CONCORD, N.C. — The NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series stirred up quite the cloud of controversy while visiting zMAX Dragway for the Four-Wide Nationals.
Here are five takeaways from the fifth event of the season, which concluded with Matt Hagan (Funny Car), Justin Ashley (Top Fuel), Greg Anderson (Pro Stock) and Gaige Herrera (Pro Stock Motorcycle) taking home the Wallys.
1. John Force Can Still Do The Job
John Force popped in and out of the media center at zMAX Dragway many times over the course of the weekend, and for good reason.
On Friday, he broke the standing track record with a 3.820-second run in qualifying.
On Saturday, he officially claimed the No. 1 qualifying position — subsequently sporting the yellow hat that’s awarded post-qualifying atop his white-haired head.
Furthermore, the 74-year-old was well on his way to challenging for the Wally on Sunday, but he missed the tree in the final elimination round and finished fourth in his quad.
Still, Force kept smiling, kept waving and kept up his characteristic charisma. He shared that it’s been a little easier to do so since winning his 156th Wally during the postponed-Winternationals finale in early April.
“I’m proud for me mentally, because every time something goes wrong, people look at you (differently) for your age — and they should. And then I go and pull it out of the hat,” Force said on the heels of becoming the No. 1 qualifier at the Four-Wide Nationals.
2. Tasca Remains ‘Pissed Off’ At NHRA
Despite winning Saturday’s Mission #2Fast2Tasty Challenge, qualifying second and logging a solid semifinal finish during Sunday’s eliminations, Bob Tasca III’s weekend wounds are not healed.
After his Friday qualifying runs were disqualified by NHRA for a “modified” intake manifold — which notably did not result in a competitive advantage — Tasca had a fire lit underneath him after being informed about his penalty on Saturday morning.
In order for the 16-time Funny Car winner to continue competing at zMAX Dragway, Tasca borrowed an NHRA-approved intake manifold from the Torrence family Top Fuel operation.
After his #2Fast2Tasty victory on Saturday, Tasca said, “They (NHRA) pissed me off. I was as pissed off as I’ve ever been in a race car today and I just used that as energy to go out and kick their (expletive). Mentally, that was my mindset. Truthfully, I wasn’t racing any of those racers out there — I was racing NHRA.”
He also dedicated his Mission win to his crew chiefs, Aaron Brooks and Todd Okuhara.
“This was for them. At 338 mph, 3.83 (seconds), it just goes to show you that the hard work they put in and attention to detail pays off. It’s got nothing to do with the color of a manifold,” Tasca said.
3. Stumbles & Shakeups
Austin Prock, who has been on a hot streak since making his Funny Car debut at the start of the season, fell in the first round of four-wide matchups on Sunday.
During his Friday media availability, Prock foreshadowed, “We’re hot right now, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to be hot all. It’s drag racing…you never know.”
Though there’s little doubt that Prock will find more success this season — team owner Force even went so far as to call the 28-year-old “the future” of Funny Car — it was the first true stumble out of the Cornwell Tools-sponsored team.
In addition to that, reigning Pro Stock champion Erica Enders only made it as far as the semifinals, as her Elite Motorsports teammates Aaron Stanfield and Cristian Cuadra blew past her in the second round of the day.
That miscue allowed Anderson, who went on to win the event, to take over the points lead.
4. Salinas & ‘Smoke’ Are Coming
Rookie drivers Jasmine Salinas and Tony Stewart each ran their career-best speed while at zMAX Dragway, with both drivers making semifinal appearances at the four-wide event.
Salinas recorded a 3.738-second elapsed time at 331.61 mph during qualifying.
On a related note, the Four-Wide Nationals was the first race she’s run since taking over driving duties for her dad, Mike Salinas, where her seat was properly fitted.
Considering the consistency Jasmine Salinas showed last weekend, one has to wonder if that was indeed the missing piece of the equation during her first three events aboard the Scrappers Racing dragster.
Meanwhile, in addition to posting his quickest career run (3.713 seconds), Stewart also had the best reaction time of the four drivers in his semifinal quad (0.047 seconds) on Sunday.
However, he smoked the tires a few hundred feet into the run and was forced to coast to the finish line, ending his march up the elimination ladder.
Still, the three-time NASCAR Cup Series champion seems to be figuring things out — which should be cause for concern for his veteran competitors.
5. More Rules In Pro Stock
Anderson has been around the block a time or two.
He started his lengthy Pro Stock career at a time when the rules were a lot more flexible, when teams were able to use ingenuity and creativity to build “whatever you came up with in your crazy mind” and put it on a race car.
In fact, that was one of the main reasons the eventual five-time champion fell in love with the factory hot-rod class.
“There weren’t a lot of rules and restrictions, but that’s changed over the years,” Anderson said on Sunday. “It’s a different game.”
But on Jan. 1, Anderson was told that the manifolds his KB Titan Racing team had been running the past seven years were no longer legal, throwing him for a loop only a few months prior to the start of the season.
“They came up with a new rule this year where they could be nothing, absolutely nothing, on the inside of an intake manifold,” Anderson explained.
That change, in turn, has made it difficult for KB Titan to dial in its tuning. According to Anderson, it’s taken them all five races to find a setup that works.
“The belief they have in trying to make all these new rules, they try to condense the competition to where everybody runs the same thing. That’s the goal. I never agreed with that and I never liked that — I’m an old-school racer,” Anderson said.