{"id":91663,"date":"2023-07-17T11:07:25","date_gmt":"2023-07-17T18:07:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=91663"},"modified":"2023-07-19T06:49:17","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T13:49:17","slug":"millican-hagan-coughlin-jr-herrera-earn-bandimeres-final-nhra-trophies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/millican-hagan-coughlin-jr-herrera-earn-bandimeres-final-nhra-trophies\/","title":{"rendered":"Millican, Hagan, Coughlin Jr., Herrera Earn Bandimere’s Final NHRA Trophies"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Herrera, Coughlin Jr., Millican and Hagan raise their trophies – NHRA photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Taylor Swift may have been in Denver this weekend, but three days of sell-out crowds for the 43rd and final Dodge Power Brokers Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in nearby Morrison let the world know how much fans appreciated the 65 years and four generations of Bandimere family members have invested in NHRA drag racing.<\/p>\n

Racing is both a mechanical and emotional discipline. The work that goes into prepping to race can be monumental and the joy or sadness at the close of competition is without peer. And so it was this weekend in Colorado, as fans, racers and industry members stopped daily to thank the Bandimere family for their dedication to the sport. The competition almost seemed secondary.<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway marked the start of the vaunted Western Swing of three races in three weekends at three very distinct race tracks. At almost 6,000 feet above sea level, Bandimere Speedway is probably the toughest race to win, and winning the final race on this mountain was the goal of every single competitor on-site.<\/p>\n

The victories in this 10th race of 21 total went to Clay Millican in Top Fuel, Matt Hagan for Funny Car after claiming the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge victory on Saturday evening, Troy Coughlin Jr., who also claimed the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge in Pro Stock, as well as Gaige Herrera, who earned his fourth Pro Stock Motorcycle win of the year.<\/p>\n

Although threatened, the weather stayed clear – and hot – for the duration of the race meeting, but that didn\u2019t stop fans from showing up early in the morning each of the three days and leaving late at night. They definitely got their money\u2019s worth, as track records fell from start to finish. As is her claim to fame, Brittany Force re-set Bandimere\u2019s track record on Saturday night with her ultimate pass of 3.724 seconds at 337.33 mph. But she didn\u2019t make it out of the first round on Sunday with her John Force Racing dragster, falling to Rob Passey. Neither did the defending Top Fuel winner of this race, Tony Stewart Racing’s Leah Pruett, who fell to Josh Hart in the first round.<\/p>\n

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Clay Millican claimed his second win of the 2023 season in Top Fuel – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Millican, on the other hand, defeated eight-time Top Fuel champ Tony Schumacher, Mike Salinas and Shawn Langdon, to meet up with Doug Kalitta in the finals. Kalitta, sitting on 49 victories – still – is looking for #50, but couldn\u2019t beat Millican, who earned his second victory of the year after winning in Joliet this May. \u201cWhen you race Doug Kalitta, you can\u2019t leave anything on the table,\u201d Millican stated. \u201cWe had not won a single round until Chicago, so when we won first round here, I\u2019m like, we\u2019re winning this race.\u201d And that\u2019s just what he did.<\/p>\n

For Hagan, driving Tony Stewart Racing\u2019s Dodge Direct Connections Charger SRT Hellcat, this was pretty much a must-win situation, as this was final race at this track for long-time Bandimere sponsor Dodge\/Mopar, which has one of the lengthiest consecutive season sponsorships in the sport. The Virginia cattle farmer earned his 47th career victory, fourth of the 2023 season and second on Thunder Mountain, beating Alexis DeJoria\u2019s Toyota GR Supra in the finals, as both she and Kalitta attempted to give Toyota its 200th NHRA victory. Hagan\u2019s lap of 4.135\/304.25 beat DeJoria\u2019s close 4.217\/251.34 lap.<\/p>\n

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Matt Hagan was relieved to earn the win for his Dodge sponsor – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s one of those weekends that\u2019s just magical,\u201d Hagan exulted as he stretched his points lead to 45 over reigning titleholder Ron Capps, who advanced to the semifinals, keeping his win list at 74 victories after losing in the semis to Hagan. Earning his 50th No. 1 qualifier and having a bye in the second round after running a single to a non-starting Chris King, \u201cI knew this is the last time I\u2019d race at Bandimere Speedway and it was a Dodge-sponsored race, so getting the quick qualifying time three years in a row, winning in 2021 and now today is very special. Wow,\u201d he said, \u201cI took the final win light at the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA Mile-High Nationals. That\u2019s something they can never take from me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Troy Coughlin Jr.\u2019s Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro Pro Stock team has many intra-squad battles. That happens when you have as many as eight cars trying to gain a win in a 16-car field. With outstanding reaction times throughout the race meeting, Coughlin Jr. dominated the class all three days. On Saturday, he beat KB Titan Racing\u2019s Dallas Glenn to reach the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge finals and then faced off against teammate Aaron Stanfield. He won that race-within-a-race when Stanfield fouled and Coughlin hit a .000-second reaction time.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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Troy Coughlin Jr. claimed two wins this weekend – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On Sunday he once again used superb reaction times to again defeat Stanfield, five-time KB Titan Pro Stock champ Greg Anderson and reigning five-time champ and teammate Erica Enders in order to once again battle Dallas Glenn, the Pro Stock points leader. With a .015 reaction time against Glenn, Coughlin Jr. earned his second victory of the season and fourth overall. \u201cWhat an exciting day to come out here and get a win. You just take it one run at a time,\u201d he said. \u201cI just had to stay focused,\u201d all weekend long. \u201cThis is one of my favorite facilities and it\u2019s an absolute honor just to be here. The excitement level, like that final, that\u2019s what packs the stands and makes you come back. You hope for situations like that and you practice all the time. It\u2019s an obsession, you love it and you can\u2019t stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a blistering start to the Pro Stock Motorcycle season, Vance & Hines\u2019 Gaige Herrera returned to form after giving up two victories in the last two races. Earning his fourth win of the year on the Mission Foods Suzuki Hayabusa3, Herrera beat Angie Smith\u2019s Buell in the final round with a run of 7.103 at 187.73 when the Denso-sponsored rider fouled in the final, a very easy thing to do at elevation on one of these motorcycles. Herrera didn\u2019t hold the No. 1 qualifier; that went to Hector Arana Jr.\u2019s Buell, but the Norwalk victor was gone after losing to Angie Smith in the semifinal round.<\/p>\n

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Gaige Herrera earned his fourth Pro Stock Motorcycle win of the year – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was Herrera\u2019s first – and last – time racing on Thunder Mountain and he had a rough start to the weekend (at least for him and Vance & Hines), initially qualifying fifth in the 13-bike field. By Saturday night he\u2019d advanced to third place and dispensed with Chris Bostick\u2019s Suzuki in the first round, six-time class champ Matt Smith\u2019s Suzuki in the quarterfinals, rookie Chase Van Sant – having the best run of his first season – in the semifinals before meeting Angie Smith. \u201cI\u2019m glad we bounced back here, especially in front of all these fans at Bandimere Speedway,\u201d Herrera said after advancing his lead over Arana to 219 points. \u201cTo be able to bounce back here, of all places, it\u2019s an amazing feeling.\u201d Crew chief Andrew Hines won his first race at this track in 2002!<\/p>\n

In addition to the \u201cside show\u201d of the Mission Challenge, there was another event that captivated everyone at the track. On Friday afternoon, “King” Kenny Bernstein returned to the track to warm up Antron Brown\u2019s dragster. The 69-race winner hadn\u2019t sat in a car since he retired, but it felt like home to him as Brown, a 72-race winner (and last man to sweep the Western Swing) allowed the legend to start his car after a few minutes to get used to the different controls.<\/p>\n

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Kenny Bernstein started Antron Brown’s dragster on Friday – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock Motorcycle now venture to Pacific Raceways in Seattle, near sea level, to race in the Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals this coming weekend, as the Camping World Drag Racing Series has its second race in a row July 21-23. Pro Stock cars are off until the Kansas contest August 11-13.<\/p>\n

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The NHRA said goodbye to Bandimere Speedway in Denver with a thrilling weekend of racing.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":91667,"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],"tags":[3149,9267,1943,9804,38,9524,128,9740,7,4801,74,73,5129],"class_list":["post-91663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drag-racing","category-news","category-racing","category-nhra","tag-bandimere-speedway","tag-camping-world-drag-racing-series","tag-clay-millican","tag-dodge-power-brokers-nhra-mile-high-nationals","tag-funny-car","tag-gaige-herrera","tag-matt-hagan","tag-mission-2fast2tasty-challenge","tag-nhra","tag-pro-stock","tag-pro-stock-motorcycle","tag-top-fuel","tag-troy-coughlin-jr"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Herrera-Couglin-Jr.-Millican-Hagan-rejoice-min.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-nQr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91663","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=91663"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91663\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91673,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91663\/revisions\/91673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}