DSR Atlanta Team Pre-Race Reports
Atlanta, GA – Ron Capps’ relationship with NAPA AUTO PARTS began in 2008 at Don Schumacher Racing and since then each year 
he has competed in the NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga., he wants to have a long day of racing on Sunday.
Of course his goal at every event on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series circuit is to be racing in the championship round of eliminations, but the Atlanta event carries extra luster.
Ron has won 13 of his 41 NHRA event titles with NAPA AUTO PARTS on his Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car, and none was bigger than in 2012 when he won in the backyard of Atlanta-based NAPA AUTO PARTS.
NAPA’s headquarters is about 70 miles southwest of the Commerce track and there is nothing better for Ron than to celebrate winning an NHRA Wally trophy with your sponsor and family.
The 2012 Atlanta title was the first for Ron since team owner Don Schumacher paired him with three-time world championship crew chief Rahn Tobler four races into the season.
“I’d been to the final round there four times and it couldn’t have meant more to finally win there for NAPA AUTO PARTS and to do it with Tobler,” Ron said.
One of the guests in the winner’s circle was Mike Rearden, who oversees the NAPA AUTO PARTS motorsports program.
“Mike has been such a big supporter of our program, and that’s why I gave him the Wally that day. I spend so much time with my NAPA family all across the country to have Mike and other NAPA friends from Atlanta there with me is something we’ll all remember.”
Another title in the Southern Nationals, which begins with qualifying Friday and Saturday leading to Sunday’s eliminations for the top-16 qualifiers, would bring back even more special memories.
Atlanta is where Ron advanced to his first of 82 final rounds in 1995 while a rookie driving the Top Fuel dragster owned by Roger Primm.
“That doesn’t seem like a long time ago,” Ron said. “But it’s been 18 years and 417 races since then.”
The race near Atlanta is the first of three in three weeks for the Mello Yello series. From Commerce, Ga., the series moves to Topeka, Kan., and Englishtown, N.J. It’s the first of three segments on the 24-event schedule with three or four events on successive weekends.
– Jack Beckman and crew chief Rob Flynn competed at their first event of the year in January to open the 2014 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
The Valvoline MaxLife Dodge Charger R/T team started with a virtually new crew and the team leaders, including assistant Terry Snyder, knew it would take several races to return to a level comparable to 2012 when Jack’s team won the NHRA Funny Car world championship.
The team will carry momentum to Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga., when qualifying begins on Friday.
At the last event near Houston two weeks ago, Jack advanced to the championship round for the first time this season. It also was the first time the Valvoline Dodge advanced to the semifinals.
It was only the second time in six events this season that a Don Schumacher Racing Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car raced in the championship round. All four DSR Funny Car teams are seeking their first title of the season.
“We’ve had a pretty decent car all year, it’s just that our results hadn’t shown it until Houston,” said Jack, whose team has not won an event title since September 2012. “We just couldn’t get passed the second round, and if we ran good the car in the next lane would run low (elapsed time) of the round.
“We knew if we could do that on a more consistent basis that we’d start going deeper in eliminations, and Houston proved that. Our crew members who haven’t experienced their first win are hungry.
“Getting to the final round was a reward for how hard they’ve been working.”
Atlanta will be a good place for the Valvoline MaxLife team to return to the winner’s circle. Jack won Funny Car titles there in 2009 and 2011.
“I’ve had good success at Atlanta, and now odds-makers have to think we’re a good bet to go deep on Sunday,” he said. “After Houston everybody knows we’re close.”
– A two week hiatus from NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series competition meant catching up on farm work and family time for Matt Hagan.
The NHRA series last raced on April 25-27 near Houston before this weekend’s 34th annual NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway, where Hagan and the Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots team earned the No. 1 qualifying spot a year ago and went on to be the runner-up to former DSR teammate Johnny Gray.
“I’ve finally caught up on the farm a little bit,” Matt said. “Just been fertilizing and working on roads and baling hay, staying busy and spending some time with my kids. We’re coming up on a huge race swing when we’ll be racing 10 out of the next 12 weekends. It’s going to be tough to not be home and see them every day so I’ve been soaking up time with them.”
Getting the first win of the season has been on Matt’s mind during his time off. The Mopar team led by crew chief Dickie Venables hasn’t advanced past the first round of eliminations at four of six Mello Yello events this season and sits eighth in Funny Car points standings.
“We’ve had a tough season so far, there’s no way around that,” he said. “We’ve gone out in the first round a bunch but we’re still sitting in the top-10. We need to make something happen quick so that we can stay in the top-10 and compete for a championship. There’s still a lot of racing left but the season is upon us so we have to really get going.
“It’s going to be awesome to go back to Atlanta. Obviously we want to win, we were runner-up there last year. None of our DSR Funny Cars have a win yet this season so we want to be the first to pull down a trophy for Don (Schumacher) and all of our sponsors like Mopar and Rocky Boots that support us.”
Even though Hagan has been on his cattle farm in rural Virginia, he’s stayed in contact with his team based at Don Schumacher Racing headquarters in Brownsburg, Ind.
“Talking to Dickie I feel like we’re on the right track to turn this car around,” Matt said. “It ends up being a few little things here and there that bit us in Houston. Dickie knows what’s going on and he’s a great, smart crew chief.
“All the folks that root for us, just keep on doing it because the car is going to turn around and we’re going to have some fun doing it.”
– Successful drivers and crew chiefs in any form of motorsports share exceptional memories for nuances of tracks, weather conditions and past performances.
Antron Brown and his Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald have impeccable abilities of recall except when it comes to after leaving a track, win or lose.
“One thing I really love about our team is that it doesn’t matter what we did before our first qualifying run, it only matters how we end up in qualifying,” said Antron, who has won 44 NHRA event titles including 28 in Top Fuel with three of those coming this year for the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series points leader.
“It matters how much we grow with each run. We’ll have problems at every race, but we’ll grow from it. We get our car into a zone that’s ready to race on Sunday.”
That plan won’t deviate when the Matco Tools team arrives Friday at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Ga., for the 34th running of the NHRA Southern Nationals.
They will file in their memory banks that they have won the past two Mello Yello titles and return to the storied track as the reigning event winner. Momentum has been building since winning two of last year’s last four events when the 2012 Top Fuel world champions fell one spot short of repeating.
Over the past 10 events, including six this season, the Matco Tools team has advanced to seven championship rounds and won five of them.
“It feels good that we’re in stride right now,” Antron said. “You go into a race with confidence when your car’s running good. The main thing is we know what our team is always capable of. We know we have a really good chance of winning every race if we do our jobs right.”
It certainly helps confidence when you arrive at a track that carries special memories.
“It’s always been a good race track for me,” said Antron, who began competing in Top Fuel in 2008. “I distinctly remember winning there on the U.S. Army bike when I beat Andrew Hines in the final (2006). I remember getting my second Top Fuel Wally (with David Powers Motorsports) when I beat Tony Schumacher on a holeshot (in 2008, a season when his future teammate at Don Schumacher Racing won 15 of the 24 event titles). That was a huge deal because that was the era when no one was beating Tony.”
Even without his Atlanta successes – five event titles in six championship rounds – Atlanta would be a special place for Antron on the 24-event Mello Yello pro tour.
“It reminds me of one of the old school race tracks that I grew up at around New Jersey. When you go there it’s the history and environment that brings you back to when you were a little kid. The stands are really close to the track and the a lot of old-school drag racers who up. It makes me feel like where it all started for me, and I can just think about going fast and then going faster
After a two-week break in NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing series action, the teams will compete on three consecutive weekends starting with this weekend’s 34th annual NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.
The teams will then travel to Topeka and Englishtown, N.J., the following two weeks before enjoying a week off at the Don Schumacher Racing headquarters in Brownsburg, Ind. during a stretch of 10 races in 12 weeks.
“These weeks off just make me want to race more, win more,” Spencer said. “I haven’t been in my car in a while and I don’t really like that feeling. I’m excited to get back to racing. We have three races in a row and this Battery Extender team really thrives on that.
“It’s getting ready to be a tough part of our season and for whatever reason my guys usually do better when we race every week. We’re ready to get it all started in Atlanta this weekend.”
The Battery Extender team led by crew chiefs Phil Shuler and Todd Okuhara has one semifinal finish and five quarterfinal finishes through six races this season.
“We’ve definitely been creeping up on it,” he said. “Our car seems to get stronger at each race we have just had some bad luck here and there. We seem to be in a second-round slump right now but I don’t even know that you can call it a slump because with the competition this year it’s not easy to get round wins and we’ve gotten at least one at every race this season.
“We just need to build on that and continue to get stronger. I feel a win coming soon, for sure. These guys aren’t used to going this deep in the season without getting a Wally and we’re ready to change that. I’ve never won at Atlanta but we seem to run fast there. The weather is looking great to put up some big numbers on Friday night in the cool conditions.
“I’m just hoping Phil (Shuler) leans in and tells me to tighten my belts and hold on because that usually means we’re going for it and I love that.”
