NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

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A storm is a-brewin'

21 Jun 2016
Brad Littlefield, National Dragster Associate Editor
Tuesday Morning Crew Chief
It’s not how you start. It’s how you finish.

The NHRA Countdown to the Championship format makes those proverbial words ring even louder in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. In the case of the Top Fuel and Funny Car winners at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals, scoring their first win of 2016 at the 11th event of the season is just enough time to secure a spot in the NHRA Traxxas Nitro Shootout and jockey for position within the top 10 to make a run at the season title. On a day when the Cleveland Cavaliers took a major sports championship home to the city of Cleveland for the first time in more than 50 years, the winners here bring momentum to the following weekend's event in Ohio that they hope to parlay into titles of their own.

Funny Car winner Tommy Johnson Jr. has become familiar with this position since joining Don Schumacher and Terry Chandler as the driver of the Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger in 2014. Bristol Dragway was also the site of his first win with the team, and he waited until the Chicago event to get going last season. However, his consistency and his momentum late in the season were good enough to earn him career-high No. 3 finishes in the Mello Yello standings at the end of both seasons.

Johnson clearly had the Bristol victory in his crosshairs after watching teammates Ron Capps and Matt Hagan have all the fun at the most recent four races. Tuner John Collins guided T.J. to the quickest time of the semifinal round by a mile, and his driver and fellow Ottumwa, Iowa, native finished the job in the final. Against Hagan, arguably the best leaver in the category, Johnson cut an .035 light to earn a 4.038 to 4.030 holeshot decision.

Johnson is the seventh different Funny Car winner this season, which will guarantee him a spot in the Traxxas NHRA Nitro Shootout unless someone who hasn’t won yet such as Jack Beckman or Del Worsham can take the points lead before Indy. This may set up one of the most competitive fan-vote/lottery drawings we have seen, with past champions John Force, Beckman, Worsham, and Cruz Pedregon currently eligible.

Shawn Langdon won’t have to worry about being voted into the lottery drawing as the sixth different Top Fuel winner this season. The Red Fuel/Sandvik Coromant team entered the season with high expectations after giving its competition something to think about with its best run of the season in the final round of the 2015 Auto Club NHRA Finals. However, adapting to changes made during the winter to improve its program in the long term resulted in five straight first-round losses.

Langdon hasn’t lost in the first round since that slate of early exits. Crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler worked hard to get back on track, and several consistent outings have given them the data and the confidence to turn up the wick when needed. This culminated in a Tennessee turnaround, with Langdon winning the event for the second time in the last three years to move from No. 9 to No. 6 in the points standings.

The 2013 Mello Yello world champion left on every driver he faced. We were guaranteed to see a first-time winner in 2016 with Langdon facing teammate and eight-time champion Tony Schumacher in the final. While Antron Brown has been steady this season, Langdon and Schumacher mirrored each other’s paths early in the season and were both hungry for a victory. Schumacher, in his second straight final, dropped a hole early, and Langdon trounced on the opportunity to win a 3.838 to 3.924 decision.
Turned up to 11: Jason Line and teammate Greg Anderson did battle in the Pro Stock final once again to determine which driver would be responsible for extending KB Racing’s winning streak to 11 victories to start the season. Line ended Anderson’s unblemished record on the "Eastern Swing" by scoring a 6.668 to 6.694 win and becoming the only father to record a win in a Pro category on Father’s Day this year.

By extending their winning streak beyond the number 10, the Summit Racing boys also ended what could have been a 10-year drought at Bristol Dragway. Line last won the event in 2006, and Anderson’s two wins there occurred at the inaugural event in 2001 and in 2004.

How long the KB Racing drivers are able to assert their will on the Pro Stock class remains to be seen. The other teams have shown signs of making up ground, though the KB team continues to burn Sunoco on the dyno in the name of making more horsepower as well. The gap is close enough that Jeg Coughlin Jr. was able to do what he does best by scoring a holeshot win in the first round over KB-powered Bo Butner, who ran low e.t. of the event at 6.645 seconds in a losing effort.
Special Awards

Best run: Ron Capps’ 3.884 during Funny Car qualifying
The Funny Car class hasn’t failed to surprise this year. 3.8-second runs at one of the higher-elevation tracks on tour would have been unfathomable at this time last season. Capps’ effort earned the points leader his third consecutive No. 1 qualifying position after beginning the "Eastern Swing" with no back-to-back No. 1s during his career.

Best race: Jeg Coughlin Jr. vs. Bo Butner, Pro Stock round one
Coughlin simply willed his way into the next round on this one. A .005 light would not have been enough to win, but Coughlin went .002 to send the quickest run of the event home early by a .002-second margin.

Driver of the race: Shawn Langdon
Langdon didn’t let a slow start to the season soften his killer instinct in the cockpit. He cut two lights in the .030s during Top Fuel eliminations to help his team find the winner’s circle.

Crew chief of the race: John Collins
The Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger adapted to the summer conditions and became a hot rod that Johnson could win with.

Stat of the race: The Don Schumacher Racing team has 53 double-up wins after scoring two in the past three events.