Yahoo Autos Brown, Tasca, Stanfield, M. Smith go the rounds at NHRA’s Western Swing visit to Sonoma
Top Fuel’s Antron Brown defeated first-time finalist Tony Stewart in the final round of the 36th annual Denso NHRA Sonoma Nationals, picking up his third win of the 2024 season on Sunday at Sonoma Raceway.
Bob Tasca III (Funny Car), Aaron Stanfield (Pro Stock) and Matt Smith (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also won the 12th of 20 races during the 2024 NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series season.
Stewart left first with a slight advantage on the starting line, but Brown quickly tracked him down, going 3.746s at 329.67mph in his Matco Tools/Toyota dragster to earn his 77th career victory. Brown defeated Shawn Reed, Steve Torrence and Brittany Force to reach the final round, leaning on consistency time after time this weekend in Sonoma.
It paid off in a major way, as Brown, who qualified seventh, powered to his fifth Top Fuel victory at Sonoma, which ties him with Doug Kalitta for the most in class history at the facility.
“Sonoma has a special meaning to me. It’s like a piece of heaven out here and just being here puts me in the zone,” Brown said. “Me and Tony know each other well. When I started as a team owner he was putting together TSR, we talked a lot about budgets and spread sheets and all that.
“He was also a hero of mine when he ran NASCAR and IndyCar. I know how good of a driver he is. He understands the science so as soon as he showed up I knew what he could do. I did tell him to come on over but there are a lot of sharks in the water here. His time is coming and it won’t be one win. It will be a lot of them, but this is a good win for us. My team stays poised and they were incredible all weekend. I’m super-pumped for all of them. We went down the track every single lap and that was an awesome, awesome job to get a win like this.”
Stewart’s first final in Top Fuel came after defeating Shawn Langdon, Justin Ashley and Ron August Jr., who upset points leader, No. 1 qualifier and reigning world champion Doug Kalitta in the first round.
In Funny Car, nobody could track down Bob Tasca III all weekend and that continued in the final round, racing to his second Sonoma win in three years by taking down Ron Capps in the final round with a 4.088s at 277.15mph in his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Mustang. It’s also the third win of the year for Tasca, who remained second points, and he did it in incredible fashion.
Tasca qualified No. 1 with a 338mph run, added a weekend-best run of 338.77mph in the opening round against Buddy Hull and then drove past Paul Lee and points leader Austin Prock to reach the final round. The semifinals against Prock was a thriller, as Tasca won on a holeshot with an 0.022s reaction time, sending him to the final round where he held on to the win against Capps. It was another rewarding moment for Tasca, who now has 18 career wins as he gets into championship form.
“It’s so hard to win these things and that’s a testament to my crew, to Todd Okuhara and Aaron Brooks,” Tasca said. “They pulled it back and still ran 337mph. I was a bit surprised in the final. It was pulling great and then it knocked the tires off. You have no idea how that feels. I looked out the side window because I expected him to come by me. Fortunately, I got it to recover.
“I thought if we could get the car to run like it ran in Q4 we could beat him and I said that to Todd. I said, ‘Let’s run as quick as we can and if he beats us, I’ll be the first to congratulate him.’”
Capps advanced to the finals for the second time in three races and the 149th time in his career by getting round wins against Cruz Pedregon, defending event winner J.R. Todd and reigning world champion Matt Hagan.
Aaron Stanfield stayed red-hot in the Pro Stock ranks, which meant Elite Motorsports did as well, as Stanfield won for the third time in four races while taking down first-time Pro Stock finalist Cory Reed in the championship round with an impressive run of 6.540s at 209.98mph in his Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage/Melling Performance/Janac Brothers car. It’s also the 11th career win for Stanfield, whose efforts over the past two months have helped propel Elite Motorsports to six straight victories.
Stanfield has three of them in that span, grabbing his second career win at Sonoma Raceway after defeating Mason McGaha, defending world champion Erica Enders and No. 1 qualifier Greg Anderson. He delivered another strong reaction time in the final round against Reed, rolling to the victory as Stanfield continues to make big strides this season.
“This is a great win, but I want to shout out to Cory Reed for going to the final in his second race,” Stanfield said. “This week we lost a good friend, Tim “the Iceman” Kelly, to cancer and I wanted to get it done for him. I know Cory is fresh to the class so I would have been surprised if he played any games, so I just did my normal routine. I think I’m driving better this year and I’d love to continue that.
“We didn’t have a great ladder since all the hitters seemed to be on one side. I had to race Erica and we’re teammates, but we still want to beat each other. Then there was Greg and you’ve got to be on your game anytime you race him.”
In just his second career Pro Stock start, Reed, who previously raced in Pro Stock Motorcycle, advanced to the final round by taking down Deric Kramer, Eric Latino and Jerry Tucker. Dallas Glenn remains the points leader in the class.
Pro Stock Motorcycle’s Matt Smith, a six-time world champion, finished off one of the best weekends in his career on Sunday, getting his first win of the season by taking down teammate John Hall in the final round with a run of 6.700s at 203.77mph on his Denso Auto Parts Buell. It was a picture-perfect three days for Smith, who qualified No. 1, set the track record with a stellar 6.655s, won the GETTRX Pro Stock Motorcycle All-Star Callout on Saturday and then snapped a winless streak that stretched back to the Countdown to the Championship opener last September in Reading, Pa.
That drought is over in emphatic fashion, as Smith, now a two-time Sonoma winner, took down Eiji Kawakami and Seattle winner Chase Van Sant to reach the final round against Hall. His teammate left the starting line first, but Smith, who also picked up his 39th career win, quickly chased him down, picking up a meaningful win and putting him right back on track when it comes to racing for what would be a class-record seventh world championship.
“This is very big,” Smith said. “This is a Denso event which is our sponsor, and we won everything there is to win. We put a lot into getting our bikes ready for this weekend. We’re gaining ground on the rest of the field and that takes a team effort.
“It’s all in the 60-foot area. Our class is so dependent on that. The Suzuki’s stepped up their game and we need to follow them. I learned to leave low and take power out to get the bike to leave the starting line. I’m 51 and I’m getting older but I can still do this. To me, the magic number is seven. If I get that seventh title this year I promise I’ll get off the bike and put some young kid on it who can do the job.”
Hall reached his second final round this year and the fourth in his career by defeating Angie Smith, defending world champion and points leader Gaige Herrera and Hector Arana Jr.
The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series returns to action Aug. 15-18 with the 42nd annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minn.
