Wed, 27 Oct 2004, 11:17 AM
What Happens In Las Vegas….
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By Bob Frey
Photo copyright 2004 Auto Imagery, Inc.
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John Force
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The new theme for Las Vegas may be the best promotional
campaign for any place in a long while, or at least since the “I Love New York”
theme. Every where you go people use the phrase or a part of it these days and
some folks love it and others don’t. Still, when the NHRA
POWERade tour comes to town this weekend, what happens in Las Vegas
won’t stay there, at least I hope it doesn’t. When
John Force qualifies and clinches his 13
th championship,
that won’t stay there. If
Greg Anderson
wins his record-setting 14
th race of the year, that won’t stay
there. If
Andrew Hines clinches his
first championship, that won’t stay there. And if someone wins the
Budweiser Shootout and the
A.C. Delco Nationals, that won’t stay
there either. All of that good news will be spread out all over the place and
the 2004 season will have completed another successful weekend and we will have
one race remaining on the schedule. Still, I know what the folks from Las Vegas
were thinking about when they came up with that “What happens here, stays here”
theme. It just won’t apply to the race. At least I hope it doesn’t.
Tony Schumacher
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If you are so inclined you can place a bet on the races this
weekend and there are a couple of very intriguing options. For example, would
you take John Force at 3-1 odds or
Ron
Capps at 30-1 odds? Greg Anderson at 1-2 odds or
Ken Koretsky at 15-1? Or how about
Scott Kalitta in the Shootout at 5-1 odds? Some of them sure sound
intriguing and I may have to plunk down a buck or two on a driver or two. Then
again…
Cory McClenathan and
Larry Dixon are both 10-1 by the way
and it’ll be hard to pass that up. We’ll see….The Budweiser Shootout will have
a new format and that should be exciting. Seven of the top cars from the past
year are already in the show while an eighth driver will be added during the
special drawing on Thursday evening at the “Joint” in the Hard Rock Hotel.
Doug Kalitta gets the guaranteed top
spot and will race the wild car driver in round one and that could be anyone
from Mr. Dixon to
Mike Strasburg.
And if you think Mike Strasburg in the Shootout is a long shot think back to
the first event and answer this. Among the drivers who qualified for the race
in Pomona, who was in the 1985 TF bash,
Bill
Mullins, Gene Snow, Eddie Hill
or
Frank Bradley? If you answered
Bill Mullins you are correct and I know that had to surprise a lot of you.
Driving the Carey’s Diesel car, Bill made the Shootout field (called the
Cragar / Weld Wheel Top Fuel Classic
back then) while some of the biggest names in the sport had to watch. Mike Strasburg,
Scott Weis, Brady Kalivoda, Rhonda and
John Smith, David Baca and
Morgan Lucas would all love to see that
scenario play out again. Of course Larry Dixon is also in the wild card field
but he certainly couldn’t be considered a long shot even if he isn’t among the
top seven guaranteed spots. I have to hand it to the folks at Budweiser because
they’ve come up with a new wrinkle for their race and that’s a good thing. The
shootout party should be fun and I know the run for $100,000 will be too….While
most of the drivers in previous years have said that winning the Shootout
itself is a big deal I’m sure that some of the other teams would agree that the
100 grand isn’t bad either. You know, I’m almost pulling for the wild car
driver to win it all, wouldn’t that be neat? Please, no calls will be accepted
from the top seven guys after this story hits the web….
Tony Schumacher, who has won everything but the Bud Shootout in his
relatively brief career, will try to add that jewel to his list of
accomplishments for the 2004 season. Of course he will also try to win his
tenth race of the season and set a single-season mark in the Top Fuel class in
the process. Furthermore, Tony will attempt to join a very select group of
drivers who have won the Shootout and the season’s TF title in the same year.
Larry Dixon,
Gary Scelzi, Joe Amato
and
Don Garlits have all “doubled”
and Tony wouldn’t mind seeing his name on that list I’m sure.
Tony and Cruz
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The Funny Car focus will be on John Force, at least until
eliminations begin. Once John has secured a qualifying spot he will be the 2004
POWERade champ, his lucky 13
th title. Then on Sunday he will set out
in an attempt to win the race, something that he’s already done twice at the
Vegas track, once at the spring race and once in the fall.
Did you know that Las Vegas is one of twenty-three tracks on
which John has won races in his career? And
did
you know that
Warren Johnson
has won at twenty-four different venues? And
did you know that Las Vegas isn’t one of them? Go figure…
Tony Pedregon will return to the track
where he clinched his championship a year ago. Tony, along with brother
Cruz, will be busy this weekend, with
appearances at the Palms Hotel and Casino on Wednesday night and then playing
host to
Carlos Santana at the track
on Sunday. Santana will be there to help promote awareness for the foundation
that he and his wife, Deborah, have founded, the
Milagro Foundation. Like so many people in show business, Carlos is
happy to give something back to the community and his foundation does just
that. Having him at the races will certainly enhance the already exciting event
and wouldn’t it be great for Tony or Cruz to win on Sunday with this music Hall
of Fame legend in attendance?...For his part Tony will remember last year’s big
win and title-clinching event as well as the fact that he got his first number
one spot as a car owner at the spring race earlier this year. Cruz will be
aiming for his first win of the season as he finishes what has to be considered
a good year for the
Advance Auto Parts
team. The fact that Cruz has already announced that
Wes Cerny will be back with him next year is a big plus for the
team…..
Del Worsham will be looking
to add to his best season ever with a few more round wins and an event win.
Did you know that Del already has
five event wins and thirty-six round wins and those are both career bests for
the driver of the
Checker, Schuck’s and
Kragen car? Del will also be looking to stay in second place in the points
and to do that he’ll have to outrun or outlast Gary Scelzi who trails him by
just thirty-six points.
Warren Johnson
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The Pro Stock class should be pretty exciting with Greg
looking to keep up his record pace while
Jason
Line and
David Connolly continue
to slug it out for second place and Warren Johnson looks to keep his twenty-two
year winning streak alive. I do have to admit, though, that Warren has a really
tough job in store. The “Professor” did mention on the
NHRA 2day show this past weekend that he is confident that he will
be better prepared for the 2005 season because of what he’s done this year, but
only time will tell if that’s true or not. Meanwhile, Warren will try to fight
his way back into the top ten in the points and, even though he will probably
tell you that if you don’t win the championship, nothing else matters, I
believe it matters even to the “Professor.” After all, how many people in any
sport or endeavor can say that they have been a top ten player for twenty-two
consecutive years?
Did you know
that, in the interest of fair reporting, Warren hasn’t even finished out of the
top five in points in that period of time? Now that’s some accomplishment,
isn’t it?...The Johnson family member with the best shot at winning may be Kurt.
Did you know that the driver
of the
A.C. Delco Cavalier has been
to the finals at the last three races at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway?
OK, so he hasn’t closed the deal and won one but still, three straight final
rounds at any track is good. Kurt’s car will be on display on Thursday at the
“Joint” as part of the promotion for the A.C. Delco Nationals and the new and
improved Budweiser Shootout. Now if he could hang in there for a few rounds on
Sunday….like four!!...Remember where you heard it first, there will be at least
one driver and maybe two who will qualify for their first national event in a
Pro Stock car this weekend and one of them will be driving
a Ford which narrows the choices down in a
hurry…..By the way, before you plunk down your money on a Pro Stock winner this
weekend remember this, Greg Anderson has won the last three events here. Just
thought you
might like to know that.
Plus, in addition to the single-season mark he’ll also be looking to break the
record for number one qualifying spots in a single season. He already has
fifteen of them and is tied with Warren Johnson who did the deed in 1999.
Antron Brown
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Andrew Hines
could wrap up his title this weekend in the Pro Stock Bike class and that
should add some excitement to Sunday’s festivities. Of course it won’t be easy
because he’ll be looking to score more points than
Antron Brown does.
Did you
know that over the last six bike races Antron has gone to at least the
semi-finals and at four of those events he made it all the way to the money
round? Also over that same time span,
did
you know that Antron
has gone from seventh place to second in the standings? While it will be a long
shot for Antron to overtake Andrew he has made things exciting as the bike
class continues to be one of the most exciting on the circuit. By the way,
watch for a big name rider from another circuit to be making the jump to “the
show” next year if not before that….To show how competitive the bike class is
all you have to do is look at the winners.
Did
you know that there have been seven different winners this year in only
thirteen events?....And while the alky cars won’t run this weekend the
Lucas Oil sportsman racing
championships could begin to take shape.
Michael
Johnson has an outside, and I mean an outside chance to catch
Dean Carter in Competition Eliminator
and Michael has two national events and one divisional race yet to claim.
Sounds like a couple of weekends in Las Vegas may be in store for the Johnson
clan….
Larry Stewart has one
divisional race remaining to claim and he’ll be in Gainesville this weekend
while
Lincoln Morehead, on the
strength of his Super Stock win at Atco this past weekend, is only sixteen
points behind the leader,
Dan Fletcher.
Lincoln has one national event remaining and while I know that Nevada is a long
way from New Jersey, I think it will be worth the trip for Lincoln…
Doug Doll Jr., another Atco winner, has taken over the lead in the Super Comp
category and his 608 points is all that he can do since he is now out of races
to claim.
Rock Haas, only twenty
points back, has two national events remaining so I have four words for
Rock…”Welcome to Las Vegas.”
There are
other drivers in these classes who could gain points and move up but these
appear to be the ones with the best chances of winning the titles. We’ll have
more on this next week, so for now, good luck to all of the sportsman racers as
the 2004 season draws to an exciting conclusion….Oh I almost forgot…
did you know that
Jerry Toliver’s car will carry the logo
of the movie “Saw” on it this weekend? Very appropriate for Halloween weekend,
don’t you think? Gee, I wonder what Jerry is going to be for Halloween?
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