Go2Geiger Drag Racing News

Hot rods, nitro, smoke and noise ... welcome to the party, pal.

If life is all about high school, then living must be about that first car.

Fortunes turned on a dime whether driving through tire smoke thick as an old casino’s air: all earning only gut-wrenching losses in Vegas.

When Cory McClenathan's dragster literally set Firebird's racetrack on fire Friday night, it set the perfect scene for the burning hot action that took place.

Reading was blustery and crews dug under the hood tuning for records, while drivers went smoking fast -- and smoked a Goodyear blimp full of tires.

Explosions often make great drag racing television, like when Alexis De Joria debuted her Tequila Patron Toyota Funny Car at the AAA of Texas Fall Nationals. Tempers can, too, such as Matt Smith steaming over a stuck throttle cable on his Buell.

Then there is the genuine emotional pain of failure sadly represented by the televised image of Karen Stouffer slumped over her GEICO Suzuki, raising her hands in despair, after an odd circumstance on the start led to her loss.

Heat also dominated interviews, like Cruz Pedregon explaining, "It's hotter than love out there," which won the "best description" award for the steamy conditions.

But then there are scenes that could not have been scripted for television any better, because they occur naturally. That was the outburst of pure joy as Bob Vandergriff — after finally conquering a Texas-sized streak of final-round losses in his C&J Energy Services dragster — ran back to the start line, still in his helmet and firesuit as temperatures soared near 100 degrees.

Why would anyone run back on a drag strip looking like a space alien in full race regalia when the air is so hot a sauna would be a relief? Vandergriff's draw to be with his crew and family — in the momentous moment following his smoking victory over favored Spencer Massey — overpowered any good sense or post-race protocol.

Protocol like, you park over here, you interview there, and this is the way to do it.

Vandergriff rewrote those rules in his foot-powered rendition of the Alan Kulwicki's "Polish Victory Lap" custom of circling a NASCAR track in reverse direction to celebrate a win. One could see and experience the emotion develop step-by-step as the initial shock of, "What's going on?" was replaced with a lump in the throat.

It was ESPN drag racing coverage at its best.

First, the two finalists spoke, as Massey related later, and he congratulated Vandergriff. His comment to the new winner was along the lines of "I wanted to win, but it is gratifying to see (Vandergriff) win."

The broadcast booth carried on, too, as Paul Page exclaimed, "This is a moment." His "This is cool" was a double entendre, also referencing their privileged quarters filled with air conditioning. Even their standard dress shirts and ties were gone, replaced with snazzy black short-sleeve shirts accented with white undershirts.

Any question of Vandergriff's physical conditioning needed to complete the return "run" was laid to rest when analyst Mike Dunn noted, "He's built like a brick building."

Finally, a cart drives up alongside and Vandergriff hops in. A viewer could see right on the screen the driver was about to turn around to the finish line, but Vandergriff was having nothing of that, and quickly the cart pointed to the start line.

They never made it.

By this time a crowd joining the team had moved en masse to about the 300-foot mark like a human tidal wave sweeping up Vandergriff as he crashed to shore. "I didn't want to be all the way down there by myself," he said. "I'm just so excited."

This scene of a lone drag racer wearing his full uniform, running back on a blistering hot race track, will forever be recognized infamously as the defining moment of the 2011 AAA of Texas Nationals.

The quarterfinal rounds in the second race in the Countdown to the Championship provided some of the most exciting, topsy-turvy drag racing yet this year. However, the single biggest race occurred in the opening pairing of Funny Car as Matt Hagan's Diehard Charger and Mike Neff's Castrol GTX Mustang met in the opening round.

Page made clear the result "could be the championships right here." With a lap featuring side-by-side power to the finish, the two teams did not disappoint as Hagan's holeshot win elicited this quip on television from the losing Neff: "I would have hit the gas about six-thousandths of a second earlier," when asked what he would have done differently.

Then in the quarterfinals, Hagan lost the opportunity to take over the Funny Car championship points lead as Melanie Troxel's In-N-Out Toyota surprised the cameras with her easy win. One wonders if Hagan's team might look back on the season and see this round as shades of the 2010 season-ending Pomona race when he also came up a few points short.

The "Do-or-Dunn" line displays his call on teams who still have a shot of winning it. Currently the line remains tucked behind No. 2 on the list in Pro Stock, Greg Anderson's Summit Pontiac — even after he was shockingly eliminated in the first round on a holeshot. Lewis Bloom, ESPN's "Statman," discovered the last time Anderson was eliminated with back-to-back holeshots was 2003.

When reporter Gary Gerould asked in the post-race interview what he needed to do to overcome these back-to-back losses, Anderson said only half-jokingly, "Prayer." He added that losing "just sucks."

Greg Stanfield made this suggestion for winning against the Summit Pontiac team before eventual race winner Jason Line beat Kurt Johnson in the finals: "Those Summit cars, they should have to take off a spark plug wire."

Pro Stock was a disaster field for Countdown entrants as seven were out in the first round - and another, Shane Gray, failed to qualify.

Nerves were a discussion topic of the day. Al-Anabi star Del Worsham answered the question, "Did butterflies accompany this pressure?" when describing his upcoming round against Massey: "No. These are Condors."

The Pro Stock Motorcycles have quickly become the most colorful of the four pro classes in the ESPN broadcasts. The pressure of riding one of these two-wheeled bullets at speeds of Pro Stock cars a few years ago continues to boil over like lava in a volcano.

In the quarterfinals, Michael Phillips' The Edge Suzuki "drilled Eddie (Krawiec) on the tree," stunning the Screamin' Eagle Harley rider. Dunn and Page agreed there is no love lost between these two teams.

Bloom later described Phillips' "Wally" as the 50th win for Suzuki since the comparisons began in 2004.

Next was a lap that should be a cinch for winning the closet finish of the season. Hector Arana Jr.'s Lucas Oil Buell was left on by Full Throttle Champion LE Tonglet astride his Suzuki, but Arana Jr. ran him down for the rousing one-inch victory.

Then the alligator hunter, Gerald Savoie, surprised Andrew Hines on his Screamin' Eagle Harley, and took the holeshot win on his 1985 Suzuki. Referencing back to the Charlotte race and words exchanged between these teams there, Page pointed out, "All that alligator stuff is still here."

Then came the weirdest laps of the day.

Smith's Buell was having throttle problems while Stoffer waited patiently on her GEICO Suzuki. Smith decides to stage and launch anyway; the quickness of what occurred caught Stoffer unaware. As a viewer, it appeared the light launched them the moment he pulled up. Dunn shouted, "What was that?"

The next round, now pairing against Arana Jr., Smith's bike has the same trouble, but this time the bike will not start. Arana Jr., though, was very alert to the situation and when given the direction to go, he left with Smith fuming on the line, his Buell still quiet.

Pro Stock saw monkeys removed from the shoulders of the two finalists. Kurt Johnson, resurrected with a new Mark Christopher Pontiac, gained his first back-to-back final rounds in years. Line's win removed the scowl from his jaws as he was celebrating with a "Yeah, baby!" before he ever made it out of the cockpit.

John Force Racing, suffering losses in early rounds and knocked out of contention for the day's win, could not be blamed for being down, except that's not the boss's way. He came out supercharged with, "I like a good fight."

Asked about the day's results, as the question to him implied "lousy," he barked, "You walk out of that trailer just like you've won," espousing the theory that you never let 'em see you sweat. He laid out how and why they could win the championship, right on the spot, giving clues to why he has 15 championships on the mantle.

The Funny Car class provided a satisfying win for Pedregon after qualifying strongly at a number of events. This weekend, as Dunn explained, "He went down the track in every session."

And Dunn should know, as he pays close attention to the numbers and then explains them back to the television audience in features such as the "Anatomy of a Sub-4 Second Run." In this feature, he explained every key marker of Hagen's record-breaking ET of 3.995 from the Charlotte race, including the insight that the car was setting a speed record at the 1/8th mile marker and finished with only seven cylinders.

Page noted the hectic nature of this race, the upsets and the surprising wins to Dunn several times during the day in various forms, but all were versions of, "I can't believe this day, Mike." He could have added, "And all of the iconic scenes that we're left with."

Pedregon's crew chief, Danny Degennaro in the post-winner's interview, provided the weekend's take-away, telling reporter Dave Reiff that as troubles came up, and heat was a problem, they tried to look at them in a different light.

"You always try to turn a negative to a positive."

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There was no time for relaxing as pressure was the feeling of the weekend with the performances at zMax Dragway never more exciting in the cooler weather.

Indy intensity transferred with no hesitation to the Countdown to the Championship’s first event at Charlotte’s O’Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Nationals.

Teams not qualified for the Countdown are cutting no slack to those who are. That was proven as No. 4 qualifier Del Worsham’s Al-Anabi Top Fuel Dragster unceremoniously was dumped in the first round by the C&J Energy Services entry of Bob Vandergriff.

Vandergriff just may be exorcizing the chip on his shoulder from lingering Indy failures.

Worsham’s fairytale season and championship hopes may have been squashed in this one round of racing, a point made about teams throughout the broadcast as Mike Dunn’s “you’re done” line moved up and down the pro lists like a yo-yo.

Happily for the affable Worsham, he still ranks above Dunn’s marker, which for Top Fuel is the top five teams. In other words, after the first of six Countdown events, half the Top Fuel field is judged by Dunn out of the hunt.

Drivers, though, were in a philosophical mood.

“The mood in our pit was different than it’s been all year, by a lot,” Tim Wilkerson said.

In pre-recorded interviews with top players, comments such as Robert Hight’s “You gotta rip the heart out of the other guy” were more dominant.

Unfortunately that sentiment often goes on both sides of the track. In this case, Hight’s AAA of Southern California Ford had its heart smoked-out by tires while Cruz Pedregon took advantage in his Snap-On Solara.

Ron Krisher’s Valvoline Pontiac struck out in qualifying and did not make the field. He was one of the first of the Countdown drivers in any pro class to fail this weekend, describing to ESPN, “Not qualifying is a nightmare.”

Points leader and No. 2 qualifier in Pro Stock, Greg Anderson, looked like an early favorite to win the day. Dunn even had his line below Anderson, meaning Jason Line and Anderson were two early contenders to dominate and win the title with their Pontiacs.

Nevertheless, Shane Gray put his Service Central GXP out front in his first-round matchup with Anderson and hung on to bench the Anderson-half of the Summit team.

Dunn exclaimed, “What an upset!” Anderson didn’t panic, though, as he absorbed the blow while noting, “We’re not giving up, we’re coming back.”

Though Line lost his second finals appearance in a row – to a heartfelt fan favorite, Kurt Johnson – he inherited the points lead.

Yet ... Line was not happy. The cameras captured his contorted grimace, confirming there was no question about that.

Johnson had already told reporter Gary Gerould that entering the finals “I’m about ready to jump out of my skin.” After the win, he rated the victory “unbelievable,” and it has “been a sour note” for some time.

Line seemed to hurt even more after his Charlotte defeat than after his loss at Indy. Why shouldn’t he? He lost with an ever-so-slight red light of .003 seconds, and his run down the track indicated he could have won.

Or, as he said, “We had the best car. It is what it is.”

Warren Johnson delivered one of the best comments of the day after his son's win. Pointing out, “We’ve got a small team comparatively,” he went on to explain an undisputable truism: You can “never have too much money, too much horsepower, or too much loving.” That’s about max for the “Professor’s” risqué scale.

Dunn pointed out in qualifying “Someone has to do something early on or Anderson or Line will run away with it.” Leave it to the Pro Stock Johnsons of Sugar Hill, Ga., to be that someone.

A boiling keg of emotion left over from Indy spilled out in the Pro Stock Motorcycle pits. ESPN broadcasters and reporters explained – condensed from several entertaining interviews – the  Savoie camp feels Indy winner, Hector Arana Jr. and his crew chief, were messing with the start-line bulbs, flicking them on and off to distract the Cut Off, La. racer. This was, of course, denied.

A better answer, even if untrue, could have been, “Yeah, and so what?” Perhaps teams caught a glimpse of the ESPN film documenting the Savoie alligator farm crawling with reptiles and thought better of going too far lest they end up as a meal for a handbag.

Then, verbal shots were taken at the Screamin’ Eagle Harley teams with the “chicken” word tossed around like so many raw eggs, insulting Eagles nesting everywhere along North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains. As only the Gods of Brackets could arrange, Andrew Hines lined up against Savoie in the first round of eliminations, creating keen excitement in the class nice and early.

Hines finally drove around the 1985 Suzuki for the win, and promptly quipped: “This Screamin’ Eagle got to eat some alligator, and it tasted like chicken.”

Broadcaster Paul Page put it in perspective with, “They’re talking smack everywhere now.”

At the day’s conclusion Dunn noted, “We saw emotion, and it’s only the first race of the Countdown!”

Certainly that was the case with Matt Hagan’s DieHard Charger. Hagan set the national ET record and won the race to reinstate his swagger for the first time since his crushing championship defeat at the 2010 Pomona finals.

That championship slipped away there like a helium balloon soaring away from the hand of a kid. But instead of John Force at Pomona, Hagan is now chasing Mike Neff and is in a position to capture the lead at the next event.

He gave Neff his due – “Neff is Superman” – while answering that the team’s view is “pressure is what you put in tires.”

In his post-win interview Hagan was understandably emotional: “I’m a big ole country boy, and I’m about to cry.”

Force may have suffered in this event by running the Honoring Our Heroes Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang, a body he told me “wasn’t working in Indy.”

While at the Castrol Advance Auto Parts 2011 Mustang Sweepstakes, Force talked about the personal impact of meeting the heroes of the 9-11 attack – firemen, policemen, others – convincing him to honor them no matter the consequences. “I’m not pulling the 9/11 body.” That’s a courageous decision.

He qualified poorly with the heavier shell on his car, the gingerly named “Baby Cakes,” and lost a controversial, at least in his view, first-round pairing against Johnny Gray’s Service Central Charger.

ESPN replayed the run multiple times to confirm race officials’ view that Gray did not touch the wall as his Funny Car slapped a warning cone down track.

Force’s eyes saw something else indeed: “(Our) cars are struggling ... I’m aggravated. Johnny lit both bulbs (on the start), and he hit that wall ... I’ve got to get my (stuff) together.” His goal: “I’m going after 16.”

A disappointing race day like the Charlotte event can be just the trigger to laser Force’s focus. “I can turn it on, switch it on” and this aggravation may just do that. “(Our) focus is not to fail.”

Dunn’s line of demarcation has him out of contention, but that is not set in concrete. The champion has a way of surprising. “I gotta dig deep, but I wanna win for the sponsors, and win for me. ... I love my job,” like handing out free Mustangs to sweepstakes winners.

Tommy Ivo, opening the race as the legend-of-the-day, commanded the drivers to “Rip the asphalt off the ground,” which they promptly took to heart. Rieff displayed chunks of it in his hand as the track had broken in patches before the race’s conclusion.

Ivo was the most animated of the legends this year, but with his television and movie experiences, he is a natural performer (see Media Matters reviewing the book documenting his life: “TV” Tommy Ivo - Drag Racing’s Master Showman” bit.ly/qfnq2j).

Early in the broadcast, Gary Gerould identified the Aaron’s Don Schumacher Racing dragster driven by Antron Brown as “the man with momentum. His challenge is to maintain momentum.” Brown, in capturing his third Top Fuel dragster race in a row, handled that challenge with aplomb.

He now is closer to his objective: winning the Full Throttle Championship “so you can bring that big Wally home, you know, the one with the glass case on the bottom.”

Brown’s comments in the winner’s circle were a cool blending of excitement and sponsors: “I’m blessed to be on this team. I have the Aaron’s Dream Machine, and this is a dream.”

His crew chief, Mark Oswald, told Rieff how they coped with computer problems all day: “We did it old school and with a little luck.” Brown ensured expectations remained in check, perhaps a lesson in managing emotions when he commented in closing, “There’s five more (races) to go.”

Drag racing is one tough sport. How can teams handle the emotional ups and downs with dramatic losses such as Worsham and others experienced?

Perhaps an example is with the calmness and cool of Al-Anabi team manager Alan Johnson. His response was “Sometimes things don’t go as you planned,” an insight that transcends a moment of frustration and perhaps the sport itself.

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ESPN2's broadcast of the 57th Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway were full of images: dragsters, people, weather and explosions.