Make-A-Wish team to apply knowledge gained from Las Vegas testing with plan to defend NHRA title Johnson won a year ago in season-finale at Pomona

BROWNSBURG, IN – As the 2017 season closes, Terry and Doug Chandler’s Make-A-Wish Funny Car team have begun preparing for the next season.

“We stayed to test after the Las Vegas race and worked with a six-disc clutch set-up that showed a ton of potential,” said Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car pilot Tommy Johnson Jr.

Johnson and the team led by crew chief John Collins and assistant Rip Reynolds are ready for this weekend’s season-finale at Pomona, Calif., knowing they have been mathematically eliminated from championship contention heading to the last of 24 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events.

“The Countdown (to the Championship) hasn’t been what we were expecting or what we were hoping,” Johnson said of being ranked seventh with one event title. “But I’m very enthused about what we learned during testing. We’re going to stick to the six-disc going into the last race of the year and try to get a head start on next year.”

Team Make-A-Wish has not had the playoff showing they have become accustomed to after finishing third in  2014 and 2015 then second last year.

Johnson and the Make-A-Wish team now set their sights on defending their title won a year ago in the NHRA Finals.

“It’s always great to finish as the winner of the last race of the year. You get two and a half months to relish in it so it would be a big boost for our team to go out and win this last one.”

When Johnson and the Make-A-Wish team won in Pomona a year ago, the late Terry Chandler celebrated with them.

“The last winner’s circle she was in was with us in Pomona a year ago,” Johnson said. “We took goofy pictures and had a lot fun. It’s one of the things I miss the most about her is the good times we had like that. If we win, she’ll be in the winner’s circle with us.”

Beckman looks for first Funny Car career win at Pomona as Infinite Hero Dodge looks for strong finish in NHRA Mello Yello finale to finish season third in points

– This weekend, Funny Car driver Jack Beckman will make the short trip from his home in Norco, Calif. to Pomona for the NHRA season-finale.

Although Beckman lives within an hour of Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, he has yet to claim a victory from the famous racetrack.

“I’ve won Pomona twice, both times in Super Comp and both times it was the Winternationals,” said Beckman, the 2003 NHRA Super Comp world champion.

“The NHRA Finals is a completely different race from the Winternationals in February to start the season. I understand it’s the same racetrack, but both races are equally awesome for completely different reasons.

“The Finals is great because when you win it, you have two months that you and your team know that you ended the season on a perfect note,” said the 2012 NHRA Funny Car world champ. “If we win the race, we can finish third in points. I think that would be phenomenal for a first-year team.”

When Terry and Doug Chandler’s Infinite Hero Foundation Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team entered the NHRA Finals last season, the team roster was made up of a vastly different crew.

“If you look at the car coming into the Finals last year, John Medlen and Jack Beckman are the only two people that are on the roster this year so to integrate nine other people –  and we’ve had two crew member changes in midseason – and to do it as well as we have makes me incredibly proud.”

Medlen and fellow crew chiefs Dean Antonelli and Neal Strausbaugh have tuned the Infinite Hero Dodge to two wins this season. They are currently fourth in the NHRA points standings and in a tight battle for third among Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan and Courtney Force of John Force Racing.

Beckman is 152 points behind the point leader Robert Hight of JFR and 167 behind Ron Capps, another DSR teammate.

The NHRA points system has been adjusted for the final event of the season as the point value has increased by 150 percent. A team can earn a grand total of 191 points rather than 130 as is the case for the other 23 events during the NHRA season.

Hagan aims to close season with back-to-back wins with Venables, Mopar team this weekend in NHRA Finals at Pomona

– Matt Hagan is headed to one of his best tracks to close out the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Series season, and he’s headed there with some momentum.

The Mopar Express Lane team led by crew chief Dickie Venables with assistant Michael Knudsen scored the event title at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway two weeks to send the team to the NHRA Finals on a winning streak.

The six-race Countdown to the Championship didn’t exactly pan out how the team had hoped, but another win this weekend would be its fifth event title of the season.

“We rebounded at Las Vegas, got things in order and got the win,” said the two-time Funny Car world champion. “We won’t be going after the championship but we’ve had so much success there that maybe we can finish the season the way we started.”

The Mopar team Powered by Pennzoil started the season with back-to-back wins at Pomona and Phoenix. With four event titles in five final round appearances, the team is ranked fifth in Funny Car standings with an opportunity to move up this weekend at the NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

“(Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron) Capps and (Robert) Hight really ran away with those top two spots, but third is very much within reach for us and that would mean a lot to us to be top-three. We’ve had a good season, had some struggles here and there but to finish strong would really mean a lot to this team.”

This weekend’s NHRA Finals features a unique points system where each round win is worth 30 points instead of the standard 20.

“Dickie has been working really hard to get this car turned around he’s proven what I’ve been saying. He has worked non-stop to give us a strong running race car and that’s what we have to finish out the season. I can’t say enough about how good of a job he does.

“We have a car that can go out and win any weekend and that’s what we’re going to do this weekend to end the season on a high note.”

Brown, Matco Tools team looking to finish NHRA Countdown playoff in a big way at this weekend’s Mello Yello season finale at Pomona

– Antron Brown has the “never quit” mentality and that’s how the Matco Tools team is approaching this weekend’s NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif.

The three-time Top Fuel champion is a longshot to win his fourth title this weekend where the team will enter the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series finale 135 points behind leader Steve Torrence.

It has been a battle between the two all season but things have not gone Brown’s way in the six-race Countdown to the Championship.

After visiting the final round 10 times in the 18-race regular season and claiming four event titles, the Matco Tools team has yet to reach the final round in the six-race playoffs.

“We’ve just had things go wrong, things not go our way in this Countdown,” Brown said. “Going out first round (two weeks ago at Las Vegas) really hurt our chances. We hadn’t done that all year. It’s just unfortunate.”

The team has 51 total round wins this season, the second best of all Top Fuel competitors.

“The Countdown is a bad time to have bad luck,” he said. “But the thing is we know we can go out there and win this weekend and that’s what we plan to do. That’s all we can do. Everything else will be what it will be.”

This weekend’s NHRA Finals features a unique points system where each round win is worth 30 points instead of the standard 20.

“We’ll go out there, race our race and see what pans out. At this point we have nothing to lose so we might as well go out there and win.”

Capps, Tobler need to fight from behind with NAPA in Pomona finale to become first Funny Car team to defend NHRA title in 15 seasons

– After 23 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events and 67 rounds of Sunday eliminations this year, it comes down to one critical weekend for reigning Funny Car world champion Ron Capps and Don Schumacher Racing’s NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T team led by crew chief Rahn Tobler.

Capps and his team Powered by Pennzoil already have had a miraculous season by winning a series-best and career-best eight NHRA Wally trophies including two of five in the Countdown to the Championship playoff, which concludes this weekend with the NHRA Finals that begins Friday at Pomona, Calif.

Tobler with assistant Eric Lane have tuned the NAPA Dodge into 12 final rounds and won four straight titles in April and May, each of which are career bests for Capps. They start the Finals with a 52-15 record in elimination rounds, and two round wins this Sunday will match Capps’ career best set a year ago.

The NAPA team dominated the 18-race regular season this year and sat atop the championship points standings after 16 of 23 races, but will be ranked No. 2 this weekend after John Force Racing’s Robert Hight, who also has won twice in the Countdown, took the lead by 15 points two weeks ago at the penultimate event near Las Vegas.

While those accomplishments will provide great memories at some point, what will matter most after Sunday’s final round will be if the NAPA team can last one round longer than Hight.

“Our NAPA team with Tobler and all our NAPA AutoCare Center crew have earned a lot of firsts this year, and another one would be defending our title,” Capps said.

A year ago, Capps clinched the championship after qualifying on Saturday at Pomona when he put the points gap beyond the reach of DSR teammates Tommy Johnson Jr. and Matt Hagan, who finished second and third, respectively.

“Winning a championship has been bigger than I could have ever imagined for a lot of different reasons,” said Capps, who ranks second on the all-time Funny Car wins list with 57. “The coolest part has been seeing the No. 1 on the car. I had been the No. 28 in Funny Car since 1997 and said the only way I’d change it would be if I won a championship. And we were able to do that.”

When he arrives at Pomona this week, he’ll be facing a new points format.

For 2017, NHRA put added emphasis on the Pomona finale by increasing points values by about 150 percent meaning a driver can collect up to 191 compared to 130 a year ago. A driver can earn up to 16 qualifying bonus points (was 12), 10 instead of eight for winning the pole and 30 instead of 20 for each round win on Sunday.

“NHRA’s new points-and-a-half system at Pomona is going to make it pretty exciting,” he said. “We haven’t had to come from behind many times this year but we will at Pomona, but it’s going to be fun. I look forward to getting with my crew guys and trying to battle.”

The last Funny Car driver to defend his title was John Force, winning crowns in 2001 and 2002.

“When you leave Pomona at the end of the season without winning the championship you don’t understand how big a deal it is until it happens,” said Capps, who left the finale as the championship runner-up four times.

“Walking through the house and seeing the trophy has been amazing. I can’t explain what it has meant to see it every time I walk in or out of the house.”

Pritchett intends to end Mello Yello season the way her Papa John’s team began year by winning event title, No. 1 spot at Pomona

– Leah Pritchett knows the next best accomplishment to winning the NHRA Top Fuel world championship this weekend would be to end the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season the way she started the year at the track where she began competing in NHRA Jr. Dragsters 20 years ago that isn’t far from her home in Redlands, Calif.

Pritchett and her Papa John’s Pizza team led by crew chief Todd Okuhara and Joe Barlam started the 2017 season by being the No. 1 qualifier and event winner at the opener in Pomona, Calif. They repeated those accomplishments two weeks later near Phoenix.

Although they face a nearly insurmountable gap of 166 points behind leader Steve Torrence, Pritchett has had a monumental season with four event titles in six final rounds, six No. 1 qualifying efforts and reset the NHRA elapsed time world record twice.

Her team led the points standings after eight of 18 regular season races, but ran in a slump during the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoff that concludes this weekend at Pomona. Her semifinal finish two weeks ago near Las Vegas pulled the Papa John’s team up two spots to fifth and only 31 behind Don Schumacher Racing teammate and two-time reigning world champion Antron Brown.

“This isn’t the way our Papa John’s team wanted to come back to Pomona,” she said. “We expected to be here with a better shot at winning a championship. But there’s still a lot to gain. We can get our fifth Wally (Trophy) and move up in the standings, and that’s how we want to go into the off-season.

“Todd, Joe and Scott (Okuhara) worked so hard with our team this year to get us this far, and we’ve come pretty far. Even a couple of bumps in the road in the Countdown don’t take anything away from what we’ve accomplished with everything Don (Schumacher) gives us and what our fabrication and machine shops make for us.”

When she arrives at Pomona this week, she’ll be facing a new points format that has enabled her to stay within possible contention for the world championship in her first full-time professional season and first with DSR.

For 2017, NHRA put added emphasis on the Pomona finale by increasing points values by about 150 percent meaning a driver could earn up to 191 compared to 130 a year ago. A driver can earn up to 16 qualifying bonus points (was 12), 10 instead of eight for winning the pole and 30 instead of 20 for each round win on Sunday.

Although the Mello Yello series hasn’t raced since Oct. 29, Pritchett and other DSR drivers remained in Las Vegas for nearly week participating in the annual Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show.

“It was such an awesome time at SEMA,” she said. “We spent a lot of time at the Pennzoil booth that was massive. It meant so much to be there with so many of our partners and friends.”

Ten years ago, she was at SEMA as a hopeful professional racer.

A year ago, she battled to slip into the Countdown playoff but will certainly finish higher that ranking 10th like she did last year.

It has been a remarkable year and could get even better.