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Tue, 18 Aug 2009, 11:14 PM

200 Pro Stock Wins for Pontiac

By Bob Frey
Photo copyright 2009 Auto Imagery, Inc.

John Force

Unbelievable!! That's all I can say after another NHRA Full Throttle drag race was interrupted by rain. This time it was at the Lucas Oil Nationals in Brainerd, Minnesota, and it cancelled most of the last round of qualifying on Saturday and made Sunday a really long day. In the end, the champs were crowned, the race completed and everyone packed up and headed for Pennsylvania. Well, everyone except select members of the Team Force entourage who stayed behind to test. Talk about the classic case of, "you can't tell the players without a program." Robert Hight is testing John's car, John will be driving Robert's car, Mike Neff will be in a mini-van and Ashley Force will be driving a Lamborghini. At least that's what I heard. I guess we'll find out more when we all get to Maple Grove this weekend.

Anderson vs. Line
Every race has its historical significance and special moments and the 28^th running of the Lucas Oil National was no exception. When Greg Anderson beat Jason Line in the Pro Stock final round it was special for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, especially for Greg, it meant that he finally won a race this year and that extends his streak to nine consecutive years in which he has won at least one race. His next challenge is to win again, since in all of those years, beginning with 2001, not only has he won one race but he has won at least two each year. Greg, who qualified third in the field, notched his 58^th national event win, all in Pro Stock, and that puts him eleventh on the all-time NHRA win list for all drivers and it puts him in sixth place on the all-time professional win list. The win over Jason was also the second time in as many races that Ken Black's two Summit Racing Pontiacs have met in the final round and it was the fifth consecutive race that featured Jason in the final round. Could it be that the Summit cars

First Pontiac win
Butch Leal over Bob Glidden
at Atlanta 1985.
are peaking at just the right time of the year?...The other milestone that happened when Greg won the race was that it was the 200^th Pro Stock win for Pontiac. Did you know that the first win for Pontiac came back at Atlanta in 1985 when Butch Leal beat Bob Glidden? Looking at some other Pontiac historical moments in Pro Stock, did you know that their 50^th win came when Kurt Johnson beat Jim Yates and won at Brainerd in 1997? Win number one hundred for Pontiac was also recorded by Greg Anderson

100th Pontiac win
Greg Anderson vs. Mark Osborne
at Indy in 2001.
when he beat Mark Osborne at Indy in 2001 while win number 150 came at Englishtown in 2005 and was scored by Jason Line. And just for the record, did you know that over all of those years the one thing that remained constant at those races was Warren Johnson? WJ qualified number one at the '85 Atlanta race, number one at Brainerd in 1997, number three at Indy in 2001 and number four at Englishtown in 2005. And even though he didn't win the race this week, (after I predicted he would win), he did win a very important round over Johnny Gray and that gave him a little breathing room in his drive to make the "Countdown." Warren is now forty-six points ahead of Johnny with two races to go before we make the cut.In the department of corrections department, last week I said that Warren went to his first final in a 1962 Corvette, well, he pointed out to me that it was actually in a 1957 Chevy with a '62 Corvette engine and he had a picture to prove it. Love the purple paint, don't you?....Back to the Pontiac history. Did you know that when he won in Atlanta Butch Leal was one of four Pontiac

150th Pontiac win
Jason Line vs. Warren Johnson
at E'town in 2005.
drivers to make the field? Don Campanello (7^th), Gene Fasching (9^th) and Charlie Garrett (16^th) also raced for Pontiac but it was Leal who got the historic win. And one last thing about Pontiac. Did you know that William Eckstrom was the first driver to ever qualify a Pontiac in Pro Stock and he

Warren Johnson's '57 Chevy.
did that at the Englishtown race in 1971?...Mike Edwards led the performance parade at Brainerd (in a Pontiac) and he left with the number one qualifying time, low elapsed time and top speed but he didn't leave with the trophy. Since I tried to predict the winners based on previous Brainerd history (and we all know how that worked out), at least the history of number one qualifiers at BIR held up. Did you know that the last time the top qualifier won in Pro Stock at Brainerd was way back in 1986 when Bob Glidden did it? Bob also won from the top spot in 1985 and those are the only two times in the history of the race that the quickest driver in qualifying won the race in Pro Stock. Now that's just amazing, isn't it?...Jason Line's recent surge has carried him past Mike and into second place in the points. Jeg Coughlin continues to lead while Mike is now third and Greg is fourth....For the record, Chevrolet is second in Pro Stock with 164 wins and Oldsmobile (remember them?) is third with an even 100 wins.

Charlotte, Morgan & Forrest Lucas
The Top Fuel final couldn't have been much more exciting, especially for Morgan, Forrest and Charlotte Lucas and the folks at Geico. Morgan, who qualified first, beat Larry Dixon in a great final round (3.814 - 3.818) and, in the process, won his second race of the year and set off a wild celebration on the starting line. After winning the all-important rickshaw race in the "zoo" earlier in the week, Morgan came out on race day and beat Chris Karamesines, Brandon Bernstein and Cory McClenathan before stopping Dixon. And to make the win even sweeter, if that's possible when you're winning your sponsor's (and parent's) race, Morgan set a career best elapsed time in the final round. For his four rounds Morgan went 3.841, 3.833, 3.831 and then 3.814 and that's as dominant as we have seen a Top Fuel car in a while. That's the second consecutive year that the top qualifier has won in TF at Brainerd but only the seventh time in the twenty-eight year history of the event that it has

Lucas vs. Dixon
happened. Congratulations to Morgan, crew chief Jimmy Walsh and the entire team for an outstanding weekend..As I have mentioned several times, the racing at 1,000 feet in the fuel classes has been great this year. Antron Brown and Tony Schumacher both ran 3.841 in their second round match, while Morgan and Cory had a tremendous battle in the semi-finals and, of course, the money round was spectacular. In the end, in addition to Morgan's top qualifying spot, Cory set low elapsed time with his own personal best, a stunning 3.811 in his win over Shawn Langdon, while Antron took home top speed honors with a 318.69 mph blast, a run that was good for the third best speed ever at the 1,000 foot distance..With all of the attention focused on the top of the field, the two drivers who are fighting for a berth in the "Countdown" had their own little drama playing out. Joe Hartley managed to move a little closer to Clay Millican but he is still a little more than one round behind Clay in the

Brown vs. Schumacher
battle for the final spot. Clay lost to Brandon Bernstein in round one while Joe was beating Spencer Massey, and then in the second round, Joe lost to Larry Dixon which kept Clay in tenth but makes the final two races very exciting. I think it would be fitting if the two meet each other at one of the last two races, much like Warren and Johnny did in Pro Stock at Brainerd and like Cruz Pedregon and Matt Hagan did, too. Hey, nothing like having your fate in your own hands, is there?...Almost lost in all the excitement of the race was the fact that Chris Karamesines ran 4.118 in his run against Lucas, and that was a career best (at 1,000 feet) for the almost eighty-year old "Greek." How cool was that?

Kurt Elliott & Dickie Venables
In what had to be one of the most frantic weekends in Tony Pedregon's career, the two-time champ shrugged off all the distractions of losing his two top men and went out and won the race. I may have been the only person in Brainerd who didn't ask Tony "what happened." That's because he issued a very brief press release that said it was a "business decision" that forced the departure of Dickie Venables and Kurt Elliott and I respected that. And, as in all situations like this, unless you can hear and air both sides of the story (and sometimes not even then) will you be able to get the entire background as to what happened. So I will just say that Tony, as an owner, did what he thought he had to do and, while it may have appeared unusual to us, we'll just have to see what happens in the long run. I do know this, OK, so maybe I don't actually know this but I've heard this, that both Dickie and Kurt have already had offers from other teams and I will be very surprised if they don't end up with another top quality team before too long. Or should I say that once they do land with a team it will then become a top notch team. I'm sure Tony will tell you that they both had a lot, and I mean a lot to do with his success as a team owner and a driver. Both of them are very talented tuners and really nice men and I wish them the best

Tony vs. Cruz
of luck. Of course a lot of speculation is going around that they may land at Team Force and, the way this year is going, I wouldn't rule that out. I did have a long conversation with John Force at Brainerd and we talked about that possibility, but, because he asked me to keep our discussion private, I will do just that....On the track, the most surprising run of the day had to be the second round match between Tony and his brother, Cruz. With Cruz fighting for a playoff spot I think a lot of people, including me, thought that Tony might "take a knee" for Cruz and let him win the round. Well, that didn't happen and Tony won a great race, his 4.155 beating his brother's 4.187. In his interview after the race Tony was very emotional when he talked about racing Cruz. I will tell you this, and this is strictly my opinion, if Tony hadn't had the crew chief change right before the event started I really think the race with Cruz may have had a different outcome. But since he really wanted to prove something to everyone, he had to go out and race Cruz heads-up. That's just my opinion and you can take it in the "for what it's worth" category. Tony's win, which came in his third, consecutive final round, increased his lead over runner-up Ron Capps to twenty-eight points, or a little more than one round. The win also

Capps vs. Wilkerson
puts Tony in a tie with Gary Scelzi for 18^th place on the all-time win list in all classes....Earlier, before he met Tony, Cruz beat Matt Hagan, his closest challenger for the final spot in the "Countdown," and that gives the reigning champion a thirty point edge over Matt and he is sixty points ahead of Robert Hight who failed to qualify. These next two races will be very exciting for the fans, and the team that can handle the situation emotionally, even more than mechanically, may get the final spot in the "Countdown.".Poor Tim Wilkerson. He goes out and runs 4.123, the second best elapsed time of the first round, and gets beat by Ron Capps who ran the best elapsed time of the round at 4.115. Like I often say, it's as much about what your opponent does as what you do. Case in point, Bob Tasca was up next and he goes 4.600 and wins. Like I said, poor Tim....Even though he didn't qualify it was great to see Dale Creasy Jr. back behind the wheel. After his devastating accident, and after more surgeries than he can count, it had to be exciting for him to climb back behind the wheel at an NHRA race. He's the kind of guy that makes this a great sport.

Arana vs. Pippin
Hector Arana has a bike that can win the championship and remember where you heard that first. After qualifying number one for the third time this year, and for the fourth time in his career, Hector went out and crushed the field on Sunday with four consecutive six-second runs. They were, by the way, the only six-second runs of the race in the bike class. Hector also set top speed which gives him his first "sweep" of a national event. Hector may not have been the first, but he was certainly one of the first drag racers to carry Lucas Oil sponsorship and he could repay the trust the family has had in him with a championship this year. Hector stayed away from those nasty red lights and holeshot losses that have plagued him this year and if he can ride like that he can, indeed, win the championship..How about that Junior Pippin? The guy who had never won a round before let alone a race, had a shot at the title when he faced Hector in the final round, but this time it was Junior who fouled out. Still, it had to be a thrill for him to get to the final round with his PiranaZ bike. Did you know that he becomes just the 52^nd rider

Michael Phillips
to make it to the final round in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class? Among that group are ten other racers who made it to one, and only one final, and six of them never won a race. Junior ran well all day and he beat Andrew Hines on a holeshot, Shawn Gann when he fouled out and then he just outran Craig Treble (my pick to win) in the semi-finals. History being what it is, and since Junior qualified in the bottom half of the field, he didn't have much of a chance in the final round. That's because only once has the PSM winner come from the bottom half of the field at Brainerd, and the number fourteen qualifier, which is what Junior was, has never won an NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle race. Never!! In fact, did you know that in the entire history of the class this was only the fifth time that the number fourteen rider even made it to the final round? Nice job, Junior....The battle for the last spot in the "Countdown" is between Karen Stoffer and Michael Phillips and Michael gained a round in Brainerd when he beat Bailey Whitaker and Karen lost to Mike Berry. The two are exactly one round apart with two races to go.

Peter Biondo
The champs flexed their muscles in the alky classes at Brained with both Bill Reichert and Frank Manzo winning. This was the fifth national event win for Frank and that all but assures him of another championship, while Bill grabbed his second national win of the year in three final round appearances. Did you know that Bill won his very first national event at Brainerd back in 1993 when he beat Jay Payne? Bill will skip the Maple Grove race this week and then race at the Division 3 race in Bowling Green before going to Indy to defend his championship. The battle for the Top Alcohol Dragster title is still wide open and will be fun to watch as we head down the stretch..Peter Biondo won in his fourth, different class when he beat Bruno Massel for the Comp title in Brainerd. Did you know that Peter's first national event win came at Indy in 1993 and it was in Super Comp, and his only other Super Comp national win was also at Indy in 1997?