DSR Heads to Vegas on a Winning Streak

DSR drivers are biggest stumbling block for Brown at Las Vegas but new points leader, recent winner ready to skip that this time

BROWNSBURG, IN – A year ago, Antron Brown missed racing in the championship round of the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the first time in four years.

The driver of Don Schumacher Racing’s Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald won the race in 2011 and has been the No. 1 qualifier three of the past four years including 2014.

The Matco team has been dominant at Las Vegas in the first of the track’s two annual events – it won the fall title in 2013 – but one obstacle keeps getting in its way: DSR teammates.

Last April, Antron lost in the semifinals to DSR teammate Tony Schumacher who went on to win the event trophy and his eighth world championship. In 2013, Schumacher beat Antron in the final round and the year before that it was Spencer Massey slipping past him in the trophy round. In 2008, Antron lost the last race to Cory McClenathan, who drove for DSR at the time.

The same scenario started this season when Antron lost to Schumacher in the championship round at Phoenix.

“There are so many good teams out here now, but I’d rather race anyone other than my teammates,” said Antron, who owns 48 NHRA titles including 31 with DSR.

“Don has put all the right people in all the right places,” Antron said of team owner Don Schumacher. “We are able to lean on each other. Our deal is we have an open door policy. We have grown as a tight knit unit. We work hard together, we learn together.”

So far this season, DSR has won three of the four Top Fuel titles (Schumacher, Massey and Brown) and five straight in Funny Car, including last year’s finale and all four this year.

“When we go to Vegas in the spring we’re starting to hit our stride with everything coming together,” Antron said. “Everything just seems to jell for us.”

The 2012 Top Fuel world champion will arrive at Las Vegas this week having a won the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals two weeks ago near Charlotte Motor Speedway that enabled him to take the points lead for the first time in nearly a year.

While he enjoys being No. 1 this week, it will have much greater value to him if his Matco team is in that position when the Mello Yello series returns in late October.

“It definitely feels good to be on top in the No. 1 spot, but our main focus this year is to keep working to constantly improve and get better at every race. We’re still a work in progress; we’re always building. Our main focus is to be No. 1 at the end of the season.”

Massey, Red Fuel team seek consistency during this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway

– Spencer Massey is ready for the trek west to this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

After all, the last time he visited the Las Vegas facility, he ended up in the winner’s circle.

The Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher/Sandvik Coromant team has enjoyed a lot of success at The Strip. Three of Spencer’s 18 career event titles have come in Las Vegas and he’s looking to add another NHRA Wally trophy from Las Vegas to his collection.

“I love everything about Las Vegas,” Spencer said. “It’s just a great place to visit, a great racetrack and we seem to always have a racecar that can contend for the win there so of course that makes me excited to go back.”

The team led by crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler will look to rebound following their first opening-round loss of the season at the previous NHRA Mello Yello event near Charlotte.

“We had a great car in qualifying at Charlotte and we just underestimated it on race day,” Spencer said. “We’re aiming to join our teammates and be in the top-three in points standings. I know it’s early to talk about points, but we need to get some momentum going and get in that top-three before the summer stretch of races comes along when things really get grueling.”

The Red Fuel team already has one event title this season from the NHRA Gatornationals at Gainesville and sits fourth in Top Fuel points standings heading into this weekend’s event that begins with two qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday before Sunday’s eliminations that begin at 11 a.m. (PT).

“We got our first win under our belts and now we just need to work on our consistency and get this Red Fuel car going down the track every lap. We have a lot of data from Las Vegas and I know Todd and Phil are ready to get out there and race.”

Hagan ready to get back on track with Mopar Express Lane team during this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello event near Las Vegas

– The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series heads west this week for the 16th annual NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots Funny Car driver Matt Hagan is on a mission to make up for disappointing first-round losses at the two previous NHRA events at Gainesville, Fla., and near Charlotte.

Matt and the Mopar team led by crew chief Dickie Venables came out swinging to start the 2015 season with event titles at the season opener in Pomona, Calif., and near Phoenix but since haven’t had any luck on race day.

The 2014 Funny Car world champion will look to put the recent struggles behind him at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway where he has been runner-up twice and has two poles.

“There is no doubt we got off to a really strong start,” Matt said, who trails points leader Del Worsham by just two points. “Since then we just haven’t been able to turn the win light on but I’m not worried. It’s not because we don’t have a great car, we still do. There just has been some bad luck here and there. The competition out here is so tough and we just need to keep plugging away at this tune-up, I need to focus as a driver and we’ll be fine.”

The event this weekend at Las Vegas is the fifth of 24 NHRA Mello Yello races this season.

“There’s still a lot of racing left do to this season,” Matt said. “We just need to stay focused on our car and our jobs and let it all play out. It’s going to get tougher, for sure. We start out the season with some time off in between races but before too long it’ll be back-to-back and it gets tough. We just need to be in a good position when that time of the year rolls around.”

This weekend’s event kicks off with two qualifying sessions on Friday and Saturday before Sunday’s eliminations that begin at 11 a.m. (PT).

“Vegas is a busy event. There’s always a ton of fans there and we have a big NHRA Fanfest on Thursday night in front of New York-New York to kick everything off but I’m really looking forward to getting back on track this weekend and turning on win lights.”

Capps, Tobler to field new NAPA Funny Car this weekend at Vegas

– Ron Capps gets to enjoy a short hop from his home near San Diego to this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event in Las Vegas after cross-country treks traveling to races in Florida and North Carolina the past four weeks.

Those coast-to-coast ventures certainly were worthwhile for Ron and Don Schumacher Racing’s NAPA AUTO PARTS 2015 Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team when the trip to Gainesville, Fla., produced their second final round and first Mello Yello win of the 24-event season.

Capps gets to drive his motorhome to Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals, a track where he has won more Funny Car titles than any driver since The Strip opened in 2000.

Five of Ron’s 43 NHRA Funny Car Wally trophies have come from Las Vegas, but only one (2009) of those was won at the first of two annual events at the track.

A win this weekend at Las Vegas would produce one of the best starts to his 21-year career. After four events, Ron is third in points and only 26 outside of first.

“It’s great for the racers and fans with the standings being so close. It’s tightened up pretty good,” said Ron, whose 43 NHRA Funny Car titles ranks second all-time in NHRA. He also won a Top Fuel title as a rookie.

“This weekend is important, especially for our NAPA team. We’d love to leave Vegas with the points lead.”

And if he does, it will be with a new Funny Car chassis crew chief Rahn Tobler has decided to use.

“We brought a new DSR chassis out on Monday to test at Charlotte after the Four-Wide two weeks ago and made some runs with it. Tobler was happy and we’re going to start qualifying Friday at Vegas with the new car. When you get a brand new car and it runs 300 mph right out of the box it reminds me how good our fabricators are back at DSR.

“We’ll get to Vegas with two cars ready to run with our back-up car being the one we used to win at Gainesville.”

Beckman likes view from the top after recent Mello Yello win ended 54-race drought of leaving races without a trophy

– Jack Beckman won his first NHRA national event nitro title at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in 2006.

The popular driver of Don Schumacher Racing’s Infinite Hero 2015 Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car won at least one NHRA Wally trophy in each of the next six years including three in 2012 when he won the NHRA Funny Car world championship for DSR.

He won his 15th nitro trophy in 2012 near St. Louis that helped him slip past DSR teammate Ron Capps by two points for the championship three races later.

He never imagined that he would not win again over the last three races of 2012, let alone go 0-for-48 over the next two years and start 2015 without winning at the first three.

But the former U.S. Air Force sergeant and cancer survivor knows something about perseverance.

His non-winning streak of 54 events that ended two weeks ago when he and the Infinite Hero team led by crew chief Jimmy Prock won the NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at zMAX Dragway near Charlotte Motor Speedway. And he did it with a career-best elapsed time of 3.983 seconds.

“You never know when your last trophy is going to be your last trophy,” said Jack, who jumped from 14th to seventh in the Mello Yello standings with the Charlotte win. It’s the first time he’s ranked in the top-10 since last June.

He’ll be seeking his first winning streak in 29 months when he arrives in Las Vegas this week for the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

“It still hasn’t completely sunk in,” he said of his 16th win. “A lot of it is because many of us drivers lead completely regular lives when we’re not in a racecar. I have kids, a wife and do chores around the house when I’m home because there’s a list waiting for me after every race.

“It’s not like you get a chance to bathe in the celebration for long. It was fun because we all went out as a team for dinner that night. I happily missed my flight. It was nice to sit down with everybody and say ‘job well done.’

“Winning solidified in everybody’s mind that we’re good enough and it makes you hungrier. Winning is addicting. Once you do stand on top of that mountain and hold that trophy you remember how special it feels and you want to do it again … soon.

“Keeping a level head through the lean times might take some of the sharp peaks off the great times but it’s the only way to exist in drag racing where this is one winner and one loser on every run down the track. I never felt sorry for myself because I realized how incredibly lucky I am to get a paycheck for doing something I’ve wanted to do since I was a kid.

“I still felt very fortunate through those 54 races, and I did my best to stay positive all the time. But I think there was a little more bounce in my step when I got home from the Four-Wide.”