be an understatement.

“Well, we went to the mountain and the mountain did not agree with us,” Hagan said bluntly. “It was just a struggle from the moment we unloaded there. We had a pretty decent boomer there in the first round of qualifying and we just struggled all weekend after that. We hurt a lot of stuff, a lot of parts and we hate that. That’s not like us, that’s not what we do.”

But this weekend’s NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway in the wine country near San Francisco will be a breath of fresh sea-level air for crew chief Dickie Venables, assistant Michael Knudsen and the Mopar team.

“The great thing is, Denver is a one-off race. We won’t see those conditions until next year. So we switched everything back over to what we normally have on the car and we’ll go to Sonoma and have all the confidence in the world that we’ll be just fine this weekend.”

Hagan is seeking his first career win at Sonoma but was runner-up in 2012 and has two poles from the track that is known for quick elapsed times. The team has three event titles in four final round appearances through 14 of 24 Mello Yello events this season.

“We’re ready to see what we can do in Sonoma,” he said. “It’s just a relief to return to what we know and we’re ready to get after it this weekend. It’s a beautiful place to go and they just pack the fans in there. So we’ll do our best to try and put on a show for everyone… but not the kind of show we put on last weekend with all of those boomers.”

Most recent Top Fuel winner Brown ready for part two of NHRA Western Swing at Sonoma this weekend with Matco Tools team

– Part one of the three-part NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series annual Western Swing is in the books for Antron Brown and the Matco Tools Top Fuel team

Stop one last weekend near Denver at Bandimere Speedway resulted in a mile-high victory for the three-time Top Fuel champion and the team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald.

The third win of the season for Brown also marked the 50th time his longtime crew chief Corradi earned an event title as crew chief.

“We’re where we’re at because we never quit,” said Brown. “Everybody wants to work together to beat each other. When you motivate each other to beat each other, you raise it to a different bar. We elevate each other to a new level.

“All the other teams have elevated themselves and it’s anybody’s race. You’ve got cars out here that can win and set world records every weekend. We’ve got to step up and try to go to another level.”

They’ll try to take it to the next level this weekend at Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., at the Toyota NHRA Nationals. Brown has four Sonoma event titles, including in 2009 when he swept the Western Swing by winning all three events.

But it’ll be a challenge to do that again according to Brown.

“It’s tough,” he said. “The conditions and the changes that these crew chiefs have to make in three weeks is what makes it so difficult. (Crew chiefs) Brian (Corradi) and Mark (Oswald) are the best of the best and we’ve done it before and we’d love to do it again. It’s getting tougher every year to win one race, let alone three in a row. We’re having a good season but there’s a lot more racing left to do and we just want to continue to get better every weekend.”

“Anybody can win on any given Sunday. It doesn’t matter where you qualify, it’s whoever has it together on Sunday. That’s been proven race in and race out this year.”

This Sunday has added importance for Brown whose debut as a co-host on the popular Top Gear America show at 8 p.m. (EDT) international cable channel BBC America.