Pit Stop Radio News

LEAH PRITCHETT
Driver of the Papa John’s Pizza Top Fuel Dragster 

The Results: 
E1:
Antron Brown 3.797 E.T. at 327.35 MPH
Leah Pritchett 3.793 E.T. at 324.05 MPH
Terry Totten 4.139 E.T. at 278.17 MPH
Mike Salinas 4.398 E.T. at 191.81 MPH

E2:
Doug Kalitta 3.864 E.T. at 320.13 MPH
Antron Brown 4.050 E.T. at 278.58 MPH
Richie Crampton 4.261 E.T. at 261.47 MPH
Leah Pritchett 5.391 E.T. at 149.51 MPH

Race Recap:
Papa John’s Pizza Top Fuel dragster driver Leah Pritchett had the quickest pass of her quad with a 3.793 E.T. while finishing second in round one of eliminations to No. 2 qualifier Antron Brown. She was No. 7 qualifier and helped oust Terry Totten and Mike Salinas in the first Top Fuel quad run.Her runner-up spot earned her lane choice for round two and a big dose of confidence, but she just missed the finals when her 11,000-horsepower machine lost traction.

Pritchett plans to test at The Strip on Monday and take all of the valuable information with her to Charlotte, N.C. at the end of the month when competitors face the four-wide format once again.

Quotable:
“Sometimes we’re able to come back from a run and know what we did right, like we did on elimination round number one. We were quickest car of the four. It brought confidence back to the team, we felt like we had our hot rod back. Just as soon as you believe that, round number two comes up and sometimes you’re able to see immediately if you got it right or of you didn’t, decipher exactly why. We’re still in the process of understanding why we smoked the tires because we weren’t trying for any record or be the quickest of the day. We were just trying to get down the track on all eight (cylinders) and, instead, for a reason we’re still trying to figure out, it didn’t want to take one of the clutch arms out of play so we ended up smoking the tires. But, the progression has been upward, so that’s positive, although not at the accelerated rate that we would like. I, as a driver, have struggled this weekend on the tree, so to speak, because the number one thing for me is to maintain consistent staging. Racing four-wide here this weekend for the first time, there were multiple new variables than we weren’t used to. It’s the same for everybody else, but we just didn’t come out ahead. So, how to put a pretty bow on this weekend, so to speak, every bit of this for the four-wide is very much duly noted for when we get back to this kind of racing in a month at Charlotte. It just stings a little bit because we need the momentum very badly, but today just not at the rate that we want for unknown reasons at the moment. We’ll test here tomorrow and, with the way this team is able to take adversity and make something positive out of it, I’m confident we’ll get things sorted out and we’ll come back better for it at Houston in two weeks.”

NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Points Standing:
202 points, ranked No. 7
Leads eighth ranked Scott Palmer by seven points
Trails sixth ranked Richie Crampton by 13 points

TONY SCHUMACHER

The Results: 
E1:
Jack Beckman 4.082 E.T. at 305.56 MPH
Gary Densham 5.304 E.T. at 149.66 MPH
Robert Hight 6.165 E.T. at 109.93 MPH
Ron Capps 6.697 E.T. at 78.55 MPH

E2:
Jack Beckman 4.013 E.T. at 317.05 MPH
Courtney Force 4.126 E.T. at 298.67 MPH
Jonnie Lindberg 4.674 E.T. at 188.65 MPH
Gary Densham 5.379 E.T. at 136.72 MPH

E3:
J.R. Todd 4.041 E.T. at 317.05 MPH
Jack Beckman 4.052 E.T. at 312.21 MPH
Courtney Force 4.007 E.T. at 300.53 MPH
Tommy Johnson Jr. 3.978 E.T. at 311.70 MPH

Race Recap:
Jack Beckman started race day from the No. 13 seed, unfamiliar territory for the 2012 Funny Car world champion who hasn’t qualified outside of the ‘top three’ for the past six events, dating back to Dallas 2017.In the first quad of eliminations, Beckman faced his teammate Ron Capps, reigning world champion Robert Hight, and Gary Densham. Beckman wheeled his Dodge Funny Car straight down the groove to take the round win and advance to the second session.

In round two, Beckman had the starting line advantage and powered Terry and Doug Chandler’s Infinite Hero Foundation machine to another smooth pass, never trailing for the win.

The most recent Funny Car event champion (Gainesville) was hoping to go back-to-back and pick up his second win of the year, and third ‘four-wide format’ victory (Charlotte I 2011, 2015). In the final elimination quad, Beckman was once again quick off of the line and raced to a hole shot runner-up finish. Although he wasn’t able to leave as the inaugural Las Vegas Four-Wide Funny Car champion, he was able to move into the points lead for the first time in 2018.

Quotable:
“It wasn’t the best weekend after qualifying Saturday night. We had problems, we were dropping cylinders, we were the spinning tires, we ended up 13^th. We haven’t qualified out of the Top 3 in the last six months and it’s certainly not what our potential is, but we left here with a runner-up. We got our act together on race day and we leave here with the points lead, so I think we did a great job of figuring out what was ailing our car and making the appropriate adjustments and going out there and gobbling up a bunch more points. Of course you want to win in the final round but I’m confident that the things we did here today are going to help us have a better performing car for the rest of the season and we’re going to stay and test tomorrow.”

NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Points Standing:
338 points, ranked No. 1
Leads second ranked Courtney Force by 36 points

RON CAPPS

The Results: 
E1:
Jack Beckman 4.082 E.T. at 305.56 MPH
Gary Densham 5.304 E.T. at 149.66 MPH
Robert Hight 6.165 E.T. at 109.93 MPH
Ron Capps 6.697 E.T. at 78.55 MPH

Race Recap:
Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team qualified in the top half of the field among a stacked 20-car entry list for the inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

As the No. 4 qualifier, Capps faced teammate Jack Beckman, Robert Hight and Gary Densham in the first elimination quad. Unfortunately for the NAPA team, Capps would not be one of two drivers to advance to the second round of eliminations when a dropped cylinder and early deploying parachutes ended his chances at winning the first West Coast four-wide event.

Despite the early exit, the NAPA team showed promise of a solid hot weather tune-up at the Las Vegas event which featured temperatures reaching in the high 80’s [degrees, Fahrenheit] and low 90’s for the first time in 2018. In three out of four qualifying sessions, Capps made session-best ‘top three’ runs and was able to collect five bonus points.

Quotable:
“We’re not sure what happened just yet. We’re trying to analyze the run. It definitely had a cylinder go out at the hit of the throttle which immediately shoved my NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge to the right towards Robert Hight’s lane. I was able to turn the steering wheel and get it back towards the center. You don’t know what’s going on in the other three lanes, so you have to stay in the throttle; that’s part of the four-wide race day strategy, and in this case, it ended up backfiring so we were done for the day.

“It’s a bummer. We felt really good about today. We say that a lot but really, today, we felt like we had a good car all weekend in the heat and it was hot today, but sometimes it just doesn’t go your way. We have the best parts, the best sponsor, and the best people, but that doesn’t guarantee you anything out here with the competition.”

NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Points Standing:
258 points, ranked No. 5
Leads sixth ranked J.R. Todd by 23 points
Trails fourth ranked Tommy Johnson Jr. by eight points

MATT HAGAN
Driver of the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T

The Results: 
E1:
Tommy Johnson Jr. 4.030 E.T. at 316.01 MPH
Del Worsham 4.496 E.T. at 244.25 MPH
Tim Wilkerson 4.855 E.T. at 172.36 MPH
Matt Hagan 5.899 E.T. at 117.68 MPH

Race Recap:
Matt Hagan, driver of the Mopar Express Lane Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car, qualified seventh but was instantly disqualified in round one when he got on the throttle before the tree indicated to start, causing a red light. He’ll put that rare miscue behind him and get ready for the next event even more determined to do well.

Quotable:
“I don’t know what the deal was with Vegas this weekend, but it’s just been a struggle from qualifying on. We had some holes out and a burnout I messed up, had a fuel cable break on us and I pulled down a red bulb on E1; just simple stuff that shouldn’t be happening. I think I let a little bit of that get in my head from the last weekend at Gainesville with Beckman and not giving enough and not being up enough. I went up there with that mentality that I wasn’t getting left by nobody today. It was just up and a little bit over center today and I probably should have had my breathing calmed down a little bit more and that kind of thing. Everybody got staged and my foot said ‘go’, it was double 03 [0.003] red, you know. It was just unfortunate. I think we had a race car that could have done some stuff out here today, but we won’t know until next year. It’s a hard pill to swallow, obviously after the final in Gainesville, having a 60 light, when I’m usually 50s or 40s in the finals. We’ve got stuff we’ve got to work on with the car too. I put a lot of pressure on myself. It takes all of us to do everything. It all plays into part. I’ll get my mind right and get focused and hit the practice tree and get right with it.”

NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Points Standing:
301 points, ranked No. 3
Leads fourth ranked Tommy Johnson Jr. by 36 points
Trails second ranked Courtney Force by one point