CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
TOYOTA NHRA NATIONALS
THE STRIP AT LAS VEGAS MOTOR SPEEDWAY IN LAS VEGAS, NEVADA
POST-RACE NOTES AND DRIVER QUOTES
SUNDAY, OCT. 28, 2018
Chevrolet Adds 301st Pro Stock Win in Penultimate Race of Countdown
• Reigning Pro Stock champion Bo Butner earns second victory of season
• Reigning Funny Car champion Robert Hight is second in standings
• Jeff Taylor drives COPO Camaro to Stock Eliminator runner-up finish
LAS VEGAS (Oct. 28, 2018) – In Bo Butner’s initial National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Pro Stock final round, he lost to reigning class champion Erica Enders at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Three years later, Butner is the reigning Pro Stock champion and turned the tables on Enders in the final round at the racetrack in the penultimate event of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship.
Butner registered his second victory of the season, presented KB Racing its 150th in NHRA competition and Chevrolet its 301st Pro Stock win since 1970.
“This is our track; we seem to be decent here,” said Butner, who has five wins in 10 final rounds in Pro Stock and Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series Sportsman classes. “Chevrolet has been great to us, Summit Racing Equipment, Jim Butner Auto Group. “I think we had a very good race car today, but (Erica Enders) has just been tough on me over the days. It’s an overwhelming feeling. I’ve got one more left.”
Robert Hight has one race left in his effort to secure a second consecutive Funny Car title. Hight, who entered race day of the Toyota NHRA Nationals with a six-point advantage over second-place J.R. Todd, fell to second place in the standings with a first-round loss.
Hight, the No. 7 qualifier in the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS, will look to the points-and-a-half Auto Club NHRA Finals Nov. 11 at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California, to unseat front-runner J.R. Todd.
“We are chasing now. We have to go in there and win the race. That has to be our mindset,” said Hight, who earned the 2017 championship in the final at Auto Club Raceway when his closest competitor lost in the first round of eliminations. “We have to learn from today. It is similar to trap shooting. You can’t let the missing of that target affect your next shot. We will learn from today but not dwell on it.”
John Force Racing teammate Courtney Force, who was the runner-up in the fall meet at the racetrack the past two years, was the No. 6 qualifier in the Advance Auto Parts Chevrolet Camaro SS. Force pushed her career elimination round victory total to 198 in the first round, but fell in the second round when the race car dropped a cylinder midway through the run.
John Force, the No. 5 qualifier in the PEAK Coolant & Motor Oil Chevrolet Camaro SS, lost in the first round by three-thousandths of a second to longtime nemesis Ron Capps. It was the 99th time the multi-time champions have faced off on race day. Force holds a 59-40 advantage.
Reigning Top Fuel champion Brittany Force, the No. 3 qualifier in the Monster Energy Chevrolet dragster, lost in the second round. Force was the runner-up in the 2017 fall race at the track.
Butner, driving the Jim Butner Auto Chevrolet Camaro SS, registered a holeshot victory with a run of 6.657 seconds at 207.43 mph to Enders’ 6.652/206.57. Butner’s .007-second reaction time was the difference.
“It’s been a tough run this year, but everybody is getting better and it is the toughest class out here,” said Butner, who won the season opener at Pomona and has seven career Pro Stock wins in 88 races. “I think it’s funny though, sometimes you cut a bad light and you still get the job done and sometimes you have a great one and it doesn’t work out. There were a few rounds when I wouldn’t have won any other matchup. We won the ones we needed to. So, this is just the way the stuff goes but it’s been a really fun deal and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
Enders, driving the Melling Performance/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro SS, dispatched points front-runner Tanner Gray, the No. 5 qualifier in the Gray Motorsports/Valvoline Chevrolet Camaro SS, in one semifinal. Butner outran No. 3 qualifier Matt Hartford (Total Seal Chevrolet Camaro SS) in the other semifinal.
Gray increased his points margin to 140 over second-place Jeg Coughlin Jr. when the No. 1 qualifier in the JEGS.com/Elite Performance Chevrolet Camaro SS lost in the second round of eliminations. Jason Line (Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS), the winner at Charlotte two weeks earlier, Drew Skillman (Ray Skillman Auto Group Chevrolet Camaro SS) and Deric Kramer (American Ethanol Chevrolet Camaro SS) also were first-round winners.
Jeff Taylor of Sellersburg, Indiana, who entered the event third in the Stock Eliminator standings, drove his Chevrolet COPO Camaro to a runner-up finish in his 66th national event final. Al Corda of Elk Mound, Wisconsin, also driving a COPO Camaro, lost to Taylor in the semifinals.
Tommy Gaynor of Battle Ground, Washington, and Butner, driving their COPO Camaros, advanced to the third round of Super Stock competition.
FS1 will telecast live eliminations and finals, plus a three-hour post-race show, Nov. 11 from Auto Club Raceway starting at 4 p.m. ET.
An interview with Pro Stock winner BO BUTNER, BUTNER AUTO, JIM BUTNER AUTO SALES CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (won on holeshot after cutting .007-second light; No. 7 qualifier; reigning Pro Stock champion; seventh career win and second of season; first win was season opener; has 128 round wins in 88 races; has five wins in 10 final rounds in Pro Stock and Sportsman classes at the track):
WHY WAS THIS YOUR DAY?
“This is our track; we seem to be decent here. Chevrolet has been great to us, Summit Racing Equipment, Jim Butner Auto Group. I love my crew. It’s an overwhelming feeling. I’ve got one more left.”
IT’S BEEN AWHILE SINCE YOU’VE BEEN IN THE WINNER’S CIRCLE
“We’ve gotten older. I think we had a very good race car today, but (Erica Enders) has just been tough on me over the days. I think it’s funny though, sometimes you cut a bad light and you still get the job done and sometimes you have a great one and it doesn’t work out. There were a few rounds when I wouldn’t have won any other matchup. We won the ones we needed to. So, this is just the way the stuff goes but it’s been a really fun deal and I’m excited to be a part of it.”
TOP FUEL:
BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (No. 3 qualifier; fell in second round): “We have some momentum, which is really coming in from last weekend at Charlotte in making the finals. Here, we had three awesome qualifying passes, but fell in the second round. Definitely some momentum changes and some energy changes in our pits. There is one race left and if there is anything I know about Alan Johnson and Brian Husen is they love Pomona and always call it their best track. So there is one race left and we are hoping to win it.”
FUNNY CAR:
ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 7 qualifier; fell in first round): “We are chasing now. We have to go in there and win the race. That has to be our mindset. Last year we had a slim points lead going into Pomona. That was a good position but that is not how it worked out for us this year. We struggled here in Las Vegas. We are going to test tomorrow. We are going to go out to Pomona with the focus on getting as many points as possible and winning the race. Whatever happens happens. We have won there before and we went to the final last year. We should have won that race but we had to change cars for the finals. I still believe in this team and everything we have going on. We have been here before. Every individual on this team has won a championship. We just have to go get it done. What I like about Pomona is you stay really busy. It is an Auto Club race. Just like the other two AAA races in the Countdown we had this year. Look what we did. We won them both. Those races keep you busy and focused on working for them. You don’t have idle time to sit and think about the stress of this championship hunt. I have a lot of appearances for Auto Club. They will all be there with us. We want to celebrate another championship with them.”
COURTNEY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, ADVANCE AUTO PARTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 6 qualifier; fell in second round): “It really shows the power behind our Chevy Camaro in round two. To be able to drop a cylinder down track to slow us down and still almost get away with the win really shows the strength of this team. It gets us excited going into the final race at Pomona and we got some things figured out with our Advance Auto Parts car. We are just looking forward to it. It wasn’t a bad week here in Vegas this weekend. We definitely found a lot of consistency that we had been lacking the last few races, so we are definitely going in the right direction.”
JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, PEAK COOLANT & MOTOR OIL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 5 qualifier; fell in first round): “I wasn’t able to get there. It was a close race on my side. Courtney (Force) got beat in the second round and it was a neck-and-neck race. Robert (Hight) got beat when he lost a cylinder on the hit and it was over. They had to shut him off and that was key. If you look at the points, he came in with the lead and they (J.R. Todd) have the lead now. That is what it’s all about. The only one that knows what is going to happen is the good Lord and we keep fighting and fighting. But Pomona is points and a half, so John Force Racing is good with our Chevrolets. You can count on that.”
PRO STOCK:
ERICA ENDERS, ELITE MOTORSPORTS, MELLING PERFORMANCE/ELITE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 8 qualifier; fell in final): “We had a tremendous race day. I mean we beat Greg Anderson, who is one of the winningest Pro Stock drivers of all time; Jeg Coughlin in second round, who is one of the best drivers ever in my opinion; Tanner Gray, who is leading the points in the third round; and finally we ran right with Bo Butner in the finals. He just happened to be a little bit better than me on the Tree. That is on me and I hate letting my guys down because they gave me a great race car. The runner-up finish is the second best thing so we will take it, we will take a great points day, and we will head to Pomona with our heads high and see if we can go get us a trophy there.”
TANNER GRAY, GRAY MOTORSPORTS, GRAY MOTORSPORTS VALVOLINE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 5 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “It was a super stressful weekend and I knew we probably weren’t going to lock it up. Jeg (Coughlin) would have had to lose first round and I would have had to win the race. It couldn’t have played out any better than it did honestly beside the fact that Jeg would have lost. We made good runs and Dave (Connolly) did a good job of getting the car back to where we needed. We struggled in the Friday sessions and it was a really stressful, but fun day at the same time. Now that it’s over I get to sit back and look at it. I am just super proud of all these guys and I think all we have to do is qualify in Pomona and we should be good.”
JEG COUGHLIN JR., ELITE MOTORSPORTS, JEGS.COM/ELITE PERFORMANCE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; fell in second round): “We’ve stumbled a little bit in the Countdown and that’s what’s put us in that position, but I’m not complaining. I just think we’ve lost some close races. That’s just the parity of the class right now. You can’t afford to make any mistakes whether it’s in the pits, on the track or with last-minute tuning calls.”
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 9 qualifier; fell in first round): “We came here, we unloaded and we were very fast right off the trailer here so we thought, ‘Well, we will be in good shape if we do things right through the weekend.’ We thought we had a great chance to win the event and leave here with a smile. That quickly went the wrong way. We just made some wrong moves and didn’t make quality runs from Q2 on. Even today, we got behind the eight ball and that is all it takes, it’s as simple as that. The equipment is here, the power is here, the manhood is here and we just have to do a better job of thinking about what we are doing. Our thought process was clouded this weekend and we made bad decisions. It happens and you just have to learn from it. The good news is we have a week to go home and sift through it and figure out how we made those wrong decisions and make sure we don’t do it when we get to Pomona.”
DREW SKILLMAN, RAY SKILLMAN MOTORSPORTS, RAY SKILLMAN AUTO GROUP CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 4 qualifier; fell in second round): “We have one more shot to get that victory and we’ll give it our best effort at Pomona. We race well here all weekend but just came up short against Tanner in the second round.”
JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier; fell in second round to teammate Bo Butner): “We ran well today, so we’re happy about that. Bo and I had two of the quickest cars that round, and that’s certainly a positive for the KB Racing team. I absolutely wanted to put the blue Summit Racing Chevy Camaro in the winner’s circle today, but we’ve got a good car going into Pomona.”
VINCENT NOBILE, MOUNTAIN VIEW RACING, MOUNTAIN VIEW TIRE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 13 qualifier; fell in first round): “I’m looking at the big picture. The season has obviously gone great. We’ve been a top-five car all year and we’ve won races. I can’t really complain, but you know at the end of the day we’re all here to hold up that big trophy. We had our ups and downs throughout the year and that made it tough. I’m not having a bad Countdown, that’s for sure. I think any other year we’d be right up there with Jeggy, but Tanner’s just having a great Countdown.”
MATT HARTFORD, HARTFORD RACING, TOTAL SEAL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 3 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “We didn’t perform the way we wanted to during the Western Swing,” said Hartford. “But I think we definitely learned a lot when we were out there. I think everybody out here – you hear it a lot – that everyone has the smartest crew chief and the best people. But I think what it shows is how high the level of competition is. I think we’ve found a good baseline for ourselves now.”
ALEX LAUGHLIN, GAS MONKEY RACING, TECHNET CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 10 qualifier; fell in first round): “My old car had more than 2,000 runs on it. We went over every single thing on that car and just couldn’t find anything wrong with it. Then we switched to the Dodge Dart for a few races and we found out pretty much immediately that the problem was the car. So, now we’re back in a car that feels just like my old car in terms of my view and everything like that. It’s just nice to have a car that’s competitive again. Obviously, there are times when the driver loses races. I’ve done it myself. But it’s just so frustrating when you lose a race you never had a chance to win.”
DERIC KRAMER, KRAMER RACING, AMERICAN ETHANOL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 11 qualifier; fell in second round): “Honestly after we started dropping rounds early in the Countdown we started looking at these races as testing opportunities. So right now, we’re just looking to take these races and learn things for next year. This has been a great season for us and I’m just so proud of what we’ve been able to do as a team.”