DSR looking to finish the Swing with a couple of wins!

Brown feeling satisfied with Matco Tools team as Top Fuel points leader heads into this weekend’s NHRA Northwest Nationals

KENT, WA – Antron Brown is satisfied with the direction his Matco Tools/U.S. Army team is headed as the annual NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Western Swing heads to its final stop near Seattle this weekend.

Despite a quarterfinal finish at last weekend’s Toyota NHRA Sonoma Nationals, Brown feels his Matco Tools team is pushing it each weekend on the Mello Yello tour as they look to defend their 2015 Top Fuel world championship.

“One thing about this Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota team is we challenge for it every weekend,” Brown said. “Like our U.S. Army soldiers you can’t ever count us out. We persevere and out here with the competition the way it is, that’s what you have to do.

“I think it shows every weekend how tough it is to win out here. It’s a battle each and every weekend and it’s not going to get any easier with the Countdown (to the Championship) coming up.”

Only three races remain before the points standings are reset for the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs that begin near Charlotte after Labor Day. Brown and the Matco Tools/U.S Army team have a 37-point lead over Doug Kalitta. The team leading the points standings after the conclusion of NHRA’s regular season finale at Indianapolis will take a 30-point lead into Charlotte.

Brown has one career Top Fuel title from Pacific Raceways near Seattle. The Matco Tools team has three event titles in six final round appearances this year. If the Matco Tools team turns on a win light on Sunday at the NHRA Northwest Nationals, it will be a milestone for Brown who is one round win shy of 600 career round wins.

“Seattle is unique,” Brown said. “It’s got that little bit of old school feeling to it. You go back in there, it’s in the trees and it’s just different than anywhere else you go. We would really like to send these guys home with a win from this Western Swing. We came close in Denver and we would like to seal the deal in Seattle.

“I don’t think about how many of this or that I have. We are focused.”

Pritchett to wear new colors for DSR this weekend near Seattle, intends to win another NHRA event title at track, this time in Top Fuel

– Leah Pritchett’s family of marketing partners will grow by one this weekend at the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways near Seattle.

Pritchett will unveil her latest Top Fuel Dragster at 1 p.m. (PT) Friday near a Don Schumacher Racing hospitality pavilion in the pro pit area and the public is invited to attend.

The new marketing partner joins Mopar/Pennzoil, FireAde 2000 Personal Fire Suppression Systems and Albrecht’s Fast Track as those supporting her since joining DSR in May.

Despite missing one race this year when she was without a team and sponsor, she has battled to hold the No. 10 position in the standings and last position in the Countdown to the Championship six-race playoff. She has three races to remain in the top-10.

“Every race there’s been something new and we want to keep progressing,” she said. “Just like our car has been moving forward and making progress, so are we with Don (Schumacher) in the boardroom.

“We’re going to continue our chase to achieve our dreams of a full season in Top Fuel and fighting to the end for the championship,” said Pritchett, a graduate of Cal State San Bernardino. “We not only plan to stay in the top-10 but to move up in the standings.”

She will arrive at Pacific Raceways with new team leadership. DSR’s director of racing, Todd Okuhara, will take over as crew chief with Joe Barlam serving as the team’s assistant crew chief.

The past two races Pritchett was running on tracks for the first time in Mello Yello competition. She had only competed at Denver in the NHRA Jr. Dragster youth program and had never driven anything down the Sonoma dragstrip.

“I get to go to a track where I’ve at least raced before,” she said of Pacific Raceways, where she has won an NHRA Nostalgia Funny Car title.

Despite Sunday’s early loss at Sonoma, she was able to maintain her hold on the 10th and final position to qualify for the Countdown. She leads Terry McMillen by 32 points.

“Don (Schumacher) and I have been fighting to get the support to finish the regular season and get into the Countdown,” she said. “Thanks to Mopar, Pennzoil, FireAde, Albrecht’s Fast Track and our new partners you’ll hear about on Friday we are getting a chance.

“And with all of the DSR crew chiefs doing what they can to help us, we are going to qualify for the Countdown and then challenge for the world championship.”

The event near Seattle concludes the three-race, three-week Western Swing.

Langdon looks to close out annual Western Swing with a win in Sandvik Coromant/Red Fuel dragster at Pacific Raceways

­- Shawn Langdon would like to end the annual NHRA Western Swing on a high note at this weekend’s 29th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways near Seattle.

The three-race Western Swing on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour hasn’t produced the results the Sandvik Coromant/Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher team was looking for.

Langdon suffered an unexpected opening round loss last weekend at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals and had a quarterfinal finish at the Swing opener near Denver two weeks ago.

“We feel like we have a good car but we just haven’t the race day luck lately,” Langdon said. “Last weekend in Sonoma, we definitely didn’t expect our day to end in the first round. We are a better team than that, we had a great car in qualifying and we are just living on that edge of making the car go down track and it didn’t make it that time. It’s unfortunate but to go rounds out here you have to push it and sometimes that happens. We put it in the past and look forward to getting to Seattle.”

The 2013 Top Fuel world champion is seeking his first career title at Pacific Raceways. The Sandvik Coromant/Red Fuel team led by crew chief Phil Shuler have two event titles this season and are currently ranked seventh in Top Fuel points standings.

“The last couple of races we really just haven’t had the results we were looking for,” Langdon said. “We’re only a couple of races away from Indy and the start of the Countdown so we really just have to get all of our ducks in a row these next two races at Seattle and Brainerd and the main focus is to just make sure everything is ready to go when we get to Indy.”

The points standings will be reset following the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis during Labor Day Weekend and the top-10 will compete in a six-race playoff for the championship.

Hagan going for second career title at this weekend’s NHRA Northwest Nationals as Western Swing concludes near Seattle

– There’s only one way Matt Hagan wants to close out the annual Western Swing on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series – with a win at Pacific Raceways near Seattle.

The driver of the Rocky Boots Venator Camo/Mopar Express Lane Dodge has two event titles in three final round appearances through 15 Mello Yello events this season and has one career event tile from Pacific Raceways, the site of this weekend’s 29th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals.

“Seattle typically has been a good place for this Mopar/Rocky Boots team,” Hagan said. “It’s totally different atmosphere than what we just ran in at Sonoma with it being surrounded by trees, I just really enjoy racing there.

“There’s no better way to close out this tough stretch of races with round wins and a Wally. That would be a big pat on the back to these guys that bust their butts to get to these races. It’s tough.”

Hagan, a two-time Funny Car world champion, ranks sixth in Funny Car points standings with only three races remaining before the points are reset for the Countdown to the Championship six-race playoff that begins near Charlotte in September.

The Rocky Boots team is less than two rounds of racing out of fourth place in the standings.

“It’s crazy to think but the Countdown is right around the corner,” he said. “We have some things we need to fine tune before it’s time for the Countdown and Dickie (Venables) and the guys are working towards that.

“One thing about Dickie is, he’s going to figure it out. He’s already proven that this year. He sees the bigger picture and that’s what we are working for. Ideally we will be top-four, top-five heading into Indy. That’s where you need to be to really gunning for the championship and I have all the confidence in this team that that’s where we will be sitting.”

Beckman, Infinite Hero team look for redemption at Pacific Raceways near Seattle after two early round loses on NHRA Western Swing

– After two early round exits, Jack Beckman and his Infinite Hero Foundation team are ready for a little revenge this weekend near Seattle at the 29th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways.

Last weekend in the NHRA Sonoma Nationals, Beckman was eliminated in the second round of competition and two weeks ago, he lost in the first round at Denver to start the annual Western Swing.

Last year on the Swing, Beckman went 10-1 in three races with the Infinite Hero Dodge funded by Terry Chandler. Their winning streak ended in Seattle when Beckman’s Don Schumacher Racing teammate, Tommy Johnson Jr., beat him in the semifinals.

“I think the Infinite Hero guys are looking for a little redemption on the West Coast,” said Beckman of his Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger R/T team led by crew chief Jimmy Prock with assistants John Medlen and Chris Cunningham.

“At this point last year of the Western Swing, we were 8-0. Right now, we’re 1-2.”

Last season, the Infinite Hero team won a seven event titles. This year has been more of a struggle.

“It’s tough,” Beckman said. “I don’t think I ever drove better than last year. At times when the car wasn’t perfect, I think I was able to pedal or leave quick enough to get the win light.

“I think sometimes it’s easy to perform well when you feel like you’re sitting on the best horse out there. Sometimes that can work back to the driving as well. I have to be very self-analytical on this and make sure I’m doing everything I can on this because still lots of these races that come down to a few thousandths at the finish line.

“You don’t want to feel like as a driver you left anything on the table,” Beckman said.

Needless to say, he and his team are ready to get back on the track to redeem themselves.

“We had to switch cars again after Denver. We wheel stood twice in qualifying in Denver. We ran that car in eliminations and it bent a couple tubes.

“So we unloaded ‘Old Reliable,’ for Sonoma and we’re just trying to figure out what it wants right now. It would be nice to stick to the same chassis for the rest of the year just so you could accumulate data.”

Aside from getting back to the track to bring home a title, Beckman is looking forward to racing in Seattle for another very important reason.
This week at Pacific Raceways, there will be a memorial service for Mark Lyle, the NHRA official starter who tragically lost his life earlier this year in March.

“Thursday night at the track, we’re going to do a tribute for Mark Lyle. It’s his home track, where he got his start with the NHRA. “I think that’s a fitting place to gather with his family and friends, to officially say goodbye to a great guy.”

Make-A-Wish team with Johnson returns to Pacific Raceways ready to defend Seattle title, close out Western Swing with a win

– Tommy Johnson Jr. and the Make-A-Wish team, sponsored by Terry Chandler, return to Pacific Raceways this weekend for the NHRA Northwest Nationals to defend their 2015 title.

Despite early round exits during the first two stops of the annual three-race Western Swing, Johnson remains positive in the direction the Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T is headed.

“The Western Swing hasn’t been what we’ve wanted so far but we’ll go back to Seattle and see if we can’t turn that around and try to recreate the magic we had there last year,” Johnson said.

In 2015, Johnson and his Make-A-Wish team, led by crew chief John Collins and assistant Rip Reynolds, began race day as the No. 5 qualifier and were able to bring home the title when they defeated Paul Lee, Chad Head, Jack Beckman and Del Worsham.

“Seattle has always been a really great track for me. I’ve won there in Top Fuel and in Funny Car and I would love nothing more than to able to get back there and repeat that win from last year.”

With only three regular season races left before the Countdown to the Championship begins after Labor Day, Johnson knows the importance of staying in the top-10 and locking in the team’s spot for the playoff.

“We’re not where we want to be. Last year we might have peaked a little too early and this year, I’m still confident in the team and in the car. I’m not worried about it but I also know the importance of turning the corner and becoming a dominate team,” he said.

The Make-A-Wish team is currently eight in the points standings.

The 29th annual NHRA Northwest Nationals will not only be the 16th race of the NHRA Mello Yello circuit but Pacific Raceways will also host a tribute to the late Mark Lyle, the official NHRA starter who lost his life in an swimming accident this spring.

Johnson said a win this weekend would be mean just a little more.
“You want to win all of them but especially being the home track of Mark Lyle and having his memorial this weekend. He was a very close friend of mine. I’d like nothing more than to win in his honor.”

Seattle nostalgia fuels Capps’ run to maintain points lead for NAPA

– Ron Capps can’t remember a time in his life when he wasn’t going to drag races.

It started before he could walk and was attending with his racing dad, John, and mom, Betty.

Last weekend, he was with his NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T and crew chief Rahn Tobler at Sonoma Raceway near San Francisco where he recalled running around the pit area while his dad raced.

This weekend is the second stop on his annual “flashback tour.”

Pacific Raceways near Seattle is where he won his first NHRA pro tour event title while driving Roger Primm’s unsponsored Top Fuel dragster.

“I remember getting to our hotel and then driving to the track with our crew in the 18-wheeler,” said Capps, whose seventh final round of the year on Sunday resulted in a loss to John Force at Sonoma. “Bill Knight was a Seattle reporter who did a story on me for that week’s paper, and I still don’t know why he picked me. I was the unheard of longshot. That was a big deal to me.”

Ron had to endure a rain delay on Sunday and Monday before racing in the semifinals and finals on Tuesday. Shelley, is wife of three years at the time, spent the weekend at the track but had to fly back to work Monday morning.

“I woke up on Tuesday morning knowing as a rookie I had a shot to get to the final, but never thought about winning if I got there.

“I remember the final and coming around the corner at the end of the track, and I knew my win light had come on and I won. Al Hofmann won Funny Car and he was there doing an interview,” he said of the late Floridian who won 15 titles in his career. “Al came over and gave me a high-five and hugged me. That was a huge deal to celebrate with a legend like Al Hofmann.”

This weekend in the 16th race of the 24-event NHRA Mello Drag Racing Series season, Capps is looked at as a legend as the second winningest driver in Funny Car history with 48 titles.

And he arrives as the points leader with a category-best four titles and a 130-point lead over Courtney Force with three races left in the regular season before points are reset to start the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoff for the top-10 teams after Labor Day.

“I was part of a crew and one of the guys driving down the road,” he said of the year before he jumped to the highly financed team owned by Don Prudhomme. That moved enabled Capps to let his Commercial Driver’s License expire.

“That helped me in my career because I realized how important crew guys are and how hard their jobs are. I had a lot of responsibility doing a little of everything on (Primm’s) dragster so there wasn’t much time at the rope to be with fans.”

This weekend, Capps continues his world championship dream but also realizes every day at the track he’s also still living a dream.