Yahoo Autos NHRA Drama Building: Who Saw This Coming In NHRA’s First Two Countdown Races?
Doug Kalitta ready to shed bridesmaid label
Funny Car’s Ron Capps, Pro Stock’s Dallas Glenn have lost their top seedings
Starting out six-race playoffs doesn’t guarantee a championship
Doug Kalitta can vouch for the one certainty about the NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship: that it’s predictably unpredictable.
The long-suffering Top Fuel driver of the Mac Tools Dragster, a five-time series runner-up who leads the sport for racer with most victories (51) without a championship, is scrambling the standings after the first two of six playoff events.
As the Camping World Drag Racing Series plays out this weekend at World Wide Technology Raceway, near St. Louis, Kalitta has vaulted from sixth place to first with two consecutive victories. And that all happened after his tire shredded during the final qualifying session at Reading, Pa., in the first Countdown race.
The blown tire heavily damaged his primary car, forcing Kalitta to resort to the back-up, which he called his “faithful” ride. It still is. Call it a Tale of Two Charlottes, when he left the series’ first visit to zMAX Dragway at Charlotte in April, he was 10th in the standings, and when he left last Sunday, he was first for the first time since Sept. 6, 2020. Those back-to-back triumphs—a first for Kalitta since 2016—have given him a 63-point advantage over closest challenger Steve Torrence.
Meanwhile, Justin Ashley, the No. 1 seed entering the Countdown by leading the standings for most of the year, has dropped to third place. Antron Brown, on a roll with two straight victories to close the regular season, has fallen from third to fifth. Torrence, gunning for a fifth title in the past six seasons, is still in second place after Kalitta dealt him a first-round defeat last week.
Kalitta has other pursuers, though, in his 285th consecutive start. Mike Salinas won the $30,000 bonus last Saturday for becoming the first nitro-class racer to break the 300-mph barrier in the eighth-mile, and he said, “We’re right there and we know we have a lot of speed in our car, and we were able to showcase that in Charlotte. The weather in St. Louis looks good so if we can continue to use what we were able to find in Charlotte, I think we’ll be in for another great race weekend.”
Two-time and current class champion Brittany Force is sixth in points but said she still has “complete confidence we can make some big moves.”
Even though Kalitta said, “I’m a pretty humble guy—I just want to stay ahead however we have to do that. It would be huge (finally to win the championship). We just have to keep going rounds. It’s really about everybody that’s helped me over the years for me, but it would be extra-special for sure.
“Everybody’s driving the wheels off these things. You have to take advantage of the opportunities when you get them, and that’s what we’re going to continue to try to do. I’m happy to be here, and it’s a good spot, for sure. But I’m sure everybody will be hungry. We’ll have to work our tails off here, too. With Alan Johnson tuning the thing and Brian [Husen as crew chief], it’s a hell of a combination right now. I’m hoping we all settle in, just be comfortable doing what we are doing, keep our heads down, keep going rounds and let it shake out where it does.”
Funny Car
In the Funny Car class, reigning champ Ron Capps has had a rude awakening. He has dropped from first place to third in the past two races, tied with fellow three-time champion Matt Hagan, who also has lost ground despite earning his 500th career round-win last weekend. So rather than the Capps-Hagan-Robert Hight troika ruling the class, Hight has positioned himself as the leader with a gain of two positions since the Countdown started.
Capps and Hagan by no means are out of contention, but now the battle appears between Hight and most recent winner Bob Tasca III, who has improved from fourth place to second. In the past five races, Tasca has won twice, had two semifinal finishes, and had no worse a race-day start than fourth in the order.
If history is a factor at all this year, Capps could be in trouble. In 11 of the 14 Countdowns, the initial first-place driver has not emerged as the champion. The happy news is that Capps has defied the odds. In two of the three exceptions, he has entered and finished the playoffs No. 1.
Pro Stock
Pro Stock’s Dallas Glenn, like Capps, has lost his advantage and is third. He’s just 15 points off Matt Hartford’s pace. Erica Enders is poised, at No. 2, just four points behind Hartford, to go on a run and claim her sixth championship. “It ain’t over. It ain’t even close,” she insisted after losing in the semifinal round to nemesis and eventual winner Greg Anderson at Charlotte. Anderson is bidding for his sixth crown, as well, and he’s lurking in fourth place after earning his 102nd victory last week.
Pro Stock Motorcycle
Pro Stock Motorcycle’s Gaige Herera yielded his year-long supremacy to five-time champion Matt Smith – but only for one race. Herrera, who has taken the class by storm in his sophomore season, reclaimed the lead with a victory at Charlotte.
And the Points Leaders...
Top Fuel
Doug Kalitta 2,284
Steve Torrence minus-63
Justin Ashley -68
Leah Pruett -76
Antron Brown -92
Funny Car
Robert Hight 2,299
Bob Tasca III minus-25
Ron Capps -69
Matt Hagan -69
Chad Green -132
Pro Stock
Matt Hartford 2,250
Erica Enders -4
Dallas Glenn -15
Greg Anderson -61
Troy Coughlin Jr. -64
Pro Stock Motorcycle
Gaige Herrera 2,304
Matt Smith -52
Hector Arana Jr. -54
Eddie Krawiec -104
Angie Smith -133