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Quick quiz: Which National Hot Rod Association driver said the following?
“All you can do is strap in and do your best, so we’ll approach every lap in Brainerd and Indy the same way, and if we come out of Indy not in the playoffs, our job will be to spoil the party for the teams that are. We’ll be aiming to win every round and every race, for the rest of the year. It’s the only way we know how to do this.”
It could have been any of the drivers locked in a battle for a Countdown berth at this weekend’s Lucas Oil Nationals at Brainerd (Minn.) International Raceway and at the Labor Day classic Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis.
It was Funny Car veteran Tim Wilkerson, but his words belong to every Clay Millican, Khalid al Balooshi, and Terry McMillen in the Top Fuel class . . . to Matt Hagan and Alexis DeJoria in Funny Car . . . to Larry Morgan and Kurt Johnson in Pro Stock . . . and to many of the Pro Stock Motorcycle regulars who don’t ride a Vance & Hines Screamin’ Eagle Harley-Davidson.
They are the ones outside the top 10 at the start of this weekend’s action. Those holding onto the ninth and 10th places aren’t sure bets to make the field of 10 in their respective categories, either. So the stakes are high at Brainerd, the penultimate stop in the so-called “regular season,” but a week’s rest has them rejuvenated for the fight.
In Top Fuel competition, Bob Vandergriff holds down the 10th spot in the standings. Millican, who’s four behind Vandergriff, said, “Everybody is close. It’s like Pro Stock.”
All you can do is strap in and do your best, so we’ll approach every lap in Brainerd and Indy the same way, and if we come out of Indy not in the playoffs, our job will be to spoil the party for the teams that are. – Tim Wilkerson
No. 9 Grubnic will clinch this weekend if he goes two rounds further than either Millican or Vandergriff.
The Funny Car fight, like two years ago, seems to focus on John Force, Bob Tasca, and Matt Hagan. Tasca helped Force gang up on Hagan at the 2010 season showdown at Pomona, Calif., and that helped Force win his 15th crown. This time, Force at No. 9 and Tasca at No. 10, are thrashing to stay in the Countdown field.
Force said he isn’t taking his place in the order for granted: “We still have to do our jobs. We’ve been struggling but we’ve addressed the issues.”
Clearly they’re concerned about Hagan, who has reached the two most recent final rounds with a successful new tune-up that the Don Schumacher Racing collection of crew chiefs helped tuner Tommy DeLago fashion. Hagan is 62 points behind Tasca.
Even Wilkerson, 77 points shy of 10th place, is concerned about Hagan: “Matt Hagan has gotten hot at the right time, so now he’s in 11th place and we’re behind him by a round.”
Wilkerson is looking at “four rounds of racing with eight rounds left before the playoffs. If the guys you’re chasing win rounds, too, you can have a great day on Sunday and not accomplish much. So, you go out and try to hit some more line drives and you hope they don’t get caught.”
Funny Car rookie Alexis DeJoria is a much a greater long shot, with a gap of 153 points between her and Tasca. But don’t underestimate the racer who recently piloted an F-15 Strike Eagle fighter jet — she slides into the cockpit of her Tequila Patrün Toyota Camry with the same intensity.
If you’d have asked me a month ago, I probably would have told you my chances were not very good. – Matt Hagan
Pro Stock veteran Larry Morgan is haunting Jeg Coughlin and Ronnie Humphrey, who are tied for 10th. He trails them by a single point. “I’m loving every minute of it,” Morgan said. “I’m not scared of anyone. The meaner the situation, the better I like it.”
He has his eye on possibly leapfrogging Coughlin and Humphrey and chasing down Ron Krisher, V Gaines, and Shane Gray. But Morgan — who said he and his team have “worked like maniacs” this past week — said, “There’s no trash talking coming from me. I’ve set a goal to make that Countdown and finish in the top 10.”
Kurt Johnson is 57 points below the top-10 line. In 14th, one point behind Johnson, is Rodger Brogdon, who laid out of the Western Swing to regroup but lost his No. 10 standing and valuable opportunity to earn more points.
Coughlin, a four-time Pro Stock champion, said, “We’ve got our work cut out for us, but I truly believe we belong. We’ve come a long way from a true start-up team at the beginning of the year to being in the top 10 with two races to go before the Countdown. We’ve been on an upward trend for quite awhile now.
“There are four spots left and six of us with realistic chances of making the cut,” he said. “The six of us are only separated by 43 points, so every round, every qualifying run, every bonus point is going to be huge.”
In the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, no one has found and exploited the weaknesses of the Harley-Davidson tandem of Eddie Krawiec and Andrew Hines. But Shawn Gann anchors a field of hopefuls. Gann must look out for 11th-place Steve Johnson (57 points back) and No. 12 John Hall (62 points back). Jerry Savoie is just 101 points out of Countdown consideration and Michael Phillips just 128.
