Tue, 11 Aug 2009, 09:28 PM Brandon, John, Johnson and Treble

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2009 Auto Imagery, Inc. Photo copyright 2009 Auto Imagery, Inc.

Antron Brown

There are only three races to go before we make the cut to ten and begin the next part of the season, and that includes the race this weekend in Brainerd, followed by Maple Grove and then Indy. Several drivers have already secured their spots in the "Countdown" although the top spots, and the twenty bonus points that go with it in each class, are still up for grabs in all classes except Top Fuel. Antron Brown has a comfortable 199 point lead, and since that's just about ten rounds I'm going to go ahead and give him the top spot in the "Countdown." Tony Schumacher is in second, and if anyone could catch "AB" it would be the "Sarge," but even as well as he's running right now, and as good a job as Mike Green has done, I don't think they can make up a ten round deficit with three races to go. While Antron will be making his second start at BIR in the dragster class he did have

Brown won in '06.

a lot, and I mean a lot, of success in his previous life as a motorcycle racer. Did you know that Antron has more Brainerd wins than any other motorcycle rider? Antron won the Brainerd race four times on his Suzuki and that's more than anyone, including the great Dave Schultz who won it three times and Matt Hines who also has a trio of "Wallys" from Minnesota. For the record, Antron won his races in ten starts while Dave did his in eleven appearances in Brainerd and Matt picked up his three trophies in only seven starts at BIR....Even with that as a background I'm going to pick Brandon Bernstein to win this weekend. Why, you ask? Well, for two reasons. First of all, because I can, and I haven't picked any winners for a while. Of course I haven't tried, either. Second, I look at the history of the Bernstein family at BIR and I think it's about time that Brandon breaks his losing streak. OK, so losing streak may sound a little severe, but you know what I mean. Did you know that Brandon

Bernstein vs. Dixon in '07.

hasn't won a race since the Brainerd race in 2007 when he beat Larry Dixon? Brandon also won in 2006 and, added to the five races that his father won in Brainerd, that's a lot of wins at one track for the Bernstein family. If history is any indication I think that means that the Budweiser/Lucas Oil car will go the distance, win the race and end their drought In Brainerd. Remember where you heard it first.....Since I brought up his dad, did you know that Kenny Bernstein won the Brainerd race a total of five times and he won it in both fuel classes and he is the only one who can make that statement? I have always wondered why some drivers do well at certain tracks, and while I haven't been

Kenny Bernstein celebrates '83 win.

able to come up with an answer, I do think that your past history can be a sign of how well you will do in the future. Besides Kenny's success, Brandon has had a very good car this year even if he has struggled to beat Tony Schumacher. Did you know that Brandon is 1-4 against Tony this year and he is 10-25 for his career against the Army driver? Of all the drivers that he has faced in his career, nobody has beaten Brandon more times than Tony. Did you know that of the 52 drivers he has faced Brandon only has a losing record against seven of them, including Tony? Still I think it's time to turn the corner and make a charge going into the "Countdown" so look for Brandon, Rob Flynn and the rest of the Bud team to go rounds and win in Brainerd. Or did I say that already?...And don't forget to watch the battle at the bottom of the pack between Clay Millican and Joe Hartley for the tenth and final spot in the "Countdown." That could be just as exciting and interesting and more nerve-racking then the battle for the top spot.

John Force celebrates '88 win.

If I think the Bernstein's family history is going to help them this week then it must be a lock that John Force will win in the Funny Car class. Did you know that John has won this race an amazing eleven times? Obviously John has had great success in his career, but no other track has been as good to him as Brainerd. He won the Phoenix race eight times and that's about as close as he comes to the amazing record he has in Minnesota. Did you know that Bob Glidden also won the NHRA Finals eleven times and, along with John, that's the best record for any professional at any track? Because of that, I'm going to pick John to win this weekend. I know it's been a while, over a year, but I think John has shown signs of life over the last few races and that, along with his record in Brainerd, is why I'm picking him to break out of the second longest slump of his career. In fact, other than the very beginning of his career when he went seventy-four races without a win, this is the biggest dry spell in John's career. Going into this week's event John is in eighth place in the points and he is certainly not a lock for a spot in the playoffs. That's another reason why I think he'll do well. Think about it, has there ever been a more clutch player than John Force? I didn't think so....Besides John's own car he also has to be worrying about

Neff vs. C. Pedregon

two of his other three team cars, including Mike Neff and Robert Hight. Ironically, if Mike has a good weekend he could actually pass John in the standings and that wouldn't be good for Team Force, would it? John is a little more than a round ahead of Mike and Mike is about a round in front of Cruz Pedregon who is in tenth place. Who would have thought at the beginning of the year that, after fifteen races, John, Mike, Cruz and Robert Hight would all be looking for their first win? I know I didn't..One thing John has to do if he wants to secure a spot in the "Countdown" and/or win before the "Countdown" begins is beat the drivers who are ahead of him in the standings. Did you know that, for the 2009 season, John is 5-11 against the drivers who are ahead of him in the points? And did you know that the only driver in that group that he has a winning record against this year is Del Worsham and they've only met one time in 2009? Just like baseball, I've always said that if you want to win the championship you have to clobber the teams that are behind you and at

Jim Head in '85.

least split with the teams ahead of you....On the other side of the coin, Tony Pedregon, the points leader right now, has done very well against the other top ten drivers. Did you know that Tony is 19-11 against the other drivers in the top ten this year? The only guy who has really given him trouble this year is Jack Beckman who has not lost in three races against Tony....I will tell you this, if you're in the Funny Car class and you want to win in Brainerd you better qualify in the top seven spots. Did you know that in the previous twenty-seven years of this race the FC winner has come from the top seven spots an amazing twenty-six times? Only Jim Head, who won from the number twelve spot in 1985, has ever won from the bottom half of the field. Oh, by the way, at that race he beat John Collins who had qualified number one!

K. Johnson vs. W. Johnson

Past history being my focal point for Brainerd, I have to go with somebody named "Johnson" to win in Pro Stock. Did you know that, between them, Warren and Kurt Johnson have won the Brainerd race eight times? Besides those two, Jeg Coughlin is the only other active Pro Stock driver to have won in Brainerd more than once. That means, according to my calculations, that it's time for either "WJ" or "KJ" to win four rounds on Sunday. Did you know that Kurt's last win came at Brainerd in 2008? Along with Greg Anderson, Kurt is one of the Pro Stock drivers who is looking to win a race to keep their streak going. To date, Kurt has won at least one race in each of the past fourteen years while Greg, who is also winless this year, has won at least once a year for the past eight seasons....Warren, meanwhile, has been stuck on ninety-six wins since Phoenix of 2006, although it's been so long it probably feels more like Phoenix of '92 for Warren, and I think a little home cooking could be just what he needs to break that drought. Nothing personal, Arlene, but you know what I

WJ vs. Lee Shepherd in '84.

mean. Like John Force, Warren is looking to put a little distance between himself and his closest competitor for a spot in the "Countdown," and that just happens to be Johnny Gray who is in eleventh place right now. With only a little more than one round between them, each run, each qualifying pass, will be very important for both of those drivers at the next three races, and if past history is a factor, you have to give the advantage to Warren. Did you know that Johnny has qualified three times in Brainerd and that all three of them have been in a Funny Car? Warren, meanwhile, has been to all twenty-seven of the previous Brainerd races, qualified for twenty-six of them and been in the top half of the field twenty-three times. Warren has also been to the final five times and posted four wins. But, in the interest of fair reporting, I should add that the "Professor" hasn't won there since 1996. Wow, now that's a drought for Warren, isn't it, especially at a track in his home state? Did you know that Warren used to run at the Division 5 races, which included several tracks in Minnesota, and that he won three divisional championships with his Pro Stock car? And did you know that his first-ever,

Dave Connolly in '06.

NHRA final round, came at the D-5 race in Minneapolis in 1964? Yep, he ran his 1962 Corvette in C/MP and lost in the final round to the Division 5 Hall of Fame driver, Jim Lutz. That's a lot of years of racing in Minnesota and that's why I'm picking WJ (or KJ) to win this weekend..Another word to the racers in Pro Stock. If you want to win this week, make sure you qualify in the top half of the field. Did you know that in the history of the Brainerd race only twice has the winner in Pro Stock started from the bottom half of the field? It happened in 2006 when Dave Connolly won from the lucky number 13 spot and it happened in 2002 when Jeg won from the 15^th spot...Since I mentioned Jeg winning from the bottom half of the field, did you know that he has done something that no other professional racer has ever done in the history of the sport? Jeg has won at least one race from all sixteen starting positions in the field, from number one to sixteen, and no other pro driver in the history of drag racing can make that claim. Cool, huh?

Craig Treble in '04.

It's hard to believe, at least it is for me, that Craig Treble is the only active Pro Stock Motorcycle rider going into Brainerd who has won the race more than once, so I have to pick him to win this week. Craig picked up his wins in 1999 and 2004. I have to say "active rider" since Matt Hines won in Brainerd three times (which you already know from earlier in the column) and he is still very much active with the Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson team as a crew chief..Qualifying well will be very important for the bikes, too, since only once has the winner come from the bottom half of the field. In fact, did you know that only three times in the history of the race has the bike winner come from below the number four spot in the field? Amazing, isn't it? By the way, the one guy who won from the bottom half just happens to be Antron Brown who won after qualifying 13^th in 2003..Even though only Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines have officially locked up spots in the "Countdown" I

Phillips vs. Stoffer

think that the top seven riders, including Matt Smith, Douglas Horne, Craig Treble, Hector Arana and Matt Guidera, are all safe and will all be among the top ten after Indy. The next three, Steve Johnson, Shawn Gann and Karen Stoffer, will all likely make the "Countdown" although the final positions are still in doubt..Michael Phillips may have something to say about that final spot since he is in eleventh place and only about two rounds out of tenth, the spot that is currently held by Karen....I was watching

Dave Schultz

some of the golf tournament this past week, the one that Tiger Woods won, or should I say, another one that he won? When it was over they mentioned how Tiger has now won 28% of the tournaments that he has entered (even as good as he is it's tough to win the ones you don't enter) and it got me thinking. Who has the best winning percentage in drag racing? Well, it turns out to be a Pro Stock Motorcycle racer. Did you know that Dave Schultz won the exact same percentage of races as Tiger has golf tournaments? That's right, the great Mr. Schultz won 28% of the races he entered and that's the best in the pro classes in NHRA history, at least if my math is correct. And Dave did one thing that even Tiger hasn't done, and that is, he qualified for every race he entered. Even Tiger misses the cut once in a while, but not Dave!! In fact, Dave only had ten races in his entire career where he qualified in the bottom half of the field. He was some racer, wasn't he?

Richardson vs. Knudsen Photo by Barry Bergeron

I wrote a story last year about Dwight Nuest and his "Rampage" Dodge truck. Well, I got word over the weekend that the truck was demolished in an incident at Cordova this past week. Kyle, Dwight's son, was driving at the time and he is OK and that's the good news. Dwight and his wife, Judi, were planning on coming to Brainerd to race this week but, with the accident, it appeared that they would have to miss the event. Well, as I have often said, this is a very close community and racers are always willing to help out other racers and that's the case here. Judi wrote to tell me that they have had several teams offer to lend them a car for this weekend and for Indy and that they plan to make both races. "Our fellow racers are the best friends you could want," she said. I agree with that and look forward to seeing them this weekend, and thanks to the other racers for lending a helping hand..Edmond Richardson did it again. One of the truly great sportsman racers of all time "doubled-up" at the

Jerry "The King" Ruth

Cordova points race, winning in Stock and Super Comp. Did you know that's the second time this year that Edmond has "doubled" and it's the fourth time in his career that he has accomplished it? Only Jerry "The King" Ruth pulled off more double wins at the divisional races than Edmond and he did it six times. Jerry's wins, for those of you who may be new to the sport, came in Top Fuel and Funny Car. Now that's really impressive..Speaking of divisional races, have you checked the points in the D-3 alky Funny Car class lately. Bobby Martin and Mick Snyder are tied with 203 points, Chris Foster is next with 202 and Andy Bohl is in fourth with 193. Should be some fun over the last few divisional races of the year. Good luck to everyone.