Tony Shoe Wins..... (1 Viewer)

[Bullet]

I have never felt so much disappointment for someone as I did for Doug Kaliltta today after Tony won the race and set the record, snatching the title. I genuinely could have cried for him.

The Mac Tools team have been so close for so long and really deserved to win.

Unfortunately for them Alan Johnson walks on water and he snagged it for the Army team. He did what he had to do and I was in awe. Had it been any other team than Kalitta's I would have marveled a little more at what had just happened and enjoyed it a bit more, unfortunately I couldn't.

Doug Kalitta, you are a class act and should hold your head high.

Rahn Tobler, you are a champion in everyone's books.

Alan Johnson, you are simply amazing.

Tony S, congratulations.

 

[willy]

Why are you targeting me here?? Is it because me and a handful of other people have the guts to say what they really feel?? Yes I watched qualifying last night but when a driver says he clearly saw he was supposed to shut the car off that shows a complete disregard for the safety of himself and the other driver. Regardless of whether the tree was activated or not he should have been a responsible driver and shut it off when "he clearly saw him" tell him to do so. Next time don't try to call me out on something when I am not the only one feeling this way.

You're sh!ttin me right? Are you Robert K's wife?? I'm pointing this to all that seem to have a boil on their butt over this. (not just you)

So a $20,000 fine isn't enough? That is a stout chunk of change..because it's not supposed to happen..ever. Now...are you saying they should have disqualified him? Disqualified him to compete on Sunday? PFFFFTT..why don't you guys eat the crap you just put in the congratulatory cereal that AJ and Shoe deserved eh?

I was rooting for Doug..but you can't deny what was accomplished in the final..you just can't..and still have any shade of credibility left. (thanks Kell)

Just bite the bullet and say 'good job'.

 

[.]

I was hoping Doug would get his first title but I gotta give credit where credit is due…… Nice job A.J.!!!

This will go down in history as the best final ever!!!

 

[Bobby]

force won again, schumacher won again.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

[Bullet]

force won again, schumacher won again.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

You mean Coil and Johnson won again...

 

[nitrobobby]

Tonys Comeback

I never doubted tony's will to comeback . we met him in the pits in st. louis for an autograph. he was very upbeat in his demeanor! that race started his charge to the top .

 

[BlueStangGT]

Well, I guess that's about as exciting of a finish as anyone could possibly hope for in a drag race, huh? Alan Johnson is THE MAN, plain and simple. Congrats to the whole team, they certainly deserve all the accolades due them after such an amazing run from WAY back in the pack!


Oh yeah - Welcome to the Mater, Bob P!

 

[hellfirejim]

First I have to kudos to the entire Army time. Not for just last night but for the comeback that took the entire second half of the season to accomplish.

I to feel really bad for Doug as he also deserved it. Obviously it was just not meant to be. He will get there and I hope he does.

With 3 championships decided at the last race by only a few points, somebody please remind me as to why we need an artifical drama championship???

As for disqualifying Tony for not shutting off, if Stewart REALLY wanted that car shutoff it would have been shutoff. I have seen him do it and I have seen Buster do it. He simply would have stopped him from staging. Remember the amount of effort it took to get Capps to shutoff with their mysterious oil leak? He could have done the same thing. He had the time and he chose not to. Watch the tape? He shrugged his shoulders and said ok. If you feel the need to place blame there are more than enough places to place it.

Since this will be the final real championship, I can't imagine any better senario that what came to pass. Thank you to all involved and I was glad I got to see it as this will be talked about for a long time.

jim

 

[DLB]

As for disqualifying Tony for not shutting off, if Stewart REALLY wanted that car shutoff it would have been shutoff. I have seen him do it and I have seen Buster do it. He simply would have stopped him from staging. Remember the amount of effort it took to get Capps to shutoff with their mysterious oil leak? He could have done the same thing. He had the time and he chose not to. Watch the tape? He shrugged his shoulders and said ok. If you feel the need to place blame there are more than enough places to place it.
jim

I could not have said it any better.
I think people need to rewatch the qualifying show. Regardless of any spin put on it by ANYBODY else, that is ANY NHRA commentator, ANY Mater, etc. - Rick could have done it. He walked right beside the car while AJ was standing on the side of the engine with said leak for goodness sake! Come on guys - grow up! Like David Williams said - just bite the bullet and say good job. Doug has WAY more class than this place.

 

[RickyD]

It is a comeback and win like this that will NEVER be repeated. Next year the same thing could happen in the final but it will never have the credibility with the new points sys.

 

[merc49]

Note to NHRA.....

....it ain't broke. Don't fix it. If the NHRA insists on going through with this new points deal they will prove only one thing...they are complete MORONS.

The weekend was magic. No amount of tampering or "tweaking" could have made it any better, and would only have detracted from the most wonderful final season event in drag racing history.

NHRA suits, KEEP YOUR DAMNED HANDS OFF!

 

[Bobby]

I think the 20 point bonus for the record was unfortunate. basically they caught a break with the weather. if melanie hadn't shot the moon on the tree in the semis we'd have had two record setting runs.

people say next year will be welfare racing how is getting lucky with the conditions much different? who thinks kallita wouldn't have been right with him in that final?

that would be been cool. oh well. I 'm sorry but I'm just let down bigtime.
if someone had to run the table on the last day to come from behind to win, why couldn't it have been Capps. Rahn did a great job all year, so did Doug,
they deserve to go down in the record books as champs, as does Ron.
one more feather in the other guys caps really doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things.


nothing against anyone but domination is boring.

 

[Nunz]

Bob, domination can be boring. But in the fuel classes, I think we had tons of drama because of a lack of domination. As much as I am a Force fan, I really, really wanted Capps to win this thing. Force really just pulled it out at the end of the season. He didn't dominate this year. Beckman set a national record in the other lane, but got beat to the stripe, that is just awesome racing! And in Top Fuel---again, just sheer drama. To overcome the odds like that Army team did was just absolutel unreal, I got chills watching last night. I think this was the most incredible season-ender ever.

 

[Bullard Anderson]

Congrats to TShue and Co. To win a championship that way is ultra amazing. They took advantage of every opportunity! Awesome.

 

[luxexpress]

Congrats to Tony, Don, Alan and the entire Army team!!!!! They could easily have given up (gone into "testing mode") but they kept plugging and won the championship in the most dramatic, exciting way in NHRA history. Doug Kalitta and the MAC team put up a great fight and had an excellent season. His championship will come. However, it is time to recognize the Army team as perhaps the greatest top fuel team in history. Alan Johnson may be the best fuel tuner in history, Tony is a dramatically underrated driver and Don has assembled and given the proper resources to them to succeed. Kudos to all for a great season and winning perhaps the last true NHRA Top Fuel Championship.

 

[PJ]

You didn't watch the 5 minute segment of NHRA2day did you? Had you watched the analysis you would know that Alan made eye contact with Rick. He knew Rick ordered him to shut down.

Rick has a button to start the tree and does not have a button to control a red light for one lane.

What you call ridicule is my DISGUST with the NHRA and the Schumacher Team. Not ridicule by any stretch. Somebody could have been killed last night. A $20K fine is nothing to these guys. They should have been bounced from the event.

TV ratings was the name of the game. Had the NHRA taken appropriate action Tony would have been out of the race.

No Rick Stewart failed. He walked right by Alan and did not shut him off. He is the ultimate one in control and could have not even given the light. It's dark, Alan's trying to check things over. Rick needs to grab abhold of him to make sure he knows to shut it off.

 

[PJ]

I'm a Kalitta fan and was hoping he could pull it out.

When Beckman ran the numbers he did just before Tony I knew Tony would run quick enough. I was hoping it would be too quick for thr 1% backup.

I must say the charge the Sarge made the last half of the season is amazing. It's a shame we'll never have the chance to see something like thsat again as the new system will take that away.

Congrats to the Army team and to the Mac team. I felt so bad for Doug, hopefully next year.

 

[DragFan2]

Why are you targeting me here?? Is it because me and a handful of other people have the guts to say what they really feel?? Yes I watched qualifying last night but when a driver says he clearly saw he was supposed to shut the car off that shows a complete disregard for the safety of himself and the other driver. Regardless of whether the tree was activated or not he should have been a responsible driver and shut it off when "he clearly saw him" tell him to do so. Next time don't try to call me out on something when I am not the only one feeling this way.

Lisa and others,

I suspect that the rule book had nothing in it regarding such an incident, so NHRA once again had to use their discretion. They took the easy way out and decided to just fine DSR/AJ & Tony vs. take away points. You may see a rule *addition* next year, but for this year it's over.

I was a Doug Kallita fan all the way, and I SO did not want to see what happened happen, mainly because I felt that Doug deserved it this year, but how can you not be impressed with the late season charge that AJ & Tony made? Doug and Rahn played it too safe in the last 6 races or so, maybe not by choice, but they really did not have the car to stack up to AJ/Tony until yesterday. Maybe they should have pulled out that old car several races ago as it got right down to business on its first run! I hated to see that happen to Doug & team as they are a class act, and if Melanie's car had not started running like earlier in the season, Doug would be on the podium. Now that I think about it, there was a rumour running around this past week about a supposed "BLOCKER" entered by one of the T/F teams, and ya know what, I bet AJ's tuneup may have wandered over into Melanie's car for this race and made her the said BLOCKER. Watcha think, Maters?

 

[megadeth]

Lisa don't take it to hart Peter is a DSR employee he was just standing up for his guy!
Now back to the win that is the stuff legends are made of and Alan is that legend he could win a championship with ANY driver!
Tony is a great driver but the legend is ALAN JOHNSON.....

 

["Dr. Dirt"]

You mean Coil and Johnson won again...

Really?
Really?
The numbers demonstrated that Coil had the inferior tune up to Todd's. Anyone could have seen that from Beckman's record run. I believe someone who knows how this sport works would understand that it was clearly decided at the starting line by the superior driver?

As I see it, AJ WAS the sole determining factor in T/F. Without the record, Kalitta would have earned his championship but AJ stole it away fair and square. I would love to see AJ make a move next year. Oh, Please!!!!