Aaron Stanfield and the Johnson’s Horsepowered Garage / Melling Performance / Janac Brothers team earned their third win in four races Sunday at the DENSO NHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway.
Stanfield rallied to his 28th career national event victory, 11th in Pro Stock and second at Sonoma Raceway, by taking down Pro Stock rookie Cory Reed in the finals. Stanfield would have the starting line advantage and never trail for a 6.540-second pass at 209.98 mph to Reed’s 6.557 at 209.65.
“This is a great win, but I want to shout out to Cory Reed for going to the final in his second race. I wish I could have done that. Also, we lost a good friend, Tim “the Iceman” Kelly to cancer and I wanted to get it done for him,” Stanfield said. “This is a great win. I just did my normal routine. I think I’m driving better this year and I’d love to continue that. We made some good runs this weekend. Unfortunately, our ladder stacked up that a lot of the heavy hitters were on one side. I knew we had a tough road to get here. So, it feels good, ultimately a really good day.
“I can tell you, I feel really comfortable with all my guys on the team. They push me to be the best. When I see how badly they want to win it pushes me even more to want to win,” Stanfield continued. “I can attribute that to all the people that are involved with us, all of our partners, JHG, Melling, Joe Janac. All the guys that work on my car, they’re hungry to win and so am I so it just pushes me to want to be even better.”
En route to the 20th Pro Stock final round of his career, Stanfield was the No. 4 qualifier off a 6.505-second pass at 210.34 mph from early Saturday afternoon. His qualifying efforts earned him a first-round matchup against second generation racer Mason McGaha. Stanfield would have a solid 6.521-second run at 210.28 mph to take down McGaha’s 6.505 at 210.34. Moving on to the quarterfinals Stanfield would have to face teammate, six-time and reigning world champion Erica Enders in her JHG / Melling / SCAG machine.
Stanfield would pick up the second-round win on a holeshot with a .016 second reaction time coupled with his 6.556 pass at 209.79 mph. Enders would have a .041 reaction time and a 6.540 pass at 210.50.
In the semifinals, Stanfield had another monster matchup with five-time world champion and rival Greg Anderson. Anderson would square the tires at the hit and have to shut off, allowing Stanfield to drive the JHG / Melling machine to a 6.549-second run at 209.92 mph. Anderson officially crossed the finish line in 25.050 seconds at 27.13 mph.
With the berth into the semifinals, Stanfield earned a spot in the Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge at the upcoming Lucas Oil Nationals. Joining Stanfield in the Challenge will be teammate Jerry Tucker and the Outlaw Mile Hi Light Beer / SCAG car who after qualifying No. 10 defeated Matt Hartford (6.536 at 211.86 def. 15.442 at 72.42) and Dallas Glenn (6.556 at 211.00 def. 6.544 at 208.81) before redlight against Reed in the semifinals.
Elite Motorsports, the NHRA’s largest professional team, is now on a six-race win streak with eight wins in the first 12 events on the Mission Foods NHRA Drag Racing Series 20-race schedule. Troy Coughlin Jr. in the JEGS.com / White Castle car started the streak at the New England Nationals followed by two in a row from Stanfield at the Virginia Nationals and Summit Nationals and Jeg Coughlin Jr. picked up the fifth win at the Northwest Nationals.
Elite will look to extend the streak to seven at the upcoming Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway in Brainerd, Minnesota August 16-18.
Elite Motorsports PR
