Richie Crampton and the DHL Top Fuel team are ready to put June behind them and focus on the successes that lay in front of them. Heading into the New England NHRA Nationals Crampton will be focused on his second win of the season and also showing off for new marketing partner East Mountain Transport. The Florida-based company will be prominently highlighted on Crampton’s DHL dragster as well as logos on all three of Crampton’s teammates’ racecars.
“I’m really excited to welcome East Mountain Transport on board with me and Kalitta Motorsports,” said Crampton, when he heard the news about the new addition. “I know everyone from me to Connie (Kalitta) to all of our teams are looking forward to standing in the winner’s circle with our new partners soon.”
The last time Crampton was in the winner’s circle was at arguably the biggest race this season, the 50thannual Gatornationals. For the second year in a row Crampton won one of the most prestigious races of the season. Since that win Crampton and his DHL Top Fuel dragster have been looking for some race day consistency.
“We had an awesome race day at the Gatornationals,” said Crampton. “Since that race we have had a really good race car and we just haven’t seen the results of a lot of hard work by some of the best guys in the business. We seem to run well in qualifying and then get a tough match-up in the first round on race day or we struggle a little in qualifying and get a tough match-up because we might be starting from the bottom half. We aren’t getting any breaks. Hopefully that will start turning around this weekend.”
To the credit of the entire DHL team no one is hanging their heads or making excuses. The attitude of the team is, ‘We can just work harder and focus on the racing’ to get some consistency. The team is in the Top Ten, currently No. 8, and with some round wins can move up in the standings.
“There is a little bit of a gap between No. 8 and No. 7 in the points I think but if you can getting into the middle of the pack there is a group of teams bunched up,” added Crampton. “We can run with anyone so really we are just going after whoever is in the next lane no matter where they are in the Mello Yello points.”
2018 New England NHRA Nationals Highlights: Qual. No. 10; Beat Scott Palmer; Lost to Tony Schumacher
Last Event Recap (2019 Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals): Qual. 8; Lost to Billy Torrence
Quotable: Crampton on heading to Epping with new sponsor: “I’m really excited to welcome East Mountain Transport on board with me and Kalitta Motorsports. I know everyone from me to Connie to all of our teams are looking forward to standing in the winner’s circle with our new partners soon.”
Career Stats: 115 events, 114 starts, 95 round wins, 9 wins, 11 finals, 5 No. 1 qualifiers
2019 Season:
Winternationals: Qual. No. 6; Lost to Terry McMillen
Arizona Nationals: Qual. No. 15; Lost to Terry McMillen
Gatornationals: Qual. No. 12; WINNER, Beat Antron Brown, Leah Pritchett, TJ Zizzo and Clay Millican
Las Vegas1: Qual. No. 6; Beat Scott Palmer, Cameron Ferre; Lost to Doug Kalitta and Brittany Force
Houston: Qual. No. 13; Lost to Clay Millican
Charlotte1: Qual. 12; Lost to Doug Kalitta and Leah Pritchett
Atlanta: Qual. 7; Lost to Scott Palmer
Richmond: Qual. 7; Lost to Austin Prock
Chicago: Qual. 11; Beat Austin Prock; Lost to Steve Torrence
Topeka: Qual. 7; Beat Terry McMillen; Lost to Billy Torrence
Bristol: Qual. 9; Lost to Terry McMillen
Norwalk: Qual. 8; Lost to Billy Torrence
Kalitta Motorsports PR
