NHRA Wrap-Up: Enders-Stevens, Schumacher, and Capps Win in Arizona

Erica Enders-Stevens won her fourth Wally Sunday. Photo courtesy of autoweek.com.

While Danica Patrick got the lion’s share of motorsports fans’ attention at NASCAR’s Daytona 500 Sunday, another female racer on the other side of the country cemented her place among professional racing’s elite.

Erica Enders-Stevens mowed down the Pro Stock competition one round at a time Sunday to capture her fourth career Wally at the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird International Raceway, beating top qualifier Mike Edwards in the final round with a 6.538 ET at 211.99 miles-per-hour holeshot win.

Following Courtney Force‘s Funny Car win at Pomona last weekend, this is the first time in NHRA history that two female drivers have won races in back-to-back events to open a season.

“My crew chief, Dave Connolly, reminded me that every time that Jimmie Johnson wins, we win,” Enders-Stevens said with a smile. “And he told me that Jimmie won today’s Daytona 500 prior to the final. So needless to say, we’re going to be cheering for Jimmie all year.”

Ron Capps in Funny Car and Tony Schumacher also were winners at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series even.

Jason Line

Team Summit drivers Jason Line and Greg Anderson had a much better showing than a week ago when both suffered first-round eliminations. Line and Anderson, qualifying third and fourth, respectively, each won two rounds in their Pro Stock Chevy Camaro factory hotrods, but both were eliminated in the semi-finals.

Schumacher raced to his 70th career victory and fourth at FIR when he was able to get his 8,000-horsepower U.S. Army dragster under control and finish just in front of Lucas’ charging GEICO/Lucas Oil dragster. Both dragsters lost traction early in the side-by-side race and both drivers were on and off the throttle as they navigated the dragstrip.

“When you can win ugly like that it is so much fun,” said Schumacher, who beat Sidnei Frigo, Khalid alBalooshi and Antron Brown in earlier rounds. “Both cars were set up to run really fast and we both lost it and smoked the tires. It was lift, pedal, lift, pedal all the way down. I could hear Morgan beside me the whole time. As a driver that kind of race is so much fun, and I enjoy winning like that more than a record run.”

It was the fourth consecutive final round appearance for Schumacher dating back to last season and he moves into the series points lead with the victory.

“Four finals in a row, it’s unbelievable that our team is that good,” Schumacher said. “Win number 70. I like that number. I was stuck on 69 for a long time.”

In Funny Car, Capps earned his 39th career victory and third at this event, outrunning Matt Hagan in the final round. Capps powered his NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger to a 4.064 at 314.90 to finish in front of Hagan’s Mopar/Rocky Footwear Charger, which trailed with a 4.158 at 300.33.

Capps reeled off a series of quick runs in the mid 4.0 second range in early round wins over Tony and Cruz Pedregon and Tim Wilkerson. His machine was just as quick in the final round over Hagan.

“This new car really likes to be planted early, and so [crew chief] Rahn Tobler has been working on a new clutch package,” Capps said. “In (the final qualifying session) yesterday, we finally found out what it really liked. And when you give Tobler a new combination, he’s going to ‘bracket car’ it to death.”

Pro Stock Championship point standings

  1.  Vincent Nobile            171
  2.  Erica Enders-Stevens      155
  3.  Mike Edwards              153
  4.  Jeg Coughlin              149
  5.  V. Gaines                 142

Funny Car Championship point standings

  1.  Ron Capps                 210
  2.  Courtney Force            165
  3.  Matt Hagan                151
  4.  Bob Tasca III             124
  5.  Johnny Gray               122

Top Fuel Championship point standings

  1.  Tony Schumacher           228
  2.  Shawn Langdon             149
  3.  Antron Brown              148
  4.  Khalid alBalooshi         131
  5.  Morgan Lucas              124

The NHRA and Drag Race Central contributed to this report.