Kalitta, Capps, Hartford, Herrera take zMAX 4-Wide Glory
NHRA’s sole Mission Foods Drag Racing Series 4-Wide competition is complete! After three days of monumental racing, Doug Kalitta took the Top Fuel title, Ron Capps earned the Funny Car nod, Matt Hartford prevailed in Pro Stock and Gaige Herrera reminded everyone why he’s a two-time consecutive Pro Stock Motorcycle champion.
Every one of the quads on Sunday had action and, in the case of the first round of Top Fuel, a fairly long stoppage to allow a competitor to repair and run. Tony Schumacher’s Rick Ware Racing dragster had an issue with its supercharger – an issue that couldn’t be determined under pit-side circumstances – and his three competitors allowed the eight-time champ some time to get repairs completed. That took more than an hour, but Schumacher wasn’t ready and never made it back to the water box!
That first quad allowed Pomona victor Tony Stewart and Billy Torrence to go to the semis, while Josh Hart was left out. The second quad saw Doug Kalitta and Maddi Gordon advance over Saturday’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge winner Clay Millican and four-time champ Antron Brown. Justin Ashley and Leah Pruett took out Will Smith and Ida Zetterstrom, while Shawn Langdon and Spencer Massey advanced in their first quad. Langdon and Stewart advanced in the semifinals, as did Kalitta and Pruett, which set up a final round where Doug Kalitta beat the track’s record in his class, setting the third quickest Top Fuel run ever at 342.98 mph (3.692 sec) and squeaking past his teammate Langdon, Pruett and a smoking (how appropriate) Tony “Smoke” Stewart.
Kalitta was the No. 3 qualifier and now leaves Charlotte encased as the leader in class by a meager 15 points over Langdon. “Alan (crew chief Alan Johnson) thought he was going to run over 340mph (in the final round). I don’t know how he predicts these things, but the guy’s a wizard tuning these cars, and I’m just very, very fortunate and grateful to have him on our team. The guys pulled through for me. I was really happy to see that light when it came on. We had a lot of support here and this is the kind of race you want to win.”
Langdon, who broke the heim joint that connects the dragster’s steering arm to the right tire just before the second round, was able to effect repairs and make his run after his competitors allowed less than five minutes to do the job. “Fortunately, we have some of the best crew guys out here,” Langdon said. “Great job to the Kalitta Air team… that’s why I’ve always said, ‘these guys are bad to the bone’ and I’m glad to be a part of this team!”
Capps, who ruminated over his final round loss in the Lucas Oil Winternationals, two weeks ago in Pomona, to Matt Hagan in Funny Car’s 1,000th race, won for the second time this season in Sunday’s contest. His was an all-champions quad, as the three-time Flopper titleholder ran his Toyota GR Supra against John Force Racing’s Chevrolet SS for Jack Beckman, Matt Hagan’s Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat from Tony Stewart Racing and Kalitta Motorsports’ J.R. Todd in his Supra. That listing was their finishing order in the final round, with Capps’ 3.905/334.90 defeating Beckman’s 3.917/329.50. Hagan was close to Beckman but Todd slowed to a 4.050/323.81.
Capps was the No. 1 qualifier in his class and set Funny Car’s quickest pass of the weekend in the first round of eliminations at 3.865/333.00; he was second to Todd in the semifinal bout. In the money round, the Californian left first and never trailed, taking his 79th career victory and his fifth title in Charlotte. This was Capps’ third consecutive final round and he crowed, “I still can’t believe it! You have cars like this at times in your career and you just don’t want to mess up as a driver. The four-wide brings such a unique mentality to everything,” he admitted. “I’m getting older but it’s just so much fun to get up there and have the confidence from everybody on the team that I could still do it in the seat. This is especially cool – it’s the only four-wide race this year.”
In an all-KB Titan Racing final Pro Stock round, Matt Hartford earned the victory from the 5th slot on this 16-car grid. After taking the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge on Saturday and earning his No. 1 time of 6.498/211.23, Greg Anderson was one of Hartford’s primary targets. He didn’t get to race the six-time titleholder until the final round, but Hartford relegated the KB Titan team leader to third place once the Pro Stock quad was complete. Hartford prevailed over Cody Coughlin, Anderson and Matt Latino, the latter losing traction and signing off, while Hartford, C. Coughlin and Anderson all logged times that one could throw a blanket over: 6.526/210.05 for Hartford, 6.529/210.14 for Coughlin and another 6.529 for Anderson, at a quicker 210.31.
Winning for the second time this season – Hartford took the diamond Wally at the season-starting Gatornationals – was a relief for the Arizonan, who had difficult races at both Phoenix and Pomona, exiting in the first round at both events. He recovered well in Charlotte and said of his 10th career victory, “If you’re going to win in this class, you pretty much have to leave ahead of everybody and that’s really hard to do. I struggle with it. I was .024 in the final and I thought that was great for me, especially on the four-wide, which is hard. I just took my time, made sure I was ready and rolled in,” he said.
This weekend’s Charlotte 4-wide contest was only the second race for Pro Stock Motorcycle, which started its season in Gainesville at the Gatornationals. There, it was Vance & Hines Motorsports’ reigning titleholder, Richard Gadson claiming the diamond Wally. This weekend his two-time consecutive teammate Gaige Herrera earned the big prize, beating Gadson, Clayton Howey and Chase Van Sant in the all-Suzuki final round at 6.758/199.88, using a stellar .019 reaction time. Herrera’s Suzuki Hayabusa3 claimed its first win of the year and his 29th in his fourth season racing in Pro Stock Motorcycle. He also claimed the Mission #2Fast2TastyChallenge on Saturday.
While both Gadson and Howey read the tree better, Herrera tracked them down quickly and took his third 4-Wide Nationals victory at this track and fourth overall at the Bellagio of Drag Strips. “I knew we all were going to push the tree in the final and I think that’s the tightest I’ve seen a four-wide final in the bike category,” Herrera said after hoisting his diamond trophy. With all Suzuki riders in the final quad, “I had a bracket bike all day long, same with Richard and Clayton, and it’s awesome to get the four-wide win here at zMAX and get my first diamond Wally. It’s pretty cool to win in NHRA’s 75th anniversary season.”
There’s no rest or reset for the NHRA’s Mission Foods Drag Racing Series as all four classes make their way to Adel, Georgia’s South Georgia Motorsports Park for the NHRA Southern Nationals. The action begins again on Friday, May 1 and continues through Sunday, May 3.