Championship Drag Racing

NHRA Northwest Nationals
Seattle, WA
(July 22-24)

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Schucks Auto Supply NHRA Nationals
Sunday
Young guns are peerless in Seattle as Bernstein, Medlen, K.J. claim victories

By Rob Geiger, NHRA.com

The next generation of drag racing showed its stuff Sunday at Pacific Raceways with young guns Brandon Bernstein, Eric Medlen, and Kurt Johnson all picking up important wins at the 18th annual CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals near Seattle. All three men have deep drag racing roots and used their victories here to get back in their respective points races with nine events left on the schedule.

Bernstein, the son of legend Kenny Bernstein, dealt POWERade Top Fuel points leader Tony Schumacher his first final-round loss of the year with a smooth 4.52-second pass. With his decorated father John Medlen tuning his Funny Car, Eric took out rookie teammate Robert Hight in the first all-Team Force final that didn't include 13-time champ John Force. Kurt Johnson, the son of former Pro Stock champion and current points leader Warren Johnson, had a solo pass to score his second win of the year after Ron Krisher crashed on his winning semifinal run.

 
Brandon Bernstein

Winning two of his four elimination races out of the suspect left-hand lane, Bernstein took lane choice into the final, put Schumacher against the mountain, and cruised down the right-hand side for his eighth career win in 45 professional starts. Schumacher encountered tire spin just off the launching pad and couldn't tame his dragster in time to make a run at Bernstein, who streaked away for a 4.527-second, 329.99-mph win. Realizing he was beaten at half-track, Schumacher gave up and coasted through in 6.021 at 154.35 mph.

"This sport is very taxing," Bernstein said. "You have intense highs and incredible lows. Last week was a big low for us in Denver after qualifying No. 1 and then losing [a bye run] on a freak deal. We had to pick ourselves up and get it together quick because we had to prepare for this race. Now we're back on a high.

"Our final-round record [8-1] is pretty stellar. It seems like once we get there our team is already clicking and we take care of business. That team over there with Alan Johnson is very good and we know what they're capable of. We had to run a good lap and I'm really impressed with what our guys were able to give me."

On the day, Bernstein drove past Cory McClenathan with a 4.59, out-pedaled beer rival Larry Dixon by a 6.07 to 8.28-second margin, and dismissed championship challenger Doug Kalitta with a 4.62 at 325 mph, before trouncing Schumacher in the final.

After his near-catastrophic accident in the final qualifying session, Schumacher rebounded nicely Sunday in the back-up U.S. Army dragster with a pair of 4.5-second wins over Mitch King and Dave Grubnic, and a huge come-from-behind, tire-smoking victory over Morgan Lucas. Schumacher is 4-1 in finals this year and 25-24 overall.

 
Eric Medlen

The first final-round battle of "Next Generation" John Force Racing drivers went to sophomore racer Medlen who took out red-hot rookie Hight with a 4.887 at 310.48 mph to Hight's 4.933 at 305.63 mph. The race marked the 24th time that two John Force Racing hot rods lined up against one another in the final, although it was the first that didn't include Force.

"Hopefully this doesn't stop here," Medlen said. "Force has won four in a row before and we'll try to do that. We're still trying to come back from a not-so-good first half and this was a good start. We finally have all the cars running the same and it showed this weekend. My dad and all the rest of the guys are working so hard.

"Beating Robert in the final is a big deal. He's done a fabulous job all year. He's way ahead of where I was at this point one year ago. Plus, his car is awesome. John took a big chance with both of us so to give him a day like this is something that's really exciting to me."

Hight padded his lead in the championship points standings to 84 with his second straight final-round appearance. The rookie racer already has four trophy-round showings on his resume. This one came when he drove his Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang past Jeff Arend, Cruz Pedregon, and Whit Bazemore. Until the final, Hight had the best elapsed time of each elimination session.

This was also the fourth trophy round for Medlen, who raced to a runner-up finish in Chicago earlier this tear. The event's low qualifier beat Gary Densham, Phil Burkart Jr., Tommy Johnson Jr., and Hight. Like his teammate, he is now 2-2 in finals.

 
Kurt Johnson

Johnson had a single in the final after Krisher totaled his new Valvoline Chevrolet Cobalt just after his semifinal victory over Jeg Coughlin. Krisher had just passed the finish line in 6.727 seconds when his car suddenly swerved left and contacted the retaining wall. It then flipped onto its side and continued sliding down the racetrack on fire until falling back down onto its wheels and coming to a stop in the middle of the track. Krisher emerged from the carnage under his own power.

Just to make it official, Johnson made a slow victory pass in the final, much to the delight of an appreciative Seattle crowd. His official winning time was 16 seconds at 75 mph.

This was the second win of the year for Johnson and it lifted him into fourth place in the championship chase. He is now just 108 points behind his class-leading father Warren Johnson. Kurt also won the St. Louis event.

"It sucks to win like that," said Johnson, who didn't bother with a burnout, electing instead to take the light and idle down the track. "But it wasn't my fault. Blame Ron. Seriously, it's great that he's okay. It was weird to go down the track and shut off early and just coast in quiet like that but that's the way it went down. It feels like I only did three-quarters of my job today.

"[PRO president] Kenny Bernstein came over and told dad I had to stage and take the light to win. [Technical director] Ray Alley told us the same thing at the scales so we just got out of the way up there. I didn't want to mess up the track for the guys behind us. A win is a win. I've had plenty of tough losses so I'll take this one, take the points, and move on to Sonoma."

Kurt's ACDelco Chevrolet Cobalt was the quickest car of each elimination round. He waited out a 70-second staging duel with first-round opponent and family tormentor Dave Connolly and posted a 6.68 to take the win. He then ran a 6.69 against Greg Stanfield and a 6.70 versus three-time Pro Stock Truck champion Bob Panella Jr. to reach his 57th career final round.

Before his accident, Krisher managed to beat Warren Johnson, low qualifier Mike Thomas, who red-lighted, and Coughlin. This was Krisher's 12th final round. He has five wins overall.

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