Spencer Massey wasn’t expected to be in the Top Fuel final Sunday at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet. The rookie had too many big names blocking him on his side of the bracket.
Massey beat a couple of those names, dodged another, and not only made the final, but won the Route 66 Nationals title, beating top qualifier Antron Brown in the championship match for his first career victory.
“I don’t want anybody to pinch me,” said 26-year-old Massey, who took 3.856 seconds to make it 1,000 feet. “You couldn’t write the book any better.”
Neither his time nor his top-end speed of 308.35 mph was the best of the day, but it beat Brown by two hundredths of a second. Brown picked up enough points to retain the season lead in Top Fuel, while Massey, who knocked off two-time series champion Larry Dixon in the semis, grabbed the trophy. Joliet Herald News
Racing in only his 11th event for Prudhomme, Massey trumped his runner-up finish on April 19 at Atlanta.
Massey won the 2008 International Hot Rod Association championship after winning his first two races ever in the cockpit of a dragster.
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.” Chicago Tribune
“This whole season has been a dream,” Massey said. “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.”
Tony Pedregon, Jeg Coughlin and Matt Guidera also won their categories in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event.
Pedregon earned his first Funny Car win of the season and moved to second place in the point standings by cruising past Ashley Force Hood, whose Ford Mustang lost traction at the start in the final round. Pedregon had a 4.114-second run at 303.78 in his Chevy Impala to earn his 41st career victory and second straight in the event.
“(Advancing to the) semifinals and getting to some final rounds, that?s good, but it?s really all about winning,” Pedregon said. “We feel confident that we?re going to make the Countdown, but we gotta keep doing the work to stay there.” USA Today
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