Vegas clinches it for Schumacher, others still TBD
Written by Sheila Scarborough · November 3, 2008
There is one more race to go in the season, and at least one champ has it in the bag and another is just about there.
At the eighth annual ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Tony Schumacher locked up his sixth Top Fuel championship simply by qualifying (and taking the pole while he was at it) and then going on to beat the defending event champ “Hot Rod” Fuller in a big ol’ tight drag race. Shoe had a 3.806 at 314.53 mph, and Fuller a 3.821 at 315.19 mph.
This is Schumacher’s 15th win in an amazing season when he never dropped out of first place; if he wins the last race at Pomona he’ll tie Greg Anderson’s record of 16 wins in one season.
“I knew A.J. [his crew chief Alan Johnson] was trying to run in the high-.70s in the final,” said Schumacher. “‘Hot Rod’ is running good, and I told myself before the final that I had to dig deep. Our cars were running so close that I was worried about getting beat on a holeshot.
“Every race we win gets harder and harder because the bar is set so high. Everybody I raced had good lights against me, because they’re all trying hard. I can’t let my guard down against any of them. This is just a great win. We’ve had an outstanding season, and it would have been devastating if we didn’t close the deal at the last couple races.”
Lined up behind Schumacher on the final Top Fuel leaderboard are Hillary Will, Antron Brown, Cory McClenathan and Larry Dixon to round out the top five.
The Funny Car points battle continues apace, with Cruz Pedregon cutting a .010 light in the finals against Robert Hight and beating him in a squeaker with a 4.100 at 304.67 mph to win back-to-back races for the first time in 14 years and take the points lead (”the driver I used to be” said an emotional Cruz at the finish line.)
“After [beating Jack Beckman, who red-lighted] first round, I kind of thought that even if we lost to [Gary] Densham it would still be a good day,” said Pedregon. “I didn’t want to get caught up in the championship points. Every round was like a championship round, so I tried to maintain my focus and keep my emotions in check. If [the championship] comes, it comes, and if it doesn’t, we’ll try again next year.
“I was worried about Robert in the final. They call that car the ‘Prock Rocket’ because it runs good, especially in these types of conditions when it’s cool and the race track is fast. I could hear him the whole way down the track in the final, and I was waiting for that Dodger-blue fender to stick out in front of me.”
Former Funny Car points leader Tim Wilkerson is now in the number two points spot after he was bumped by Mike Neff in the first round. Hight, Tony Pedregon and Beckman round out the top five.
In Pro Stock, Jeg Coughlin is in the same position Schumacher was coming into Vegas; all Jeggie has to do at Pomona is qualify, and he’s the Man. His Vegas win came against a red-lighting Greg Stanfield.
“This definitely took a lot of pressure off our shoulders,” said Coughlin. “We couldn’t take anything for granted coming into this race, because Dave [Connolly] is very capable and so are Kurt [Johnson] and Greg [Anderson]. We had a flawless race car with only one black eye on our scorecard with an aborted run in the third round of qualifying. This win really ices the cake for us.”
“The second round against Dave was a do-or-die moment for both of us. We raced each other here last year when he was the favorite [for the championship] and we pulled off what was considered to be an upset. I knew we’d have to be up on the wheel , and we were.”
Following Coughlin in the points stack are Greg Anderson, Kurt Johnson, Dave Connolly and Mike Edwards. By the way, it’s a tribute to Connolly that he’s done so well, since he had to miss races early in the season while looking for a sponsor. Looks like the time he spent racing Sportsman during his enforced absence paid off for him once he returned to Pro Stock.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Chris Rivas continues a dynamite season with a win on his Buell over late-starting Harley rider Eddie Krawiec (this is Rivas’ third win of 2008.) Krawiec is 4 - 1 against Rivas in prior events, and they’d never faced each other in a final round.
Rivas was characteristically gracious in his comments: “I was pretty relaxed on the bike all weekend,” he said. “I didn’t know I red-lighted in the semifinals; I got a lucky break that Andrew [Hines] red-lighted first. Eddie has been trying real hard to get his first win, and there was a small part of me that was almost rooting for him.
“I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be on a team like this. There is nothing we are really doing that is extraordinary. The guys just work real hard on the bike and don’t make mistakes. This bike never has mechanical issues because Ken Johnson is so flawless and meticulous in preparing it. I feel like we are having a blessed season.”
Matt Smith holds the Pro Stock Motorcycle points lead, followed by Krawiec, Rivas, Angelle Sampey and Andrew Hines.
The season finale is November 13 - 16 at historic Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, which has hosted the last race of the year since 1984.
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