Top Fuel driver Spencer Massey put that theory to bed and joined other class winners Tony Pedregon, Jeg Coughlin and Matt Guidera in Victory Lane Sunday at the United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals.
Massey, who drives for NHRA legend Don “The Snake” Prudhomme, put himself in the winner’s circle at Route 66 Raceway when he edged points leader and No. 1 qualifier Antron Brown for the Top Fuel title.
“This whole season has been a dream,” said Massey.
“I’ve been watching NHRA racing and wanting to drive a Top Fuel dragster in the NHRA since I was 4 years old and saw my first race. I watched Don Prudhomme win his last Top Fuel race in Dallas in 1994, and now he’s high-fiving me in the winner’s circle. That’s unbelievable.” AHN
But he said Sunday’s achievement “almost compares to winning that championship,” because he always had wanted to race in NHRA competition, “just like Eddie Hill, Joe Amato and Don Prudhomme.”
Brown, the top qualifier who had seized the points lead with a semifinal win, countered with a 3.870-second, 301.54-m.p.h. run.
In the Funny Car class, owner-driver Pedregon repeated his victory in Joliet, despite what he called “a lot of drama in our pits” with an 11th-hour motor swap and fresh front tires that he said made him “start to wonder” about the car that had been so reliable all weekend. Chicago Tribune
“We had good conditions, and we had tough opponents all day. This race was a lot less expensive than winning last year, and that’s a good thing with this tough economy. I’m glad we were able to pull it off with Quaker State. Semifinals, getting to some final rounds, that’s good, but it’s really all about winning. We feel confident that we’re going to make the Countdown, but we gotta keep doing the work to stay there. [This is a] great track, a great facility, and the sun came out, it went away, it rained, you name it and the track hung in there and we were able to execute today,” said Pedregon.
Points leader Coughlin was gunning for his fourth win of the season with the Jegs.com Cobalt and was hoping to avenge his semifinal loss a week earlier to Edwards in Topeka, but with the way Edwards was running throughout the event, he probably never expected it to come via a red-light in the final, but Edwards was .021-second too early and handed the win to Coughlin, the 44th of his Pro Stock career and 57th overall.
“We qualified third, Greg Anderson was a couple thousandths ahead of us, and Mike was in the zone there a couple hundredths ahead of both of us, and that’s the way it’s been the last couple of races,” said Coughlin. “Mike’s been fast the entire 2009 season, and he’s just taken some time to get the finesse down. He’s got it right now. He’s in a great position to win a lot of rounds and win some races, and I feel fortunate to be here right now.
“We just want to get out and race well. We’ve been fortunate to be in a lot of finals this year and to be in some key money rounds where the car has gotten out of shape or we’ve had to abort the run, so it was our goal coming into this race to take a step back and get this car as ironed out as we could and try to be a little more efficient getting the car down the racetrack, and I believe we accomplished that.”
Guidera only qualified 10th but had the best bike of race day, especially through the late rounds to the final, where he defeated reigning season champ Eddie Krawiec, 7.096, 181.79 to 7.189, 179.66, to collect his fourth career win with the Mohegan Sun Buell.
“That was one hell of a final,” said Guidera. “I had a great bike all day. It really came around on Saturday. Before that, we were struggling. On Friday, I was 14th, and I wasn’t qualified heading into Saturday. Then, we couldn’t get the valve springs off the bike. We had to change engines and we worked until about 1:30 in the morning, went back and got a couple hours sleep, and came back on Saturday. We made some drastic changes to our tune-up, and we finally hit the sweet spot.”
“I don’t think I snuck up on anybody this weekend. We just sucked so bad on Friday and it left us in a big hole. On Sunday, I left nothing on the table.” NHRA
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