4 Wide on Tap for DSR this Weekend
World champ Capps ready for Four-Wide fun in NAPA Brakes Dodge near Charlotte after winning NHRA Mello Yello trophy at Houston
BROWNSBURG, IN – Ron Capps and his world championship NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car put a stop Sunday to 
a streak of not winning an NHRA Mello Yello Series title for 13 events.
The timing was perfect considering this weekend’s event at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte Motor Speedway’s kicks off a month-long NAPA Brakes promotion with the team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant Eric Lane.
Capps and his NAPA AutoCare Centers crew dominated the last part of the 2016 season to win his first championship but their Dodge last visited a winner’s circle in last August at Seattle before a dominant, consistent weekend in the NHRA SpringNationals near Houston where they qualified second.
“These things become so hard to win nowadays,” said Capps, who posted the 50th Funny Car win of his career Sunday. “It’s not like it was a decade ago, but, my gosh, you almost start taking things for granted after last year when we won five Wally trophies.
“It takes a lot of pressure off but the NHRA Mellow Yello Funny Car division has to be the most competitive thing in the world right now in motorsports. It’s cutthroat. It’s big to get a win.”
There isn’t much time to savor the victory as the Mello Yello Series will race this weekend in the second of three events in consecutive weeks.
And it will be the Four-Wide Nationals, the most unique event on the 24-race circuit in which four nitro cars line up at time on the world’s only four-lane dragstrip.
“I look forward to the Four-Wide every year,” said Capps, who advanced to the championship quad a year ago but has yet to win the event title.
“It’s an exciting race, and I tell fans they have to see it in person at least once,” he said. “I guarantee you that after the first qualifying session every driver will be talking about how they staged because it’s so much fun. It’s just so different.”
In the Four-Wide, four pro racecars run together in each of four qualifying sessions beginning Friday with the 16 quickest advancing to Sunday’s championship elimination rounds in which the first two to the finish line move to the next heat. In the third and final quad, the first to the line gets the coveted Wally Trophy.
Capps would love back-to-back wins, even if he would have to repeat how he won Sunday. Capps’ engine was on fire when he crossed the finish line in the final round and unaware that Robert Hight had been disqualified for the crossing the center line moments earlier.
“We knew we were up against a tough car, and we were a little off going into that round,” Capps said. “I knew Tobler had tuned it up a little bit.
“I got out there and it started spinning the tires a little bit. And these things have so much fuel going in, you know they are literally going to be a bomb when they get that much fuel and start spinning the tires.
“You’ve got to make a decision and you don’t have time to put your hand on your chin and go, ‘should I or shouldn’t I?’ But I just stayed in the throttle and it exploded and exploded big. The downside was I couldn’t see the win light because of the fire so I wasn’t sure who won.
“I think it’s the wildest win I’ve ever had.”
Pritchett joins elite group with Papa John’s Pizza Top Fuel team, heads to Four-Wide after winning, regaining points lead near Houston
– Winner’s circle parties are never boring for Leah Pritchett and her Papa John’s Pizza Top Fuel dragster team and new wrinkles were added to their post-race celebration after winning the NHRA Mello Yello title Sunday in the NHRA SpringNationals near Houston.
The Papa John’s squad spent Tuesday at nearby Galveston beach and she rode in the team’s Dodge Durango tow-vehicle from there to Charlotte, where they will race this weekend in the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte Motor Speedway.
“We had a blast at Galveston and we let ‘Wally’ play in the sand,” said Pritchett, who won for the third time this season and regained the Top Fuel points lead after losing it three weeks ago to Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher at Las Vegas.
Pritchett continues to have an historical season. She started the year with crew chief Todd Okuhara and assistant Joe Barlam by becoming the first Top Fuel driver to ever win the first two races from the No. 1 qualifying position.
On Sunday, she became only the 10th driver in Top Fuel history to begin the year by winning three of the first five Mello Yello events, and six of the first nine went on to win world season championships while the other three were runners-up for the ultimate prize.
“Wow, that’s amazing,” she said. “We are a very long way from winning a championship, but it’s very nice to be able look at the standings and think about it.
“This team shows me how good they are every day whether we’re at the track or back at our DSR shop. We can still get better, and as tough as the competition is out here we have to keep working to at that.”
Charlotte will be the second of three Mello Yello events in three weekends, and it will be the first time Pritchett competes in the unique Four-Wide race that pits four teams racing together on the world’s only four-lane dragstrip. She competed in the event for the first time a year ago when she qualified ninth and lost in the first quad in eliminations.
“I’ve done a lot of racing and never experienced anything like that. It was crazy,” she said. “We had to get used to having four cars stage at the same time and felt comfortable by the time Sunday rolled around. It was insane, but a lot of fun.”
Pritchett, has won at the track before. She won NHRA Pro Modified titles there in in fall of 2011 and 2012.
Home track advantage for Hagan, Mopar Dodge team perfect race for Mello Yello points leader to rebound from early loss near Houston
– There’s nothing like going home after a disappointing trip so it’s perfect timing for NHRA Mello Yello Series Funny Car points leader Matt Hagan to be racing this weekend near Charlotte in the eighth annual NHRA Four-Wide Nationals this weekend near Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Hagan opened this year by winning the first two events on the Mello Yello tour but Sunday near Houston in the fifth event of season the two-time NHRA world champion was eliminating in the opening round to Don Schumacher Racing teammate Jack Beckman after qualifying 11th, the worst of the year for Hagan’s Mopar Express Lane 2017 Dodge Charger R/T.
“You have to be able to go out there and put a good number on the board during qualifying so we don’t have to race a DSR teammate in the first or second round on Sunday,” Hagan said. “That makes a big difference. The Funny Car competition is tough but the toughest ones out there are the DSR guys pitted next to us.
“A lot of racing still left and we’re going to my home track at Charlotte where my entire family will be. I’m pretty pumped about that and we’re just going to roll on with it.”
Hagan will be racing about 165 miles from his cattle farm in Christiansburg, Va., and most of his family and friends will make the short drive to zMAX Dragway next to Charlotte Motor Speedway to provided added support when racing begins on Friday with qualifying of the most unique event in drag racing.
The Four-Wide Nationals is contested on the only four-lane dragstrip in the world that pits four nitro racecars on the track at the same time in four qualifying sessions with the top-16 advancing to Sunday’s eliminations when the top two in the heats of four advance to the next round.
Hagan with crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen won the Four-Wide Nationals in 2013 and have won at the track two other times in a total of five final round appearances.
And the Charlotte track is where he became the first Funny Car driver to crack the 4-second barrier with a time of in 3.995 in 2011 that led to the lane being named his honor.
“Man, that sure seems like a long time ago,” said Hagan, who set the Funny Car time (3.822 seconds) and speed (335.57 mph) records last year and duplicated those numbers at this year’s season-opener at Pomona, Calif.
He set the Charlotte track speed mark at 323.50 last year which is one of 16 NHRA track time and speed records he currently holds.
The Four-Wide race is the second of three on successive weekends for the Mello Yello tour that races near Atlanta next weekend.
Brown keeps busy during time off from Mello Yello Series but ready to put Matco Tools dragster back in Houston winner’s circle
– Antron Brown isn’t afraid of work. The three-time and reigning NHRA Top Fuel champion seemingly has a never-ending supply of energy and that’s what he needs as he juggles family time, racing in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and filming as a host on the upcoming return the internationally popular “Top Gear America” television program.
After winning the most recent Mello Yello event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two weeks ago, Brown has been spending his time crisscrossing the country for filming and squeezing family time in with his wife Billie Jo, and their three children near Indianapolis. And there was an appearance at the New York International Auto Show for longtime partner Toyota.
“It has been nonstop the past couple of weeks but I’m having a good time,” Brown said. ‘Top Gear’ is a lot of fun. The coolest part about it is that it will reach 200 million people worldwide. We are going to spread some NHRA Mello Yello love across the globe. We will keep growing the sport. It’s pretty huge.”
At Las Vegas, Brown and the Matco Tools team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald with assistant Brad Mason scored their first event title of the season and moved to third in Top Fuel points standings. Brown also became the first Top Fuel driver to win at least one race in 10 consecutive seasons.
“That’s a testament to the team we’ve got here,” he said. “It’s not just our Matco Toyota team, but it’s everyone back in the Don Schumacher Racing shop. There are a lot of people that make this thing work with their blood, sweat and tears and that’s what makes something like this possible.”
The Mello Yello Series heads to near Houston this weekend for the NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway where Brown has two event titles and two poles.
“We just take it one round at a time. We just focus. You don’t know going into a race weekend if you’re going to win a round. We don’t show up on Sunday morning knowing we are going to go four rounds. You just worry about one round at a time. You go through that process and that’s what makes winning feel so good.
“Yyou look at the end result and when you make it happen, you look at all the work it took and you know it’s well worth it. You never know when you’re going to win again, so you don’t take it for granted. You stay humble and you put the work in.”
Beckman looks for more fun this weekend in Four-Wide after year’s best event for Chandler’s Infinite Hero Dodge
– Jack Beckman has had few different crew chief combinations at Don Schumacher Racing along with a couple crew changes so he is accustomed to being patient at the start of an NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.
With a trio of crew chiefs – John Medlen, Dean Antonelli and Neal Strausbaugh – working together for the first time along with nearly all new crewmen Beckman, the 2012 NHRA Funny Car world champion, has talked about Terry Chandler’s Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car gaining consistency after each of this year’s first four events.
Consistency became a byproduct of patience last weekend in the NHRA SpringNationals near Houston when Beckman and crew advanced to their first semifinals after three of four exemplary runs between 3.907 and 3.931 seconds to qualify sixth before a weekend best of 3.897 at 329.18 mph in the quarterfinals.
“Without a doubt, Houston was our best outing of the year,” he said. “We put together several consecutive quick runs and that’s been our target.
“Winning races is a function of running better than the car in the other lane; winning championships is a matter of having a great handle on the car and consistently getting to the finish line under full power a majority of the time.”
The resident of Southern California is ready for a cross-country flight that will take him to the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway next to Charlotte Motor Speedway. The sixth race of the year is the most unique as four nitro cars fill each of four lanes for qualifying then on Sunday the top-two finishers in each quad advance to the next rounds. Instead of four rounds of two-lane racing in eliminations, there are only three round.
“The Four-Wide is great because you only have to be the quickest in the last of three (quads) on race day to take home the trophy,” he said. “I like the Four-Wide because it takes us out of our comfort zone but it only gives crew chiefs one run of data for each lane in qualifying.”
Beckman has been successful at zMAX, especially the Four-Wide where he has won twice (2011, 2015) while winning the fall race at the track in 2008 and was runner-up in 2010.
Make-A-Wish team hopes to bounce back after early Houston loss at unique Four-Wide race near Charlotte before Johnson’s family
– NHRA drivers have a love/hate relationship with the Four-Wide Nationals near Charlotte, N.C., and Tommy Johnson Jr., driver of Terry Chandler’s Make-A-Wish Funny Car, loves the Four-Wide.
“We’re headed to the Four-Wide and I actually enjoy it but a lot of people hate it,” Johnson said of the unique format of the Four-Wide Nationals.
For 23 events a season, teams line up in pairs to face their competition. But in the spring at zMAX Dragway, the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series lines up nitro cars in quads for a sensory overload of 44,000 horsepower.
“I enjoy it. It’s different and I enjoy the challenge of it,” he said. “It’s definitely harder than racing two-wide just from a concentration level.”
There is an added level of difficulty to the Four-Wide because not only are drivers matched against three competitors, the staging process is different and has a history of giving drivers fits.
“I’m pretty confident about Charlotte. We didn’t run bad, we just didn’t run great in Houston. You’ll have a bad race every now and again,” Johnson said of his initial first-round loss of 2017 last weekend at the NHRA SpringNationals.
“I’ve done pretty well in Charlotte in the past and I’m looking forward to going their again and see if we can’t follow up from what we did there in the fall when we were runner-up so we’ll see if we can make that a little better.”
Last fall at the NHRA Carolina Nationals, the Make-A-Wish team led by crew chief John Collins and assistant Rip Reynolds entered race day as the No. 1 qualifying team and advanced to the final round before losing to John Force.
Johnson says that any time the NHRA travels to Charlotte it’s a bit of a homecoming for him as many of his family now lives in the area.
“It’s always fun to have the family there. I’ve been involved in racing with my family for years and it’s always nice to have my family and now my nephews coming out. It’s nice to have everybody out there supporting and coming out for the weekend.”
