After 17 years and 14 fruitless final rounds, Top Fuel driver Bob Vandergriff won his first NHRA Full Throttle Series race at the Texas NHRA Fall Nationals.
After 17 years and 14 fruitless final rounds, Top Fuel driver Bob Vandergriff couldn't wait for the ride back to the starting line after winning his first NHRA Full Throttle Series race at Sunday's AAA Texas NHRA Fall Nationals.
Shortly after his C&J Energy Services dragster came to a half after beating Spencer Massey in the final, Vandergriff hardly took the time to unbuckle out of the car before sprinting down the return road back to the starting line to be with his crew.
"That's a hard run in all that gear," Vandergriff said. "I've been planning that for the last 10 final rounds. I've always had Brandon Bernstein or J.R. Todd waiting at the top end with a scooter for me.
"I didn’t want to see my guys celebrate and me being far away hearing cricket noises. Unfortunately today, Brandon and J.R. couldn't stick around, so I was all by myself.
On a day when playoff contenders wilted in the Texas heat, Cruz Pedregon (Funny Car), Jason Line (Pro Stock) and Michael Phillips (Pro Stock Motorcycle) were the other winners on Sunday at Texas Motorplex.
Following his semifinal win, Vandergriff jokingly said he might need to smack Massey in the mouth in order to break through for a victory. It didn't come to blows because as both Vandergriff's car and Massey's Fram dragster shook, smoked and twisted down the track. Vandergriff crossed the line in 4.243 seconds at 239.44 mph with Massey running behind in 5.200 at 145.48 mph.
"We've lost finals in every possible way," Vandergriff said. "We've done wheelstands but the rotors of the blowers in backwards. We've got a great bunch of guys together now.
"I knew it was going to happen, I was just hoping it would be this time. I don't think I could have taken another speech where I was, 'Well, it's all right.' … because it's not all right."
Massey didn't leave empty-handed, he walks away from Texas with the championship lead, up seven points on Antron Brown.
Pedregon took advantage of several of the top contenders having issues. Pedregon's Snap-on Tools Toyota Solara beat Ron Capps' NAPA Dodge Charger in the final on the day that saw all three John Force Racing Ford Mustangs lose in the first round and three of Capps' Don Schumacher Racing teammates didn’t make it past the second round.
"The car was just so good all weekend," Pedregon said. "This is the best race car I've ever had. With the exception of one out of eight runs, we went down the track. I felt pressure because I thought we would really be hurting if we didn't come out of there with a win."
The Snap-on Toyota finished the final in 4.200 seconds at 302.48 mph with Capps on his heels with a 4.270 second pass at 293.66 mph. Pedregon moves into third in the standings, seven points behind leader Mike Neff. Second place Matt Hagan is four points back.
Line was able to put almost five rounds of points cushion (112 total points) between his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP and the one of second place driver and teammate Greg Anderson.
The Pro Stock field was ripe for the picking after top contenders Anderson, Vincent Nobile, Mike Edwards and Allen Johnson all failed to make it out of the first round.
"I was (crapping) rocks watching everybody run first round," Line said. "I was scared to death. All I could think of was losing to Warren Johnson first round. He hadn't won a round all year, all the other top qualified cars were going out … why wouldn't I be next on the lit.?"
Line made it out of the first round before eventually beating Kurt Johnson in a rematch of last week's Pro Stock final in Charlotte, which Line gave away with a red light.
"I was a huge day for us," Line said. "I drove like garbage all day long. I was the worst I've driven all year, but I managed to pull myself together for the final, and that was the time we needed it."
Line ran a 6.633 second pass at 208.46 mph while Johnson's Mark Christopher Auto Center Pontiac crossed in 6.663 at 207.85 mph.
Phillips' The Edge Suzuki won out of the No. 14 qualifying spot, finding the power on race day he didn't have in qualifying.
"We struggled Friday and just couldn't get the bike to run to the 330 (foot mark)," Phillips said. "We've been trying to fix that, moving weight around on the bike. It's struggling a bit, but it's running real strong from the 330 to the other end.
"Once I get this thing running to the 330, the rest of these guys aren’t going to know what happened to them."
Phillips beat Hector Arana Jr.'s Lucas Oil Buell in the final with a pass of 6.979 seconds at 194.46 mph. Arana ran a 7.010 at 192.30 mph.
Eddie Krawiec maintains a 67 point lead in the motorcycle standings over Karen Stoffer. Arana moves up to third with his runner-up finish.
The NHRA Full Throttle Series completes its final three consecutive week stretch of the season at Maple Grove Raceway in Reading, Pa., at the Sept. 30-Oct. 2 Auto-Select NHRA Nationals.
