{"id":40624,"date":"2017-06-12T10:31:41","date_gmt":"2017-06-12T17:31:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=40624"},"modified":"2018-08-16T12:34:12","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T19:34:12","slug":"heat-shakes-things-up-at-the-2017-nhra-summernationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/heat-shakes-things-up-at-the-2017-nhra-summernationals\/","title":{"rendered":"Heat Shakes Things Up at the 2017 NHRA Summernationals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Heat
Photo Credit: NHRA Media<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While past champions of the NHRA Mello Yellow Drag Racing Series were all the rage at the Springnationals, the summer heat changed everything at the 48th<\/sup> annual NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.<\/p>\n

\"Heat<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Top Fuel <\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Heat<\/p>\n

Despite setting a new track record during Friday\u2019s opening qualifying session with a new track record pass of 3.713-second run at 329.42 MPH in his Matco Tools dragster, NHRA Top Fuel Champion Antron Brown\u2019s performance fell flat during Sunday\u2019s Summernationals finals.<\/p>\n

While Brown defeated Blake Alexander and New England Nationals Top Fuel winner Brittany Force before moving on to the finals against Steve Torrence, the Torrence Racing driver would take down Brown for only his second victory in 24 matchups against the world champion driver.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll day long I was confident because we have historically done well in Englishtown,\u201d said Torrence. \u201cBoth Antron Brown and I have cars that can win and we know we just have to do our jobs to win. I know my record against him isn\u2019t the best, but it\u2019s always fun to go up against one of my best friends in the final round.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although Torrence picked up his third career win at Englishtown by defeating Brown, he continues to trail the Top Fuel Champion by seven points in the current Top Fuel standings.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Funny Car<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Heat<\/p>\n

Along with Brown, another defending world champion lost his mojo during Sunday\u2019s final round. Reaching his sixth final round of the year, after defeating Del Worsham, Alexis DeJoria and Robert Hight, Ron Capps’ successful weekend passes would end in the final round against Jack Beckman.<\/p>\n

Capps’ Don Schumacher Racing teammate, Beckman, would earn his 25th<\/sup> victory and first of the 2017 season with a pass of 4.100-seconds at 312.42 MPH against his teammate\u2019s run of 4.143-seconds at 299.66 MPH.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been quite a few variables for our team already this season, and we needed to get this win today so we knew that we could do this more often,\u201d said Beckman. \u201cNot only is this our team\u2019s first win together, but a win at the Summernationals in Funny Car is about as cool as it gets.\u201d<\/p>\n

This win moved Beckman into third in the standings as the fifth different Funny Car winner of the season, but helped Capps maintain his lead atop the Funny Car standings.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pro Stock<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Heat<\/p>\n

While both the Top Fuel and Funny Car winners would have to face former champions during the final round, Summernationals Pro Stock winner Greg Anderson would defeat the current Pro Stock points leader Bo Butner in order to move to the final round against Vincent Nobile. Nobile, who was hoping for a better result at the Summernationals, fell short after Anderson\u2019s 6.163-second pass at 210.44 MPH against Nobile\u2019s 6.665-second pass at 210.21 MPH for the Pro Stock driver\u2019s second victory of the year and eighth win at this track.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly was a tough weekend but everything worked out for us, but this Wally is going to my son for getting through high school,\u201d said Anderson. \u201cThis track has been magical for me; I have a lot of great memories here. To win eight times here makes it a pretty special place.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the victory, Anderson now sits second in the points standings behind Bo Butner, whom he defeated in the semifinals. Nobile sits seventh in the Pro Stock standings after his best finish of the year.<\/p>\n

The 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series season continues with the 17th NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway June 16-18. Stay tuned to RacingJunk.com<\/a> for all your NHRA coverage!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While past champions of the NHRA Mello Yellow Drag Racing Series were all the rage at the Springnationals, the summer heat changed everything at the 48th annual NHRA Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":40634,"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":[3465,3470,5029,3399,22],"tags":[1619,887,1258,41,7,1632,1942],"class_list":["post-40624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","category-nhra","category-event-coverage","tag-ellen-richardson","tag-greg-anderson","tag-jack-beckman","tag-news","tag-nhra","tag-racing","tag-steve-torrence"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/lead-1.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-aze","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40624","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\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40639,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40624\/revisions\/40639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}