Wed, 8 Sep 2010, 09:28 PM That Was Fun

By Bob Frey Photo copyright 2010 Auto Imagery, Inc.

McCormack vs. Calvert

I have to say that the 56^th MAC Tools U.S. Nationals was a lot of fun. From the first day of time trials until the final race in Top Fuel, this year's race had a little bit of everything. I also must admit, and I know I speak for a lot of the workers at the event, it was a long race, with several fourteen hour days, but in the end it was well worth it. Good weather, good crowds, great racing, some real surprise winners and a classic Top Fuel final all went into making it a memorable race. I spoke to hundreds of fans over the course of the event and even more of them at the airport on Tuesday, and everyone had a good time. My friends, Barry and Nancy Wallner, who have been coming to Indy for a long time, e-mailed me after the event and simply said, "That was fun." And it wasn't just the pro cars, either. As I mentioned last week in my Thursday column, the sportsman racers put on a terrific show, and that included everything from the Mopar Hemi Challenge to the finals on Monday. In fact, one of the great moments of the weekend came when John Calvert and Jason McCormick battled for the A/S class championship. It was "wheels-up" for both cars and the fans who were there really enjoyed it. I know

Daniels vs. Barton

I did, and I said at the time that it would go down as one of the great moments of the "Nationals' this year, and indeed it did....Another great moment, actually a few of them, came when Bob Glidden made his runs. As expected, and as I said in my story last week, Bob got some of the biggest ovations of the weekend. Even after his final qualifying run came up short the fans gave him a standing ovation when he came up the return road. With his wife, Etta, Bob waved and acknowledged the crowd and you could tell it was a mutual love affair. Bob announced during the race that he would work with Jim Cunningham and his team in an effort to get the Ford to be more competitive and it will be fun to watch their progress the rest of the year. For now, it was just nice to see Bob and Etta at the track and I know it was a thrill for the Indy fans this year.

Dixon celebrates win.

There was so much going on that it really is tough trying to pick a starting point. I guess the press conference on Wednesday would be a good place since I was there and so were Doug Kalitta, Tony Schumacher, Larry Dixon, Ashley Force, Mike Edwards and Hector Arana. As press conferences go it was very nice, but the one thing that caught my attention was the fact that Doug flew in on his private pane (he owns an airline.really) and Tony came riding up on his Harley-Davidson. That made for some good chatter and it set the stage for an enjoyable weekend. And how about the fact that four of the drivers at the press conference ended up being in the final rounds on Monday? .Top Fuel, always the last thing to run down the track on Monday, was thrilling from start to finish. From Larry's 3.776 in qualifying to his final round win over Cory McClenathan, the Al-Anabi car certainly looked like the car to beat and it was. Having said that, Cory's Fram machine was running well, very well, and he had low elapsed time of the first two rounds. When Larry beat Shawn Langdon in his half of the semi-finals, Cory then lined up against his teammate, Tony Schumacher, in his semi-final. To everyone's surprise, or at least to mine, both cars smoked the tires, and when the smoke cleared the win light came on in Cory's lane and the top two cars in the points coming into the "Countdown" would now race for the money. It was a fitting end to the race, and, as the expression goes, it's a

McClenathan vs. Schumacher

shame that anyone had to lose. In the end Larry's 3.838 was too much for Cory's 3.870 and the big maroon car won for the tenth time in as many final rounds this year. Amazing!! Did you know that Larry becomes only the second Top Fuel driver in history to win ten or more races in a single season? Tony Schumacher did it twice, in 2004 (10 wins) and in 2008 when he cruised to the championship after winning a staggering fifteen times...The win came in Larry's seventh final round at Indy and that was a theme for several of the champions. Did you know that John Force and Tony Bartone were also in their seventh Indy finals? Of course, of the three, Larry was the only one to get the win.Larry won for the fifteenth time in the last two years and that is, by far, the best in the dragster class. Larry won from the top spot and that hardly ever happens at Indy. Did you know that, going back to 1964, this was only the sixth time that the number one qualifier had won the U.S. Nationals? And when Cory lined up against Larry it was only the sixth time that the two top qualifiers met in an Indy Top Fuel final round, but strangely enough, it has now happened in three of the last seven years. For the record, the number one driver beat the number two guy in four of those meetings.I know

Scelzi vs. Dunn in '98 Indy. Photo by NHRA.com

Cory McClenathan very well and I know that he must be really disappointed about not winning Indy, but I'm here to say congratulations on a solid outing for the Fram team, and I think, as I have said all year, that they will be in title contention all the way. Cory, who was appearing in his fifth Indy final (counting his TAD final round in 1990), remained in second place just forty-six points behind Larry. His Indy final came on the heels of his final round meeting with Larry in Brainerd, and the way Larry is running right now, losing to him is nothing to be ashamed of. Did you know that this was the first time since 1998 that the same two Top Fuel drivers met in the Indy final after meeting in the final round at the race right before Indy? Gary Scelzi beat Mike Dunn in Brainerd in 1998 and then beat him in Indy, and to prove those weren't lucky wins, he beat him at the next race in Memphis, too. Cory's four rounds gave him a total of 858 rounds for his career. Did you know that is the fifth most in the history of the sport and it's second best to Larry Dixon in the TF class? His sixty-four final rounds in the fuel class moved him into fifth place in that category, too.

Force Hood celebrates win.

Ashley Force hadn't won a race all year until Indy. Talk about timing, huh? The defending event champion beat her famous father, John, in the final round, a round that obviously sparked a lot of discussions when John's car broke. Look, these things happen, it just happened at a bad time for John. Our sport is unique in that it matches two opponents side-by-side, and if one has mechanical troubles and loses to a teammate, the conspiracy theorists come out of the woodwork. If John had smoked the tires (or if Ashley did) or if one of them crossed the line they would have received a lot of flack. In the end, John's car broke, Ashley got the win and we move on to Charlotte. Believe me when I say this, John can't win (literally) in those situations....Ashley's win puts her in a select group of drivers who have won Indy in consecutive years. Did you know that she is only the fourth Funny Car driver to do that? Ed McCulloch won in 1971 and '72, Don Prudhomme won in 1973 and '74 and Cruz Pedregon won in 1994 and '92, and now Ashley in 2009 and 2010. As expected, since it's the first race of the "Countdown," a win helps a driver make a big move in the standings and Ashley went from eighth to fourth with the

Force Hood vs. Worsham in round one.

victory....Ashley's win means that we have had nine different winners in the class this year and that's a bunch. Did you know that the most winners in a single year in the Funny Car class is eleven and that happened in 2006? With drivers like Del Worsham and Tony Pedregon among the winless this year we could see that record fall before the end of the season....The semi-finals were exciting if for no other reason than the fact that they featured two drivers from Team Force against two from Team Schumacher, and when the Force family won both of their races it set up the classic final round between father and daughter. Did you know that this was Ashley's first win since she won Indy a year ago?...In the opening round Ashley beat Del Worsham and that was the twelfth time that she has beaten him in seventeen career meetings. Did you know that that's the most wins for Ashley against any opponent that she has faced? Her win against John evened their head-to-head record at 6-6 but Ashley has won both final round meetings between the two.John used the final round appearance to move sixty points ahead of Jack Beckman who is in second place in the standings and that's going to put a lot of pressure on all of the other teams next week in North Carolina.

Stanfield celebrates win.

Greg Stanfield and Ken Koretsky certainly know what it's like to not have lane choice in the final round at Indy. Kenny, who went to the final in Indy in 2004, lost lane choice to Greg Anderson and Kenny still feels that cost him the win. "I know we could have beaten him if we were in the left lane," he told me Monday. We'll never know, but we do know that getting lane choice seemed like a huge advantage on Monday. After getting lance choice against Allen Johnson in the semi-finals, Greg went 6.645 to get the win while Mike Edwards, who didn't have lance choice, won when V. Gaines fouled out. I haven't spoken to V. since then but I'll bet he's still kicking himself. Let's face it, when you're quicker than Mike on the track you better win the race because that doesn't happen very often. That put Mike in the right lane and Greg in the favored left lane for the finals. Not taking any chances Greg got off to a good start (.020 reaction time) while Mike didn't (.084 reaction time) and the result was a very emotional holeshot win for the Nitro Fish team. Did you know that, coupled with his holeshot win over Jason Line in round two, this was Greg's ninth holeshot win of the year? And in the history of Pro Stock, which goes back to 1970, did you know that this was only the fourth holeshot win in the final at Indy? Jerry Eckman beat Larry Morgan on a holeshot in 1990, Jeg Coughlin beat Ron Krisher in 2000 and he beat Jim Yates on a holeshot in 2002...Speaking of "Captain Chaos," Ken Koretsky, did you know that he started his professional drag racing career in 1987 and that he got his very first round win at the U.S. Nationals

Morgan vs. Eckman in '90 Indy final. Photo by NHRA.com

that year? Kenny has been around for a long time and he was as excited as anyone I have ever seen after the win. Congratulations to Kenny and the entire team for a job well done and for a win richly deserved.... Did you know that Greg became the first Pro Stock driver to ever win Indy from the number six qualifying spot, the same spot he qualified in last year? The win moved Greg into third place in the points and it will make the next race very important, especially if he wants to keep his title hopes alive...Mike still leads the points and still has a great car, and if anyone wants to take the title away from him they'll have to put a couple of good races together or hope that Mike goes out early in eliminations..Ron Krisher had his new Pontiac and it was flying but he threw away his chances with a red light in round two. Still, when you look at the numbers, Ron had a very good car and if he can run like that over the next few races, and stay away from mistakes on the line, he could be a real sleeper in this field. Did you know that Ron and V. were the only two drivers to go in the 6.5 range on Monday, and, ironically, they both fouled out?

Tonglet celebrates win.

LE Tonglet may have wrapped up the Rookie of the Year award with his performance in Indy. Uncertain about his future after breaking an engine in Brainerd, LE came to Indy with a new engine from the Vance & Hines folks and he re-paid them by beating Andrew Hines in the final round. Andrew, who set the national record at 6.815, was running well but LE wasn't far behind him. In the final round it was all LE as he left the starting line first and never looked back... Did you know that this was the first time since 1989 that the motorcycle elapsed time record has been set at Indy? John Myers went 7.740 on the Star Racing Suzuki that year and that was the last time an E/T record had been set by a motorcycle at the "Big Go." ...LE moved up to second in the points (from seventh) and he sure looks like he can be a serious contender. Of course Andrew got the twenty bonus points for the record and an extra fifteen points from being the quickest rider in each round of qualifying and those thirty-five points are big, really big..Michael Phillips was surging coming into the "Countdown" but he lost in round one to Jim Underdahl. Michael can be forgiven if his mind wasn't completely on racing since he got news that his brother had been shot earlier in the weekend. Please keep Michael and his brother in your prayers.....David Hope, who had been running so well this year, failed to make the top sixteen and he dropped back to tenth in the points while Karen Stoffer, Craig Treble and Matt Smith, who are all in the "Countdown," all fouled out.