NHRA Newsmakers

Your inside glimpse at the world’s fastest motorsport 

NEWS NUGGETS

• SIX-TIME CHAMP BERNSTEIN LEADS HEAVY-HITTING CONTINGENT BACK INTO COCKPIT FOR 2007: An exciting week of announcements regarding the strength of NHRA heading into the 2007 season and beyond ended with the blockbuster announcement that six-time world champion Kenny Bernstein, two-time champion Jeg Coughlin and former NBA player Tom Hammonds will all be returning to the NHRA POWERade Series in 2007. Bernstein will compete in Funny Car, where he’s won 30 of his 69 career events (and last competed in 1989), with new sponsor Monster energy drink; Coughlin, who has 34 career wins, will drive for Victor Cagnazzi in the Slammers Milk Chevy Cobalt; and Hammonds, who last raced at the 2003 Gatornationals, will drive a Chevy Cobalt. “Sitting on the outside looking in, the class has changed dramatically (and) we’ll have to be ready,” said Hammonds, who was a two-time all-ACC basketball player and retired from the NBA in 2001. 

• POWERADE ‘COUNTDOWN TO THE CHAMPIONSHIP’: NHRA announced last week a new points format beginning in 2007 that will add enormous value to the end of the NHRA POWERade Series season. Historically, points leaders after Indy have gone on to win championships 83 percent of the time (see details below). Under the new format, championships will be anything but guaranteed entering the final quarter of the season as the new format essentially levels the playing field for the top 8 drivers heading to Indy and the top 4 drivers going into Las Vegas 2. Click here for complete details on the Countdown to the Championship.

• CROWN THEM NOW???: It’s not likely to be a stat that carries much weight with the new Countdown format, but for 2006 it certainly does. You have to go back to 2001 to find a driver – in any of the POWERade Series categories – who won a championship without having the lead after Indy (Kenny Bernstein caught and passed Larry Dixon in 2001). The numbers don’t lie: In NHRA history, 83 percent of the drivers who’ve led after Indy have gone on to win the POWERade Series world championship. To follow is a class-by-class look at the number of times a driver NOT leading after Indy has come back to win a championship:
  • Top Fuel: 7 times in 32 years (with 4 of the passes coming in the last 10 years).
  • Funny Car: 4 times in 32 years (but only once since 1982 – when Cruz Pedregon went by John Force in 1992).
  • Pro Stock: 7 times in 32 years (but is hasn’t happened once since 1990)
  • Pro Stock Motorcycle: 2 times in 18 years.

NOTE: The four POWERade Series points leaders after Indy in 2006 are Doug Kalitta, Ron Capps, Jason Line and Andrew Hines.

• SCHU’ ESCHEWS JINX: The season-long jinx hanging over the collective head of Nitro No. 1 qualifiers was put to bed at the U.S. Nationals Monday when Tony Schumacher parlayed his No. 1 qualifying run aboard his U.S. Army dragster to another U.S. Nationals victory. Through the first 17 events, no Nitro No. 1 qualifier had won an event. The other winners at the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals were Robert Hight, Greg Anderson and Matt Smith.

• FORCE, HINES COLLECT VALUABLE BONUS HARDWARE: NHRA icon John Force won his sixth career Skoal Showdown, the bonus Series for Funny Car drivers, and the $100,000 check that goes with it. Also contested at the U.S. Nationals is the Ringers Gloves bonus Series and the winner of the $25,000 bonus was two-time defending Pro Stock Motorcycle world champ Andrew Hines.

·        NINE-YEAR OLD IS YOUNGEST FAN NATIONALS WINNER : Tyler Hall, 9, of Amelia, Ohio, became the youngest winner of the POWERade Fan Nationals series when he won the Fan Nationals title at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals. Hall defeated hundreds of area fans to claim the victory by driving realistic Funny Car simulators. With the win, Hall will race for the ultimate title of 2006 POWERade Fan Nationals Series champion in November at the 42^nd annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals.

COMING ATTRACTIONS

·        TOYO TIRES NHRA NATIONALS, READING, PA., SEPT. 14-17: Top Fuel driver Tony Schumacher looks to continue his winning streak, consecutive wins in the last three years, in the beautiful Amish countryside of Pennsylvania.

·        O’REILLY NHRA FALL NATIONALS presented by Castrol Syntec, ENNIS, TEXAS, SEPT. 21-24: Top Fuel drivers and crew will fight to earn valuable bonus points as the race to qualify for the 22^nd annual Budweiser Shootout, a lucrative all-star race-within-a-race held during the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, heats up.

·        TORCO RACE FUELS NHRA NATIONALS, RICHMOND, VA., OCT., 6-8: The premier drag racing series returns to Richmond for the first time since the 2000 season with a late-season race that will be critical in deterimining the 2006 NHRA POWERade Series world champions. John Force, locked in a tight duel with Ron Capps in Funny Car, will no doubt be looking forward to the return to Richmond as the NHRA icon has won four of the six NHRA races held there.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

• .0023: The remarkably close margin of victory for Brandon Bernstein in his semifinal win over Cory McClenathan at Monday’s Mac Tools U.S. Nationals final eliminations. Bernstein’s Bud dragster was .064 quicker (4.524 to 4.588) than McClenathan’s Fram Boost2 dragster and he needed every thousandth as McClenathan held a .062 margin at the light (.047 to .109). It all added up to a photo finish for eventual runner-up Bernstein, whose narrow victory over McClenathan earned him the Motel 6 Who Got the Light award.

WHO’S HOT!

• TONY SCHUMACHER, driver of the U.S. Army dragster, who continued his remarkable resurgence in 2006 with a win at the prestigious Mac Tools U.S. Nationals (he now has five wins and seven final rounds in 10 starts at Indy). Schumacher had been as much as 336 points out of first place after Chicago (the 10^th of 23 events) and he is now just 54 points back of Doug Kalitta with five events remaining. And if history means anything, don’t expect Schumacher to back off now: the three-time and defending POWERade Series champion advanced to an NHRA record seven straight final rounds to end the 2005 season and he advanced to five of the last six final rounds in 2004.

DRIVERS TELL ALL

• FORCE ON FORCE: John Force won the Skoal Showdown and was the No. 1 qualifier heading into Monday’s Labor Day Final Eliminations at the prestigious U.S. Nationals, and he had just one event earlier (at Memphis) regained the points lead from Ron Capps. With momentum on his side, the NHRA icon unexpectedly red-lighted in the first round to lose his points lead (he’s now 19 back of Capps): “I have the best car here and I failed. This is Indy. It’s not where you make mistakes. I’m the best there is and I forgot how to race. If you lose like this at Indy you deserve to have your (butt) kicked.”

• BERNSTEIN ON THE RETURN TO FUNNY CAR: Kenny Bernstein on his return to Funny Car where he won four of his six POWERade Series world championships. Bernstein won four straight Funny Car titles from 1985-88 and he won Top Fuel titles in 1996 and 2001: “I thrive on competition, and I still love the sport. I’ve been searching for the perfect opportunity and the perfect sponsor to field a competitive team to get back into the sport, and Monster Energy drinks provided the ideal scenario. I’m as excited as I was the first time I ever sat in a Funny Car.”