NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

The Denso Spark Plugs NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway featured some great racing. However, I would be remiss not to begin this column without mentioning the absence of late NHRA Chief Starter Mark Lyle, who passed away suddenly on March 27.

The former Division 6 starter was the third person in NHRA history to hold the chief starter position when he was appointed in 2012, succeeding the late Buster Couch and Rick Stewart. He quickly earned the respect of the racers. He was even-keeled, patient, and fair. His sense of humor and temperament disarmed those who were caught up in the heat of battle. When he smiled and signaled racers with a finger-point or thumbs-up, they were reassured that they were in safe hands. He had the ability to make personal connections with the thousands of racers he would send down the dragstrip from early in the morning until racing concluded. Though he dutifully made sure that it was the racers and not him who remained in the spotlight, make no mistake about it: It was his starting line.

The sudden loss left a void in the racing community that felt all too real when racing resumed this past weekend. Protégé Mike Gittings, the current starter in Division 6, did an admirable job in his absence in what was an emotional weekend for the racers, officials, and fans. Lyle may be gone, but his influence and memories will remain strong in the racing community for years to come.

---

The spring Las Vegas event is typically the first race on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series schedule that features a race day set in track conditions of 120 degrees and warmer, a great equalizer for smaller teams that sets the stage for big upsets. It started in qualifying with Pomona winner Ron Capps, who has been to two finals in the first three races, posting a rare DNQ, his first since the Seattle event in 2013.

In eliminations, Steve Chrisman and Jim Campbell both scored round-wins driving for Chuck and Del Worsham. It was part of a great weekend for Del. The biggest surprise had to be Troy Buff moving through Top Fuel eliminations to reach the final round for the first time in Bill Miller’s BME/Red Line Oil dragster. The consistency of Miller’s tune paid off throughout the day, and Buff was almost enough of an X factor to defeat two-time world champion Antron Brown in the final with the best reaction time of the season (.012).

The highlight of the race was the Funny Car final between Kalitta Motorsports teammates Alexis DeJoria and Del Worsham. Not only was it the first time that two drivers from Connie Kalitta’s organization had both made it to the final in Funny Car, but it gave DeJoria a chance to make history. In breaking a drought of 33 races without a win, DeJoria became the third different female winner in a Pro category at three consecutive races for the first time in NHRA history. Her win follows the Top Fuel triumphs of Leah Pritchett in Phoenix and Brittany Force in Gainesville.

DeJoria scored in Las Vegas, the home of Tequila Patron headquarters, for the second time in three years. She had a huge season in 2014 with three wins that included a huge victory at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals. Since then, crew chiefs Tommy DeLago and Glen Huszar had been working hard to push their tune-up forward while teammate Worsham had a championship campaign in 2015. The teammates look as though they have a potent 1-2 punch this season to counteract their foes from the John Force Racing and Don Schumacher Racing organizations.

The most impressive part about DeJoria’s win was the quality of her opposition. Tommy Johnson Jr., Robert Hight, John Force, and Worsham all made competitive runs against her, and she was able to outdo them for each hard-earned win light. Against Hight, she used a superior reaction time against one of the class’ best drivers in order to advance past the second round with a slightly slower elapsed time. Teamwork was a theme throughout the day that paid off in a victory in an all-Kalitta final.

Brown is back: The 2012 and 2015 Mello Yello champion did not begin the season the way he had hoped, but nobody stepped in to take the throne while the Matco Tools team was getting sorted out. Brown is the only Top Fuel driver to win more than once in the past 11 events, and his latest win in Las Vegas is his fourth victory during that span.

Crew chiefs Brian Corradi and International Drag Racing Hall of Famer Mark Oswald really shine when teams are forced to adapt to different conditions due to Oswald’s attention to detail and Corradi’s remarkable instincts. Brown made four of the five quickest runs of the day. Even though the one run in that five gave Dave Connolly lane choice over Brown in the semifinals, yet another change to adapt to was executed with grace by the team.

“It never gets boring,” said Brown. “It’s more than just a trophy. It’s all the hard work it takes to get here. We struggled the first three races, but we just kept digging; we kept our head down and just kept going.”

Brown continued to be the gatekeeper when it comes to drivers attempting to score their first Wally. Prior to Force and Pritchett earning their first Top Fuel wins, he had denied them in final rounds along with Clay Millican, Dave Connolly, and others. He added Buff to the list by overcoming the three-time Top Alcohol Dragster winner’s holeshot in a 3.84 to 3.91 victory.

Fine Line: KB Racing tightened its stranglehold on the Pro Stock category with its fourth consecutive win. Three out of four of those have featured KB Racing teammates in the final round.

Points leader Jason Line, who broke in the final round of the K&N Horsepower Challenge special event on Saturday against teammate Greg Anderson, found redemption one day later with his second victory of 2016 in his fourth consecutive final. He faced teammate and frequent verbal jousting combatant Bo Butner in the final. Butner, himself a former champion in the Sportsman ranks like Line, pushed the Tree too hard in his quest for his first win and red-lighted.

“It’s been special to say the least," said Line. "It’s been a fun ride. Hopefully it continues like this for the rest of the year.”

---

Special Awards

Driver of the race: Troy Buff
The potential Cinderella story of the Top Fuel runner-up was not too big of a moment for Bill Miller’s driver. All of his lights were .069 or quicker, he won the first round in a pedalfest, and he did everything he could possibly do in the final round with a .012 light, the quickest reaction time of the 2016 season in Top Fuel. We were a dropped cylinder away from seeing our third consecutive first-time Top Fuel winner in as many consecutive events.

Crew chiefs of the race: Tommy DeLago/Glen Huszar
They were challenged all day but ran hard all four times to overcome their opposition or at least give driver Alexis DeJoria the opportunity to win the race. This team has found its stride again.

Best run: Steve Torrence’s 3.728, Top Fuel qualifying round two
The Capco Contractors team got it while the getting was good. During the best conditions they would see during the event, tuners Richard Hogan and Alan Johnson shot the young Texan down the track and went sub-three-seconds to the eighth-mile mark.

Biggest upset: Steve Chrisman vs. Steve Torrence, Top Fuel round one
There were several upsets on race day, but the most surprising was Chrisman wheeling the Worsham family’s Top Fuel dragster that they built to license drivers to victory over the Pomona winner and No. 1 qualifier. Teammate Jim Campbell also scored his first round-win in the Funny Car ranks by beating Phoenix winner Tim Wilkerson.

Stat of the race: By scoring his first career win in Super Comp, Sportsman ace Dan Fletcher joined an exclusive club of drivers who have won NHRA national events in five or more categories that also includes Jeg Coughlin Jr., Peter Biondo, Justin Lamb, Scotty Richardson, David Rampy, Kyle Seipel, Greg Stanfield, and Nick Folk.