With the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series regular season a distant
memory, drivers prepare themselves for the biggest race of the season:
the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil and the
beginning of the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship
playoffs. In one week, drivers and fans will descend on historic
O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis for the 56th running of the event
and the first of six races in the Countdown to the Championship playoff
round.
It took more than 10 seasons to accomplish, but Funny Car driver Bob
Bode was able to hold off some of the top drivers in the NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series Sunday in Brainerd, Minnesota, as he drove
his Alard Machine Chevy Impala to his first career win at the Lucas Oil
NHRA Nationals. Bode held off such highly recognized drivers as former
two-time world champion Cruz Pedregon, Bob Tasca, Tim Wilkerson and
Jack Beckman in the final round to secure his first career Wally and
visit to the Winner’s Circle.
As the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series prepares for its final
stop of the regular season this weekend at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals
at Brainerd International Raceway, many drivers are hoping to pick up
last-minute points before the start of the Countdown to 1 playoffs.
With only one race left in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing series regular season, the Countdown to 10, whether they’re first or 15th in the point standings, drivers are preparing themselves for one last chance to pick up as many points as they can next week at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minnesota, before the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals and the start of the Countdown to 1 playoffs.
Dover Motorsports, owner of Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill., has told NASCAR it will not ask for events to be sanctioned at the track in 2011 and that it is seeking a buyer for the 1.25-mile facility.
Don "The Snake" Prudhomme announced his retirement in January, closing
the book on a stellar drag-racing career that spanned nearly five
decades. In his 32 seasons as a driver, Prudhomme earned four
consecutive Funny Car championships, 49 Top Fuel victories and two
nearly undefeated seasons with his U.S. Army-sponsored Monza Funny Cars
in 1975 and 1976. After getting out from behind the wheel in 1994,
Prudhomme went on to spend nearly 15 years as a race team owner,
bringing his total championship tally to six and his national event win
count to 112. [Read more]
KALITTA, JOHNSON GRAB FIRST WINS OF THE SEASON IN DENVER: It was a
day of firsts as Top Fuel pilot Doug Kalitta and Pro Stock driver Allen
Johnson both raced to their first victories in more than a year Sunday
at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway near
Denver. For Kalitta, the win over runner-up Brandon Bernstein was his
first since February 2009, when he won the season-opening
Winternationals.
CAPPS GETS FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON; DIXON GRABS EIGHTH AT SECOND STOP ON WESTERN SWING IN SONOMA:
Ron Capps showed that it was only a matter of time before he and
newly added crew chief John Medlen would click when he held off the
Funny Car field to earn his first win of the season Sunday at the
FRAM-Autolite NHRA Nationals at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California.
Capps drove his NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger past teammate Jack
Beckman in the final round to get his first win of the season in just
his third race being paired with newly appointed crew chief John
Medlen.
Cory McClenathan showed why he’s a world championship contender when he
drove his FRAM dragster past teammate Antron Brown to pick up his third
win of the season Sunday at the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific
Raceways just outside of Seattle, Washington, the first stop of the
famed Western Swing. With the win, McClenathan leap-frogged over his
other teammate, defending world champion Tony Schumacher, to take the
second spot in the Top Fuel point standings. The win also put
McClenathan in the running to sweep the Western Swing, a feat he
accomplished in 1997 and something that was on his mind Sunday when he
pulled up to the line next to Brown.
The 2010 Full Throttle Drag Racing Series will make its 14th stop on
the schedule this weekend in Seattle, the first stop of the famed
Western Swing, a grueling stretch of three-races-in-three weeks.