Team Speed Society Rolling East to Charlotte for NGK Spark Plugs 4-Wide Nationals
Just weeks removed from going four wide for the first time ever at the newly expanded The Strip at Las Vegas Motorsports Park, the NHRA tour rolls into zMAX Dragway just outside Charlotte, NC, where competitors in the professional classes will once again compete four at a time. Our drivers are all stoked to be going back four wide racing, especially after having just ran in Vegas, which gave everybody a taste of the quad lifestyle ahead of the race in Charlotte, which previously was the only four wide race on the tour. Three time Top Fuel world champion chimed in on the event, saying “Running two four-wide races within a month is just going to make it even more competitive. Everyone is going to be more comfortable having run more four-wide rounds and be able elevate their game.”
Brown rolls into zMAX as the highest-ranked of our drivers in the season points chase, sitting in third place behind Steve Torrence and Tony Schumacher, who are tied for the lead. Brown has won the spring race in Charlotte twice and raced to a quarterfinal finish in 2017. “Charlotte has always been a real special place for us. We just love going there. It’s one of those big arena-type tracks. When you go there, it’s the biggest race track on the tour. It’s just a terrific place to race – the Taj Mahal of race tracks. When you go there, you want to show out. Our Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota team knows how much that track means and what a big event the Four-Wides is,” said Antron.
Sitting just behind Brown in points is Clay Millican, who qualified number one at the event last year but bowed out in the second round after hazing the tires early in his quad. Millican has proven this season that his Great Clips/Parts Plus sponsored dragster has the power to put up huge numbers, but he and crew chief David Grubnic have focused on finding consistency over swinging for the fences. When you’re trying to tame 11,000 horsepower, it can be a struggle to back off while still running good enough times to win. Balance is the name of the game and Grubnic and Millican and their talented young crew will continue to strive to find just that this weekend.
Riding in 6th place in points is Leah Pritchett, whose dragster will be flying the retina-searing yellow Pennzoil colors at Charlotte. Pritchett and her Todd Okuhara and Joe Barlam-tuned DSR digger qualified number one at Houston last weekend and appeared to be on a mission to take their first win of the season when tiresmoke derailed their plans in the semifinals. Still, Pritchett was pleased with the progress the team has made in the early part of 2018. “We’ll take this and we’ll not really lick our wounds too much because we found a lot of progress. Yes, we wanted to defend our race win here from last year and it stings that we didn’t but, within minutes of coming back and debriefing after the semifinals, we found the cohesiveness of this team is very strong and will carry us a long way the rest of this season.”
In the Funny Car ranks, Ron Capps comes into Charlotte looking to return to his winning form from 2017, where he was the last man standing at Charlotte. “This was a fun part of the season last year. We went on a four-race win streak, including the race here and vaulted ourselves right up to first place,” said Capps. Look for his NAPA Brakes sponsored team to improve on their current 7th place standing in the points chase with a hopeful repeat of last year’s showing.
Despite an up-and-down season that includes having the only car in the Head Racing camp destroyed in a nasty top end tangle with John Force at Phoenix and the subsequent struggles that come with putting together a brand new car, Jonnie Lindberg finds himself inside the top 10 in points and looking back at a solid showing in Houston, where he qualified in the top half and lost a close race in the second round to eventual runner up Robert Hight. Lindberg will be flying a brand new green-themed Head Racing Inc. livery in Charlotte, where he’s hoping to continue to get a handle on his new hotrod.
In Pro Stock, Alex Laughlin will shed the Hot Wheels Car Care colors that adorned his 2018 Camaro for the first 5 races in favor of a gorgeous Tigé Boats scheme that will follow the trend set by Pritchett and Lindberg featuring bright yellow and black. Laughlin, whose Elite Motorsports-powered hotrod has shown potential to run up front at several different points this season, is hoping to string together a few round wins and return to the consistency he enjoyed in 2017.
As always, Fox will be bringing you the action on television throughout the weekend on FS1. You can catch Friday’s qualifying wrap up from 8pm to 9pm ET, live qualifying on Saturday from 2:30 to 4:30 ET and final eliminations on Sunday from 6-9 pm ET. For those who hate waiting, you can watch live throughout the weekend on NHRA’s All Access pay per view. For a weekends worth of racing, this is a great option, especially if you enjoy sportsman action and don’t want to wait to find out who will be in the finals on Sunday night. We wish all of our drivers the best of luck and hope everybody has a safe and fun weekend!
