“Sweepless in Seattle” is going to be the headline this weekend after the National Hot Rod Association visits Pacific Raceways for the Northwest Nationals.
Top Fuel’s Larry Dixon compared sweeping The Western Swing to winning the Boston Marathon before the NHRA arrived in Denver last weekend.
Dixon was exaggerating, but still, sweeping Denver, Seattle and Sonoma in consecutive weeks is hardly a breeze. Only six drivers have pulled the hat trick since the NHRA strung those races together beginning in 1989.
With Denver in the books and the series in Seattle this weekend, the drivers eligible for the sweep are Antron Brown (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car) and Allen Johnson (Pro Stocks). MLive.com
Most of the drag racing world might be surprised to see Antron Brown leading the Top Fuel points race, but the second-year driver from Pittsboro, Ind., says he’s right where he’s supposed to be.
“We don’t go into these races just to survive. We go into these races to win,” Brown said. “Last year in our rookie season in Top Fuel, we challenged for the world championship and this year we haven’t missed a beat.”
Brown won last week in Denver and leads five-time defending Top Fuel world champion Tony Schumacher by 118 points heading into this weekend’s NHRA Northwest Nationals that begins today with qualifying at Pacific Raceways in Kent.
Brown is 116 points ahead of driver Larry Dixon and a first-year team headed by Alan Johnson, Schumacher’s former crew chief, and financed by Khalid Al-Thani, the son of the emir of Qatar.
Ron Capps, who is tied with Ashley Force Hood in the Funny Car standings, won his first professional drag race at Pacific Raceways in 1995 in Top Fuel.
That year rain delayed the race until Tuesday.
Capps has won twice at Pacific Raceways and 30 times in his career. He has five wins this season and won last week in Denver in a new car that was racing for only the second time. Capps and Tony Pedregon are tied for the longest successful qualifying streak at 52. Seattle Times
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