It was as if an NCAA Basketball Tournament broke out in Pamona, CA this Sunday at Auto Club Raceway. The NHRA Mellow Yellow Drag Racing Series’ 2015 opener surprised many in the amount of upsets we saw to start the campaign.
Qualifying – in NHRA and most motorsports series – does not get talked about enough. During the opening days of the NHRA Winter Nationals, a couple headline worthy stories arose. In the Funny Car Class, Matt Hagan blew up his Mopar dragster which left a gigantic fire in the car. Hagan got out okay thanks to his fire suit of course. On the Top Fuel side, Shawn Langdon ran the quickest run in the History of NHRA Drag Racing, with a 3.700. The previous record was held by Antron Brown.
Pro Stock
We start off all the way into the Semifinals as defending PS Champion, Erica Enders-Stevens, faced off with the #4 qualifier, Drew Skillman. Skillman hopped off with a reaction time of .015 seconds, and upset the #1 seed by 13 feet.
Across the bracket, #2 Jason Line challenged #3 Roger Brogdon for a spot in the Finals. Line capitalized and moved on to face Skillman. The two took away with nearly the Same reaction time; Line ran a .038 and Brogdon had a .042. Line edged out Skillman at the line by approximately five feet to take the points lead after the season’s first event
| Pro Stock Standings | |||
| As of NHRA Winter Nationals (2/8/15) | |||
| Pos | Driver | Points | |
| 1 | Jason Line | 123 | |
| 2 | Drew Skillman | 97 | |
| 3 | Erica Enders-Stevens | 81 | |
| 4 | Roger Brogdon | 80 | |
| 5 | Chris McGaha | 55 | |
| 6 | Larry Morgan | 54 | |
| 7 | Shane Gray | 52 | |
| 8 | Allen Johnson | 52 | |
| 9 | Greg Anderson | 34 | |
| 10 | Vincent Nobile | 34 | |
Funny Car
The Funny Car Class had probably the most upsets out of the three, during the first round #13 John Hale knocked off #4 Cruz Pedragon, then in the subsequent race #12 Matt Hagan beat #5 Tony Pedragon.
However, neither of those highlighted the upsets during the day; also in the first round, Bob Bode def. #3 John Force after Force’s Camaro blew up midway during the run. Bode was elated after the race saying that he finally beat John Force. In the next round however, Bode’s car broke before he could run.
In the quarterfinals, #8 Del Worsham triggered some more upsets when he defeated #1 Courtney Force to earn a spot in semi’s along with #12 Matt Hagan, #7 Robert Height and #6 Ron Capps.
Hagan and Capps met in the finals in what proved to be a thrilling matchup. In his rebuilt dragster, Hagan overcame a fast reaction time (.046) from Capps to win the event.
| Funny Car Standings | |||
| As of NHRA Winter Nationals (2/8/15) | |||
| Pos | Driver | Points | |
| 1 | Matt Hagan | 107 | |
| 2 | Ron Capps | 94 | |
| 3 | Del Worsham | 74 | |
| 4 | Robert Hight | 73 | |
| 5 | Courtney Force | 61 | |
| 6 | Tommy Johnson Jr. | 60 | |
| 7 | John Hale | 51 | |
| 8 | Bob Bode | 46 | |
| 9 | John Force | 40 | |
| 10 | Cruz Pedregon | 38 | |
Top Fuel Dragster
The first round in the Top Fuel class brought a big name match up in #6 Tony Schumacher and #11 Antron Brown. Brown ran the fastest he would all weekend to take down Schumacher and ended up racing his way to the Finals.
Brown would face the man who broke his fastest pass record earlier that weekend, #1 Shawn Langdon. Brown ran the slowest he ran in the elimination stages losing by seven feet.
| Top Fuel Standings | |||
| As of NHRA Winter Nationals (2/8/15) | |||
| Pos | Driver | Points | |
| 1 | Shawn Langdon | 124 | |
| 2 | Antron Brown | 92 | |
| 3 | Spencer Massey | 78 | |
| 4 | Larry Dixon | 73 | |
| 5 | Richie Crampton | 59 | |
| 6 | Doug Kalitta | 56 | |
| 7 | Steve Torrence | 54 | |
| 8 | Leah Pritchett | 52 | |
| 9 | Tony Schumacher | 36 | |
| 10 | Brittany Force | 33 | |
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