{"id":27431,"date":"2016-05-23T10:17:10","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T17:17:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=27431"},"modified":"2018-08-16T12:36:42","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T19:36:42","slug":"national-nhra-records-shattered-at-topeka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/national-nhra-records-shattered-at-topeka\/","title":{"rendered":"National NHRA Records Shattered at Topeka"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NHRA\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It was an encore performance in all three professional NHRA classes with Doug Kalitta winning in Top Fuel, Matt Hagan scoring in Funny Car, and Jason Line racing into his eighth consecutive final round and fifth win of the season.<\/p>\n

Qualifying on Friday was a show all into itself, producing National ET records in both Top Fuel and Funny Car with Brittany Force and Matt Hagan putting the mark just out of reach of everyone else for the rest of the weekend, although many tried.<\/p>\n

TOP FUEL<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Doug<\/a><\/p>\n

It was another first for Doug Kalitta, winning his third consecutive NHRA Top Fuel race of the 2016 season at the NHRA Kansas Nationals, collecting his 41st<\/sup> career win and his fifth final round appearance in the season’s first eight races.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t an easy path for Kalitta, having to beat Rob Passey, a hungry Clay Millican, and a Pomona rematch with Steve Torrence in the semi-finals to land against Antron Brown in the finals in a revenge match for beating him last week in Atlanta.<\/p>\n

Both teams were loaded for bear pushing the envelope a little too far with both drivers going up into tire smoke right off the line.\u00a0 Kalitta hit his pedal once, twice and on the third time corrected his direction, accelerating to the finish line first.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure what was going to happen in the final,\u201d said Kalitta, appearing in his 85th<\/sup> final round. \u00a0\u201cFortunately, I got there just a little quicker than Antron. \u00a0It was exciting and these wins don\u2019t come easy, I\u2019m just real happy to do it here. \u00a0It was a little surprising in the finals there when it smoked the tires, but we\u2019re just happy to get the win.\u00a0 All the little things just keep adding up. \u00a0I was probably more sideways than I\u2019ve ever been in a Top Fuel car today and kept going. \u00a0I straightened it out and I was just real fortunate to get this win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown’s Matco Tools dragster was charging hard at the finish but came up short by a few feet. \u00a0It was the fifth consecutive time the team has reached at least the semifinal round of competition.<\/p>\n

“The track looked like it was better and we weren’t trying to run slow, we were definitely trying to do better,\u201d said a smiling Brown.\u00a0 “I was just trying to give it all we’ve got. \u00a0I just didn’t keep my car straight enough in the groove to really get back on it sooner. \u00a0To lose out there by two tenths [of a second], it breaks you down. \u00a0We’ve worked so hard and all the guys have worked really hard for this one and we just wanted to bring it home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kalitta extends his points lead to 95 over Brown in the Top Fuel race and takes over the NHRA National speed record at 331.85 mph<\/p>\n

In other Top Fuel news, Brittany Force rewrote the record book in Friday night qualifying, lowering the elapsed time National Record to a remarkable 3.676 seconds, 325.45 mph.\u00a0 The unusually cooler and cloudy conditions produced mineshaft conditions with crew chiefs licking their chops in anticipation.<\/p>\n

\"Doug<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe conditions were amazing out there on Friday night at Heartland Park Topeka.\u00a0 We had great track conditions and we know that is not an easy task.\u00a0 Many of these teams laid down some solid numbers. \u00a0We had two great back-to-back three-second runs that were career bests for me, so we\u2019re really excited to have had such a great start to this weekend. \u00a0I posted a career-best speed in Q1, followed by my new career-best ET in Q2. Those runs put us in the No. 4 spot and it really shows how quick the competition is here this weekend. I think it\u2019s going to be a fast weekend here at Heartland Park,\u201d added Force.<\/p>\n

FUNNY CAR<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/a><\/p>\n

Just when Matt Hagan began to turn around his season after winning at Atlanta last week, he came to Heartland Park Topeka determined not to back off and his crew chief, Dickie Venables, seemed to have been waiting for this opportunity for a little while.\u00a0 The Mopar team went out and dominated the entire NHRA Kansas Nationals weekend.\u00a0 He started on Friday when he ripped an earth-shaking pass, taking the No. 1 starting spot in Funny Car, but did it convincingly, setting the National ET record of 3.862 seconds at a booming and National Speed record of 335.57 mph making the weekend one for the history books.<\/p>\n

Then in eliminations, he marched through the Funny Car field by first beating Dale Creasy, Jr., moving on to a very tight race against Robert Hight in the quarterfinals.\u00a0 He took on points leader, Courtney Force in the semi-finals, turning his run into his third sub 4-second pass of the day.\u00a0 Hagan completed three of four runs between 3.942 and 3.951 seconds before the final-round pedal fest.<\/p>\n

Now in front of a live TV audience on FOX Sports 1, from all appearances, the fans were going to get a major-league match up against the same guy he beat in the finals in Atlanta, Jack Beckman.<\/p>\n

Only the two Don Schumacher Racing Funny Car teams came to the finals loaded up for a low ET and ended up with both teams smoking the tires.<\/p>\n

Hagan pedaled his 10,000-horsepower Dodge at least half a dozen times before crossing the finish line to earn his 20th career event title and first at Heartland Park Topeka.<\/p>\n

“It was wild,” Hagan said of the final round. \u00a0“It’s important to put everything in perspective. \u00a0We set world records for E.T and speed, and then to come back out here to win this race is a tribute to my guys and their hard work. \u00a0My butt was puckered pretty good on that last run.<\/p>\n

“It was one of those deals where it was ‘oh no, oh no, oh no’. \u00a0I don’t know how many times I hit the fuel pedal but it was a lot. \u00a0Sometimes you’re just thinking ‘don’t blow up’. \u00a0To see the win lights come on all day, I’m just tickled about the job Dickie Venables and all our Mopar\/Rocky guys are doing.”<\/p>\n

His weekend moved the Mopar Dodge team from ninth to fourth in the Mello Yello standings.\u00a0 Courtney Force is still the leader 12 points ahead of Beckman.<\/p>\n

“When you have a fast racecar like we did, it’s hard to pull it back when the sun comes out like it did. \u00a0We had been laying down some great numbers all day, and I didn’t expect to have to pedal the racecar like I had to.\u00a0 The race wins will turn into championships if you win enough of them and that’s what’s really important for us. \u00a0Back-to-back wins, I’ve only done it one other time, so that’s pretty special in itself. \u00a0It just shows how good you’re doing, how well everyone is working together. \u00a0We have to carry this momentum into these next races.\u201d<\/p>\n

Making news was the semi-finals matchup between Tim Wilkerson and Jack Beckman.\u00a0 Wilkerson left the line under full power when suddenly his Ford Mustang Funny Car spun around in a series of spins, backing into the outside wall in his lane before proceeding forward into the other lane punching the wall head on bursting his fuel tank.<\/p>\n

\"Matt<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe still don\u2019t know what happened. From the tracks here, it looks like the car probably broke an axle or scooped a hub out because it was going along and just made a right turn,\u201d said Wilkerson. \u201cAfter it made that turn, the car hit the wall and got itself in its own oil with one tire still spinning. The car was like a top going in circles.\u201d<\/p>\n

PRO STOCK<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jason<\/a><\/p>\n

In Pro Stock, Line captured his fifth win of the season in his eighth consecutive final round appearance, outrunning teammate Greg Anderson in the final round. \u00a0Line finished in 6.664 seconds at 207.85 mph in his Summit Racing Chevy Camaro, while Anderson\u2019s car trailed with a 6.687 at 207.02. \u00a0It was Line\u2019s first Topeka victory and the 42nd win of his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the perfect weekend,\u201d said Line, who outran Mark Hogan, defending world champ Erica Enders and Shane Gray to advance to the final from the No. 1 qualifying spot. \u00a0\u201cIt was an exciting weekend for me and we didn\u2019t mess it up. \u00a0It\u2019s a big deal to me. \u00a0It\u2019s nice to win at some place you\u2019ve never done well. \u00a0I really can\u2019t stop smiling right now. \u00a0There were times I had good cars here but didn\u2019t drive well. \u00a0This weekend everything came together.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jason<\/a><\/p>\n

Now Line finds himself in uncharted ground.<\/p>\n

The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series continues June 3-5 with the NHRA New England Nationals at New England Dragway in Epping, N.H.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

National NHRA Records were shattered at Topeka this weekend.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3465,3470,3399,22],"tags":[3815,82,424,1943,77,4505,511,3477,887,1258,512,4506,128,440,84,1942,1093],"class_list":["post-27431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-nhra","category-event-coverage","tag-2016-nhra-mello-yello-drag-racing-series","tag-antron-brown","tag-brittany-force","tag-clay-millican","tag-courtney-force","tag-dale-creasy-jr","tag-doug-kalitta","tag-erica-enders","tag-greg-anderson","tag-jack-beckman","tag-jason-line","tag-mark-hogan","tag-matt-hagan","tag-robert-hight","tag-shane-gray","tag-steve-torrence","tag-tim-wilkerson"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/featuredimage4.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-78r","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27431"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27442,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27431\/revisions\/27442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}