Confidence renewed after Atlanta performance, DSR heads to Topeka
Hagan, Venables start a new streak in NHRA Mello Yello Series, hope to make it two wins in a row this weekend in Kansas Nationals
BROWNSBURG, IN – Matt Hagan figures it’s about time to start a streak on the dragstrip that he can enjoy.
The two-time NHRA Funny Car world champion will arrive at Heartland Park Topeka on Friday riding a winning streak that beats the heck out of the one he carried into Atlanta last weekend.
When Hagan and his Dodge Charger R/T defeated Don Schumacher Racing teammate Jack Beckman in the final round Sunday in the Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, the full-time cattle farmer ended a stretch of 19 races that he did not leave with the first-place trophy in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
It was the 19th title of his career and first at Atlanta. Now he wants to break into another winner’s circle and go on a winning streak. Before that, he last won in June 2015 at Bristol, Tenn.
“That win against Jack on Sunday felt great,” he said. “It had been a while and this sport is so tough that you never know when a win will be your last one.”
Hagan and the Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots team led by Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen were dominant on Sunday. The team was the quickest in each of four rounds after qualifying second and its best performance of the year came in the opening round when it set track records for elapsed time and speed with a run in 3.906 seconds at 329.02 mph.
“We all knew it was a matter of time before he Dickie figured it out, but Don (Schumacher) wants results right now. We love him to death and without him we can’t do this,” he said of the DSR owner who is vacationing abroad with his family.
“I’m sure spending piles of money and having fun, and we won him a little bit of money (Sunday).
“We’re really happy to get that monkey off our back. It really puts in perspective how hard these things are to win. It has been stressful and I have a few more gray hairs in my sideburns, but that’s part of it.”
Beckman rides off with another green hat in Southern Nationals but wants to defend his Kansas title and leave with a yellow one
– You can bet Jack Beckman won’t be buying a green John Deere hat this weekend when he’s around Heartland Park Topeka for the NHRA Kansas Nationals.
He just might even ignore anyone wearing one.
It’s not because for decades green was an unlucky, forbidden color in pit areas. That changed when sponsors with green in their pockets and green in their logos began to support racing.
You’d think Beckman and his Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team sponsored by Terry Chandler would love the color since they’ve collected four of the variety as the only bonus for winning four of the first seven No. 1 qualifying positions through seven of the first 24 events on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour.
That last group of green pole-winning hats was collected last weekend during the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.
“I want one of those yellow ones,” he’s said of the color hat that represents winning an NHRA national event.
A year ago he collected a career-best seven for winning an event title and another seven for earning the top seed. It was looking very good that he would win for the first time in 10 races when championship eliminations began Sunday in Commerce, Ga.
And he just might have had the coveted NHRA Wally trophy had it not been for teammate Matt Hagan, whose Don Schumacher Racing Dodge that in the first round took the track records Beckman and crew chief Jimmy Prock earned in qualifying and then beat the Infinite Hero team in the championship round.
It allowed Beckman to move up to second in Mello Yello standings.
Despite the plethora of John Deere hats and luscious green fields he’ll see this week around Heartland Park Topeka, he and his Infinite Hero team will see yellow when they and reflect on being the reigning event champions.
A year ago, the team snapped a 54-race losing streak winning the unique Four-Wide Nationals, but the victory four races later in Kansas was its first traditional two-lane race win in 29 months.
Last year’s trophy was the 250th for DSR, and that total has increased to 270 since.
All that adds why the Kansas track so appealing to Beckman
“Topeka literally is the heartland,” he said. “NHRA’s very first national event was held in Grand Bend, Kan., and Topeka is about as close as we get to that piece of history and as close as you can get to the middle of the country.
“And I’m fortunate to be a little bit of that history.”
He’d like to add another winning chapter this weekend.
And he won’t mind getting another green hat as long as he leaves wearing a yellow one.
Red Fuel team picking up speed with Langdon as Mello Yello series heads to Heartland Park Topeka for this weekend’s Kansas Nationals
– After a slow start to the 2016 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season, Shawn Langdon and the Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher/Sandvik Coromant team are picking up speed.
After five consecutive first round losses to start the season, the team led by crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler have improved to pick up round wins during Sunday eliminations, including most recently reaching the semifinals at last weekend’s Mello Yello event near Atlanta.
The Red Fuel/Sandvik team heads to Heartland Park Topeka for this weekend’s NHRA Kansas Nationals one point out of the top-10 in Top Fuel points standings.
“I’m excited to get to Topeka,” Langdon said. “After the past couple of races, we’ve been improving so much that I can’t wait to get to the next race and see what we can accomplish. Topeka is a great place to race. I’m glad that NHRA and everyone at Heartland Park was able to get this race back on the schedule.
“Coming into the racetrack knowing that we can go rounds and turn on win lights is great. We went down the racetrack seven times in Atlanta. That shows our potential and how good we can be on race day. We have confidence, we have momentum. Now we just have focus on turning on four win lights on Sunday.
“It’s been an interesting and challenging start to the season, for sure. It was a tough first few events but these Red Fuel/Sandvik guys knew that we could turn it around, we knew that we could get the car to respond to the changes we were making and it’s showing right now. We’re closing in on the top-10 in points and that’s really our main focus right now.”
After the first 18 Mello Yello events, the top-10 in points standings advance to the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs that begin near Charlotte in September.
“We’re working to move ourselves solidly in the top-10,” Langdon said. “Racing for the championship, that’s the big picture and what we’re all out here to do. We just have to keep setting and reaching goals and hopefully it’ll all come together in the end.”
Langdon is seeking his second career Heartland Park Topeka event title this weekend.
Johnson hopes to add to Heartland Park memory bank with NHRA Kansas Nationals event title in Make-A-Wish Dodge this weekend
BROWNSBURG, IN – A trip to Heartland Park Topeka is a trip down memory lane for Tommy Johnson Jr.
Johnson is hoping to add a win with the Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team at this weekend’s NHRA Kansas Nationals to the memory bank. He and crew chief John Collins both hail from Ottumwa, Iowa, roughly four hours from Heartland Park.
“It’s close to home for me and my crew chief John Collins, so that makes it extra special. Being from Iowa, it was only about four hours from where I grew up so I raced there a lot, national events and back when I raced Sportsman.
“I have a lot of memories there. I joined the four-second club there in 1991. My sister (Wendy) won her first and only national event there. She’s the youngest female to win an NHRA event at 17 years old in the Super Comp category. So just all of those things combined makes me really excited to go there again and see what we can do with this Make-A-Wish team.”
Adding a win from Heartland Park Topeka to his 12 career titles is on this weekend’s to-do list for Johnson and Collins with assistant crew chief Rip Reynolds. The Make-A-Wish team, sponsored by Terry Chandler, has reached back-to-back semifinals rounds in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
“We’re coming off of two semifinal finishes, which is great,” Johnson said. “The performance of the car is really coming around like we’re accustomed to. We had our best qualifying position of the year last weekend in Atlanta. So all of those things, they just build momentum for us. We just have to keep it going.
“I’ve been in the final there but never won, so it would definitely be special to win there because it does feel like I’m going home. I have a lot of friends that come out and that always makes you feel great.”
The Make-A-Wish team is ranked 10th in NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car points standings entering this weekend’s event.
“If we keep turning on win lights, the points will come. We just need to keep at it and heading into the right direction and we’ll be in the winner’s circle soon.”
Brown working hard off track to help Matco Tools team continue success as NHRA Mello Yello Series heads to Heartland Park Topeka
BROWNSBURG, IN – There is no rest for the weary on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour and that includes Antron Brown and the Matco Tools team.
The Matco Tools/U.S. Army team has reached at least the semifinals in the past four Mello Yello events, including when they scored their first event title of the season near Las Vegas last month.
While his team traveled between near Atlanta to Indianapolis before leaving for the NHRA Kansas Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka, Brown was working to better himself for his team.
Early Monday morning after returning from Atlanta Dragway where he reached the semifinals, Brown was at VFit Elite Athletes in Brownsburg, Ind., working to stay fit for an upcoming grueling stretch of four consecutive Mello Yello Series events in June.
“The thing about it is, I’m just trying to stay on top of my game,” Brown said. “My crew chiefs, the guys on my team, they don’t stop working. It’s our job to come back and put the work in even when we’re not at the track. So I feel like I need to do my part and for me that’s getting in the gym, getting my workout in, staying mentally and physically focused as best as I can.”
Hard work from the team and Brown off the track is paying dividends on track. Brown looks to score his first career event title from Heartland Park Topeka this weekend.
“We’ve been pretty darn good recently,” he said. “We’ve been working on some to make our car stronger and we accomplished that last weekend in Atlanta. We’re looking good right now.
“Topeka is a race that we always want to do well at. We always qualify well there. We haven’t won there yet but we’re working hard to try and bring a win home from there this year.
“It’s one of the few racetracks that we haven’t won at. We’re looking for wins at Topeka, Epping and Bristol because I haven’t won at those yet, so those are definitely on the top of my list.
“There’s a lot of history at that racetrack. Gary Ormsby, one of my heroes and mentors, you see his name on the property when you pull in. The game plan is to go there and try do the best that we can do and try to bring a win home.”
Two-time and reigning world champion Brown moved into second in Top Fuel points standings at Atlanta Dragway last weekend. He sits 64 points behind leader Doug Kalitta entering this weekend’s event in Topeka.
NAPA’s Capps thrilled to race at Topeka where he has three wins
BROWNSBURG, IN – Ron Capps returns to Heartland Park Topeka this Friday to compete in another NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event in his illustrious career.
As a drag racing historian, the driver of the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T for Don Schumacher Racing appreciates that the track is appropriately named because the area also is in the heartland of drag racing.
When he arrived at the Kansas Nationals last year he was disheartened to know that it could be the last NHRA event at the sprawling facility, but new investors surfaced late in 2015 and were able to work with the city and NHRA to keep the tradition going by adding the 28th annual edition of the event to the Mello Yello schedule.
“It was the premier facility in NHRA when it opened in 1989,” said Capps, whose first time racing there was six years later.
“Heartland Park had two big NHRA events each year from 1993 until 1997. National records were held there for many years,” he said, noting it is where Jim Epler made the first 300-mph run and the sport’s milestone 4-second time was produced by Chuck Etchells in NHRA Funny Car competition.
“It was fantastic when they announced that we would be going back to Topeka. That is a fast, fast racetrack and it brings a lot of fans from all over. It still has one of the better racing surfaces we see all year. I’ve been lucky enough to win there three times and almost won No. 4 last year. It’s been great place for me.
“No matter when we run there it seems to bring me some good mojo.”
Along with three Topeka wins, Capps advanced to his sixth final round a year ago after making it to the semifinals the two previous years.
For Capps, the importance of the track goes beyond the success he’s enjoyed there.
“That town has thrived from the revenue our races generate. I’ve always bragged that as soon as we hit town the NHRA race is on the front page of the paper and leads the news on TV, and not just in sports.
“The town always has been so welcoming and has embraced our sport. I hope we’ll be there for a long time. It’s a great racetrack.”
Capps could use some of the mojo he says Heartland Park provides.
The NAPA AUTO PARTS team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler and assistant Eric Lane had a good race last weekend in the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway but not the great one they wanted.
After four consistent qualifying runs that provided a No. 8 seed for Sunday’s eliminations, the NAPA Dodge easily disposed of 16-time world champion John Force in the opening run with a 3.938 seconds at 324.83 mph. Capps followed with a solid run of 3.992 (320.81) in the quarterfinals but lost by three-thousandths of a second to DSR teammate Jack Beckman, the event’s No. 1 qualifier and runner-up.
“We just lost a good drag race, but Tobler showed his NAPA Know How by adjusting all weekend to the changing weather,” said Capps, the second winningest Funny Car driver in NHRA history with 45 event titles including this year’s season-opener.
“We get a weekend off after Topeka and then its four straight, and that’s when this NAPA team is at its best.”
