Goodyear Racing final report

GOODYEAR DRIVERS WIN FOUR TIMES IN NHRA VEGAS RACE

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Photo by: Eric Gilbert

LAS VEGAS, Nev. (April 3, 2011) – Robert Hight made Funny Car history, Antron Brown nearly lost his voice and Mike Edwards came from behind and all three were winners at the NHRA’s SummitRacing.com Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Hight, Brown and Edwards raced to victory on Goodyear tires in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series for professionals. Added to Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Super Comp winner Justin Morgan, the trio brought to four the number of Goodyear-shod winners for the weekend.

“Our Eagles performed very well,” said Bryce Jones, Goodyear’s sales account manager for drag racing. “We saw the warmest track temperatures of the season so far for the pro categories, at 132 degrees, and we had cooler temperatures as well. Our Eagles had to perform in a variety of conditions and they did.”

Hight’s win made him the first Funny Car driver to win the spring race at The Strip twice. He beat Johnny Gray in an extraordinary final round, where the margin of victory was just .02 of a second.

“I had close races in every round,” Hight said. “There are no easy ones.”

The win was the fifth straight for John Force Racing, a streak that extends back to 2010. It was the 135th JFR win in a Ford and Hight’s win in the final was the 201st round win of his career. All of those wins have been on Goodyear tires.

Hight leads the Funny Car standings with 289 points. Cruz Pedregon is next with 241 and Mike Neff, Hight’s teammate, is third with 238.

Brown’s voice cracked during the post-race interviews, but he said, “The hardest deal in Top Fuel racing is that there are a million ways to lose these races and just one way to win.”

Brown beat Brandon Bernstein in the final round in a close race. Brown won his first race of the season, giving him 26 victories in 220 career races.

Brown is second in the Top Fuel standings, trailing Del Worsham, 265-257. Tony Schumacher is third with 222.

Edwards beat Vincent Nobile by just .007 of a second in the Pro Stock final, a remarkably close finish, even by the tightly competitive Pro Stock standards. Not bad for a driver who felt his run in the final round was his worst of the weekend.

“It’s summer time and it’s hot,” Edwards said. “We seem to run well,” under those conditions.

Jason Line leads the Pro Stock standings with 289 points. He has the largest lead among the NHRA’s professional categories, as Greg Stanfield is next with 222. Greg Anderson, Line’s teammate, is third with 214.

-source: goodyear racing