Bob Vandergriff Jr. got his second win in Top Fuel.  (Ron Lewis photo)

Still some surprises left heading into final race

Words compiled by Kay Burk
Photos by James Drew, Bob Johnson, and Ron Lewis

There were a couple of surprise winners at the penultimate race in the NHRA Full Throttle Countdown to the Championship at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

A resurgent Ron Capps raced to his fifth Funny Car victory of the season Sunday, Oct. 28, at the Big O Tires NHRA Nationals and cut Jack Beckman's series lead to four points with one race remaining in the season.

Bob Vandergriff Jr. was the big surprise in Top Fuel. Not so surprising, Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) also won, virtually clinching his championship, along with Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

TOP FUEL

Vandergriff gets the jump on Schumacher in the final.  (Bob Johnson photo)

Vandergriff Jr. earned his second career Top Fuel victory with a run of 3.832 at 324.75 in his C& J Energy Services dragster, defeating seven-time world champion Tony Schumacher in the final round. 

“We’ve had a great race car all weekend," Vandergriff said. "It’s been a year since my last win, and we certainly didn’t think it would take that long to win again,” Vandergriff Jr. said. “Everybody said this next one comes easy. Well, I think they’re full of it because they don’t come easy. That’s just a great job by the guys. We had a great car all weekend. It ran good. We made four great runs today. First round was a little tough. It got hot out there, but other than that, our car was pretty flawless.”