NHRA
Nobile Indianapolis final report
Mountain View Racing press release
Edited: Jun 1, 2018, 1:18 PM
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Regular season completed, Nobile prepares for NHRA Countdown
Vincent Nobile
Photo by: Ted Rossino
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (Sept.6) – When he began his rookie season in the NHRA Pro Stock class nearly seven months ago, Vincent Nobile’s goal was simply wanted to qualify for each event. While he dreamed of winning races and contending for one of the ten available spots in the NHRA Countdown to the Championship playoffs, he tried to keep his expectations modest as he was fully aware that he’d be racing against the best competition the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series has to offer.
Now, Noble has had to re-evaluate his goals and priorities as he has not only won two races this season, but he is also one of the elite drivers who will compete in the upcoming six race playoffs to determine the series championship. Following his quarterfinal finish at last weekend’s Mac Tools U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, Nobile and the NAPA/Mountain View Tires team officially clinched a spot in the Countdown to the Championship, which begins Sept. 15-18 at zMax Dragway in Concord, N.C.
“This whole season has been a dream come true for me so far,” said the 19-year old college student, who remains the leading contender for the Automobile Club of Southern California Road to the Future trophy, NHRA’s rookie of the year award. “I knew that I was joining a great team but I just never expected that we’d be able to click so soon. I know I’m still a rookie but I’ve learned so much this season. I’m very comfortable in the car and right now, I think we’re in a good position to make some noise at these last six [playoff] races.”
With his two victories in Houston and Norwalk and two additional runner-up finishes, Nobile finished the regular season in fourth place, 306 points behind leader and reigning champion Greg Anderson. However, drivers in the Countdown to the Championship are re-seeded and their points totals adjusted, meaning that Nobile is now just 50 points behind Anderson, equal to just two-and-a-half rounds of competition.
“The way the Countdown works, anything can happen,” said Nobile. “That’s why we’ve got to do everything we can to be operating at 100-percent when we get to Charlotte. We are very much in contention for the championship. We’ve got a great opportunity ahead of us.”
At last weekend’s Mac Tools U.S. Nationals, Nobile qualified the NAPA/Mountain View Dodge Avenger in the No. 6 spot and easily won his first round match against Chris McGaha, who was making his first start as a professional. In the quarterfinal round, Noble faced a familiar opponent, former world champion Mike Edwards. AS the No. 3 qualifier, Edwards had the quicker car and posted a 6.56 elapsed time as Nobile red-lighted by four-thousandths of a second on the starting line.
“It was disappointing to come to the biggest race of the year and red-light, but to be honest I wasn’t going to beat Mike anyway,” said Nobile. “We’ve been fighting an issue with our clutch set-up for quite some time now and we’re just beginning to get a handle on it. Nick [Mitsos, crew chief and team owner] is going to make another adjustment before the next race in Charlotte so we’re very hopefully that we’re going to have the same great car we had when we won those two races. The great thing is that we now know that no matter what happens, we’re going to finish in the top ten and that’s a great accomplishment. Now, we just want to keep winning rounds and moving up the standings. I’m still living the dream.”
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