Time for the big NHRA fight in Vegas

There are so many variables in NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series competition. It’s fair to say you never know who’s going to win each lunge down the 1,000-foot or quarter-mile drag strip until each rider or driver answers the call of the start-line Christmas tree.

After the fourth of six races in NHRA’s Countdown to the Championship playoff series, the order continues to churn. Bringing your best game to the playoffs is what matters in any elimination sport, no matter the number of victories a racer accumulates leading up to these six battles for seasonal supremacy.

Take, for instance the Top Fuel category. Throughout the first 22 races of the season, Steve Torrence has been the top gun, earning eight victories. Yet the Texan holds a minimal 57-point lead over Dallas winner Brittany Force, who has three victories for the year – but two of them during the Countdown (Dallas and Reading).

Torrence has been doing a darn good job of being consistent, but then, so has Doug Kalitta, whose only win came in the first race of the playoffs, leaving him 76 points behind the leader in third. Reigning, three-time champion Antron Brown’s four wins have him fourth in the points, while Don Schumacher Racing teammate Leah Pritchett, also a four-race winner this year, is in fifth place, 180 points back.

Only three in the Top Fuel top-10 haven’t won a race this year: latecomer Shawn Langdon, who nearly took out Force in the Texas finals, Terry McMillen and Scott Palmer. During the Dallas weekend, Langdon’s Kalitta Motorsports team announced the Californian moves to Funny Car next year as teammate to J.R. Todd, also a TF veteran. There are 17 entries for this weekend’s 17th annual Toyota NHRA Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, with Billy Torrence augmenting his son’s program for a second time and Mike Salinas towing the Scrappers rail to Sin City from his San Jose, Calif. home.

Brittany Force’s Dallas victory complemented teammate Robert Hight’s run to Funny Car glory for his fourth victory of the year, as the John Force Racing president creeps up on eight-race winner and Don Schumacher Racing’s reigning champion Ron Capps in the title fight. Both Hight and Capps have a pair of victories in the Countdown, in what’s become a Dodge Charger R/T battle versus Chevrolet’s Camaro SS, with Capps holding a tiny 24-point lead.

JFR’s Courtney Force, despite zero wins this season, is third but 171 points behind Capps. First through seventh places in the Funny Car standings belong to either a DSR or JFR entry, but who will prevail, and will the title be decided in Las Vegas this weekend or at Pomona, the final race of the year two weeks later?

There are 19 entries in the Funny Car paddock for this Las Vegas race, including Gary Densham, Tim Gibbons and semi-regulars Jeff Diehl and Bob Bode Jr. One “spoiler” in this DSR/JFR flopper battle is Alexis DeJoria, who has won at this track twice (in the spring race) and who retires end of the year. DeJoria brings her final free mammogram program to Las Vegas this weekend.

The current points leader in Pro Stock hasn’t won the most number of races in 2017, but he’s sure been consistent. Four-time champ Greg Anderson has three wins to teammates Bo Butner (4) and Jason Line (2), yet rookie Tanner Gray’s five race wins still leave him in fourth place with his Gray Motorsports teammate Drew Skillman (4) in fifth.

This class has turned into a Chevrolet Camaro invitational, with only Allen Johnson’s Dodge Dart showing signs of opposition to the best of the Bowtie brand; Johnson retires end of the season after 21 years in the class, but it appears his equipment may live on after the Tennessean hangs up his gloves.

For a class that’s supposed to be in decline, Pro Stock has an enviable 21 entrants for the penultimate contest of the year. Five of them are driving Mopar/Dodge cars and quite a few of the semi-regular drivers are tuning up for their 2018 programs. Included among the part-timers are Alex Laughlin, Alan Prusiensky, Kenny Delco, Joey Grose, Tom Huggins, Australian Shane Tucker, Steve Graham, Val Smeland and Brian Self, the latter driving the third Elite Motorsports Camaro normally fielded by Vincent Nobile.

In Pro Stock Motorcycle, Vance & Hines’ three-time champion Eddie Krawiec, who has won three of four Countdown races held to date could earn his fourth title at The Strip. Even though Krawiec, riding a Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle Street Rod and LE Tonglet on the WAR Racing Suzuki are tied with six victories each (Tonglet won the other Countdown contest), Krawiec’s rampage in the Countdown makes this weekend’s race a must-win for Tonglet, who was champion in 2010, his rookie season.

Only one other rider has won a national event this year; reigning champ Jerry Savoie has two victories on the year, which is a 16-race season for the motorcycles. Krawiec holds a 107-point advantage on Tonglet, with five-time champ Andrew Hines in third on the second Harley-Davidson entry who, despite zero victories is 142 points back. He and Savoie can look towards moving up, as can fifth-placed Scotty Pollacheck, who is having a breakout year and is 30 points behind Savoie, riding a Suzuki.