CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
NHRA ARIZONA NATIONALS
WILD HORSE PASS MOTORSPORTS PARK IN CHANDLER, ARIZONA
RACE RECAP AND DRIVER QUOTES
FEBRUARY 23, 2020
Chevrolet remains strong in second race of season
Reigning Pro Stock champion Erica Enders picks up 26th career win
Brittany Force claims No. 1 Top Fuel qualifier, sets track records
John Force continues hot streak with No. 2 qualifier, semifinal appearance
CHANDLER, Ariz. (Feb. 23, 2020) – Though Erica Enders didn’t win her first Pro Stock race of the 2019 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) until the second of six events in the Countdown to the Championship on Sept. 29, she went on to claim her third championship.
The reigning champion added to her career victory total considerably earlier in the new season, winning the NHRA Arizona Nationals. Enders, the No. 2 qualifier driving the Melling Performance/Elite Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro SS, defeated 2017 champion Bo Butner in an all-Chevrolet final at Wildhorse Pass Motorsports Park.
Chevrolet has amassed 321 Pro Stock victories since 1970, including 203 with the Camaro nameplate, as the professional category celebrates its 50th anniversary.
With a pass of 6.531 seconds at 210.44 mph, Enders recorded her 26th career win in her 290th Pro Stock race and 52nd final round to move into the top 10 of all-time Pro Stock victories.
“For this red Melling Performance Camaro to come out on top and all the people who make it possible is special,” Enders said. “Today is my boss’ birthday and we said we were going to try to bring him a Wally today, so happy birthday Richard Freeman.”
Brittany Force, driving the Flav-R-Pac Chevrolet dragster, claimed the No. 1 qualifier in Top Fuel for the second event in a row and 20th of her career. Force, the 2017 Top Fuel champion, set the Top Fuel racetrack elapsed time (3.643 seconds) and speed (337.92 mph) records. Force claimed the top seed with a pass of 3.670 seconds. She fell in the quarterfinals on a holeshot.
Sixteen-time Funny Car champion John Force, the No. 2 qualifier in the BlueDEF Chevrolet Camaro SS, set the class low elapsed time (3.848 seconds) and top speed (335 mph) of the event in winning his first-round matchup. Force, who advanced to the finals in the opener at Pomona, California, reached the semifinals before losing.
Reigning Funny Car champion Robert Hight, the No. 3 qualifier for the second consecutive event in the Auto Club of Southern California Chevrolet Camaro SS, lost traction early in the pass and lost in the first round. Second-year Top Fuel driver Austin Prock, the No. 11 qualifier in the Montana Brad/Rocky Mountain Twist Chevrolet dragster, fell in the first round.
In a matchup of three-time Pro Stock champions, Enders and Jason Line (Summit Racing Equipment Chevrolet Camaro SS) met for the second consecutive event in the semifinals. Butner defeated Alex Laughlin (Powerbuilt Chevrolet Camaro SS) in the other semifinal. Laughlin defeated No. 1 qualifier for the second consecutive race and Pomona winner Jeg Coughlin Jr. (JEGS.com/Elite Motorsports Camaro SS) in the second round.
“To start off the season like we have at Elite Motorsports, with Jeg’s dominating performance at Ponoma and both of us and Alex (Laughlin) and Aaron Stanfield out of our camp ran well this weekend, so we’re excited,” Enders said.
Next up is the Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals on March 13-15 at Gainesville Raceway in Gainesville, Florida. FS. FS1 will telecast eliminations and finals at 9:30 p.m. ET March 15.
An interview with Pro Stock winner ERICA ENDERS, ELITE MOTORSPORTS, MELLING PERFORMANCE/ELITE MOTORSPORTS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier; 26th career Pro Stock victory; 52nd final; 290th race):
HOW DOES THIS VICTORY FEEL?
“For this red Melling Performance Camaro to come out on top and all the people who make it possible is special,” said Enders, the No. 2 qualifier. “Today is my boss’ birthday and we said we were going to try to bring him a Wally today, so happy birthday Richard Freeman.”
YOUR TEAM IS ON A ROLL.
“To start off the season like we have at Elite Motorsports, with Jeg’s (Coughlin Jr.) dominating performance at Ponoma and both of us and Alex (Laughlin) and Aaron Stanfield out of our camp ran well this weekend, so we’re excited. To be able to have the consistent race car like we have is great. We fought in Pomona and went to Tucson and made a couple of test runs. We came here, used the two runs on Friday to figure it out and finally made a good run yesterday. It translated to race day and that’s all I can ask for.”
CHEVROLET FROM THE COCKPIT
TOP FUEL
BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (No. 1 qualifier; fell second round): “Hole shot losses are tough, but I have an incredible team behind me. My Flav-R-Pac guys are a super supportive team. I’ve already sat down and talked with David Grubnic and Mac Savage. Overall, we’ve had a great weekend. We qualified No. 1, second green hat of the season. Unfortunately, we got taken out early, it was driver error, I know what I did, I’ll work on it, we’ll keep working hard and we’ll be ready for Gainesville.”
AUSTIN PROCK, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONTANA BRAND/ROCKY MOUNTAIN TWIST CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (No. 11 qualifier; fell in first round): “We struggled today. We’re still trying to work some things out with this hot rod and we’re just too aggressive right now. Everything is lined up just how it should be and its fast, but our window isn’t big enough. We’re walking on a string instead of a plank on the starting line so, we’re going to stay and test tomorrow and get things ironed out so we’re ready to go into Gainesville. The car is putting up the numbers it needs to, to win rounds and it showed in Pomona but as we get further into the season the track gets warmer and less traction so we definitely need to get our ducks in a row so we can be a contender in Gainesville.”
FUNNY CAR:
JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, BLUEDEF CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “I was hoping to get to the final to get a shot at the win. I was rooting for (Jack) Beckman to take Tommy (Johnson Jr.) out so I could be second in points. It’s a long season though so it’s OK. It doesn’t matter too much right now, it’s just two points. I was able to win some rounds, got some plugs in for our sponsors and upcoming things we have going on with BlueDEF and Chevrolet and Cornwell Tools. You need rounds to get those plugs in. Anyway, it didn’t go the way I wanted but we’re OK.”
ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTOMOBILE CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 3 qualifier; fell in first round): “Today wasn’t the race day this Auto Club Chevy team hoped for, but we’ll be testing tomorrow and figure some things out. Jimmy Prock and Chris Cunningham, all my crew guys, we’re really eager to get this thing running how we know it can. I’m looking forward to getting down the track tomorrow and bringing what we learn out to Gainesville in two weeks and defend our win from last season.”
PRO STOCK
BO BUTNER, JIM BUTNER AUTO GROUP, STRUTMASTERS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 5 qualifier; fell in final): “”I never would have imagined that today would go this way, but that’s just how this sport is; you never know what’s going to happen. It was our day until the end, but the guys did a great job. We had to throw a motor in real quick between rounds today, and they did a good job. It turned out that today wasn’t our day, but we’ll go on to Orlando for the World Outlaw Nationals before Gainesville and do some testing. There are a lot of cool things coming up, and we’re pretty fired up.”
JEG COUGHLIN JR., ELITE MOTORSPORTS, JEGS.COM/ELITE PERFORMANCE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 1 qualifier; fell in second round): “We’ve had a helluva run to kick off the season but we had a quirky little thing bite us today so we’ll just reset and start over. There’s absolutely no reason to think we can’t get right back where we were right away. We checked everything out and it was just a small miss, which can easily be fixed. The good news is our other teammate Erica Enders went on to win the race outright so we are two-for-two with Elite and that’s really exciting. All of the Elite cars are looking very fast. Congrats to the reigning champ on her big win.”
JASON LINE, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 6 qualifier; fell in semifinals): “It wasn’t our day today, but so far our silver Summit Racing Chevy Camaro is showing that it can go rounds. A final round in Pomona, and then semifinals here – hopefully that means we’re building some momentum. It’s early yet, but we feel like we aren’t too far off the mark with my car. We’ll be very busy in the next couple of weeks, and we expect that we’ll see results that show that soon.”
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, SUMMIT RACING EQUIPMENT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 10 qualifier; fell in first round): “We struggled in qualifying, then today we didn’t back it down enough and it bit us. It was a disappointing weekend, but the fact of the matter is that we don’t have time to hang our heads, and that’s not our style. We’re excited to put this race behind us and get to Orlando in a couple of weeks for the World Outlaw Nationals. We can really use what we do there as an opportunity to test, so we want to be good and ready in every way we can before that. We have work to do, but that’s something KB Racing is good at. We rise to the challenge.”