NHRA started its 22-race Camping World Drag Racing Series season by settling some scores during the Lucas Oil Winternationals presented by protecttheharvest.com weekend. Held at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California, the Winternationals returned to their usual and customary date after being held late in July of last year, due to COVID restrictions.
The results of last weekend’s race pretty much set the stage for this upcoming second race of the year, the Arizona Nationals at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park outside Phoenix. There, some drivers will attempt to build on their momentum while others will be looking simply to get their seasons fully started. While many teams tested at this venue prior to the Pomona season-starter, others made their way to the California track and without sampling Phoenix first. This is the first time in two years the series ventures to the Phoenix track; its customary race took place in 2020 before the early and spring season unraveled, only to be restarted at Indy in July.
Justin Ashley, who was in the Top Fuel finals for that late July 2021 Winternationals race last year but couldn’t make the bell due to dehydration in the exceptionally hot weather, pulled out the victory in winter, when the Winternationals are traditionally held. His duel with Austin Prock – both of them former Rookie of the Year winners in their initial seasons of Top Fuel racing – was a good, tight race to the 1,000-foot mark, where Ashley’s 3.694 topped Prock’s 3.713 pass. It was his fourth consecutive 3.6-second eliminations run on this newly re-ground racetrack.
The results leave this duo atop the dragster standings, but if this first weekend of racing taught anything, it’s that you can’t rely on the past to gain entry to the future. It was a healthy field of Top Fuel cars on-hand to start the year and many are headed east to Phoenix for this weekend’s race. To be charitable, not everyone planned to go to Phoenix, so the entry list is showing 14 dragsters. Buddy Hull and Doug Foley are absent but Tripp Tatum III is on the list, Rob Passey returns, as does James Maroney.
Four-time and reigning champ Steve Torrence was gone after last weekend’s semifinals, and only two drivers made it out of the first round in the left lane: Tony Schumacher, who beat Doug Kalitta, and Josh Hart, who put Shawn Langdon back on the trailer. Those results are significant, as Kalitta Motorsports owner Conrad Kalitta spent big bucks to secure the talents of Alan Johnson, Brian Husen and Jason McCulloch to crew chief his two dragsters. No doubt things will change for them, but the season sure didn’t start the way they had hoped.
Antron Brown, who is the driver/owner at AB Motorsports, has a technical alliance with Winternationals victor Ashley, which might elevate both of them this year. Driving with Toyota support, as he has for several years, Brown fell in the second round to Ashley. He was pleased to get a round win under his belt as an owner but it was tough to match his younger competitor, who ripped off a 3.6-sec pass to advance to the semis. In the same round, No. 1 qualifier Brittany Force dispensed with Josh Hart, who will be at Phoenix as he attempts to race the full, 22-contest campaign. Austin Prock beat eight-time champ Tony Schumacher in the quarterfinals. Schumacher’s new backers, Joe and Cathi Maynard, were pleased their driver got through the first round and they did stick around to witness the rest of the show. No doubt they’ll be back on the start line for Phoenix.
It wasn’t the Top Fuel start Tony Stewart Racing was looking for either, as Leah Pruett fell in the first round to Antron Brown from her seventh qualifying position, but she felt that the team had made progress leading up to that pass and put the round loss on her own shoulders. She’ll have Sparkling Ice + Caffeine’s bright colors on her rail this weekend. Mike Salinas, who has Canadian Rob Lynn in his corner this season, recorded the No. 3 qualifying spot and was strong against Buddy Hull, yet fell to Torrence in the second round.
The finals in Funny Car could portend the season-long battle for a championship, as Robert Hight won the battle against reigning titleholder Ron Capps. It wasn’t all sweetness and light for Hight and his Chevrolet Camaro SS. After a typical monster burnout, his Camaro’s body was lowered but the car lurched forward and caught a crew member. The crew guy was okay and crew chief Jimmy Prock told his driver to stage, which he did. Despite a later reaction time, Hight powered by Capps’ Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat to earn the win with a 3.861 to a 3.882, about a 12-inch margin (0.0021-sec).
Significantly, Capps is running without manufacturer support at the moment, after being a Dodge driver for most of his Funny Car career. It’s not likely he’ll be running a Dodge Charger body throughout this season, with the new Toyota Supra GR his likely mount, due to John Force Racing’s exclusivity with Chevrolet. Stay tuned on that front. The 2021 Funny Car champion owner/driver was pleased with his team’s results in Pomona; he made his professional debut at the Phoenix track in a Top Fuel car back in 1995 and is hoping to keep his momentum high.
Matt Hagan brought honor to his team owner, Tony Stewart by advancing to the semifinals against Hight in his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, while Cruz Pedregon again looks strong for 2022, retaining his team from last season, also in a Charger. Neither of the two new Toyota Supra GR Funny Cars of Alexis DeJoria nor J.R. Todd advanced beyond the quarterfinals; DeJoria won her first Funny Car race at Wild Horse Pass in 2014 and had a good test there the week before the season began. 16-time champion John Force, who qualified an uncharacteristic 16th fell to No. 1 qualifier Capps in the first round. Force was quick at Phoenix during testing and it would be silly to count him out after a single contest.
There are 16 cars scheduled to race this weekend after 20 encamped at Pomona, but the entry list does include part-timers like Bobby Bode III’s Mustang, Jeff Diehl’s Camry, Chad Green’s Mustang – he’s going to do nearly all the races this year in a technical alliance with annual championship contender Tim Wilkerson, Jeff Arena in Aussie-prepped Russo Racing’s older Camaro, Terry Haddock’s Mustang, Winternationals non-qualifier Paul Lee in a Charger and Jim Campbell in Jim Dunn’s Dodge. Diehl joined Lee on the sidelines after failing to qualify but both are en route to Phoenix to try again.
After falling to Greg Anderson in last year’s championship chase, four-time Pro Stock champ Erica Enders declared she’s taking no prisoners in 2022. She showed intensity by qualifying No. 1 and taking her Elite Motorsports Camaro to the winner’s circle in NHRA Pro Stock’s 900th race. For that effort she earned a second trophy to signify victory in this auspicious event. In another five years or so, Pro Stock will be celebrating its 1,000th race – will Enders be edging towards her 100th win at that point or be beyond it? She was the No. 1 qualifier in Pomona and ravaged the field as she marched towards her Wally and 900th Pro Stock victory’s Hurst shifter trophy.
Enders won a tight race against Cristian Cuadra’s Mustang, which is prepped by Elite Motorsports,then dispensed with 2021 Rookie of the Year Dallas Glenn with a better light and a 0.0163-second margin of victory, knocked out five-time and reigning Pro Stock champ Greg Anderson – who was looking for his 100th victory at this race – as he wandered to the centerline (but saved it somehow) and then drove past teammate Aaron Stanfield in the finals as he slowed following his better RT, as tire shake left him unable to compete through to the quarter-mile.
There are, once again, 20 Pro Stock cars ready to duke it out for the second Wally winner’s trophy of the year in the class’ 901st race. It’s the same group of competitors who were anxious to bring home the first trophy of the year and consists of 16 Chevrolet Camaro race cars, Alan Prusiensky’s lone Dodge Dart and the three Ford Mustang cars of the Cuadra family. The Camaro grouping includes Rodger Brogdon, who exited Pro Stock a few years ago and has made only sporadic starts since then. He’s discovered, as so many do, that there is no cure for drag racing and is happy to be back in the game.
Last weekend’s winners all had something to prove: Ashley that he could win the Winternationals in Top Fuel, Hight that he could come back after a difficult 2021 season and a starting line glitch for his Funny Car trophy, and Enders showed that there’s no giving up in her and that she’s in for the long haul in NHRA’s most technical and competitive professional class, Pro Stock. The weather forecasts increasing temperatures to a high in the mid-70s on race day, with nary a hint of rain predicted. Nights will be cool but daytimes will be moderate, portending low ETs and high speeds for all.
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