DSR ready to rebound at Spring Las Vegas NHRA Mello Yello Event!
Another NHRA E.T. record, more track records fall to Infinite Hero, Beckman looks to repeat first Funny Car title won at Vegas in ’06
BROWNSBURG, IN – Jack Beckman and Don Schumacher Racing’s Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car 
team led by crew chief Jimmy Prock returned to their record-setting ways two weeks ago at Gainesville, Fla.
Prock, with assistant crew chiefs John Medlen and Chris Cunningham, tuned Beckman and the team fully-funded by Terry Chandler to a national record elapsed time of 3.879 seconds that matches DSR teammate Matt Hagan for quickest run ever by a Funny Car.
It marks the fifth time in less than a year when the Infinite Hero team has reset the national time record.
The Infinite Hero team took record-setting a step further when its speed of 329.26 mph on that run not only eclipsed the Gainesville track record for Funny Cars but also was faster than any Top Fuel dragster has gone in the Gatornationals over a 1,000-foot course.
“(Gainesville) was about setting records long before I ever came out here when I was reading about it in ‘National Dragster.’ Driving for (crew chief) Jimmy Prock, we can set records most places we go.”
The Funny Car records at Gainesville bring the Infinite Hero team’s total track records to 11 including seven for elapsed time and four for speed.
While records are nice, winning is paramount. And Beckman says he’s overdue at Las Vegas, where he made his first Top Fuel run in 2005 and won his first Funny Car title in the following year after joining Don Schumacher Racing.
“Las Vegas is a track where you get two shots a year to win,” he said of its spring and fall races. “It’s unusual that it’s been 10 years since my first and only nitro win there.”
He also wants to stop a streak of six Mello Yello events in which he hasn’t hoisted a trophy on Sunday.
“We haven’t won a trophy since Maple Grove (at Reading, Pa.) with three races left in the last season. It’s not like I necessarily feel like we’re overdue, but I’m chomping at the bit because we know what we’re capable of doing. After the season we had last year (seven wins and second in points) you don’t want to go seven races without a win.
“We had become accustom to finishing late on Sunday. Everything is there. We have everything we need to finish in the winner’s circle.”
After winning his second pole of the season and 17th of his career, Beckman advanced to the semifinals at Gainesville before a seized bearing in the supercharger prevented him to abort the run before he went more than a few feet against teammate Ron Capps.
“I felt like we let that one slip away,” said Beckman, the 2012 Funny Car world champion and winner of 22 NHRA Wally trophies. “You have to capitalize on the opportunity when you have a car running that well. That was an extra hard punch in the gut. We couldn’t get it off the starting line and Ron smoked the tires but won.”
But the Infinite Hero team was able to jump from seventh to fourth in points after the third event of the 24-race NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season and is 75 points out of the lead.
Langdon set for NHRA double duty this weekend at Las Vegas in DSR’s Red Fuel Top Fuel dragster, Super Comp category
– This weekend at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Shawn Langdon will return to his roots. In addition to piloting the Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher/Sandvik Coromant Top Fuel dragster, he will be behind the wheel of his Super Comp dragster.
Langdon has won NHRA championships in the Jr. Dragster, Super Comp and in 2013 became a Top Fuel champion. Langdon’s father, Chad, will also be competing in the Super Comp class.
He feels racing in multiple categories helps him as a driver.
“I enjoy it,” he said. “I think as a driver any time you can get more hits at the (starting line Christmas) tree and more laps down the track, it helps you mentally. You’re able to get in the right mindset. It keeps you sharp and it keeps you fresh when you’re in the seat. I’ve always enjoyed driving two cars at an event. That’s what I used to do during the NHRA Sportsman days. I think you just get in that rhythm and that race mode and it helps you as a driver.”
The Red Fuel team completed a successful test session following the last NHRA Mello Yello Series event in Gainesville, Fla., last week. It’s been a tough start for the team led by crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler. The team has three first-round exits this season.
“There was a lot of changes that we made on Monday after Gainesville,” Langdon said. “It was all basically in the clutch department and it showed a lot of progress. We were able to make some good runs in the heat. We were able to attack certain areas that we hadn’t really been able to before. We’re in a learning process. We definitely ended the test session with a very positive attitude. We were very happy with the outcome of the test session.
With seven teams at Don Schumacher Racing, teamwork plays a key role.
“We worked with the Matco team and (DSR crew chief) Jimmy Prock was in our trailer as well. The good thing about being at DSR is we have seven teams so if you get in a pinch there’s a lot of great minds to help you out.
“I think we’re ready for Vegas. I think we’ll have a good car. One thing that we need to improve on is qualifying. I think with the changes we made we’ll be able to improve there and improve Sunday as well.”
Matco Tools team, Brown ready for Las Vegas to show homework after Gators proves champions continue to be fast learners
– Antron Brown has many special memories from racing at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
The 39-year-old New Jersey native has won at the track three times including a sweep of the Top Fuel titles in 2011 during the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season.
But nothing tops last fall at the track when he won the pole before losing in the semifinals. That early exit, however, was enough to clinch his second NHRA Top Fuel world championship with Don Schumacher Racing’s Matco Tools/U.S. Army team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald along with assistant Brad Mason, a part-time Las Vegas resident.
“Those are times you never forget,” said Brown, who also won the championship in 2012 but that drama continued until the last round of the year at Pomona, Calif.
“But this is a new year and everyone started out tied for first place.”
The championship was the highlight of a season that included career-bests in event titles (seven) and seven No. 1 qualifying positions for Brown.
The Matco team has been the most dominant in Top Fuel since 2009 when he joined DSR with Corradi and Oswald. Since then, they have posted 36 event titles in 59 final rounds after 30 No. 1 qualifying spots.
While this year has started with the Matco team not advancing past the second round, Brown has no worries despite being ranked 10th in points after three of 24 races in the Mello Yello season. Slow starts have not hampered Brown in the past.
His championship run a year ago chugged along for the first six races when it also was ranked 10th in points, but he won two of the next three NHRA Wally trophies and four of the last 10 during that span in which the Matco team recorded the NHRA’s first 3.6-second run with a time of 3.680 that remains the NHRA elapsed time record.
“Brian and Mark don’t just look at the first few races as do-or-die,” he said. “We always look to the big picture and that’s the Countdown (to the Championship playoff) at the end of the year; that’s when championships are won.”
The Matco team suffered from rare traction issues getting off the starting line in this season’s first three races despite qualifying in the top eight at each including second and third at the last two.
“When you struggle a little bit that’s when you learn, and that’s what Brian and Mark know how to do. We’ve qualified good but haven’t had the performance we expect on Sunday during eliminations.”
The team remained in Gainesville, Fla., to test on Monday after the Gatornationals two weeks ago.
“We made four laps and we launched hard on all four, and learned what we needed to,” he said of post-race testing. “We shut off early each time and ran a 3.75 at 250 mph. We planned to shut it off way before the finish line. That could have been a 3.69.
“We’re ready for Vegas.”
Make-A-Wish team energized for this weekend’s NHRA Mello Yello event in Las Vegas where Johnson hopes to find luck on his side
– The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series heads to Las Vegas this weekend where Tommy Johnson Jr. and the Terry Chandler-funded Make-A-Wish team for Don Schumacher Racing are hoping to find lady luck on their side.
With a little bit a luck and a lot of hard work by the Make-A-Wish team led by crew chief John Collins with assistant Rip Reynolds, Johnson feels a surge of momentum coming for the team.
“Vegas is one of my favorite races of the year because it’s one of those tracks where no matter how we are performing, I seem to do well there,” said Johnson, won at Las Vegas in 2001 and has advanced to three final rounds. “That’s why I always get so excited to go Vegas because I know it’s going to be a good race for us. Right now, after the first three we could use a good race. We just haven’t performed to the level that I know we’re capable of.”
Johnson set the track’s Funny Car elapsed time record at 3.931 seconds last fall when he was the No. 1 qualifier before losing in the championship round.
Johnson and the Make-A-Wish team, which last season finished third in Funny Car points standings with two event titles in eight final round appearances, has two first round exits and a quarterfinal finish through three Mello Yello events this season.
But Johnson believes all of that is about to change thanks to crew chief Collins’ hard work to find an issue that had been plaguing the 10,000-horsepower Dodge.
“The positive note at Gainesville was we found a problem with the car that we had been having all season and we fixed it,” Johnson said. “In testing after Gainesville on Monday, it verified the results and we’re back to what we’re accustomed to. To make some really strong runs on Monday and know that the problems are fixed, it’s almost like our season is starting now.
“John Collins is so methodical and so attention-to-detail that he knew there was something wrong. The car wasn’t doing what he wanted it to do, what he was telling it to do.
“I think the whole team is energized, not just myself,” Johnson said. “After having such a good year last year and struggling the first three races this year, you try to keep your attitude positive but it was starting to waver a little bit. But to know that we got it fixed and we have our car back, I think everyone on the team is excited for this weekend.”
Capps intent on NAPA Dodge regaining No. 1 at Las Vegas
– Most racers downplay the importance of being ranked No. 1 this early in a season, but not Ron Capps.
The driver of Don Schumacher Racing’s NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car won the season-opener in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series in February, followed that by qualifying first at the next race and then made it to the final round two weeks ago in the Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla.
“Whenever you get to the final round you expect to win,” said Capps, who has 45 Funny Car event titles ranks second most all-time in the NHRA category.
It was even worse for Capps that the loss to Robert Hight of John Force Racing in the championship round dropped him one point behind Hight for the top spot in Mello Yello Funny Car standings heading to this weekend’s event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“A lot of drivers will tell you being first in points this early in the season doesn’t mean that much, but it does to me and our NAPA team,” Capps said. “There’s a lot of pride in having the points lead at the first three races; it’s a nice feather in your cap. We’re only one point behind, and we want to get that back at Vegas.”
The Las Vegas track has been a good one for Capps, where he is tied for most Funny Car titles with five. And he’s won there with three crew chiefs: Ed “The Ace” McCulloch in 2001, 2005 and 2009; Tim and Kim Richards in 2011; and current tuner Rahn Tobler in 2012.
“That sounds like a list of hall-of-famers,” Capps said. “I’ve been fortunate to have some the best minds in drag racing.”
Capps has won 13 event titles since Tobler joined the team after the spring Las Vegas race in 2012 when he did not qualify for Sunday’s eliminations.
“I really enjoy Tobler at the racetrack and then away from it. But he’s one of those guys that I really enjoy being around. I think I’ve won more races with him than any other crew chief I’ve had. He’s just a lot of fun to be around.”
Capps finished the past season by advancing to the semifinals at the last four races and has started this year at even better pace.
“We ended the season very, very strong in Pomona and actually we had a pretty darned good Countdown.
“At the end of the year, our NAPA team took everything apart and worked on a few things, tune-up wise we left it alone and sure enough we rolled out of Pomona No. 2 qualifier and ended up winning the race. We have a great hot rod now. I’ve got a lot of confidence now as a driver for sure.
“Our NAPA Dodge is really showing consistency,” Capps said. “It’s going to be a fun year.”
Hagan ready for success with Mopar/Rocky Boots team this weekend in NHRA Mello Yello event in Las Vegas
– Matt Hagan knows a lot about growing. Whether it’s growing feed on his 1,000-acre cattle farm in rural Virginia or as a competitor in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series.
Because of that, he knows it’s not always easy to get the best results.
The Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots Dodge Charger R/T team has been going through some growing pains to start the 2016 Mello Yello season. The team led by crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen picked up their first round win of the year two weeks ago in Gainesville, Fla., and are looking for more round wins this weekend near Las Vegas.
“As much as we want to win them all and have success all the time, there’s going to be some struggles as you grow,” said Hagan, the 2012 and 2014 NHRA Funny Car world champion.
“We’re going through some growing pains but when we get it figured out we’re going to come out ahead. Dickie (Venables) is doing things with our Funny Car program to move us forward. It’s tough at first and we’ve had a little bit of bad luck to start the year.”
The two-time Funny Car champion has two first-round exits and a quarterfinal finish in the first three events this season.
“After you’ve been at the top and won some championships you kind of expect yourself and your team to do better,” he said. “It’s also racing and it’s humbling sometimes. You have to figure out a way to get back up. I think that sometimes everything happens for a reason. We started off strong last year and didn’t finish very well. Maybe we’ll get some of these struggles and trials and tribulations out of the way early and maybe get some momentum and get focused and do well and continue that out through the year.
“What I do know is that I have a good team. I have a lot of confidence in them and a lot of confidence in myself. It’s not a matter of if it’s going to turn around it’s a matter of when we get it all together and make it happen for ourselves.”
The Mello Yello series stops at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway this weekend for the 17th annual NHRA Nationals. The team qualified No. 1 at this event a year ago.
Hagan knows not to get distracted by all the glitz and glamour that Las Vegas offers. He’ll stay focused on winning rounds in his 10,000-horsepower Dodge Charger R/T.
“You have to really be focused when you go to Vegas,” he said. “You have to have the mindset that you’re there to drive a racecar and not get caught up with everything that’s there. My team is counting on me to cut a good light, keep it in the groove and I’m counting on them to give me a good car. It’s a team effort and it takes everybody.”
