{"id":80743,"date":"2021-08-04T07:27:42","date_gmt":"2021-08-04T14:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=80743"},"modified":"2021-08-04T11:33:33","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T18:33:33","slug":"hot-weather-the-real-contender-at-delayed-2021-nhra-winternationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/hot-weather-the-real-contender-at-delayed-2021-nhra-winternationals\/","title":{"rendered":"Hot Weather the Real Contender at Delayed 2021 NHRA Winternationals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The heat at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif. was relentless over the weekend, when NHRA\u2019s Camping World Drag Racing Series<\/a> held its postponed 61st annual Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals presented by Pennzoil. While the Winternationals are customarily held under more moderate, February conditions, the July date was very, very different.<\/p>\n

Friday qualifying began near sundown, and became cooler as the cars went down the track, rendering Leah Pruett fastest in Top Fuel with her Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) dragster, Blake Alexander quickest in Jim Head\u2019s Funny Car Mustang, Pro Stock\u2019s Greg Anderson led all with his KB Racing Camaro and Matt Smith\u2019s Buell ruled in Pro Stock Motorcycle. Those were the most temperate conditions of the weekend.<\/p>\n

By the time Saturday\u2019s qualifying was complete, Brittany Force copped the quick TF time for John Force Racing, while Ron Capps earned his second No. 1 in a row with his DSR Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat. The two Pro Stock leaders remained the same after a mid-afternoon and sunset qualifying session.<\/p>\n

Sunday, race day was held under the worst conditions we\u2019d seen all weekend. Starting at 10am, with air temp at 80 degrees and track temp at 115, we could see this race meeting would separate those who can go down the track with those that can\u2019t. The weather would dictate who would be around for the balance of the race meeting.<\/p>\n

This was a race day that proved Steve Torrence and them CAPCO Boys are human. They didn\u2019t earn a No. 1 in qualifying and were gone in the first round, when Torrence\u2019s good buddy, Antron Brown stomped the loud pedal once the Christmas Tree ordered the duo, racing one another for the 50th time to get on with it, and Torrence pedaled to his first loss in 12 rounds of competition. Brown was the most recent racer to sweep the Western Swing; Torrence had his chance but was late off the tree, shook and shimmied in a losing performance.<\/p>\n

\"Justin<\/a>
Justin Ashley in action at Pomona.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Justin Ashley, who would put three enviable rounds in his resume en route to the finals, shouldn\u2019t have been the one to retire before the finals. The 26-year-old is in good condition and had a firm hand in defeating Buddy Hull, No. 1 qualifier Brittany Force and Brown. In every single instance, he was first off the line and brought in consistent runs to the 1,000-foot finish line.<\/p>\n

Ashley\u2019s inability to race in the finals relegated him to second place, obviously, but he could have been the winner as his RTs in every round of racing this past weekend was debilitating for his competitors. The New Yorker\u2019s quickness off the line would have been very difficult for Leah Pruett to overcome; in all three of her early races on Sunday, she was the slower car off the line. Had Ashley made the bell, he most likely would have won.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s still conjecture that he should have tried, because Justin Ashley and his team made the right call in removing him and his car from the start line. He didn\u2019t have his head in it and nobody should race when they\u2019re not completely physically fit. Pruett cut her best light in the first round against Steve Chrisman, at .082 sec. She had a bye in the quarters and posted an .087-sec light, while trailing Mike Salinas at the tree in the semifinals. Unfortunately we\u2019ll never know the outcome of the intended final round, but again, as she did in the finals against Steve Torrence in Sonoma a week earlier, Pruett was slow off the line (.130 sec).<\/p>\n

After this weekend, Ashley remains in seventh place, but the two final round results by Leah Pruett advanced her to fourth place in the standings, behind Torrence, Brown and Force. For Ashley, the disappointment was palpable for the 2020 NHRA Rookie of the Year. \u201cThese race cars are too powerful to drive if you aren\u2019t 100 percent,\u201d Ashley said from his pits after the contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was drinking water throughout the day before the final round, I just didn\u2019t feel right. I talked with my crew chief Mike Green and my father (Mike Ashley) and they encouraged me to do what was in my personal best interest. There will be more races and I take this as a learning experience. I congratulate Leah and look forward to racing her in a final very soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

The conditions weren\u2019t great: the air temp was 89 degrees humidity only 28 percent, while the track surface came in at a sizzling 143 degrees. Ashley\u2019s non-appearance was a surprise, considering his conditioning and youth. It shows anyone can get stung by excessive heat. \u201cFirst and foremost, I hope Justin is doing well,\u201d Leah Pruett said after the claiming her first win of 2021 and first since Brainerd in 2019. \u201cHe is an incredible competitor and I wanted nothing but to race against him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heat was the story of these \u201cWinternationals in July\u201d and Justin Ashley\u2019s failure to run in the Top Fuel finals made the conditions even more of an issue. Not many fans showed up – likely due to the heat – for final eliminations, but those that did got plenty of excitement in four rounds of racing.<\/p>\n

Not only did they see Leah Pruett earn her first Wally in nearly two years, but watched Ron Capps\u2019 new team within the Don Schumacher stables produce their first victory together after only 10 races. We now know there\u2019s a new top gun in Pro Stock, Aaron Stanfield has a new, increasing Wally collection, and Matt Smith\u2019s dominance in Pro Stock Motorcycle, despite having team owner and crew chief duties as well as riding like it\u2019s just another Sunday, well, that\u2019s quite an accomplishment.<\/p>\n

Steve Torrence in Top Fuel, Greg Anderson in Pro Stock and Matt Smith in Pro Stock Motorcycle are the only three drivers\/riders who have punched their tickets in NHRA\u2019s Countdown to the Championship. The balance of the four categories has three races to make their collective ways to a 2021 title: Topeka, Brainerd and Indy. Only the strong will survive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The weather was a big factor in wins and losses as the postponed 2021 NHRA Winternationals finally ran at Pomona.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":80745,"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":[8283,8559,8558,8458,1942],"class_list":["post-80743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-nhra","category-event-coverage","tag-2021-nhra-camping-world-drag-racing-series","tag-2021-pomona-winternationals","tag-justin-ashley","tag-leah-pruett","tag-steve-torrence"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Leah-Pruett-on-her-winning-run.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-l0j","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80743","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\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80743"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80743\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80754,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80743\/revisions\/80754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80745"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}