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CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION NHRA SPRINGNATIONALS HOUSTON RACEWAY PARK IN BAYTOWN, TEXAS APRIL 24, 2022
Chevrolet drivers make history in Houston finale
• Erica Enders prevails in the first all-female Pro Stock final• No. 1 qualifier Camrie Caruso finishes second in fifth race• Brittany Force earns second consecutive Top Fuel victory• Brandon Bakies is Stock Eliminator runner-up in COPO Camaro
Erica Enders picks up her third Pro Stock trophy at her home racetrack.Brittany Force drives to her third Top Fuel victory at Houston Raceway Park.
BAYTOWN, Texas (April 24, 2022) — Among the 36 National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) Wallys that Erica Enders has hoisted to the heavens in celebration, the most recent – in the final national event at her hometown dragstrip – is the most satisfying. The four-time NHRA Pro Stock champion defeated first-time finalist Camrie Caruso with a pass of 6.568 seconds at 210.24 mph in the Melling Performance Chevrolet Camaro SS for Elite Motorsports to win the NHRA SpringNationals at Houston Raceway Park. It was the first all-female final round in more than a half-century of Pro Stock competition.
After 35 years in operation, the track will close after its 2022 season.
“To win in Houston, my home track, I’m so proud,” said Enders, who recorded her third victory in five races and roared to the top of the Pro Stock standings. “Thank you, Houston. Thank you for sharing this with me.”
Brittany Force moved to the top of the Top Fuel standings with her second consecutive win in the Monster Energy/Flav-R-Pac Chevrolet dragster. Force, the No. 2 qualifier, registered a 3.767-second run at 321.42 mph for career victory No. 13 that includes three at Houston Raceway Park.
“I love Houston and winning here with our teams over the years. We won in ’18 and ’19 – one followed a terrible wreck (in Pomona) of mine — and only four races later did we win and it was an emotional win for me because I didn’t know if we would ever get back,” Force said. “Then we came back in ’19 with David Grubnic and Mac Savage and now I’m with them celebrating another win. It’s just incredible to be able to do it here in Houston in the final race. This Monster Energy team, we wanted to go out on top and we did it to close out Houston.” Enders, who watched her father compete in the Sportsman ranks at the track, started racing in junior dragsters at the track at age 8 and picked up her inaugural national event win in 2004 in Super Gas at the track, claimed her third career Pro Stock victory in Houston.
Caruso, driving the Sand Haulers Camaro SS, secured her first No. 1 qualifier in her fifth race, tying 2021 rookie of the year Dallas Glenn for quickest to that honor. She became the first female to qualify No. 1 in Pro Stock at the track. Caruso dispatched reigning and five-time champion Greg Anderson, driving the HendrickCars.com Camaro SS, on a holeshot and Enders defeated Kyle Koretsky in the Lucas Oil Camaro SS in the semifinals. “I just trust my guys and I trust my car,” Caruso said. “My guys are amazing. I’m just happy that we’ve come for far for a team that was put together just 60 days before the first race of the season.” Robert Hight, who won the past two races he competed in at Houston (2021, 2019) and earned his initial NHRA Funny Car win in the 2005 race at the track, was the No. 2 qualifier in the Auto Club of Texas Chevrolet Camaro SS. He fell in the second round. Teammate John Force, who earned the 100th of his 154 NHRA Funny Car wins at Houston in 2002, lost in the first round in the PEAK BlueDEF Platinum Camaro SS. Austin Prock, the No. 5 Top Fuel qualifier in the Montana Brand/Rocky Mountain Twist Chevrolet dragster, won his first-round match but was eliminated in the second round. Brandon Bakies of Alexandria, Louisiana, was runner-up in Stock Eliminator competition in his Chevrolet COPO Camaro. The Circle K NHRA Four-Wide Nationals on April 29-May 1 at zMAX Dragway in Concord, North Carolina, is the next event for Chevrolet Top Fuel and Funny Car teams. The event will also feature drivers of the Chevrolet COPO Camaro in the second round of the Constant Aviation Factory Stock Showdown. FS1 will telecast eliminations at 7 p.m. ET Sunday, May 1.
An interview with Top Fuel winner BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY/FLAV-R-PAC CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (No. 2 qualifier):
YOU WON ON A HOLESHOT.“My Monster Energy/Flav-R-Pac boys always have my back and they are the reason we got here today. Luckily, we got the job done in the final round. It wasn’t easy. It was a lot of me sitting down and trying to figure (things) out before going into the final round because it was a tough day for me. But we battled it out and got it done in the final when it mattered.”
WHAT WERE YOU THINKING WHILE WAITING FOR THE TRACK CLEANUP BEFORE YOUR FINAL?“I’m trying not to think about anything. I’m just staring down that racetrack and making sure I keep my game face on. You can’t get distracted. It’s getting up there and doing your job the way you know how and, for me, having to majorly improve where I had been all day with reaction time. We figured it out. I knew David Grubnic and Mac Savage, all the boys, would figure it out; they always do.”
HOW IMPRESSED ARE YOU ON A 130-DEGREE RACETRACK THAT YOU GO DOWN THERE AT 330 MPH?“We did it last weekend when we won at Vegas; we went 333 in the final. Pretty outstanding run, put enough on the board, but really just putting on a great show for our Houston fans in the final race here.”
HOW CONFIDENT WERE YOU COMING INTO RACE DAY?“We looked at the ladder and we felt confident coming in. We wanted to be No. 1, but we got moved to second but still thought we had a good shot at it. We also didn’t make every single qualifying run but it didn’t seem to hold us back. We’ve just been working so hard to get where we are. This is for all those runs where my guys gave me the car to win, and I didn’t give it back to them. This is for them.”
An interview with Pro Stock winner ERICA ENDERS, ELITE MOORSPORTS, MELLING PERFORMANCE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (No. 2 qualifier):
WHAT DOES WINNING HERE TODAY MEAN TO YOU?“Thank you for coming out for the last hurrah at Houston. I grew up drag racing here. I made my first passes down this racetrack when I was 8 years old and prior to that my sister and I grew up watching our dad race Sportsman out here. This is so epic. I watched the Sportsman finals before Pro Stock and I think there’s like seven people from Houston that won today. H-town wrecked shop today.”
YOU WANTED TO MAKE SURE YOU HAD THE TROPHY LEAVING HERE TODAY.“We were going to do our darndest. I said in my interview at the top end that my day did not start out stellar for me, but we turned it into something epic. We were able to execute perfectly today. I was watching on the big screen in the final round Camrie muffed her burnout twice and I’m like ‘just go green. Maybe she doesn’t have fourth gear. Just make a nice, clean, smooth run.’ Hats off to Mark Ingersoll. I’m so proud.”
YOU HAD ACTUALLY STARTED A CAREER PATH TO GET INTO THE NITRO RANKS AFTER WINNING YOUR SUPER GAS WALLY IN 2004. WHAT CHANGED THAT?“I just graduated from Frank Holley’s Funny Car alcohol school. Robert Hight was in my class and it was a super cool experience. I was working with a nitro Funny Car team to go nitro Funny Car racing. We came out here, won this home event in Super Gas for my first national event Wally. Raced my best friend at the time in the final and I go up in the press room and say I want to drive Pro Stock. Bob Frey, Victor Cagnazzi and Steve Johns all heard that and that’s what got me my start in Pro Stock. Here we are 18 years later with so many people’s help.”
WHAT ABOUT THE JOB CAMRIE CARUSO DID THIS WEEKEND?“Camrie is doing a really good job in the car. These cars are not easy to drive. She worked for us a little bit at Elite Motorsports and her family put her behind the wheel. You have to pay your dues and you have to work really hard and you have to learn how to handle these (competitors). They are pretty tough on you.”