In one round of drag racing on Sunday, there was suddenly a new top contender for NHRA Rookie of the year and a new points leader in Top Fuel.
First year pro Spencer Massey won his first Top Fuel race Sunday at Route 66 Raceway in the 12th annual United Association NHRA Nationals, beating Antron Brown, who assumed the class points lead.
Massey, last year's IHRA Top Fuel champ, won the event out of the No. 7 qualifying spot, knocking out Troy Buff, Terry Haddock and last week's winner, Larry Dixon on the way to his final round showdown. (Go2Geiger.com) ยป More Photos
"I couldn't have picked a better race for my first win," Massey said. "United Associates supports our team and this was their first race as a title sponsor so it all worked out. Sure I would've liked to have won sooner but this is the best of the best over here. Nothing comes easy."
Other winners include Tony Pedregon in Funny Car, Jeg Coughlin Jr. in Pro Stock and Matt Guidera in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Massey, last year's IHRA Top Fuel champ, won the event out of the No. 7 qualifying spot, knocking out Troy Buff, Terry Haddock and last week's winner, Larry Dixon on the way to his final round showdown with Brown, who made Massy earn his victory every foot of the way.
Massey's U.S. Smokeless rail had a slight edge off the line, cutting a .048 second light compared to Brown's .054. The race was side-by-side all the way down the track until Massey's car got just enough of a push late to win by .02 seconds, which equates to about 9 feet. The final numbers were Massey completing the 1,000 feet in 3.856 seconds at 308.35 mph, with Brown's Matco Tools dragster covering the distance in 3.870 seconds at 301.54 mph.
"This whole season has been a dream and I don't want anyone to pinch me and wake me up," Massey said. "This almost compares to winning the IHRA championship. Don't get me wrong, the IHRA is great and winning that title took a lot of effort, but for me I grew up watching guys like Eddie Hill and 'the Snake' (team owner Don Prudhomme) and they were racing NHRA, so my heroes have always been over here."
Brown, by virtue of his runner-up performance and a rare first-round ouster from Tony Schumacher, regained the points lead for the third time this season.
"As usual, we were very consistent," Brown said. "We had a small issue today with our car spinning the tires down track, that's why you saw our speeds drop off. We were 314 (mph) in the first round, but in that final round we started spinning the tires after 330 (feet) and that really hurt us. We could have run like a (3).83 on that pass if it stuck. It's all good though."
The ultra-tight Pro Stock shootout between Coughlin and Mike Edwards swung back to Coughlin's favor in Chicago. Coughlin had been 1-2 heads-up vs. Edwards in their previous three meetings, including the rain-delayed finals at Atlanta. The pair squared off again in Sunday's final, with Coughlin earning his class-best fourth victory of the season after Edwards rolled his Young Life Pontiac GXP through the lights and fouled out by .021 seconds. Coughlin's victory lap in his Jegs.com Chevy Cobalt was 6.663 seconds at 207.30 mph.
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"Mike's been in a zone of his own for the last several races and he's such a good racer that you know you need to get up on the wheel to race him," Coughlin said. "He was clearly quicker than us by at least two-hundredths of a second going into the final so I was really focused on hitting the tree. I went by it and felt like I'd really gotten it and then as I was shifting into second gear I caught the win light flashing in my lane out of my peripheral vision and the party started. If you could have seen inside my helmet you would have seen a grin as big as Texas."
Coughlin now has a 93-point cushion over Edwards who moved into second with his fourth final round appearance in the last five races.
Pedregon got his first win of the season, beating Ashley Force Hood, who was runner-up last week in Topeka.
"The car was good all weekend," He said. "I had a real feeling of confidence coming into race day and that's not always the case. We've had our share of semifinal and runner-up finishes this year, and that's all good, but the win is the thing. These are the ones you remember."
Both cars launched at nearly the same time but Force Hood's car faltered early on, allowing the Quaker State Quaker State Chevrolet Impala SS to cruise home to a 4.114 at 303.78 mph. Pedregon also moved into second in the points past Force Hood's Castrol GTX Ford Mustang. which had a final pass of 7.780 seconds at 87.91 mph.
"We had a lot of drama in our pit before the final because we had to change motors. That always makes you a little stressed," said Pedregon, the event's top qualifier. "It's times like that you're glad you have a crew filled with guys that have been there before because they handled it."
Guidera managed to cool the torrid march of defending NHRA bike champ Eddie Krawiec, who reached his third straight final despite his Screamin' Eagle Harley Davidson V-Rod being saddled with 20 more pounds of weight before coming to Chicago. Guidera won out of the No. 10 qualifying spot, ran a 7.096 second pass at compared 181.79 to Krawiec's 7.189 at 179.66 mph. Guidera beat Krawiec off the line by .018 seconds.
"We had a helluva day, that's for sure," Guidera said. "We had some big problems Friday and had to swap out motors. We were here until like 1:30 in the morning working. Then we went back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep and were right back at it Saturday. That's when the bike really started coming around. We were third quickest of Round 3 and fourth quickest of Round 4, so we knew we had something to race.
"I don't think we surprised anyone today. We had to race hard to get here because everyone was running hard. That's okay; that's the way we like it."
