Low spot in standings doesn’t lower Brown’s optimism that reigning championship Matco team will be back in race
BROWNSBURG, IN – Antron Brown made a statement a year ago when the NHRA Mello Yello Series visited the 
Dallas area for the second of six events in the Countdown to the Championship.
Brown rallied to win last year’s event in Texas after losing in the first round the previous week to start the Countdown playoff. That provided momentum for him to win his first NHRA world championship two months later.
And the reigning Top Fuel world champion hopes to make more noise this weekend during the AAA Fallnationals at the Texas Motorplex.
The popular driver of the Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster for Don Schumacher Racing will need the boldest declaration of the year if he is to defend his prestigious championship because he is faced with a much higher mountain to climb.Last weekend at the opening Countdown event near Charlotte, Brown did not qualify for Sunday’s championship eliminations. That ended the seventh longest qualifying streak among active professional NHRA drivers and stopped his run at 110 consecutive events where he qualified dating to November 2008.
It also was only the third time in his 16-year pro career and 281 NHRA events that he was not racing on eliminations day.
“You never imagine that something like that is going to happen,” said Brown, who dropped from sixth to ninth in the standings and is 124 points behind DSR teammate and points leader Spencer Massey.
“And we never imagined that’s how we’d start the Countdown.”
Only 10 drivers qualified for the Countdown after the 18-event regular season so Brown not only has to make up a 124-point deficit in five races but has to get around eight other drivers to reach the pinnacle.
“Sure, it’s going to be hard but we haven’t given up on getting back to the top; no one on this team ever gives up,” Brown said. “We spent Monday testing at zMAX Dragway (near Charlotte) and we made some great runs.
“Now we have to do that once we get to Dallas.”
Reigning world champ Beckman moves up to fourth in MTS/Valvoline Dodge heading to Texas Motorplex
– Jack Beckman took a step closer toward defending his 2012 NHRA Funny Car world championship, but he knows his MTS Mail for Wounded Warriors/Valvoline Dodge Charger R/T needs to start taking bigger ones.
Beckman along with crew chief Todd Smith and assistant Terry Snyder intend for that to happen this weekend near Dallas in the AAA Fallnationals at the Texas Motorplex and second round of the six-race NHRA Countdown to the Championship.
Beckman had a solid showing last weekend to open the Countdown near Charlotte by advancing to the semifinals where he lost to Don Schumacher Racing teammate and points leader Matt Hagan.
The result not only prevented from gaining 20 points on Hagan but it amounted to a 40-point swing in Beckman’s mission to overcome the 2011 Funny Car world champion.
“That’s the match-up we’re going to have to win if we’re going to get another championship,” Beckman said. “We have to get points on them.”
Beckman eliminated a pair of world champions to get to the semifinals where he met Hagan, who went on to finish as the event’s runner-up and extend his lead over Beckman to 92 points.
In the first round, he beat the higher qualified Del Worsham, who won the 2011 Top Fuel world title. In the next round, Beckman took out 2003 and 2007 Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon.
But Hagan’s 4.084-second run ended the day for Beckman, whose time of 4.116 was his slowest of the day.
“Our car really responded to the changes we made,” Beckman said. “It seems to be more predictable and getting closer to what we had with last year’s car.
“If you’re going to find the right time to dial-in a consistently quick race car, then this is it.”
Although Beckman has spent most of his life in Southern California, he knows the Dallas area well and not just because he’s raced there regularly. His father, Bob Beckman, lives near Dallas which makes this weekend’s visit more special provided the weather cooperates.
“You never know what to expect, and it depends which Dallas you get. Typically it’s hot and nasty this time of year when we come to race.”
The forecast could be more favorable with highs forecast in the low- to mid-80s with only Saturday in jeopardy of scattered thunderstorms.
The Motorplex is one NHRA national event track where Beckman has not won but was a finalist in 20009.
“We’ve never won there and haven’t won this year yet so we can check two things off our list,” he said.
NAPA’s Capps adjusts to role of hunter in NHRA Countdown after disappointing opening Sunday in championship playoff– Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car team didn’t match their start to last year’s NHRA Countdown to the Championship, but he likes the position is team is in.”It didn’t work out for us last year, and sometime it’s better to be the hunter than the hunted,” he said after in losing the second round Sunday by two-thousandth of a second in the NHRA Mello Yello Series event near Charlotte.
Last season, Capps with crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant John Collins, left the track at Concord, N.C., with a title at the first of six Countdown races and the points lead. But the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T team missed winning the season championship by two points that left Capps as the runner-up for a fourth time.
After losing early Sunday, Capps held onto second place in championship points but fell from 30 to 82 points behind Don Schumacher Racing teammate and points leader Matt Hagan, who was the event’s runner-up.
“Having the points lead was nice a year ago at this time but look where it got us,” he said. “We know every point is important. I’m not so sure that having the points lead and having a target on your back isn’t any easier than being second this early in the Countdown.”
Capps, who has won three of his 41 career titles this season, advanced to the semifinals a year ago near Dallas and held first in the standings after that race and through the following one at Gateway Motorsports Park near St. Louis.
“We need to start winning rounds at Texas and someone has to get Matt out early,” Capps said. “Matt’s my teammate but when it’s the Countdown you can’t have any friends once you get on the track.”
The NAPA AUTO PARTS remaining at the North Carolina track Monday for testing and were pleased with the results.
Capps knows this weekend at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas could be pivotal and a second title at the track to go along with the one he won there in 1998 would go a long way toward moving atop the standings.
Points leader Hagan wants to deliver Freightliner Dodge Funny Car into winner’s circle this weekend in Fall Nationals at Texas Motorplex– Matt Hagan will have a new look at Texas Motorplex this weekend and it won’t only be on his 10,000-horsepower Dodge Funny Car.The frontrunner for the NHRA Funny Car world championship vows also to have a new outlook as well.
Hagan will fly the colors of longtime Don Schumacher Racing sponsor Freightliner for the AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals while shedding the disappointment of last week’s runner-up finish near Charlotte. Freightliner, an American manufacturer of heavy duty trucks, chassis and semi-trailer trucks in the United States, has been supplying the DSR organization with big rigs for the past nine years.
“I’m looking forward to seeing all the folks with Freightliner this weekend,” Hagan said. “It’s a neat one-off car. Hopefully we can do really well for them. We’re just looking to keep this momentum rolling. It’s usually hot in Dallas so (crew chief Dickie Venables) will make the proper adjustments for that and we’ll get after it.”
Hagan is ready to move on after a holeshot loss in the championship round to Robert Hight last weekend near Charlotte at the first of four consecutive events and six overall in the Countdown to the Championship playoff. The Freightliner/Mopar/Rocky Boots team extended their points lead by more than four rounds of racing (82 points) over DSR teammate and second place Ron Capps.
“We’re starting off with some good momentum going into Dallas,” said Hagan, who won at Dallas in 2010. “One thing about Dickie is he has his stuff together. He proved that the other day.
“I came into Charlotte and I asked him if he was ready to go and he said ‘Don’t you worry about me, worry about yourself’ and I said ‘alright.’ Maybe I needed to worry about myself a little bit more since I lost the final on a holeshot but at the end of the day. I know what I did wrong.
“It was a great race for us, and we’re ready to move forward. I’m just going to go up there and do my thing like I have been doing all year long. It’s a tough Funny Car class out there right now.
“We’ve been consistent all year long and that’s what we’re aiming to do these last five races. We gained added to our lead at Charlotte but can’t afford any slip-ups. At the end of the day no matter what, we’ve already had a great season and I’m ready to see how it plays out.”
Fort Worth native Massey ready for another shot at Wally trophy with No. 1-ranked Battery Extender dragster at Texas Motorplex
– The most wonderful time of the year doesn’t come in December for Spencer Massey. It comes in September and it takes place at the Texas Motorplex near Dallas.
A Fort Worth native, Massey will return to his home track with high hopes of earning a Wally trophy in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Top Fuel class. Massey, who turned 31 on Sept. 13, first laid eyes on Top Fuel dragsters at the Motorplex as a child in 1986 and has been dreaming of winning there in a dragster ever since.
“It would mean a lot to me to win at Texas Motorplex,” Massey said. “I’ve been coming here since I was a little kid, dreaming of driving Top Fuel here. I still remember seeing Top Fuel dragsters there for the first time.
“That’s when I got hooked to drag racing. That’s when I knew that’s what I wanted to do with my life. I’ve come so close to winning that Top Fuel Wally here and I want that special cowboy hat they give the winner.”
Massey and the Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher team has momentum going into Dallas stemming from a runner-up finish at the last event near Charlotte that moved his team to No. 1 in the Top Fuel standings for the first time in 19 races this year.
“We’ve definitely got momentum on our side heading into Dallas,” said Massey, who has won four titles this season with crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler. “We had a great outing in Charlotte and took over the points lead, but we know we have to keep going rounds to stay in the fight for the championship.”
Massey has numerous wins from Texas Motorplex from his days of driving NHRA Jr. Dragsters and racing in NHRA Sportsman Super Comp class. He’s been runner-up the past two years near Dallas in Top Fuel.
“I’ve won lot of races at the Motorplex. From Jr. Dragster races to Super Comp races, even a track championship. But to win in Top Fuel there would be huge for me. I’ve been to the final round the past two years and just came up short. That just makes me want it more. My family and friends will there cheering me on and I’m ready to go.”
“We know what we have to do. We just can’t go out there and beat ourselves. That’s what we’ve said all season long. Now it’s time to show it.”
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Dallas area for the second of six events in the Countdown to the Championship.
