NHRA NEWS: Newsmakers July 3, 2006
HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! NHRA Newsmakers Your inside glimpse at the world's fastest motorsport WHO'S HOT! THE MIDSEASON POINTS LEADERS: If recent history holds true, then three of the four current points leaders - Melanie Troxel, Ron Capps, Greg Anderson and Angelle Sampey - will be POWERade Series world champions by year end. Going back five years, to the 2001 season, 15 of the 20 midseason POWERade Series points leaders have gone on to claim world championships. One caveat of course is that the points races were not likely ever as close as they are this season where the average lead is 24.5 points and the biggest margin is 48. INSIDE THE NUMBERS 21: That's the number of Funny Car victories for both Ron Capps and Del Worsham. That's noteworthy because Ron and Del are the winningest drivers in the history of the Funny Car category to have never won a POWERade Series world championship. Capps is halfway home to taking his name off that list: he has a 44-point lead over John Force in his quest to claim his first title and the first for crew chief Ed "Ace" McCulloch. Worsham is currently in ninth place, 439 points back of Capps. NEWS NUGGETS MUSICAL CHAIRS IN PRO STOCK: Erica Enders, the most decorated female driver in the history of NHRA's Pro Stock category, has severed ties with Victor Cagnazzi and will be driving an independent car fielded by Don Schumacher Racing. Gene Wilson, the 2002 Auto Club Road to the Future winner, will drive a fourth DSR Pro Stock car. Tommy Lee, who had been the test driver of the Victor Cagnazzi Slammers Chevy Cobalt, will take the seat vacated by Erica Enders beginning with the Mopar Mile-High Nationals in Denver. TROXEL BOOKS TRIP TO ESPYS FOR DOUBLE NOMINATION: Melanie Troxel will celebrate the one-year anniversary of her return to full-time NHRA POWERade Series drag racing with a trip to Los Angeles for the 2006 ESPY Awards. Troxel will be participating in many of the collateral activities leading up to the ESPYs -- a golf tournament and dinner and press opportunities - and then she will walk the red carpet into the Kodak Theatre and wait patiently to find out if her name will be called as the "Best Female Athlete" and/or the "Best Driver." Troxel will vie against the likes of NASCAR's Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart for Best Driver, and Olympic Gold Medalist Hannah Teter and LPGA golfer Annika Sorenstam for Best Female Athlete. Cast your vote now at www.espn.go.com/espy2006 <outbind://4/www.espn.go.com/espy2006> . Troxel, 33, set an NHRA record for the most consecutive final round appearances (five) to open a season in Top Fuel. The quickest (4.458 seconds) and fastest (331.04 mph) female in NHRA history, she is trying to join the legendary Shirley Muldowney has the only women in NHRA history to win a Top Fuel world championship title. THEY SAID IT: The four POWERade Series points leaders were featured in the NHRA 2006 Midseason teleconference Wednesday, June 28. A complete transcript is available at http://media.nhra.com <http://media.nhra.com/> . Here are some highlights: Top Fuel Points Leader Melanie Troxel: "I think it's great to be getting some outside recognition (as a result of being nominated for two ESPY Awards), not only outside of drag racing, but outside of motorsports in general. I mean, it's great for our sport." Funny Car Points Leader Ron Capps, on winning a championship for crew chief Ace McCulloch, who was just diagnosed with "come cancer in him again": "I even said last year, all my guys on the crew, we all wanted to win it for Ace. To be honest, I thought he won a championship, at least one or two. I was kind of dumbfounded when they told me he never won one. I kind of prided myself in knowing the history of drag racing. I thought he already won a championship. He won just about everything in sight. I was surprised. Then it was kind of a mission to win it for him. I hope I got a lot of years left in me, but right now we're really concentrating on this is our best chance to get him a championship ring. Pro Stock Points Leader Greg Anderson: "I think the (Western) Swing will make or break a lot of people's seasons." Pro Stock Motorcycle points leader Angelle Sampey: "Lots can change from the middle to the end of the year. But at least being in the lead, you do have the advantage going into the second half of the season. We're hoping to hold on to it.". 'DRIVING FORCE' DEBUT NEARS: The much-anticipated debut of "Driving Force," a reality show based on 13-time NHRA Funny Car world champion John Force and his drag racing daughters Ashley, Brittany and Courtney, is now just two weeks away (July 17, 9 p.m., A&E). For more information, check out the latest news and family photos at http://www.aetv.com/drivingforce/. COMING ATTRACTIONS * MOPAR MILE-HIGH NHRA NATIONALS, DENVER, JULY 14-16: NHRA teams will race at high altitude at scenic Bandimere Speedway and kick-off the grueling Western Swing. * LAS VEGAS NHRA SPORT COMPACT NATIONALS AND D1 GRAND PRIX, LAS VEGAS, JULY 15-16: The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will host the NHRA Xplod Sport Compact Series which includes the 220 mph Scion of Pro RWD racer Brad Personett and the world's best drifting cars in the D1 Grand Prix. * SCHUCK'S AUTO SUPPLY NHRA NATIONALS PRESENTED BY LUCAS OIL, KENT, WASH., JULY 21-23: The Western Swing rolls into the beautiful Northwest as NHRA teams will battle for the POWERade Series race victory at Pacific Raceways. * FRAM-AUTOLITE NHRA NATIONALS, SONOMA, CALIF., JULY 28-30: Infineon Raceway hosts the final stop of the Western Swing, where POWERade Series world championship contenders often reveal themselves and brace for the season's final eight events. DRIVERS TELL ALL I'LL RACE YOU TO THE ... PRODUCE AISLE : It's one of the quirks of drag racing, with its unique head-to-head, single-elimination format, that two drivers could potentially duel all season long in a great points race and never face one another. Rest assured, that is not the case in Funny Car this season where Ron Capps and John Force have already met five times, three times in final rounds. And you can look no further than those head to head matchups for Capps's 44-point lead at the halfway point of the 2006 season. Capps is 4-1 against Force in 2006 including 3-0 in the final round meetings. "Standing back, if that was somebody else's record (against NHRA icon John Force), I would be impressed," Capps told reporters during the NHRA midseason teleconference. "I just get up for the guy. I try to get up for everybody. That just tells you how big a deal he still is in the sport. I've said it before. If you can beat him to the hotel in a rental car, qualifying, final round, whatever it is, it's going to be a big deal. Anyhow, yeah, I'm impressed with it." . For more information, contact NHRA Media Relations at (626) 914-4761.