NHRA Arizona Nationals Eliminations (February 19)

(Chandler, Arizona) - The National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) traveled to Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Arizona for the 2nd event of their 2012 drag racing season, the 28th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals.  

In Top Fuel, Antron Brown made it to his second final round of the year but this time faced a differant DSR teammate in Tony Schumacher.  Schumacher qualified #2 and made his run to the finals with wins against Mike Strasburg (#15), Doug Kalitta (#7) and Clay Millican (#13) while Brown was in the #5 position and beat Terry McMillan (#12), Spencer Massey (#4) and Shawn Langdon (#1).  In the final round, Brown got the slight advantage off the line against Schumacher (.054 RT to .057 RT) and ran a 3.793 ET @ 319.82 MPH to the losing 3.813 ET @ 318.17 MPH.  Although his day ended in a first round loss to Spencer Massey, Cory McClenathan made his 400th career Top Fuel start which is the most all-time!

The most anticipated race of the Funny Car class had to be the first round match-up between veteran John Force and his daughter, 23 year-old rookie Courtney Force.  Like her sister Ashley did in her first race against dad in 2007, Courtney put him on the trailer with 4.146 ET @ 307.30 MPH while John got loose quickly and couldn't recover.  Similar to what Brown did in Top Fuel, Mike Neff was able turn his #2 qualifying position into a trip to the finals for the second week in a row where he faced #8 qualifier and John Force Racing teammate Robert Hight.  Neff eliminated Bob Bode (#15), Ron Capps (#10) and Jack Beckman (#6) and Hight eliminated Bob Tasca III (#9), Johnny Gray (#1) and Courtney Force (#12).  They leave with almost identical reaction times (.084 RT for Neff to an .086 RT for Hight) and Hight runs a 4.139 ET @ 307.02 MPH to beat Neff who runs a 4.168 ET @ 309.91 MPH. 

The Pro Stock class kept form with the other classes with an all-teammate battle in the final round.  Jason Line qualified in the #2 spot and eliminated Jeg Coughlin (#15), Erica Enders (#7) and Greg Stanfield (#14) to make his first final round of the early season.  Greg Anderson qualified in the #5 position and made his second trip to the finals with wins over Kurt Johnson (#12), Vincent Nobile (#4) and Rodger Brogdon (#9).  In the finals, only one-hundreth of a second seperated the two and Line ran a 6.558 ET @ 211.69 MPH to beat his teammate who ran a 6.570 ET @ 211.06.

Jason Line, Antron Brown and Robert Hight celebrate their victories in
Phoenix. (Photograph property of NHRA.com)

The NHRA travels to Gainesville Raceway in Florida next for the 43rd annual Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals presented by NapaFilters.com (March 8-11).

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