Fast Take Compiled by Dwight Drum
Web work by Larsen & Drum Images by Gary Larsen
NHRA: TF & FC winners > Larry Dixon, Bob Bode
NHRA: PSC & PSM winners > Jeg Coughlin Jr., Andrew Hines
IndyCar: IZOD > Helio Castroneves
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
Race Recap: Denver, Colo.
Courtesy of NHRA
BODE REACHES FIRST CAREER FINAL, WINS FIRST CAREER RACE
Dixon, Coughlin and Hines round out winners at final Countdown to 10 race
Three drivers had a shot at their first career NHRA Full Throttle Series win on Sunday at the 29th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway and Funny Car veteran Bob Bode was the lucky one who struck paydirt.
The other winners at the 17th of 23 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Series season – and final race in the Countdown to 10 regular season – were Larry Dixon (Top Fuel), Jeg Coughlin (Pro Stock) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle).
Also on Sunday, the final five spots in the Countdown to 1 NHRA Playoffs were determined as Dave Grubnic (Top Fuel), Tony Pedregon (Funny Car), Rodger Brogdon (Pro Stock) and Karen Stoffer and Craig Treble (Pro Stock Motorcycle) clinched berths.
And the final two No. 1 seeds were settled as well with John Force (Funny Car) and Andrew Hines (Pro Stock Motorcycle) joining Dixon (Top Fuel) and Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) as top seeds.
Bode defeated Cruz Pedregon, Bob Tasca and Tim Wilkerson to reach the final where he proceeded to celebrate a surprisingly easy win when Jack Beckman struck the wheels on his Freightliner Dodge Charger R/T early and slowed to a 8.338 at 86.32. Bode’s official winning run in the Alard Machine Chevy Impala was a 4.248 at 253.66.
“All of this is kind of like a dream I’m afraid I’m gonna wake up from,” Bode said. “I didn’t know if it would ever happen, but now that it did, I can’t believe it happened. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me in my entire life in the racing world. I have a wife and kid, wonderful things there, but the racing world, this is it.”
Dixon improved to 9-0 in final rounds in the Al-Anabi dragster and 4-0 vs. second-place Cory McClenathan this season with a blistering 3.786-second pass at 312.28 mph to McClenathan’s 3.810 at 314.17.
“I feel fortunate,” said Dixon, whose engine suffered damage as he crossed the finish line. “When I lifted (off the throttle), it popped … I got heat-treated a little bit … but I saw the win light.”
In Pro Stock, the red-hot Coughlin (6.614 at 208.04) was appearing in his third straight final round in the JEGS.com Chevy Cobalt and he celebrated victory for the second time in that stretch when Auto Club Road to the Future candidate Shane Gray red-lighted in the Tire Kingdom Pontiac GXP to end his bid for his first career win before he got out of first gear.
“This is as close as we’ve been to the points leader all year,” said Coughlin, who will trail Mike Edwards by 40 points when the points reset for the Countdown to 1. “That’s the way the playoff and the Countdown to 1 works. We’ve had that work to our advantage for a couple of years and had that work against us last year. This year, we were probably no way shape or form going to contend for our sixth world title, but we are.”
It was Coughlin’s 52nd career win, which tied him with Joe Amato for eighth place on the all-time NHRA Full Throttle Series wins list.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Hines (6.941 at 191.00) completed an impressive weekend hat trick aboard the Screamin’ Eagle Vance & Hines Harley-Davidson with his win over first-time finalist Jim Underdahl (7.012 at 188.52) – he was the No. 1 qualifier, he won the race, and he moved around season-long points-leader Hector Arana to clinch the No. 1 seed entering the Countdown to 1 playoffs.
“Big win,” Hines said. “I’ve never been No. 1 going into the playoffs so it’s nice to be in this position. Three or four races ago we were looking at the point and Hector had something like a 160-point lead and we just wrote it off that we wouldn’t make it there. Luck turned to our side, the motorcycle started performing better and Hector faltered a little bit and we capitalized on it.”
The six-race Countdown to 1 playoffs begin in two weeks with the Labor Day weekend running of the world’s most prestigious drag race, the 56th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.
Pro Stock Car
Jeg Coughlin Red-hot Coughlin wins again in Brainerd
Jeg Coughlin Jr. let everyone on his JEGS.com race team know he wanted to go into the Countdown to the Championship with as much momentum as possible. After adding another win to his 2010 total Sunday at the 29th annual Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd International Raceway, Coughlin has gotten his wish and will now enter the playoffs as the hottest driver in his class.
"We came here off a great Western Swing where we won in Sonoma and followed that up with a strong runner-up finish in Denver," Coughlin said. "We were sky high and certainly thought we'd have more success with a brand new engine from the shop. But after struggling a bit in qualifying and then analyzing all the data, we decided to go back to the motor we had in Sonoma and, boom, that thing took us right to the top.
"We're now the closest we've been to the points leader all year. That's the way the Countdown goes. It's worked in our favor before and last year it worked against us. This year we probably wouldn't have had a chance to run for our sixth overall world title but now we will so that's really exciting."
The No. 12 qualifier, Coughlin upset Ron Krisher in the first round with the second quickest speed of the session and never looked back, posting big wins over Minnesotan teammates Jason Line and Greg Anderson, and Shane Gray in the final for his 52 national event win at the professional level. He's now tied with Top Fuel legend Joe Amato in eighth place on the all-time wins list.
"I feel a bit fortunate because we barely made it up there for the finals," Coughlin said. "I heard something odd with the motor in the semis and that engine is probably our best Jose so we didn't want to damage it. The guys thrashed and put our No. 3 motor in there for the final and we used up every bit of that 75 minutes between rounds to get up there and race Shane."
Slightly rattled by the rush, Coughlin caught a bit of a break when Gray jumped the green light by -.001 seconds. It may not have mattered any way as he went on to post a 6.614 at 208.04 mph to Gray's 6.654 at 207.21 mph, but it could have been close.
"I do want to say that the Grays have done a phenomenal job this year and if Shane had been a couple thousands on the green side of the tree he would have put away my yellow and black car because I was dead late," Coughlin said of his .059-second reaction time. "Those are good guys over there and they'll win plenty of races, I'm sure."
For now the focus turns to the 56th annual Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil, which take place Sept. 2-6 in Indianapolis.
NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing
2010 NHRA Reset Point Standings
[After Race 17 of 23]
Includes Points Behind Leader
Top Fuel Dragster
1. Larry Dixon [leader] [2110 points]
2. Tony Schumacher [-30]
3. Cory McClenathan [-40]
4. Doug Kalitta [-360]
5. Antron Brown [-393]
6. Brandon Bernstein [-471]
7. Shawn Langdon [-759]
8. Morgan Lucas [-795]
9. Steve Torrence [-847]
10. David Grubnic [-911]
Funny Car
1. John Force [leader] [2110 points]
2. Robert Hight [-30]
3. Jack Beckman [-40]
4. Matt Hagan [-50]
5. Ron Capps [-60]
6. Tim Wilkerson [-70]
7. Bob Tasca III [-80]
8. Ashley Force Hood [-90]
9. Del Worsham [-100]
10. Tony Pedregon [-110]
Pro Stock Car
1. Mike Edwards [leader] [2110 points]
2. Allen Johnson [-30]
3. Jeg Coughlin Jr. [-40]
4. Greg Anderson [-50]
5. Jason Line [-60]
6. Shane Gray [-70]
7. Ron Krisher [-80]
8. Greg Stanfield [-90]
9. Johnny Gray [-100]
10. Rodger Brogdon [-110]
Pro Stock Motorcycle
1. Andrew Hines [leader] [2110 points]
2. Hector Arana [-30]
3. Michael Phillips [-40]
4. Matt Smith [-50]
5. Steve Johnson [-60]
6. Eddie Krawiec [-70]
7. L.E. Tonglet [-80]
8. David Hope [-90]
9. Karen Stoffer [-100]
10. Craig Treble [-110]
IZOD IndyCar Series
Courtesy of Indyracing.com
Recap: Mid-Ohio
IZOD IndyCar > Dario Franchitti
IZOD INDYCAR POST-RACE QUOTES
Magic Mileage Number Brings Castroneves a Kentucky Indy 300 Victory
A magic fuel number contrived by veteran Team Penske Race Strategist Tim Cindric helped Helio Castroneves rebound from an early-race pit stop error and emerge with a 13.1597 second “Kentucky Indy 300” victory over race pole award winner Ed Carpenter tonight.
Castroneves feathered the throttle in his No. 3 Team Penske machine through the final 53 of 200 race laps and stayed on track as the five drivers in front of him cycled to the pits to refresh their car’s fuel cells from Laps 192-197 to recover from a green-flag race run that started on Lap 95.
The nine-year veteran, who was denied a 2008 Kentucky victory when his car’s fuel cell ran dry in the frontstretch coming to the checkered flag and was passed by eventual winner Scott Dixon, seized the lead with three laps remaining and jetted away to his second victory of the season and his first in the Bluegrass State. He leads all IndyCar Series drivers in Kentucky Speedway top-five finishes with seven and top-10 finishes with eight through nine career starts.
“Incredible job from Team Penske. When we started the race, the car wasn’t the fastest, but it wasn’t the slowest. It had pretty good balance. We were right there, it was very tough.
“We came to the pits for the first stop and had a miscommunication. The crew chief thought the right rear (tire) wasn’t on, so I had one guy telling me go, go, go and the guy on top of me telling me to stay. We ended up losing about 10 positions.
“The genius Tim Cindric came with a great idea and said, ‘when we pit the last time, you gotta make this number because we have nothing to lose.’ I said ‘that’s going to be impossible.’ Flashes of the race in 2008 started coming back to me.
“We went back, we stayed about in 10th position saving fuel and trying to make this number. What people don’t realize when you start running that slow is the balance of the car changes quite a bit, so it’s harder driving slower than faster.
“I was about 12 mph slower than the leaders, but towards the end when (Cindric) said, ‘you’re the leader, go for it,’ I could not believe it. We started back again on 215 (mph) and 216 (mph) laps. What a great day, a misfortune that happened in the pits was the key to this win. It feels great, I’m happy for the entire team,” Castroneves described.
Carpenter, who led 11 laps, placed second at Kentucky Speedway for the second consecutive season. He lost out to Ryan Briscoe by 0.0162 of a second in the closest series track finish last season and fell victim to the widest series margin of victory at the track tonight. He has earned a total of two top-five and five top-10 finishes in his seven Kentucky Speedway starts since 2004.
His Panther Racing teammate Dan Wheldon, who led a race-high 93 laps, took third, Andretti Autosport driver Tony Kanaan grabbed fourth and Target Chip Ganassi driver Dario Franchitti closed out the race top five.
“For Dan and I to finish second and third is a little disappointing because we were so strong all weekend. Dan had a dominant car tonight and it’s tough being in our position when you have a guy win on fuel mileage,” Carpenter said.
Castroneves’ teammate and championship leader Will Power scored an eighth-place finish and saw his lead over second-place contender Franchitti shrink from 23 to 17 points with two races remaining on the schedule.
Tonight’s race concludes the 2010 Kentucky Speedway season. The track’s 2011 season will open with a NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, NASCAR Nationwide Series and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series tripleheader July 7-9 and conclude with an Oct. 1 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race that will be complemented by the return of the IZOD IndyCar Series.
Ticket information is available now at http://www.kentuckyspeedway.com by clicking the “Get 2011 Tickets” graphic located on the top right corner of the page or by calling 859-578-2300.
FIRESTONE FIREHAWK RACE REPORT
IndyCar Series
IndyCar Point Standings
[After Race 15 of 17]
Includes Points Behind Leader
1. Will Power [Leader] [552 points]
2. Dario Franchitti [-17]
3. Scott Dixon [-83]
4. Helio Castroneves [-104]
5. Ryan Briscoe [-134]
6. Ryan Hunter-Reay [-148]
7. Tony Kanaan [-160]
8. Marco Andretti [-205]
9. Dan Wheldon [-206]
10. Justin Wilson`[-217]
FIRESTONE INDY LIGHTS POST-RACE NOTES
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