Countdown Format Puts Pressure on Some of NHRA's Biggest Names ESPN-NHRA, by Bill Stephens
October 1, 2007, 8:17 PM ET
This weekend, the door leading to the professional NHRA POWERade championships will be closing much tighter. When racing ends at the Torco Race Fuels Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park on Sunday (final eliminations, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN2) in Richmond, Va., the field of title contenders in Top Fuel, Funny Car and Pro Stock will be whittled down from eight to four in each category. For some of the sport's most respected and race-ready teams, the door will be shutting altogether.
Of course, this was the motivating factor behind the NHRA's decision to restructure its points system this season. Gradually diminishing the number of drivers eligible to gather in their respective class championships as the 23-race schedule powered its way to a decisive conclusion would undoubtedly mean that past performances or hard-earned reputations wouldn't guarantee overall success. Take a look at the racers on the verge of missing or who have already been ousted from the Countdown to One, which commences at the ACDelco Nationals in Las Vegas in two weeks, and you'll get the picture.
Last season's rookie sensation, J.R. Todd, is now 92 points out of the fourth and final slot in the Top Fuel Countdown standings. Driving for team owner Dexter Tuttle, Todd survived the shakeup at the beginning of the year that saw his veteran crew chief, Jimmy Walsh, move to Kenny Bernstein's new Funny Car effort one race after Todd opened the season with a victory at the Winternationals in Pomona, Calif. Another victory followed in Houston, but heading into Richmond, Todd will need a miraculous comeback to sneak into the top four.
A perennial championship threat, Doug Kalitta has had a dismal 2007. His absence from the Countdown to One is the result of a troubled campaign which has seen him go not only winless this year, but fail to advance to a single final round. A total of nine round wins in the first 20 races of the season is all one needs to know to recognize the degree to which Kalitta has struggled.
Ditto Melanie Troxel, who missed the Countdown to Four after last year's tremendous start to the season which placed her in contention throughout 2006's first half. She might have been the last driver (and the first female) to win the Top Fuel championship under the old points system but a tough stretch down the '06 season's second half ended her potentially historic bid.
Although in the fourth spot in the points, Brandon Bernstein needs to watch his back. Only 21 points behind him is Bob Vandergriff Jr., who is heading for Richmond after a runner-up finish in Dallas last week. Both drivers know what is riding on their Richmond performances and with essentially one round of difference between them, anything can happen.
In Funny Car, the big story is John Force. Although his team announced this past Tuesday that the 14-time POWERade champion would miss the remainder of the season after his frightening crash with Bernstein on Sept. 23, Force was quoted Thursday as saying he intends to return to action before the end of 2007. Force is currently fourth in the points, but unless he stages a miraculous recovery in the next four days from his broken ankle, lacerated knee, broken fingers and dislocated wrist, he'll most likely be dropped from the Countdown to One. All the three drivers directly behind him in the standings -- Ron Capps, Gary Scelzi and Mike Ashley -- have to do is make a qualifying attempt in Richmond, which is worth 10 points, and Force will be bumped out of the Final Four. It would mark the first time since Force's first of 14 championships in 1990 that the all-time NHRA victory leader would be out of the title hunt with three races to go.
Pro Stock's all-time win leader Warren Johnson is on the precipitous edge of missing the CtO. The six-time POWERade champion is 86 points out of fourth place and his son, Kurt Johnson, is also teetering on the brink of Countdown elimination, 29 points behind fourth-place Jeg Coughlin Jr. But perhaps the Pro Stock driver most surprisingly short of CtO eligibility is defending POWERade champion Jason Line, who needs to make up the 18-point difference between Coughlin and himself to remain in place to defend his '06 championship. And he'll have one last shot at that in Richmond.
In Pro Stock Motorcycle, the list of racers who have been cut from the Countdown would make any roster of the category's most formidable and dominating riders in recent history. Last week's action in Dallas determined the 2007 Countdown to One PSM field and some of the names missing from that field are three-time POWERade champion Angelle Sampey; her teammate, 16-time national event winner Antron Brown; two-time national event winner in '07 Karen Stoffer; 2007 Mac Tools U.S. Nationals winner Craig Treble; and 2003 POWERade champion Geno Scali. [NOTE: Two weeks ago Angelle and Antron both lost their US Army sponsorship for next season – FlA]
And so the stage is set for Richmond. Those drag racers who end eliminations in one of the coveted top four spots within their own category standings will head to Las Vegas and perhaps eventually to a POWERade championship. Those who don't will be added to an ever-increasing roster of hopefuls whose hope will have run out.
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/news/story?series=8&id=3045366
It's Time to Get Racy, says Ron Capps
from Don Schumacher Racing (DSR)
10/02/2007
Ron Capps is accustomed to being under the gun, in a pressure-cooker situation, feeling the squeeze - all those cliches we're all tired of hearing. But he also knows it's time to step up to the plate, grab the bull by the horns, go for the gold and give it his all, as this weekend's Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals at Virginia Motorsports Park will determine the top four in each NHRA Pro category who will vie for championships in the two final events of the season, known as the Countdown to One.
After enduring three career seasons in which he's battled to the finish for his first Funny Car championship and came up short, Capps finds himself in familiar territory. The driver of the Brut Revolution Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car is in a precarious position in the 2007 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series Countdown to Four playoffs. After leading the regular standings this season by as much as 154 points, Capps is now scratching to get back in the chase from his fifth slot in the rankings.
Fourteen-time champion John Force is sidelined after surviving a crash at the last event in Dallas following his second-round victory and a move into fourth in points. While he recovers from his injuries, the chances of his returning to competition this year are very slim. His resolve to return, however, is well-respected by all his fellow racers, who expect and hope he'll make a quick return. Capps is just three points behind Force; a good qualifying effort could lob Capps into the top four before eliminations even begin on Sunday. Qualifying, of course, is the number-one goal, as every driver in the top eight in points has at one time or another failed to qualify this season.
"Right now I'm really excited," said Capps. "There is going to be a lot of pressure and basically it's who goes the furthest out of the six of us (Capps, Tony Pedregon, Robert Hight, Jack Beckman, Gary Scelzi and Mike Ashley) who will get into it. We just need to have a big race. But it's a perfect time. I told Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) that this is a great time for us to get racy. When I say racy I mean to get back in the mode that we were in the beginning of the year, where we roll up there and guys are not happy about racing us. And I think we have that car back (following a successful test session the Monday after the Dallas event).
"This is a great time to go to Richmond. This is going to be as pressure-filled as it gets. Especially for the six guys. Last year, it was our first year back to this track for some time and there were still some issues with the track surface that needed to be addressed. It was a difficult race track because we had a rainout and had to come back and it was freezing cold. "So, I think a lot of the notes we had from last year are just going to be thrown away. It will be a whole different weekend."
As for John Force, "the guy amazes me," said Capps. "We had to test on Monday after Dallas and it was very hard. It was probably the one time I didn't want to drive a Funny Car. But we had to do what we had to do. Knowing John was in the hospital was tough. "We need John Force. We really want to race with him in this Countdown and he just got around us in points. It would have made Virginia that much more exciting. But, I fully expect John Force to make it to Richmond and cheer his team members on. That's just the way he is."
