Championship Drag Racing

Virginia NHRA Nationals
Richmond, Va.
(October 10-12)

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Virginia NHRA Nationals
Sunday
Schumacher closes on '08 title clinch; Pedregon, Connolly score crucial wins

By Phil Burgess, NHRA.com

Victories by Tony Schumacher, Cruz Pedregon, and Dave Connolly at the 3rd annual NHRA Virginia Nationals capped an historic weekend at Virginia Motorsports Park in which performance records and career bests were shattered in qualifying and eliminations and the races for the NHRA POWERade championships became both more clear-cut and closer.

Schumacher won his 14th race of the season and pulled to within inches of a sixth Top Fuel championship, while Pedregon and Connolly each beat the incoming points leaders in eliminations to keep themselves and a small group of other hopefuls in the running in Funny Car and Pro Stock following the fourth of six events in the 2008 Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

 
Tony Schumacher

Schumacher and the U.S. Army team has now reached 10 straight final rounds – every single one since the NHRA switched to the 1,000-foot distance in Denver in July – and won for the ninth time in that span when he outdueled Hillary Will, 3.81, 316.08 to 3.84, 3.07.08, in the final.

Entering the event, no Top Fuel dragster had recorded an elapsed time in the 3.7-second range, but Schumacher changed all that in a hurry beginning in Friday evening qualifying when he became the first in the zone with a 3.771 and followed it with five more, including three straight in the opening rounds of final eliminations to reach his 17th final round of the season's first 22 events. Schumacher, who sports a 15-1 record in the Countdown playoffs, now leads by 212 points and can clinch the championship by merely qualifying in Las Vegas.

"That final round there, I felt like I left a little bit on the table,” said Schumacher. “A .091 light wasn’t stellar, but sometimes you get those breaks. I don’t think I performed to my best that run, but A.J. [Alan Johnson, crew chief] and the whole Army team pulled that off. I feel like I drove great all weekend, but I don’t feel like I closed the deal, but we got the trophy.

“I love closing it in Vegas. Nothing personal. This is a great track with great fans, but there’s nothing like Vegas. If we can pull it off out there, it’s such a celebration everywhere you go there. The Countdown was set for a reason: to make it go down to the end. Yeah, we’re way ahead, but I think we’re doing it.”

Will, who became the second driver in the 3.7s behind Schumacher in qualifying, reached her third final round of the season and the fourth of her Top Fuel career by racing her Jim Oberhofer-tuned Palm Beach Int'l Raceway/KB Racing dragster past T.J. Zizzo, Kalitta Racing stablemate Dave Grubnic, and Doug Herbert. Will powered to a series of 3.8-second passes, the best of which was her 3.83 semifinal conquest of tire-smoking Herbert, who ran in the 3.7s in the first round. Will's final-round appearance boosted her from fourth to second in the standings.

 
Cruz Pedregon

Pedregon, who had been runner-up in his last seven final rounds, won for the first time since the Spring 2006 event in Las Vegas, going wire to wire from the No. 1 qualifying spot to take the win. Pedregon moved from sixth to third place when Jack Beckman smoked the tires against him in the final. The win was the 24th of Pedregon's Funny Car career.

“I don’t think I’m going to sleep tonight,” said Pedregon. “I am just so much enjoying this. I was telling my crew after we won the first round to enjoy this because I know how hard it is to win just one round out here. It’s been experience to get to this point.

“Obviously, Rahn [Tobler] gets a lot of the credit. He started for us in September of last year, and he’d never tuned a Funny Car before. We managed to get to this point in a short period of time. Rahn’s always been a dragster crew chief, and for him to find his rhythm in a Funny Car, just shows you how good he is. What a difference he’s made. I think Rahn coming into this race was kind of a little bit on the conservative side, always wanting to go down the track, and after our 4.08, which was our second-best of the year, wound up 12th Friday night, I think Rahn got a little frustrated and decided to quit trying to just go down the track and get aggressive.”

Pedregon, the low qualifier with a class-best 4.041, ousted points leader Tim Wilkerson in the semifinals to end the Levi, Ray & Shoup driver's 10-round winning streak and minimize his points lead. Wilkerson, who won a monster first-round matchup with Ashley Force in and beat Melanie Troxel in round two, hazed the tires against Pedregon's Rahn Tobler-tuned Advance Auto Parts Solara. Prior to besting Wilkerson, Pedregon had defeated Tony Bartone and Tommy Johnson Jr.

Beckman and his Johnny West-wrenched Valvoline/MTS Dodge reached their seventh final of the season and 12th of his Funny Car career in tough fashion, opening his Sunday account by winning the quickest side-by-side race ever to 1,000 feet, edging Del Worsham, 4.048 to 4.050. He followed that win a crucial win over points rival and reigning world champ Tony Pedregon in round two and a tire-pedaling victory over Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps in the semifinals.

In round one, Robert Hight came close to recording the first three-second Funny Car pass in the 1,000-foot era when his Automobile Club Ford charged to a 4.005 against his boss, 14-time world champ John Force.

 
Dave Connolly

Cagnazzi Racing teammates Connolly and Jeg Coughlin faced off in the Pro Stock final, with reigning POWERade champ Coughlin hoping to put even more distance between himself and his points pursuers, but Connolly kept alive the hopes of his Charter Communications/Lucas Oil team and the others still in the title hunt by besting Coughlin, 6.57 to 6.61, for his 21st career Pro Stock win.

“It was definitely a do-or-die situation for us,” said Connolly. “If we didn’t win today, obviously we didn’t have any hopes of winning the championship. Even though we are still four rounds back on Jeg Coughlin, which is still a tough task with just two races left, we still have a title shot.

“The win was great, and to support Lucas Oil and put them in the winner’s circle was that much more special for me because they’ve backed us and supported drag racing in general and the Sportsman ranks especially, which is where I come from. They’ve done a lot for the sport, and Charlotte and Forrest Lucas are great people.”

Mac Tools U.S. Nationals champ Connolly, on the verge of falling out of championship contention after a disappointing first three rounds of the playoffs, jumped up to third place with his Richmond outing, which also included three wins over fellow Countdown players – Greg Stanfield, Kurt Johnson, and low qualifier Greg Anderson – with a pair of 6.58s and a 6.59.

Coughlin, the No. 2 qualifier in the first-ever all-6.5-second Pro Stock field, raced his Jegs Cobalt past John Nobile, Memphis champ Mike Edwards, and Johnny Gray with runs of 6.55, 6.57, and 6.58 to reach the final, his seventh of the season. Coughlin still leads K.J. by 74 points and Connolly by 77 with just two events left in the season.

Lucas Oil Sportsman titles were won by Arnie Martel (Comp), Dan Fletcher (Super Stock), Adam Davis (Stock), and Tisha Wilson (Super Comp).

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