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GAINESVILLE, Fla., March 17, 2008 -Team Chevy rolled to an impressive afternoon of quarter-mile victories at today's 39th annual ACDelco Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. Category wins for the red bowtie included an all-GM final round in Pro Stock won by Jeg Coughlin Jr., an all-Chevy Impala SS Funny Car final round won by defending POWERade champion Tony Pedregon, Frank Manzo's 73rd career national-event victory in Lucas Oil Alcohol Funny Car, and additional Lucas Oil Sportsman wins for Chevrolet in Comp Eliminator, Stock Eliminator and Super Gas.
Jeg Coughlin Jr. captured his first victory of the season by driving his Chevy Cobalt to a final-round win over Jason Line, the second time this year Coughlin has advanced to the title round. Coughlin entered raceday with the yellow-and-black Jegs Mail Order Chevrolet qualified in the No. 3 position. Coughlin defeated Ron Krisher in round one with a 6.618 e.t. at 207.62 mph, Greg Anderson in round two running 6.645 seconds at 208.07 mph, and Johnny Gray in round three with a 6.661 e.t. at 208.23 mph. In the finals against Jason Line, Coughlin's Cobalt launched first with .026 reaction and held off Line's Pontiac GXP all the way to the stripe, crossing the line in 6.652 seconds at 208.07 mph. Line's GXP ran 6.656 seconds at 209.10 mph. Coughlin's margin of victory was .028 of a second.
"It feels great, without question," Coughlin said. "It certainly feels like we earned this one. The entire weekend was a grind, from losing Friday's two qualifying sessions to rain on through to the trials and tribulations of race day. It took a toll on us all. But the reward was worth it."
"All the races are special and they're all wonderful to win but this is the Gatornationals. It has such a history. It's one of our marquee events. I remember coming here as a boy when my pop raced here and now I'm sitting here in the winner's circle with my son. It makes it very special."
For Coughlin, it was his 39th career Pro Stock victory, his second at Gainesville Raceway (his first was in 2001) and the 61st time he had advanced to a final round. The victory also moved Coughlin into first place in the POWERade standings, 46 points ahead of second-place Jason Line.
"To come back after beating Greg and then Johnny Grey in the semifinals, we knew we would have our hands full against Jason (Line)," Coughlin said. "We both put 6.65s on the board and I think the crowd had a good time."
Line advanced to his second final round of the season by qualifying his new Summit Racing Pontiac GXP in the No. 8 spot. He defeated Rickie Jones in round one, Warren Johnson in the quarterfinals and Mike Edwards in round three before losing to Coughlin in the finals. It was the 17th career final round appearance for Line and his second at Gainesville Raceway (Line won this event in 2005).
"The Summit Racing team did a great job this weekend preparing our new Pontiac GXP for this race," Line said. "We tested and worked hard and came into Gainesville with every intention of getting the win. We just came up a little short. It was a great race, though, against Jeggie, and I think the fans got their money's worth here today. There's a long way to go. We knew coming into this year that it was going to be a tough battle. We'll head back to North Carolina and start getting ready for Houston. We're second and third in the POWERade points with the goal of putting both of the Summit Racing Pontiacs at the top of the standings."
In addition to Coughlin and Line, Mike Edwards was the third driver in a GM-branded car to advance to the semifinal round in Pro Stock. Edwards qualified the Penhall Pontiac in the No. 4 position and defeated V. Gaines in round one and Allen Johnson in round two before losing to Line in the semifinals. Edwards advanced to fifth place in the Pro Stock standings and is now just one eliminator round shy of his 200th career round win.
"That's two races in a row we've gone to the semis," Edwards said. "We're happy with that kind of consistency and the progress we're making. We have a whole new combination with our engine program, we're just trying to learn it a little better. We're getting some breaks, but hey, you need those every now and then. I have to thank everybody on the team, they're doing an awesome job, Terry (Adams), and Al (Lindsey), Josh (Robinson) and John (Phillips), the whole team, and also the guys at the engine shop - it was a great weekend. Trying to improve at each race is our goals, and getting better is the main thing we're hoping to accomplish for Young Life, Penhall, GM and all the people that support us.
"The engine program coming along just as we expected - I'm excited with where it is. We've been working on it, we're going to go back and work on it some more and I'm pretty pleased with it. There's still a long way to go but I'm happy with it."
Tony Pedregon's first victory of the season came in an exciting all-Chevy Impala Funny Car final-round duel with drag racing veteran Gary Densham. Pedregon entered raceday with the Q Horsepower Chevrolet qualified in the No. 1 spot. He defeated Jerry Toliver in round one running 4.861 seconds at 317.12 mph, Ashley Force in round two with a 5.982 e.t. at 239.10 mph and Jim Head in round three with a 5.034 second run at 308.43 mph. In the finals against Densham, Pedregon's Chevy Impala SS took a narrow lead at the starting line and then charged to a winning 4.921 e.t at 315.27 mph. Densham's Impala closed bit fell short with a 4.924 second run at 309.13 mph. Pedregon's margin of victory was.0248 of a second.
"This was a good day for us," Pedregon said. "The weather got a little warmer than the crew chiefs would have liked, but that puts us all through the test. Under these circumstances, the teams that can adapt better are going to have an advantage. Really, we ran good when we had to, and we had a couple of rounds there when we did what it took. Dickie (Venables), over the years, has been able to make good calls and race the conditions. We pulled it back and slowed down, but one round we were really aggressive with the Q Horsepower Chevrolet, the next we were maybe a little too conservative. I said, 'Dickie, split the difference.' I know that's what he was thinking. He had a very good game plan coming into today's racing. This is a great day for us to be able to recover, especially from what happened a little over a month ago."
It was Pedregon's 37th career victory and his second win at Gainesville Raceway, his first Gatornationals triumph since 2002. Even with two first-round losses at the season's first two contests, the 43 year-old Pedregon moved from outside the top 10 in the points standings all the way up to fourth place. And with today's victory, the two-time POWERade champion has now won at least one national event in 12 of the last 13 race seasons.
"That final round against Gary is why people buy tickets," Pedregon said. "This is still one of the few sports where you can have that kind of interaction in the pits - we love it, the fans love it, and really to be able to deliver a good close race in the finals is what it's all about. I have a lot of respect for Gary Densham. That round could have gone either way."
Three Chevy Impala drivers advanced to the semifinal round of eliminations including Pedregon, Densham and Levi Ray & Shoup driver Tim Wilkerson. After earning No. 1 qualifying honors at the first two contests, Wilkerson qualified the LRS Chevy Impala SS in the No. 3 position and then went on to defeat Mike Neff in round one, and Jack Beckman in round two before losing to Densham in round three. Wilkerson's 4.848 e.t. in round two against Beckman was the quickest elapsed time during eliminations on Sunday, and although he lost to Densham in the semifinals, his 4.925 second run was the quickest in that session.
"The weaker you make the car to go down the racetrack, the slower it reacts," explained Wilkerson. "I was way behind the eight ball against Gary and got left on. Good for him. Gary did a good job and he deserved to win that round.
"We have a good car. We get our driver tuned up a little bit and we'll be all right. This motivates me, though. Hopefully it will be strong motivation for the rest of the year. It's really a shame when you have such a good car. We had four hundredths (of a second) on Gary and a full tenth ahead of Tony (Pedregon) in that round, but there are two Chevrolets in the final and that's a good thing. We've had three good races in a row, the cars consistent, it's fast, the parts look nice, and we're happy with all of that, plus the guys are doing a great job. They're emotionally beat up pretty bad right now - it's disappointing. We'll stay tomorrow, test some blowers and see how things go."
In the Lucas Oil Alcohol Funny Car, Frank Manzo captured his 73rd career national-event victory when he drove his Lucas Oil Chevrolet to a final-round victory over Marc White. In the championship heat, Manzo's Chevrolet pulled away from White's Ford and crossed the finish line with a 5.502 e.t. at 264.03 mph. White followed with a 5.645 second run at 256.75 mph. The margin of victory for Manzo's Chevrolet was .14 of a second. It was his first victory at the Gatornationals since 2002.
"I'm a little tired," Manzo said. "We had to stay here pretty late last night to run the last qualifying session because of the weather, and then we were back early this morning at 5:30 getting ready to race. We came into this race with a plan and the weather kind of turned it upside down. We stuck to our guns, and kept running the car. We're working on some new stuff and everybody thought we ran really well at Pomona. I said we didn't. We starting to learn a new combination. We made a couple of good runs, a 5.49, and a 5.50 in the final. The Lucas Oil Chevrolet has really picked up the performance level and that's what needed to happen to stay in front of everybody. There were a lot of great runs by a lot of other cars here this weekend. We were just fortunate to win.
"It's been a long time since we last won here. I've been coming here faithfully for over 30 years, maybe missing one or two along the way. I think maybe I've won here two or three or four times. This has been one of my toughest tracks. In the final I wanted to do what I've done here over the last 30 years, and I said, 'You know what? When I do that, I lose.' I stuck to my plan and it worked out."
Other ACDelco Gatornationals winners this weekend for Chevrolet included Rodger Brogdon of Tomball, Tex., in Comp Eliminator, Peter Biondo of Maspeth, N.Y., in Stock, and Brian Forrester of Parrish, Fla., in Super Gas.
The next stop on the 24-race NHRA POWERade circuit is the 21st annual O'Reilly NHRA Spring nationals at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Tex., on March 28 - 30.
PRO STOCK
Winner - Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Chevy Cobalt), 6.652ET/208.07MPH
Runner-up - Jason Line (Pontiac GXP), 6.656ET/209.10MPH
No. 1 Qualifier - Warren Johnson (Pontiac GXP), 6.665ET/208.36MPH
Top 10 - 1. Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Chevy Cobalt), 287; 2. Jason Line (Pontiac GXP), 241; 3. Greg Anderson (Pontiac GXP), 229; 4. Allen Johnson (Dodge), 186; 5. Mike Edwards (Pontiac), 179; 6. V. Gaines (Dodge), 175; 7. Warren Johnson (Pontiac GXP), 169; 8. Kurt Johnson (Chevy Cobalt), 168; 9. Justin Humphreys (Pontiac GXP), 137; 10. Johnny Gray (Dodge), 133.
FUNNY CAR
Winner - Tony Pedregon (Chevy Impala SS), 4.921ET/315.27MPH
Runner-up - Gary Densham (Chevy Impala SS), 4.924ET/309.13MPH
No. 1 Qualifier - Tony Pedregon (Chevy Impala SS), 4.780ET/326.40MPH
Top 10 - 1. Robert Hight (Ford), 222; 2. Jack Beckman (Dodge), 216; 3. Cruz Pedregon (Chevy Impala SS), 202; 4. Tony Pedregon (Chevy Impala SS), 182; 5. Gary Densham (Chevy Impala SS), 175; 6. Jim Head (Toyota), 156; 7. Tim Wilkerson (Chevy Impala SS), 152; 8. John Force (Ford), 147; 9. Ashley Force (Ford), 137; 10. Scott Kalitta (Toyota), 118.
TOP FUEL
Winner - Tony Schumacher, 4.603ET/325.37MPH
Runner-up - Brandon Bernstein, 4.665ET/323.27MPH
No. 1 Qualifier - Alan Bradshaw, 4.547ET/306.95MPH
Top 10 - 1. Tony Schumacher, 305; 2. Larry Dixon, 253; 3. Brandon Bernstein, 183; 4. Rod Fuller, 180; 5. (tie) Antron Brown, Dave Grubnic, 167; 7. Hillary Will, 162; 8. Cory McClenathan, 159; 9. Morgan Lucas, 117; 10. Doug Herbert, 116.
Team Chevy's Banner Weekend at the 39th annual ACDelco NHRA Gatornationals
GAINESVILLE, Fla., March 17, 2008 -Team Chevy rolled to an impressive afternoon of quarter-mile victories at today's 39th annual ACDelco Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway. Category wins for the red bowtie included an all-GM final round in Pro Stock won by Jeg Coughlin Jr., an all-Chevy Impala SS Funny Car final round won by defending POWERade champion Tony Pedregon, Frank Manzo's 73rd career national-event victory in Lucas Oil Alcohol Funny Car, and additional Lucas Oil Sportsman wins for Chevrolet in Comp Eliminator, Stock Eliminator and Super Gas.
Jeg Coughlin Jr. captured his first victory of the season by driving his Chevy Cobalt to a final-round win over Jason Line, the second time this year Coughlin has advanced to the title round. Coughlin entered raceday with the yellow-and-black Jegs Mail Order Chevrolet qualified in the No. 3 position. Coughlin defeated Ron Krisher in round one with a 6.618 e.t. at 207.62 mph, Greg Anderson in round two running 6.645 seconds at 208.07 mph, and Johnny Gray in round three with a 6.661 e.t. at 208.23 mph. In the finals against Jason Line, Coughlin's Cobalt launched first with .026 reaction and held off Line's Pontiac GXP all the way to the stripe, crossing the line in 6.652 seconds at 208.07 mph. Line's GXP ran 6.656 seconds at 209.10 mph. Coughlin's margin of victory was .028 of a second.
"It feels great, without question," Coughlin said. "It certainly feels like we earned this one. The entire weekend was a grind, from losing Friday's two qualifying sessions to rain on through to the trials and tribulations of race day. It took a toll on us all. But the reward was worth it."
"All the races are special and they're all wonderful to win but this is the Gatornationals. It has such a history. It's one of our marquee events. I remember coming here as a boy when my pop raced here and now I'm sitting here in the winner's circle with my son. It makes it very special."
For Coughlin, it was his 39th career Pro Stock victory, his second at Gainesville Raceway (his first was in 2001) and the 61st time he had advanced to a final round. The victory also moved Coughlin into first place in the POWERade standings, 46 points ahead of second-place Jason Line.
"To come back after beating Greg and then Johnny Grey in the semifinals, we knew we would have our hands full against Jason (Line)," Coughlin said. "We both put 6.65s on the board and I think the crowd had a good time."
Line advanced to his second final round of the season by qualifying his new Summit Racing Pontiac GXP in the No. 8 spot. He defeated Rickie Jones in round one, Warren Johnson in the quarterfinals and Mike Edwards in round three before losing to Coughlin in the finals. It was the 17th career final round appearance for Line and his second at Gainesville Raceway (Line won this event in 2005).
"The Summit Racing team did a great job this weekend preparing our new Pontiac GXP for this race," Line said. "We tested and worked hard and came into Gainesville with every intention of getting the win. We just came up a little short. It was a great race, though, against Jeggie, and I think the fans got their money's worth here today. There's a long way to go. We knew coming into this year that it was going to be a tough battle. We'll head back to North Carolina and start getting ready for Houston. We're second and third in the POWERade points with the goal of putting both of the Summit Racing Pontiacs at the top of the standings."
In addition to Coughlin and Line, Mike Edwards was the third driver in a GM-branded car to advance to the semifinal round in Pro Stock. Edwards qualified the Penhall Pontiac in the No. 4 position and defeated V. Gaines in round one and Allen Johnson in round two before losing to Line in the semifinals. Edwards advanced to fifth place in the Pro Stock standings and is now just one eliminator round shy of his 200th career round win.
"That's two races in a row we've gone to the semis," Edwards said. "We're happy with that kind of consistency and the progress we're making. We have a whole new combination with our engine program, we're just trying to learn it a little better. We're getting some breaks, but hey, you need those every now and then. I have to thank everybody on the team, they're doing an awesome job, Terry (Adams), and Al (Lindsey), Josh (Robinson) and John (Phillips), the whole team, and also the guys at the engine shop - it was a great weekend. Trying to improve at each race is our goals, and getting better is the main thing we're hoping to accomplish for Young Life, Penhall, GM and all the people that support us.
"The engine program coming along just as we expected - I'm excited with where it is. We've been working on it, we're going to go back and work on it some more and I'm pretty pleased with it. There's still a long way to go but I'm happy with it."
Tony Pedregon's first victory of the season came in an exciting all-Chevy Impala Funny Car final-round duel with drag racing veteran Gary Densham. Pedregon entered raceday with the Q Horsepower Chevrolet qualified in the No. 1 spot. He defeated Jerry Toliver in round one running 4.861 seconds at 317.12 mph, Ashley Force in round two with a 5.982 e.t. at 239.10 mph and Jim Head in round three with a 5.034 second run at 308.43 mph. In the finals against Densham, Pedregon's Chevy Impala SS took a narrow lead at the starting line and then charged to a winning 4.921 e.t at 315.27 mph. Densham's Impala closed bit fell short with a 4.924 second run at 309.13 mph. Pedregon's margin of victory was.0248 of a second.
"This was a good day for us," Pedregon said. "The weather got a little warmer than the crew chiefs would have liked, but that puts us all through the test. Under these circumstances, the teams that can adapt better are going to have an advantage. Really, we ran good when we had to, and we had a couple of rounds there when we did what it took. Dickie (Venables), over the years, has been able to make good calls and race the conditions. We pulled it back and slowed down, but one round we were really aggressive with the Q Horsepower Chevrolet, the next we were maybe a little too conservative. I said, 'Dickie, split the difference.' I know that's what he was thinking. He had a very good game plan coming into today's racing. This is a great day for us to be able to recover, especially from what happened a little over a month ago."
It was Pedregon's 37th career victory and his second win at Gainesville Raceway, his first Gatornationals triumph since 2002. Even with two first-round losses at the season's first two contests, the 43 year-old Pedregon moved from outside the top 10 in the points standings all the way up to fourth place. And with today's victory, the two-time POWERade champion has now won at least one national event in 12 of the last 13 race seasons.
"That final round against Gary is why people buy tickets," Pedregon said. "This is still one of the few sports where you can have that kind of interaction in the pits - we love it, the fans love it, and really to be able to deliver a good close race in the finals is what it's all about. I have a lot of respect for Gary Densham. That round could have gone either way."
Three Chevy Impala drivers advanced to the semifinal round of eliminations including Pedregon, Densham and Levi Ray & Shoup driver Tim Wilkerson. After earning No. 1 qualifying honors at the first two contests, Wilkerson qualified the LRS Chevy Impala SS in the No. 3 position and then went on to defeat Mike Neff in round one, and Jack Beckman in round two before losing to Densham in round three. Wilkerson's 4.848 e.t. in round two against Beckman was the quickest elapsed time during eliminations on Sunday, and although he lost to Densham in the semifinals, his 4.925 second run was the quickest in that session.
"The weaker you make the car to go down the racetrack, the slower it reacts," explained Wilkerson. "I was way behind the eight ball against Gary and got left on. Good for him. Gary did a good job and he deserved to win that round.
"We have a good car. We get our driver tuned up a little bit and we'll be all right. This motivates me, though. Hopefully it will be strong motivation for the rest of the year. It's really a shame when you have such a good car. We had four hundredths (of a second) on Gary and a full tenth ahead of Tony (Pedregon) in that round, but there are two Chevrolets in the final and that's a good thing. We've had three good races in a row, the cars consistent, it's fast, the parts look nice, and we're happy with all of that, plus the guys are doing a great job. They're emotionally beat up pretty bad right now - it's disappointing. We'll stay tomorrow, test some blowers and see how things go."
In the Lucas Oil Alcohol Funny Car, Frank Manzo captured his 73rd career national-event victory when he drove his Lucas Oil Chevrolet to a final-round victory over Marc White. In the championship heat, Manzo's Chevrolet pulled away from White's Ford and crossed the finish line with a 5.502 e.t. at 264.03 mph. White followed with a 5.645 second run at 256.75 mph. The margin of victory for Manzo's Chevrolet was .14 of a second. It was his first victory at the Gatornationals since 2002.
"I'm a little tired," Manzo said. "We had to stay here pretty late last night to run the last qualifying session because of the weather, and then we were back early this morning at 5:30 getting ready to race. We came into this race with a plan and the weather kind of turned it upside down. We stuck to our guns, and kept running the car. We're working on some new stuff and everybody thought we ran really well at Pomona. I said we didn't. We starting to learn a new combination. We made a couple of good runs, a 5.49, and a 5.50 in the final. The Lucas Oil Chevrolet has really picked up the performance level and that's what needed to happen to stay in front of everybody. There were a lot of great runs by a lot of other cars here this weekend. We were just fortunate to win.
"It's been a long time since we last won here. I've been coming here faithfully for over 30 years, maybe missing one or two along the way. I think maybe I've won here two or three or four times. This has been one of my toughest tracks. In the final I wanted to do what I've done here over the last 30 years, and I said, 'You know what? When I do that, I lose.' I stuck to my plan and it worked out."
Other ACDelco Gatornationals winners this weekend for Chevrolet included Rodger Brogdon of Tomball, Tex., in Comp Eliminator, Peter Biondo of Maspeth, N.Y., in Stock, and Brian Forrester of Parrish, Fla., in Super Gas.
The next stop on the 24-race NHRA POWERade circuit is the 21st annual O'Reilly NHRA Spring nationals at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown, Tex., on March 28 - 30.
PRO STOCK
Winner - Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Chevy Cobalt), 6.652ET/208.07MPH
Runner-up - Jason Line (Pontiac GXP), 6.656ET/209.10MPH
No. 1 Qualifier - Warren Johnson (Pontiac GXP), 6.665ET/208.36MPH
Top 10 - 1. Jeg Coughlin Jr. (Chevy Cobalt), 287; 2. Jason Line (Pontiac GXP), 241; 3. Greg Anderson (Pontiac GXP), 229; 4. Allen Johnson (Dodge), 186; 5. Mike Edwards (Pontiac), 179; 6. V. Gaines (Dodge), 175; 7. Warren Johnson (Pontiac GXP), 169; 8. Kurt Johnson (Chevy Cobalt), 168; 9. Justin Humphreys (Pontiac GXP), 137; 10. Johnny Gray (Dodge), 133.
FUNNY CAR
Winner - Tony Pedregon (Chevy Impala SS), 4.921ET/315.27MPH
Runner-up - Gary Densham (Chevy Impala SS), 4.924ET/309.13MPH
No. 1 Qualifier - Tony Pedregon (Chevy Impala SS), 4.780ET/326.40MPH
Top 10 - 1. Robert Hight (Ford), 222; 2. Jack Beckman (Dodge), 216; 3. Cruz Pedregon (Chevy Impala SS), 202; 4. Tony Pedregon (Chevy Impala SS), 182; 5. Gary Densham (Chevy Impala SS), 175; 6. Jim Head (Toyota), 156; 7. Tim Wilkerson (Chevy Impala SS), 152; 8. John Force (Ford), 147; 9. Ashley Force (Ford), 137; 10. Scott Kalitta (Toyota), 118.
TOP FUEL
Winner - Tony Schumacher, 4.603ET/325.37MPH
Runner-up - Brandon Bernstein, 4.665ET/323.27MPH
No. 1 Qualifier - Alan Bradshaw, 4.547ET/306.95MPH
Top 10 - 1. Tony Schumacher, 305; 2. Larry Dixon, 253; 3. Brandon Bernstein, 183; 4. Rod Fuller, 180; 5. (tie) Antron Brown, Dave Grubnic, 167; 7. Hillary Will, 162; 8. Cory McClenathan, 159; 9. Morgan Lucas, 117; 10. Doug Herbert, 116.
