The NHRA 75th anniversary season brought a lot of special treats for the fans at the 72nd annual Cornwell Quality Tools NHRA U.S. Nationals in early September. There were several famous drivers from the sport in attendance. Shirley Muldowney, “Big Daddy” Don Garlits, Joe Amato, Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, John Force, Herb McCandles and others. A lot of the restored cars from yesteryear were on site, with special engine startups going on.
In Top Fuel, Shawn Langdon came on as the power house, qualifying in the top spot with a 3.727 at 334.98 mph with Tony Stewart (3.744 at 328.44 mph) and Doug Kalitta (3.746 at 335.82 mph) close on his heels. The qualifying days (Friday, Saturday and Sunday) provided some of the most difficult performance days seen in a while. But race day (Monday) looked to be coming to the rescue. Langdon’s Kalitta teammate, Doug Kalitta, came in as the regular season point leader, with this event being the last regular season event, with the six event playoff coming on after its completion. The race track would become the leading factor in who would take the event win, especially in the nitro categories of Top Fuel and Funny Car.
Langdon was able to keep the very important lane choice throughout eliminations, having the quicker previous round elapse time rating against all of his opponents. He took out Clay Millican, Justin Ashley and Leah Pruett to get to the final round, with an opening round win over Clay Millican (3.709 at 340.22 mph to 8.012 at 83.38 mph) effort highlighting it all. Doug Kalitta, and his team, was not to be overshadowed as their opening round winning effort over Will Smith (3.681 at 341.68 mph to 3.812 at 331.20 mph) taking top speed and low elapse time of the event. Those two 340 mph speeds would end up as the only 340 plus mph runs of the Nationals. On the other side of the ladder, Tony Stewart would battle past TJ Zizzo, Antron Brown and Doug Kalitta to get into the final round against Langdon. In the final, Langdon came in off a 3.816 at 332.51 mph effort over Pruett and Stewart came in off a 3.886 at 279.56 mph effort over Kalitta, took the favored left lane. Langdon then laid down a 3.804 at 333.99 mph effort to Stewart’s 3.904 at 315.27 mph effort for the event win.
In Funny Car, the track preference and situations were nearly exactly the same as in Top Fuel. The left lane was favored with a win percentage of 80% (12 wins in left lane to three wins in right lane). As in Top Fuel, the pressure was on teams to keep that important lane choice by getting the best performance possible out of their cars on every run, in the ever-changing hot conditions. There were also a lot of tribute cars to honor famous drag racers or events. In Top Fuel, Tony Schumacher had a Peek Brothers tribute car to honor his first found match up against Blaine Johnson who lost his life the day before at this same event in 1996. Jack Beckman, now driving for John Force, came out with a tribute to Force’s undefeated six-time champ “Flame” car. Paul Lee paid tribute to Tom “the Mongoose” McEwen with an appropriately schemed car and Alexis DeJoria paid tribute to John Force with a tribute version to his “Night Stalker” car. Beckman, driving the undefeated Force flame car, kept lane choice throughout eliminations, to get to the final round. After qualifying third, he took out Jeff Arend, Alexis DeJoria and Ausitn Prock to get into the final round. On the other side, Matt Hagan took out Hunter Green, Paul Lee and Ron Capps. In the final Beckman came in with lane choice and a perfect win-loss record for the Force car at stake. Both cars left together as Beckman pulled away to a (0.055) 3.965 at 3276.35 mph to (0.056) 4.030 at 318.84 mph to win. During eliminations a rivalry match up, that many waited for, happened. Austin Prock (who left team Force) faced off against Jordan Vandergriff now driving the car that Prock left. Vandergriff had lane choice over Prock, but his team missed the tune up, allowing Prock to take the rivalry win, (0.049) 3.935 at 328.86 mph to (0.073) 4.055 at 314.46 mph.
In Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle classes, the lane choice attributes felt by the nitro cars were not as noticeable as both lanes seemed pretty equal, overall. In Pro Stock, Dallas Glenn marched from his number two qualifying spot to the finals by taking out Mason McGaha, Matt Latino and Erica Enders to get into the final round. On the other side, number 13 qualifier, Jeg Coughlin, Jr. took out Shane Tucker, Greg Anderson and top qualifier Matt Hartford to get to the money round. Coughlin got away first but could not hold off Glenn, who took the win, (0.033) 6.599 at 207.56 mph to (0.026) 6.629 at 205.51 mph.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle it came down to a husband-and-wife battle. After qualifying, the top four were Matt Smith, Gage Herrera, Angie Smith and Richard Gadson. Angie Smith took out Kelly Clontz, Geno Scali and Gage Herrera (on a hole shot) to get into the final round. Matt Smith had to get past Chris Bostick, Clayton Howey and Richard Gadson to face his wife for the trophy and prestige. In the final, Angie Smith got away first (0.040 – 0.052), but could not hold off her husband Matt Smith as he got by her for a 6.791 at 198.58 mph to 6.794 at 199.14 win.
The regular season champions were Doug Kalitta (Top Fuel), Matt Hagan (Funny Car) both receiving $150,000, Dallas Glenn (Pro Stock) for $55,000 and Richard Gadson (Pro Stock Motorcycle) for $15,000.
Now the Countdown to the Championship 6-event series starts. It will finish its run with the finals in Pomona, California in November. The events are run at Martin, MI; Rockingham, NC; Madison, IL; Ennis, TX; Las Vegas, NV; and Pomona, CA.
