{"id":91970,"date":"2023-08-09T18:59:53","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T01:59:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=91970"},"modified":"2023-08-10T11:09:32","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T18:09:32","slug":"final-heartland-nhra-race-starts-countdown-to-the-countdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/final-heartland-nhra-race-starts-countdown-to-the-countdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Final Heartland NHRA Race Starts Countdown to the Countdown"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The final Menards NHRA Nationals presented by PetArmor set for August 11-13, 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Every single competitor in NHRA\u2019s Camping World Drag Racing Series is focused on the Countdown to the Championship that begins after the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals, held over the Labor Day holiday weekend. To get into the Countdown, foraging for \u201cbaby points\u201d in qualifying and going rounds are two of the biggest ways to increase a car and driver\u2019s standings in the points battle, with the \u201cBig Go\u201d final “regular season” race on the horizon.<\/p>\n

Still, there are three contests in which to gather points before the Countdown begins after Labor Day, and most every team in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle has nose to grindstone in efforts to prepare both body and mechanicals to survive these next three races and to move up the feed chain to the top of the heap.<\/p>\n

This weekend\u2019s final Menards NHRA Nationals presented by PetArmor on the Heartland Motorsports Park drag strip at Topeka, Kansas will be noteworthy as it brings back Pro Stock to the gathering after a two-race vacation. It allows Pro Stock Motorcycle a breather as every contender tries to figure out how to spook points leader Gaige Herrera, who used the Western Swing to win every title in sight for himself, his Vance & Hines team and Suzuki: all three races, the Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge and the first ever Pro Stock Motorcycle All-Star Callout.<\/p>\n

The 13th race in a 21-contest campaign is the 34th and final for Heartland\u2019s drag strip, caught in a money fight due to over-wrought taxation, according to the track\u2019s owners and managers. Holding NHRA national events since 1989, it\u2019ll be a bittersweet weekend for competitors, officials and fans of this mid-country racetrack.<\/p>\n

Contestants for NHRA\u2019s Wally winner\u2019s trophies are coming out in force to race this weekend, as Top Fuel boasts a 17-car field, 17 for Funny Car and 18 Pro Stock entries are confirmed for the race meeting. The race also boasts ten Lucas Oil sportsman categories: Top Alcohol Dragster, Top Alcohol Funny Car, Competition Eliminator, Super Stock, Stock Eliminator, Super Comp, Super Gas, Top Sportsman, Top Dragster and the new Factory X class.<\/p>\n

The professional classes will have three qualifying attempts: one on Friday evening and two on Saturday, before final eliminations take place on Sunday. The schedule includes the latest Mission Foods #2Fast2Tasty Challenge on Saturday, always a draw for those competing and anyone watching.<\/p>\n

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Josh Hart has been edging toward his first 2023 Top Fuel victory – Gary Nastase photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Top Fuel, the two most successful racers of this regular season are points leader Justin Ashley and four-time consecutive class champion Steve Torrence. There\u2019s a minuscule 32-point gap between the two, but a 331-point valley from first to Clay Millican in tenth place. \u201cThere is a lot of history at Heartland Park Topeka and we would like nothing more than to take that final Wally back to our shop,\u201d said Ashley. \u201cJim Epler, executive VP at (sponsor) Phillips Connect, made the first 300-mph pass here in Funny Car, so our team has plenty of motivation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year Ashley went to the semifinals while Torrence came up short short to fellow Toyota racer Antron Brown in the finals at Topeka. The duo has to contend with always swift Brittany Force, the reigning dragster champ, with AB Motorsports\u2019 Antron Brown, Leah Pruett of Tony Stewart Racing, Force\u2019s John Force Racing teammate Austin Prock, a rising Doug Kalitta of Kalitta Motorsports, the always quick Mike Salinas of Scrappers Racing, Sonoma semifinalist Josh Hart and Millican in the top 10. Shawn Langdon and Tony Schumacher still have the opportunity to run in the Countdown but, as Schumacher put it, \u201cWe want to get in by earning our spot in the top 10, and we have three races left to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Tony Schumacher is looking for his 87th Top Fuel victory – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Add in aspiring winners Buddy Hull, who is making progress this season, Lex Joon, Terry Totten, Jacob McNeal, the irrepressible Scott Palmer and you\u2019ve got a Top Fuel lineup in Kansas that would be the envy of most any track promoter.<\/p>\n

The Funny Car lineup is no less stellar, led by a tight battle between three-time class champions Matt Hagan, driving a Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat for Tony Stewart Racing and a very busy reigning titleholder, Ron Capps, who is racing Thursday night in the SRX contest on Eldora Speedway\u2019s high-banked dirt oval, before climbing into his self-owned Toyota GR Supra for the weekend. There\u2019s only 19 points between these two former Don Schumacher Racing teammates, while Funny Car\u2019s tenth place-holder, Cruz Pedregon and his Dodge Charger SRT Hellcat, are 372 points behind Hagan\u2019s tally.<\/p>\n

Probably the largest worry the top two have in this class is the resurgence of a driver who had a truly tough start to his season: J.R. Todd of Kalitta Motorsports, the 2018 titleholder in this class is rebounding at the right time after a very slow early campaign in his Toyota GR Supra. Todd\u2019s Sonoma victory moved him out of also-ran territory to eighth place in the race for a title; the Sonoma victory was his first in almost two and a half years. \u201cWe definitely had a car capable of winning at Denver and then went to the final in Seattle and probably should have won there, but when we got to Sonoma it was kind of like, \u2018alright, let\u2019s finish the deal here.\u2019 I definitely felt like we had a good shot to win there (at Sonoma), the stars aligned and we won the race.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Chad Green’s full-time Funny Car season has been one of quick consistency – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another driver who might have been overlooked at the start of the year is Chad Green, a technical partner to Tim Wilkerson, whose son Daniel is Green\u2019s crew chief. The duo clicked from the start when Green was a Ford Mustang 2022 part-timer and they\u2019re now third in the points, only 116 behind Hagan. Another driver on a mission is fourth placed Robert Hight, whose John Force Racing Chevrolet Camaro SS just won the famed Night Under Fire match race at Summit Motorsports Park last weekend. A three-time Topeka winner, Hight fell to boss John Force (currently ninth in the standings) the past two years; his momentum from last weekend\u2019s Norwalk match race has the Californian jazzed.<\/p>\n

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Ron Capps’ weekend includes a stop at Eldora Speedway to race in SRX – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alexis DeJoria has shown consistency in her DC Motorsports Toyota GR Supra and is in fifth place, followed by Wilkerson\u2019s Mustang, the similar car of always speedy Bob Tasca III, Todd (just three points behind Tasca), John Force and Pedregon. These drivers are joined by Jack Wyatt\u2019s Dodge Charger, Alex Laughlin in Jim Dunn\u2019s Funny Car, the Charger of Paul Lee, Terry Haddock, Dave Richards and Blake Alexander\u2019s Mustangs and Chicago firefighter Chris King\u2019s Dodge. They all make for a stout entry that could cause some big changes in the standings after Sunday\u2019s race.<\/p>\n

There is no class more tightly contested than Pro Stock where the most prominent competitors race a Chevrolet Camaro. The sole exception in this year\u2019s top 10 is Cristian Cuadra, the second generation racer running an Elite Motorsports Ford Mustang, along with his father Fernando and brothers Fernando Jr. and David. While KB Titan competitor Dallas Glenn has made a mockery of the standings, a full 202 points ahead of technical partner Matt Hartford, Elite\u2019s Troy Coughlin Jr. is only two points behind Hartford. KB\u2019s Deric Kramer holds fourth place while Elite\u2019s Aaron Stanfield is fifth, followed by five-time and reigning titleholder Erica Enders, who was out of the top 10 just a few races ago!<\/p>\n

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Elite Motorsports teammates Erica Enders and Troy Coughlin Jr. are cresting when it matters – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe summer swing is winding down and it\u2019s time to get serious,\u201d Enders declared. While Kansas has been a good venue for both Enders and the Elite squad over the years, Enders believes gaining a victory at this final race \u201cwould make a win that much more special. We\u2019ve had a bit of time and my guys and I are fresh and ready. We tested, spent time in the engine shop and are ready to go show the world why we are Team Elite,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

KB Titan\u2019s Greg Anderson, also a five-time champ and Camrie Caruso lead Cristian Cuadra and KB Titan\u2019s Kyle Koretsky in the points chase. Everyone in the top 10 is on-site for this week\u2019s shootout, together with Bo Butner III, Alan Prusiensky\u2019s Dodge Dart, Mason and dad Chris McGaha, rookie Jerry Tucker from Elite Motorsports, Fernando Cuadra, Fernando Cuadra Jr. and David Cuadra (who will do a full year in 2024). With 18 competitive cars attempting to make a field of 16, along with Pro Stock\u2019s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge for the Denver semifinalists, this Pro Stock weekend should be one for the ages.<\/p>\n

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Cristian Cuadra’s Ford Mustang is an outlier, but not in the points tally – Anne Proffit photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not only will the title chases be hot over this weekend, so will the weather, with 90-degree-plus temps on tap for the entire race meeting. Sunday has the specter of scattered thunderstorms to contend with. Here\u2019s hoping the race meeting goes off without the hitch of having the Safety Safari doing extra work to keep the track clean and prepped and that the Heartland Motorsports Park farewell is a joyous one!<\/p>\n

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Every single competitor in NHRA\u2019s Camping World Drag Racing Series is focused on the Countdown to the Championship that begins after the Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals, held over the Labor Day holiday weekend.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":91974,"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":[3470,16,5029],"tags":[9267,9849,7225,8745,3477,38,9834,8558,128,8567,7,4801,442,1942,73,5129],"class_list":["post-91970","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-pro-stock","category-racing","tag-camping-world-drag-racing-series","tag-chad-green","tag-cristian-cuadra","tag-dallas-glenn","tag-erica-enders","tag-funny-car","tag-heartland-motorsports-park","tag-justin-ashley","tag-matt-hagan","tag-menards-nhra-nationals-presented-by-petarmor","tag-nhra","tag-pro-stock","tag-ron-capps","tag-steve-torrence","tag-top-fuel","tag-troy-coughlin-jr"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/08\/Enders-and-Coughlin-Jr-min-e1691632787598.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-nVo","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91970","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=91970"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91987,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91970\/revisions\/91987"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}