NHRA

Atlanta: Team Panella all-team final

Bob Panella Motorsports Pro Stock Truck NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series Driver: Bob Panella, Jr.- Chevy S-10 Driver: Jeff Gracia - GMC Sonoma 21st Annual NHRA Advance Auto Parts Southern Nationals Atlanta Dragway -- Atlanta (Commerce) ...

Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Bob Panella Motorsports
Pro Stock Truck
NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series

Driver: Bob Panella, Jr.- Chevy S-10
Driver: Jeff Gracia - GMC Sonoma

21st Annual NHRA Advance Auto Parts Southern Nationals
Atlanta Dragway -- Atlanta (Commerce) Georgia
March 3-6, 2001 <pre> All Team Panella Final Bob Panella wins 11th final round

PANELLA: Qualified #1 @ 7.471* seconds and 180.69 mph Round 1: Panella: 7.503 seconds at 180.81 mph def. John Coughlin: 7.589 seconds at 177.93 mph Round 2: Panella: 7.543 seconds at 180.31 mph def. Jeff Naiser: 7.562 seconds at 178.76 mph Round 3: Panella: 7.501 seconds at 180.94* mph def. Taylor Lastor: 7.538 seconds at 179.80 mph Round 4: Panella: 8.185 seconds at 128.54 mph def. Jeff Gracia: Red-Light *track record

GRACIA: Qualified #2 @ 7.499 seconds and 180.43 mph Round 1: Gracia: 7.618 seconds at 178.19 mph def. Bart Price: 9.086 seconds at 107.69 mph Round 2: Gracia: 7.540 seconds at 179.61 mph def. Randy Daniels: 7.580 seconds at 178.05 mph Round 3: Gracia: 7.545 seconds at 179.78 mph def. Greg Stanfield: 7.539 seconds at 179.90 mph Round 4: Gracia: Red-Light lost to Bob Panella: 8.185 seconds at 128.54 mph </pre> Commerce, Ga. - - It was an all Team Panella final. Bob Panella, from Stockton, Calif., and Jeff Gracia, from Ontario, Calif., met in the final round for the first time in their 20-races together as teammates. It was the 20th final round for Panella and the first of his professional career for Gracia.

It was all Panella, as Gracia left to soon and red-lighted. Panella notched his 11 NHRA national event win.

"I wish we could have put on a better show for the fans during the final round. It was a great weekend with Jeff and I qualifying one-two, then pairing off in the finals," said Panella immediately following the round.

Panella has now won 102 rounds of competition, against 34 losses, since turning professional in 1998. He is the reigning NHRA Winston Pro Stock Truck champion having won back-to-back championships in 1999 and 2000.

In post-race interviews Panella added the following, "I hope this won't be the last time these two yellow trucks are in the finals together. Jeff (Gracia) did an outstanding job driving this weekend."

"The red-light came as a surprise. I think I might have burned the clutch up doing the burnout. I staged, saw yellow and left. I looked up and said to myself, 'I must have red-lighted.' With the red-light, my first final was a little anti-climatic. I had a golden opportunity to win and in the process beat the three best guys in Pro Stock Truck. Well, I beat two and Bobby gained the point lead in the process," said Gracia.

-Panella-

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Atlanta: Friday results

Next article Atlanta: Yates moves into first place

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

George Russell: F1 2026 season a test of "character and resilience"

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1

United States GP

7 min

George Russell: F1 2026 season a test of "character and resilience"

Marc Marquez: ‘Jorge Martin rides on instinct; he just attacks, and that’s his strength’

MotoGP

MGP MotoGP

Australian GP

1 h

Marc Marquez: ‘Jorge Martin rides on instinct; he just attacks, and that’s his strength’

Lamborghini Super Trofeo | North America, Race 2: Bamber dominates to take the win

Lamborghini Super Trofeo

LBST Lamborghini Super Trofeo

World Finals - Monza 2026

1 h

Lamborghini Super Trofeo | North America, Race 2: Bamber dominates to take the win

Belgian firm to take over Renault/Alpine engine facility in Viry

WEC

WEC WEC 1 h

Belgian firm to take over Renault/Alpine engine facility in Viry

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts