Speed Society Racing’s Drivers Primed To Kick Off Second Half at NHRA New England Nationals
This weekend, the NHRA New England Nationals brings the first race of the second half of the 2018 season for the touring stars of the National Hot Rod Association. Rolling up the east coast to Epping, New Hampshire, our drivers are all hoping to kick off the second half by hoisting the iconic Wally Parks trophy and the end of the day on Sunday.
In the ultra-competitive Pro Stock class, Alex Laughlin is hoping to shake off a rocky first half to return to the form he and his Fitzgerald USA team enjoyed last season. Laughlin has been plagued by inconsistency from both himself and his car and those issues have worked to keep him from advancing past the opening round for most of the year thus far. However, the car and Alex himself have both showed flashes of brilliance, albeit at different times, throughout the season, so the combination will be competitive when both the car and driver show up at the same time. Laughlin and crew are hopeful that starts happening this weekend in New Hampshire.
In Funny Car, Ron Capps stands as the most recent of our drivers to take him the win after capitalizing in Bristol just three weekends ago. Capps said of the tour stop in the northeast, “It’s an unbelievable track to both drive on and for the crew chiefs to apply their magic to catapult these nitro funny cars down at unbelievable times and speeds. As far as off the track and leading up to the race, I’ve always had a huge relationship with our NAPA customers and fans from the Maine, Massachusetts, and of course the New Hampshire area. You could tell from the first year we came back to New England Dragway just how passionate these race fans are by the line leading into the race track as well as the packed grandstands and pit area.” Capps’ NAPA Auto Parts sponsored Charger will feature a patriots theme in honor of the Independence Day holiday as well as to raise awareness and funs for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes fund. “Our NAPA team is extremely proud to run this year’s paint scheme at Epping to not only celebrate Independence Day weekend, but also to celebrate the NAPA family that as of now, has helped to raise more than 10 million dollars for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. That makes us all very proud,” he said about the special livery.
Jonnie Lindberg is hoping the one week break following the early season’s four-race swing has given him and his Head Racing team the opportunity to gather their thoughts and focus on finding consistency in qualifying and on race day. Lindberg has qualified as high as #2 and as low as 16th and just about every spot in between and has had a hard time getting past the opening round as of late. The team has a knack for laying down runs that would win against any other opponent in the first round except for the car they are lined up against. Obviously that’s going to lead to frustration, but they have been able to get the car A-to-B often, and just need a little help from the nitro gods to start stringing together round wins and hopefully track down Lindberg’s first win as a nitro driver.
In Top Fuel, Clay Millican is still riding high following his two wins in the first half of the season and taking home top qualifier honors at more than half of the season’s races so far. Crew chief David Grubnic heads Millican’s group of young, hungry and talented crew members and they’ve found their stride, finding themselves in second place in points behind Steve Torrence. Clay and Company are hoping to put the Great Clips/Parts Plus/Strutmasters dragster back on the pole and back in the winner’s circle come Sunday. With a great deal of consistency thus far in 2018, it would take a brave man to bet against this team right now.
Three time Top Fuel world champion Antron Brown has had solid outings his last two trips to Epping, scoring a win in 2016 and a runner up last year. He’s hoping to use that history to help right the Match Tools ship after struggling through the first half. “Epping has always been a good track for us. It’s an east coast track not too far from where I grew up in New Jersey. It’s one of those old school tracks with a new really smooth concrete surface. It can get hot during the day in July, but then it cools off. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see it down in the low 60s when we run on Friday night. You have to adapt to different situations, but I think that suits our Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota team. This is the time of the year when our team usually starts to sort things out and get ready for the Countdown. We’re building and getting better each race and I think when the Countdown comes, we’re going to peak at the right time,” said Antron of the trip east.
Leah Pritchett will be back in the badass Mopar black and red color scheme that she campaigned earlier in the season for Epping. Following a test session in Norwalk after the race there concluded, Pritchett is confident that her team traced down a bug that has been plaguing her team throughout the early part of the season. “We always have confidence going into a race, but I think a little bit more for this one. We believe this Mopar crew gained control of an intermittent issue over the past events that’s caused added levels of difficulties to qualifying and race day. We are taking the Norwalk momentum into Epping. I look forward to (seeing) all of our northeast fans, specifically because they haven’t gotten their NHRA nitro drag racing fix since Englishtown was removed from the schedule. Hard to believe we are already at the halfway point, but just like on the track, the guys have been preparing for the clutch to kick in and this season to really start pulling.”
As with each race on the tour, you can follow all the action in real time by ordering NHRA All Access through their website, and Fox Sports will be bringing all the action directly into your living room. The television coverage for the New England Nationals will kick off Saturday from 1:30 to 3:30 pm for Saturday Nitro Live, which will re-air prior to final eliminations on Sunday, which go live at 1pm eastern time.
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