With one Fuel win under their wings, DSR heads to Phoenix ready to rumble!

1,600 Matco distributors join Brown as stars on world champion Top Fuel dragster heading to Phoenix for second Mello Yello event

BROWNSBURG, IN – Antron Brown has great vision and a very good memory so he’s not concerned about how the season started for his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster two weeks ago at Pomona, Calif.

“Man, that’s only one race and I know we’re looking forward to a long season,” said Brown, the reigning and two-time NHRA Top Fuel world champion.

Brown and the team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald always prepare for the long haul and not even a loss in the quarterfinals to start the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season at the Winternationals in Southern California will deter them from maintaining their course.

Brown, who owns 54 event titles including 38 in Top Fuel, will arrive this weekend at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park near Phoenix ranked seventh in points, which is the lowest he has been in the standings since the end of the 2014 season despite winning six titles.

And after that disappointing season, the Matco dragster has been the most consistent and dominant in Top Fuel competition. Last year, Brown won a career-best seven NHRA Wally trophies and qualified No. 1 seven times, another career best.

This weekend will provide motivation for Brown at Wild Horse, where he has won three times, most recently in 2014.

He will debut a new Matco paint scheme that includes the names of 1,600 Matco distributors on the white dragster.

“We had all the names of our distributors on our car last year and it was great when they would come by to get their picture taken next to their name on the car,” said Brown, who helped unveil the car after Pomona during Matco’s National Business Conference in Las Vegas. “Those names really pop on the white background.

“It’s not just the Matco car, it’s the Matco distributors’ car and it made winning the championship all the more special to have all those names with me. I’ve got all the support around that cockpit I need to go out there and win another championship.”

The NHRA Mello Yello series returns to Phoenix where teams spent several days testing the week before the Pomona season-opener.

“I’m very excited to go back to Phoenix,” he said. “It’s always held a special place in my heart. We’d like to make it a fourth time to the winner’s circle. First, we want to qualify with a good run and build on that.”

When teams tested at Wild Horse it was much cooler than this weekend’s forecast of temperatures slated to be in the mid-80s.

“We’ll see much different conditions when we get there, but Brian and Mark are the best at getting a car down a slick track so I know we’ll do better than we did in Pomona.”

Capps, NAPA team plans to keep steering into winner’s circles

– A Funny Car theme will pervade Don Schumacher Racing this weekend when the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series rolls into Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park near Phoenix.

Ron Capps and DSR’s NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T started the 2016 season by winning the Funny Car title two weeks ago at Pomona, Calif., to kick off the 50th anniversary of the Funny Car.

And legendary Funny Car driver/innovator/owner Don Schumacher returns to not far from where he frequently raced his Funny Cars at Beeline Dragway in nearby Scottsdale before the fabled West Coast dragstrip closed in 1975.

“I went to Beeline with my dad when I was really young so I don’t remember much about the track, but I know its history,” Capps said, “and I know Don was very successful there. I would love to have raced him there.”

For now, though, Capps is focusing on the future while reflecting a little on the recent past, including the last five NHRA races in 2015 when his NAPA Dodge advanced to the semifinal round each time.

“Every team had confidence going into Pomona that they were going to start the year with a good result. We kept looking back to how we ended last season. We had a great racecar and it was good when we tested at Phoenix the week before Pomona.

“We just needed to up the performance a little bit. Rahn Tobler and the NAPA guys worked real hard at that. But the coolest thing was when you have to push these Funny Cars a little bit harder to get into the low 3.9s they become a bigger handful to control. Tobler spent a good part of the winter working with our DSR chassis guys and our Dodge engineers on the aerodynamics to help me drive the car better. You can set it up for a record run, but if I can’t drive it and keep between the cones then you won’t get a time slip (for completing the run.)”

Capps picked up eight time slips at Pomona, and they made an impressive collection en route to winning his 45th Funny Car and extend his hold on being the second winningest driver in the category.

Consistency and performance excelled for the NAPA team at Pomona when all four runs in qualifying were in the 3-second range and earned the No. 2 qualifying spot. That was followed by all but one run under 4 seconds in Sunday’s eliminations and that time was a 4.009.

“I don’t know that I could have kept our car as straight as I did at Pomona a couple weeks ago had all that work not been done to improve the handling during the offseason. The consistency of all our runs is what turns me on as a racer.

“But you would have to be naïve to think that Pomona will carry us through the next few races. It will be just the opposite because a lot of our competitors, especially my DSR teammates (Jack Beckman, Matt Hagan and Tommy Johnson Jr.) are going to step up their game when they race us.”

Langdon going to live out baseball dream prior to driving Sandvik Coromant dragster during this weekend’s NHRA event near Phoenix

– Winning a NHRA Top Fuel championship in 2013 was a dream come true for Sandvik Coromant/Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher driver Shawn Langdon.

But another dream is coming true this week near Phoenix for the California native who split his childhood between racing and his other love – baseball. Langdon will trade in his fireproof driving gloves for a baseball mitt on Wednesday when he joins the Chicago Cubs for a day of Spring Training activities.

Langdon was invited by his friend and Cubs pitcher, Clayton Richard, to join the team for a day and live out his dream of pitching in Major League Baseball and then Richard will join Langdon for a day at this weekend’s NHRA Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park near Phoenix.

“This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity for me,” Langdon said. “I’m a huge fan of baseball and to have an opportunity to hang out with the team, with the pitchers and participate in practice is incredible. He’s been out to the NHRA events before so to go to his playground for the day and see what he does will be really cool for me.”

Richard will have the opportunity to see Langdon compete in Sandvik Coromant colors at this weekend’s NHRA event near Phoenix. It is the first of eight races where the yellow, red and gray scheme will be featured on Langdon’s 11,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragster.

“Anytime I can host someone like Clayton at the drags is great,” Langdon said. “We’ll get some nitro in his system and see how fast he can throw after that.”

The Sandvik/Red Fuel team led by crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler are looking to rebound after a first-round loss to Don Schumacher Racing teammate Antron Brown at the 2016 season-opener at Pomona. The team had a successful test session at Wild Horse prior to the start of the season.

“Our car ran really well at Phoenix test so that obviously gives us confidence going into the race there,” Langdon said. “On paper it doesn’t show how well we did in Pomona but we really improved a lot over the weekend and could’ve easily gone rounds on Sunday. This is a big week for me and I’m really excited to get back to Phoenix and have some fun.”

Second NHRA Mello Yello event of 2016 serves as a fresh start for Hagan, Mopar/Rocky team at Wild Horse Pass this weekend

– Matt Hagan is entering this weekend’s NHRA Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park near Phoenix with a clean slate following the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season-opener in Pomona two weeks ago.

The Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots team led by crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen started the season with a new chassis but have elected to switch back to the one they used in 2015 that earned four event titles for this weekend’s event near Phoenix.

“We had some issues in testing and in Pomona so Dickie (Venables) made the decision to get the old car back out for the time being,” Matt said. “It’s proven, we have a ton of notes on it and we know we can go out and turn win lights on with it. We’ll take some time to go over the new car, makes some changes and pull that back out when he’s comfortable with it.

“That’s the thing about DSR, we have so many resources that if we feel something isn’t right, we go back to the shop and we figure out how to make it better and that’s what we’ll do. We’ve got the best people and the best parts and we know that we’ll be a team to beat.”

The Mopar/Rocky Boots team are the defending event winners at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park and have the track record elapsed time of 3.975 seconds and speed of 324.83.

“Just judging by the performance at preseason testing and Pomona, I doubt those will be standing very long. The Funny Car class is so competitive and that makes it so tough. I think it’s the most competitive class out there because there isn’t a car out there that can’t go out and win on Sunday.

“We’ve definitely put our struggles behind us and know that we can go out there and perform this weekend. I’m looking forward to seeing the results from everything we’ve changed.”