Team Press Releases

POMONA, Saturday: Johnny Gray started out this weekend with a new car, a new engine program, and a new teammate, his son, Shane. This is a great amount of challenges to tackle all at once. But the veteran driver and team owner took them on with a vengeance and came out the conqueror. Both Gray and his son qualified for the 50th annual NHRA Kragen O’Reilly Winternationals at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona and began the 2010 season on a high note. “To get both cars in the show was a goal that we had,” explained Gray. “You have to set your standards pretty high if you want to succeed. A lot of people said we couldn’t do it but we did. Both the crews worked real hard and the guys back at the shop all spent countless hours in...

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 13) -- Sophomore Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon opened this weekend's 50th annual Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals Thursday with a competitive 3.847 at 309.98 mph in his Lucas Oil/Speedco dragster. He hasn't looked back since, wrapping up the No. 8 position in the competitive field heading into Sunday's eliminations. "The first thing you need to do every weekend is make sure you get in the field," Langdon said. "We did that right out of the trailer so we've really been able to relax and try a bunch of different things for race day. "The second thing you try to do is qualify in the top half of the field. Luckily, our run was good enough for that also so we're really pumped up for Sunday. The groove here is...

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 13) -- On the strength of solid Friday run in the GEICO Powersports/Lucas Oil Top Fuel dragster, Morgan Lucas will start Sunday’s eliminations at the 50th annual Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals from the fifth spot. Friday’s run of 3.823 seconds at 316.90 mph was by far Lucas’ best run of the weekend. He will face Troy Buff, whose best qualifying pass was a 3.950 at 294.05 mph, in Sunday’s first elimination round. "I called the area around this track home for much of my life, so it’s nice to be able to perform well in Southern California," Lucas said. "Lucas Oil has a lot of employees and supporters in just down the road in Corona. It’s been great to see them at the track and I hope there are good results...

Jason Line and the Summit Racing team completed a solid qualifying effort on Saturday, capturing the ninth starting spot for Sunday’s final eliminations of the 50th annual Kragen O’Reilly Winternationals in Pomona, CA. Improving on every run, Line posted the third quickest time of the round at 6.619 seconds along with the second-fastest top speed of the weekend at 210.24 mph to earn his spot in the starting field. However, despite this encouraging progress, the 2009 Winternationals winner turned his attention towards further advancing his race car’s performance for race day. . “We kept improving our Summit Racing Pontiac throughout qualifying, but we still have some work to do before tomorrow,” said Line. “We’re not running as...

The final qualifying results from the 50th annual Kragen O'Reilly Winternationals will show that Summit Racing GXP driver Greg Anderson earned the sixth starting position with a 6.608-second, 209.82 mph run in the third session on Saturday afternoon. Although naturally disappointed after qualifying in the No. 1 position at this race in five of the last six years, the four-time Winternationals winner kept today’s showing in its proper perspective, having endured several hardships during the recently completed off season. In addition, Anderson remained keenly aware that the most important competition will come during tomorrow’s final eliminations. “It wasn’t a great day at the racetrack, but a bad day of racing is still better than...

[coverattach=1]POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 13, 2010) - Matt Hagan, driving the DieHard Dodge Charger Funny Car, rocked in qualifying for the 50th annual NHRA Winternationals, clocking the quickest pass of the third qualifying session of 4.091 seconds at 308.64 mph to claim fifth place at the end of four runs. In his first try, he came up with a 4.109/305.01, good for No. 5, then smoked the tires in the second round to record a 9.029/76.25 (No. 6). The DieHard team, led by crew chief Tommy DeLago, then went for broke in the final session, under nearly-perfect and cool conditions, but loss of traction slowed Hagan to a 4.783/167.43. "Qualifying went great," said Hagan, the 27-year-old Angus Cattle farmer from Christiansburg, Va. "We were...

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 13, 2010) - Local boy "Fast" Jack Beckman placed the Valvoline/Mail Terminal Services Dodge Charger Funny Car in No. 7 during qualifying for the 50th annual NHRA Winternationals. His quickest lap of 4.101 seconds at 310.91 mph came in the opening session on Thursday. He then matched it with a 4.104/307.93 in the final session, which was delayed for several hours because of oil downs and 50th anniversary festivities. In between, he posted a 7.562/84.82 and a 4.453/208.78. "It was nice," said Beckman, of Norco, Calif. "We book-ended our runs with 4.10s. We opened nice, picking up right where we left off from testing in Jupiter, Fla., in January. The Valvoline/MTS group, including new crew chief Rahn Tobler, is...

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 13, 2010) - Ron Capps drove the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger Funny Car into the No. 9 position during qualifying for the 50th annual NHRA Winternationals. Capps recorded his quickest pass of 4.144 seconds at 301.54 mph in today's third qualifying round. His other laps were a tire-smoking 8.725/75.85 on Thursday, a 4.167/289.76 on Friday, and a 7.868/83.13 in today's final attempt. "It's been a pretty tumultuous weekend so far for our NAPA team," said defending event champion Capps. "We smoked the tires the first round. In the second round of qualifying we ran a 4.16 and actually had an air line that blew off of it that slowed the car down. Tonight (under ideal conditions), Ace (crew chief Ed McCulloch) just...

POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 13, 2010) - Under ideal conditions and driving the FRAM Top Fuel dragster, Cory McClenathan took back the No. 1 position he earned on Thursday and lost on Friday by posting a stellar 3.787-second pass at 320.05 mph in the final round of qualifying for the 50th annual NHRA Winternationals. He beat out Larry Dixon for the top spot, after Friday's No. 1 qualifier came close, recording a 3.788/314.39 in the final pass and slipped to second. McClenathan's Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher rounded out the top three with a 3.801/320.05 in that session. This marked McClenathan's 34th No. 1 of his career, third of the event and his fifth at Auto Club Raceway. His other laps included a 4.467/171.34 and a...