Larry Dixon (Top Fuel), Bob Tasca III (Funny Car), Jeg Coughlin (Pro Stock), and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) scored top honors during the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, the 17th of 18 events in the regular season.
Dixon added Maple Grove Raceway to the list of tracks where he won, leaving just two — Gateway Int’l Raceway in Madison and zMax Dragway in Charlotte — where he has yet to notch a victory. Dixon’s first Reading win was also his fifth of the season and 48th career victory for the Alan Johnson/Al-Anabi Racing driver, and he earned it in fine fashion, defeating the team for which he drove last year, Don “the Snake” Prudhomme’s U.S. Smokeless group, and rookie driver Spencer Massey. The final was decided almost immediately when Massey smoked the tires of his rail, leaving him to just watch as Dixon sailed to a 3.899 win.
“This is such a historic racetrack, and I’ve always wanted to win here,” said Dixon. “My dad won here, running points races back in the day. I just love coming to this track, and for one reason or another, we’ve just never been able to close the deal. I’ve been halfway down the track thinking we’re going to win and then break an input shaft and lose, so just to see the win light come on, it was awesome.
Tasca had a nearly perfect outing as he wheeled his Motorcraft/Quick Lane Mustang to his second career Funny Car victory, a performance that moved him up to fourth in the points and locked him into the Countdown to 1 playoffs. Tasca went wire to wire in the all-Ford final, getting a huge jump on Mike Neff, who got distracted and had a .184-second reaction time against Tasca. Tasca just added to his lead as he traversed the 1,000-foot course, outrunning Neff, 4.23 to 4.24, to turn on the win light.
“This is a pretty meaningful race for me on a multitude of levels,” said Tasca, a two-time finalist in Top Alcohol Funny Car in Reading. “This was the race John Force ran my grandfather’s body on his car. This was the first race I ever hit the throttle on my Alcohol Funny Car to compete at a national event. I beat Frank Manzo here in my Alcohol Funny Car to win the Richmond race in the third qualifying session — so I don’t know if that counts against Manzo in Reading, but the man’s lost on this property to Tasca.
Coughlin started the season out strong, but he hadn’t been to the winner’s circle since Englishtown in June, but the reigning world champ picked the perfect time to revisit as his lead had shrunk to the point he could have been overtaken with an early exit. That did not happen, however, with Coughlin going the distance, punctuating his march to his sixth Wally of the season with a 6.634, low e.t. of the weekend, en route to victory over surprise finalist Johnny Gray.
“We struggled in the two qualifying runs we had and ended up eighth, but we knew we had a lot under the hood and the car to do it,” said Coughlin. “First round was pretty much the same story as the first two runs, and then we just tried to get aggressive and more aggressive with the setup to give it what it wanted. My dad and Roy Simmons just did a fantastic job. It went .64, .64, and .63 coming down the stretch.
Krawiec continued his torrid pace in Pro Stock Motorcycle, collecting his fourth win in eight final-round showings this year. Krawiec, who clinched the top spot in the Countdown to 1 earlier in the day, defeated Michael Phillips easily when Phillips, who damaged his engine in the semi’s and had Steve Johnson’s powerplant in his bike for the final, had troubles and clicked his bike off early.
“It’s great being secure going into Indy that I am going to get those extra points for being in that No. 1 position, and we all know how valuable round-win points are,” said Krawiec. “It could get me the championship at the end of the year. We’ve just went out here and worked after it to try and get as many wins as we can, and hopefully, I can do that for the second half of the season.
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