<img src="http://www.nitromater.com/gallery/files/5/Krisher.jpg" alt="Krisher"align="right"borders="0" />
TOPEKA, Kan., June 1, 2008 - Team Chevy's Ron Krisher returned to the NHRA Pro Stock winner's circle for the first time in five years by defeating Larry Morgan in the final round of today's 20th annual O'Reilly Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka. It was Krisher's second victory at this event and it moved the Warren, Ohio resident from 10th place to eighth in the POWERade points standings.
"If I ever came out here with the thought I'd never win again then I'd quit," Krisher said. "We've won this one, and we're going to win some more this year, you wait and see."
Krisher entered raceday with his Valvoline Chevy Cobalt qualified in the No. 2 position. He defeated Todd Hoerner in round one with the quickest elapsed time of the day at 6.732 seconds, Rickie Jones in round two with a 6.745-second run at 204.01 mph, and Kurt Johnson in the semifinals with a 6.750 e.t. at 203.83 mph. In the championship heat, Krisher's Chevrolet took the win light with a 6.758-second run at 204.70 mph. Morgan's Dodge had a slight, but brief advantage off the starting line, but lost traction almost immediately and coasted to a 12.144 second run at 62.96 mph.
"We won here at Topeka a long time ago (2001) and we have a lot of respect for this racetrack," Krisher said. "I think we know a lot about how to race it. We have a good crew chief (Tommy Utt), good people, good sponsors, Valvoline, Chevrolet - you can't beat them. They've been with me a long time through this long drought and I can't say enough about how much I appreciate them for staying with me through the drought. But we're over it.
"Nobody beat us out there today - we took every round. It had a lot to do with Tommy Utt and a whole bunch of guys who make up this team. A lot of people don't understand, but they have to get this car ready to go in 45 minutes every time and there can't be any mistakes. They don't make any. The racecar was awesome today, although we were a little hot in the last run. We weren't as hot as Larry (Morgan) was, though. We had our worst 60-foot of the day but it was four hundredths better than Larry. Tommy Utt - you can't out judge him. He'll get you down the racetrack, and I have a good car, and it will get down the racetrack. It will eat a lot of wheel speed and not do stupid things. This car is forgiving and if you make a mistake, it will help you out."
It was the sixth career victory for Krisher and the 14th time that he has competed in a final round. His last previous win came at St. Louis in June of 2003 and his last final-round appearance came last July at the Mile-High Nationals in Denver. It was also Chevrolet's 151st all-time win in the NHRA Pro Stock category.
"Larry Morgan is a good friend of mine, and I'd like to knock him in the head for double-bulbing me out there," Krisher joked. "We've been friends a long time and he's certainly been a big help to me and my racing career, and I wish him the best.
"We're watching the points and we're sneaking up on it. We have two races left to get into the Pro Stock Shootout and we're focused on the Countdown cut as well."
In addition to Ron Krisher, there were three drivers in Chevy Cobalts that advanced to the semifinal round in Pro Stock including Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Kurt Johnson.
Kurt Johnson qualified the ACDelco Chevy Cobalt in the No. 3 spot, and e defeated Greg Anderson in round one, and V. Gaines in round two before losing to Krisher in round three. Johnson's two round wins were enough to advance him to first place in the POWERade Pro Stock standings for the first time in exactly five years.
"We made some big changes to get down the track in that last round, and we felt the car should have gone down the track in the second round," Johnson said. "But obviously, we've never run this car in conditions this hot. It was new at the beginning of the year, and even though we lost a close race, we learned a lot from that run. The car went from A to B with a 6.75; and also you have to consider that Jeggie couldn't get down that lane the run before ours. We lost but it was a good effort. We'll keep pecking away at it.
"It's a good feeling to be the points leader, but that only really matters at the end of the year. We'll definitely have to stay on our game and see if we can keep this ACDelco Cobalt on top, grabbing the 30 bonus points at the start of the Countdown to One in Charlotte and moving forward from there. Fortunately, I know I have the car and crew to do it."
Coughlin qualified the Jegs Chevrolet in the No. 13 position and defeated Greg Stanfield in round one, and Mike Edwards in round two before losing to Larry Morgan in the semifinals. Coughlin is now second in the Pro Stock standings, 20 points behind first-place Johnson.
"You always want to win but we're pretty pleased with the weekend and how it turned out," Coughlin said. "I can't say I'm too surprised. We didn't look that great in qualifying but that was more of a result of how things fell into place. We hurt a motor in Q2 and that was the session everyone was putting up the big numbers. We knew we had more than we had showed. All the ingredients are here; we just hadn't put them together right yet. Our confidence in our ability to run up front was still there and I believe we were in the top four performance-wise in both Rounds 1 and 2, so we probably finished about where we were supposed to this weekend."
In Funny Car, Tim Wilkerson advanced to his third final round of the season and expanded his lead in the POWERade standings to 81 points over second-place Ashley Force. Wilkerson qualified the Levi Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS in the No. 14 spot and defeated Frank Hawley in round one with a 4.889 e.t. at 307.79 mph, Jerry Toliver in round two with a 5.005-second run at 298.01 mph and Gary Scelzi in round three with a 6.009 e.t. at 194.32 mph. In the finals against John Force, Wilkerson's LRS car lost traction at half track and crossed the finish line with a 6.183 second run at 152.61 mph. Force won the race in a Mustang with a 4.996 e.t. at 299.66 mph.
"We don't go out here to get beat, I can tell you that," Wilkerson said. "We have this taste in our mouth and we like it, so we're going to keep beating on them. We're going to make some mistakes and we're going to do some things wrong. We had a bad weekend at Bristol and we struggled here in qualifying. I couldn't get it right and the thing kept beating me up. I should have made some changes earlier in the weekend, and then I finally made them there in round one and it showed it - it performed a little better. We were real lucky to get by Frank (Hawley) and those guys - they made the run of the weekend and we were fortunate to be there at the right place at the right time.
"We like the sound of being in first place. We'll keep going rounds, and that's my goal. First goal; qualify for the race. Second goal; go rounds. We did both of those this weekend, we padded our lead a little bit and Indy is getting closer. If we can't get there in good shape then hopefully we'll have something for them after that. We're going to keep on truckin and we're going to try and stay number one. We got a good crew, we have good sponsors and we'll continue on."
It was the 16th career final round appearance in the nitro Funny Car category for the Springfield, Ill., native, and the second time in his career that he had raced in a nitro Funny Car final round at Heartland Park Topeka (he was runner-up in 2002 to Tony Pedregon).
"I'm a little upset with myself for getting beat in the finals," Wilkerson said. "I thought I was smarter than that and I'm a little mad at myself for that. I look back at some runs, like at Gainesville when it was that hot, and I made really nice runs there, and today I just got greedy. I thought the track would be a little better than it was and I didn't pull back as far as I should have. We almost made it, though. It was so darn close on the computer, you can't believe it. That's part of it.
"The guys are doing a terrific job. You know how hot it was this weekend. We're all about to pass out over here and then when you lose your adrenaline after getting beat in the finals, it's a pretty big letdown. Our chins are up, though, and we're going to keep moving on."
The next stop on the 24-race NHRA POWERade circuit is the 11th annual Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Route 66 Nationals on June 5 - 8, at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.
PRO STOCK
Winner - Ron Krisher (Chevy Cobalt), 6.758ET/204.70MPH
Runner-up - Larry Morgan (Dodge), 12.144ET/62.96MPH
No. 1 Qualifier - Dave Connolly (Chevy Cobalt), 6.720ET/204.51MPH
Top 10 - 1. Kurt Johnson (Chevy Cobalt), 621; 2. Jeg Coughlin (Chevy Cobalt), 601; 3. Greg Anderson (Pontiac GXP), 592; 4. Jason Line (Pontiac GXP), 591; 5. V. Gaines (Dodge), 514; 6. Mike Edwards (Pontiac GXP), 497; 7. Allen Johnson (Dodge), 494; 8. Ron Krisher (Chevy Cobalt), 444; 9. Greg Stanfield (Pontiac GXP), 436; 10. Warren Johnson (Pontiac GXP), 388.
FUNNY CAR
Winner - John Force (Ford), 4.996ET/299.66MPH
Runner-up - Tim Wilkerson, (Chevy Impala SS), 6.183ET/152.61MPH
No. 1 Qualifier - Tony Bartone (Chevrolet), 4.881ET/301.81MPH
Top 10 - 1. Tim Wilkerson (Chevy Impala SS), 643; 2. Ashley Force (Ford), 562; 3. John Force (Ford), 520; 4. Cruz Pedregon (Toyota), 508; 5. Robert Hight (Ford), 506; 6. (TIED) Tony Pedregon (Chevy Impala SS) and Ron Capps (Dodge), 435; 8. Gary Densham (Chevy Impala SS), 407; 9. Mike Neff (Ford), 393; 10. Bob Tasca (Ford), 374.
TOP FUEL
Winner - Hillary Will, 4.744ET/304.53MPH
Runner-up - Larry Dixon, 4.960ET/281.42MPH
No. 1 Qualifier - Larry Dixon, 4.527ET/325.30MPH
Top 10 - 1. Tony Schumacher, 779; 2. Antron Brown, 670; 3. Larry Dixon, 659; 4. Hillary Will, 567; 5. Rod Fuller, 502; 6. Cory McClenathan, 527; 7. Brandon Bernstein, 480; 8. Doug Kalitta, 418; 9. Dave Grubnic, 391; 10. Doug Herbert, 377.
Team Chevy's Ron Krisher Wins NHRA Pro Stock at Heartland Park
Tim Wilkerson Drives Chevy Impala to Third Funny Car Final-Round of '08
TOPEKA, Kan., June 1, 2008 - Team Chevy's Ron Krisher returned to the NHRA Pro Stock winner's circle for the first time in five years by defeating Larry Morgan in the final round of today's 20th annual O'Reilly Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka. It was Krisher's second victory at this event and it moved the Warren, Ohio resident from 10th place to eighth in the POWERade points standings.
"If I ever came out here with the thought I'd never win again then I'd quit," Krisher said. "We've won this one, and we're going to win some more this year, you wait and see."
Krisher entered raceday with his Valvoline Chevy Cobalt qualified in the No. 2 position. He defeated Todd Hoerner in round one with the quickest elapsed time of the day at 6.732 seconds, Rickie Jones in round two with a 6.745-second run at 204.01 mph, and Kurt Johnson in the semifinals with a 6.750 e.t. at 203.83 mph. In the championship heat, Krisher's Chevrolet took the win light with a 6.758-second run at 204.70 mph. Morgan's Dodge had a slight, but brief advantage off the starting line, but lost traction almost immediately and coasted to a 12.144 second run at 62.96 mph.
"We won here at Topeka a long time ago (2001) and we have a lot of respect for this racetrack," Krisher said. "I think we know a lot about how to race it. We have a good crew chief (Tommy Utt), good people, good sponsors, Valvoline, Chevrolet - you can't beat them. They've been with me a long time through this long drought and I can't say enough about how much I appreciate them for staying with me through the drought. But we're over it.
"Nobody beat us out there today - we took every round. It had a lot to do with Tommy Utt and a whole bunch of guys who make up this team. A lot of people don't understand, but they have to get this car ready to go in 45 minutes every time and there can't be any mistakes. They don't make any. The racecar was awesome today, although we were a little hot in the last run. We weren't as hot as Larry (Morgan) was, though. We had our worst 60-foot of the day but it was four hundredths better than Larry. Tommy Utt - you can't out judge him. He'll get you down the racetrack, and I have a good car, and it will get down the racetrack. It will eat a lot of wheel speed and not do stupid things. This car is forgiving and if you make a mistake, it will help you out."
It was the sixth career victory for Krisher and the 14th time that he has competed in a final round. His last previous win came at St. Louis in June of 2003 and his last final-round appearance came last July at the Mile-High Nationals in Denver. It was also Chevrolet's 151st all-time win in the NHRA Pro Stock category.
"Larry Morgan is a good friend of mine, and I'd like to knock him in the head for double-bulbing me out there," Krisher joked. "We've been friends a long time and he's certainly been a big help to me and my racing career, and I wish him the best.
"We're watching the points and we're sneaking up on it. We have two races left to get into the Pro Stock Shootout and we're focused on the Countdown cut as well."
In addition to Ron Krisher, there were three drivers in Chevy Cobalts that advanced to the semifinal round in Pro Stock including Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Kurt Johnson.
Kurt Johnson qualified the ACDelco Chevy Cobalt in the No. 3 spot, and e defeated Greg Anderson in round one, and V. Gaines in round two before losing to Krisher in round three. Johnson's two round wins were enough to advance him to first place in the POWERade Pro Stock standings for the first time in exactly five years.
"We made some big changes to get down the track in that last round, and we felt the car should have gone down the track in the second round," Johnson said. "But obviously, we've never run this car in conditions this hot. It was new at the beginning of the year, and even though we lost a close race, we learned a lot from that run. The car went from A to B with a 6.75; and also you have to consider that Jeggie couldn't get down that lane the run before ours. We lost but it was a good effort. We'll keep pecking away at it.
"It's a good feeling to be the points leader, but that only really matters at the end of the year. We'll definitely have to stay on our game and see if we can keep this ACDelco Cobalt on top, grabbing the 30 bonus points at the start of the Countdown to One in Charlotte and moving forward from there. Fortunately, I know I have the car and crew to do it."
Coughlin qualified the Jegs Chevrolet in the No. 13 position and defeated Greg Stanfield in round one, and Mike Edwards in round two before losing to Larry Morgan in the semifinals. Coughlin is now second in the Pro Stock standings, 20 points behind first-place Johnson.
"You always want to win but we're pretty pleased with the weekend and how it turned out," Coughlin said. "I can't say I'm too surprised. We didn't look that great in qualifying but that was more of a result of how things fell into place. We hurt a motor in Q2 and that was the session everyone was putting up the big numbers. We knew we had more than we had showed. All the ingredients are here; we just hadn't put them together right yet. Our confidence in our ability to run up front was still there and I believe we were in the top four performance-wise in both Rounds 1 and 2, so we probably finished about where we were supposed to this weekend."
In Funny Car, Tim Wilkerson advanced to his third final round of the season and expanded his lead in the POWERade standings to 81 points over second-place Ashley Force. Wilkerson qualified the Levi Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Impala SS in the No. 14 spot and defeated Frank Hawley in round one with a 4.889 e.t. at 307.79 mph, Jerry Toliver in round two with a 5.005-second run at 298.01 mph and Gary Scelzi in round three with a 6.009 e.t. at 194.32 mph. In the finals against John Force, Wilkerson's LRS car lost traction at half track and crossed the finish line with a 6.183 second run at 152.61 mph. Force won the race in a Mustang with a 4.996 e.t. at 299.66 mph.
"We don't go out here to get beat, I can tell you that," Wilkerson said. "We have this taste in our mouth and we like it, so we're going to keep beating on them. We're going to make some mistakes and we're going to do some things wrong. We had a bad weekend at Bristol and we struggled here in qualifying. I couldn't get it right and the thing kept beating me up. I should have made some changes earlier in the weekend, and then I finally made them there in round one and it showed it - it performed a little better. We were real lucky to get by Frank (Hawley) and those guys - they made the run of the weekend and we were fortunate to be there at the right place at the right time.
"We like the sound of being in first place. We'll keep going rounds, and that's my goal. First goal; qualify for the race. Second goal; go rounds. We did both of those this weekend, we padded our lead a little bit and Indy is getting closer. If we can't get there in good shape then hopefully we'll have something for them after that. We're going to keep on truckin and we're going to try and stay number one. We got a good crew, we have good sponsors and we'll continue on."
It was the 16th career final round appearance in the nitro Funny Car category for the Springfield, Ill., native, and the second time in his career that he had raced in a nitro Funny Car final round at Heartland Park Topeka (he was runner-up in 2002 to Tony Pedregon).
"I'm a little upset with myself for getting beat in the finals," Wilkerson said. "I thought I was smarter than that and I'm a little mad at myself for that. I look back at some runs, like at Gainesville when it was that hot, and I made really nice runs there, and today I just got greedy. I thought the track would be a little better than it was and I didn't pull back as far as I should have. We almost made it, though. It was so darn close on the computer, you can't believe it. That's part of it.
"The guys are doing a terrific job. You know how hot it was this weekend. We're all about to pass out over here and then when you lose your adrenaline after getting beat in the finals, it's a pretty big letdown. Our chins are up, though, and we're going to keep moving on."
The next stop on the 24-race NHRA POWERade circuit is the 11th annual Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Route 66 Nationals on June 5 - 8, at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.
PRO STOCK
Winner - Ron Krisher (Chevy Cobalt), 6.758ET/204.70MPH
Runner-up - Larry Morgan (Dodge), 12.144ET/62.96MPH
No. 1 Qualifier - Dave Connolly (Chevy Cobalt), 6.720ET/204.51MPH
Top 10 - 1. Kurt Johnson (Chevy Cobalt), 621; 2. Jeg Coughlin (Chevy Cobalt), 601; 3. Greg Anderson (Pontiac GXP), 592; 4. Jason Line (Pontiac GXP), 591; 5. V. Gaines (Dodge), 514; 6. Mike Edwards (Pontiac GXP), 497; 7. Allen Johnson (Dodge), 494; 8. Ron Krisher (Chevy Cobalt), 444; 9. Greg Stanfield (Pontiac GXP), 436; 10. Warren Johnson (Pontiac GXP), 388.
FUNNY CAR
Winner - John Force (Ford), 4.996ET/299.66MPH
Runner-up - Tim Wilkerson, (Chevy Impala SS), 6.183ET/152.61MPH
No. 1 Qualifier - Tony Bartone (Chevrolet), 4.881ET/301.81MPH
Top 10 - 1. Tim Wilkerson (Chevy Impala SS), 643; 2. Ashley Force (Ford), 562; 3. John Force (Ford), 520; 4. Cruz Pedregon (Toyota), 508; 5. Robert Hight (Ford), 506; 6. (TIED) Tony Pedregon (Chevy Impala SS) and Ron Capps (Dodge), 435; 8. Gary Densham (Chevy Impala SS), 407; 9. Mike Neff (Ford), 393; 10. Bob Tasca (Ford), 374.
TOP FUEL
Winner - Hillary Will, 4.744ET/304.53MPH
Runner-up - Larry Dixon, 4.960ET/281.42MPH
No. 1 Qualifier - Larry Dixon, 4.527ET/325.30MPH
Top 10 - 1. Tony Schumacher, 779; 2. Antron Brown, 670; 3. Larry Dixon, 659; 4. Hillary Will, 567; 5. Rod Fuller, 502; 6. Cory McClenathan, 527; 7. Brandon Bernstein, 480; 8. Doug Kalitta, 418; 9. Dave Grubnic, 391; 10. Doug Herbert, 377.
