If the competition on the 2017 NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series mirrors the results of a nationwide preseason poll, it promises to be tight in the three pro classes from the season-opening Winternationals to the Auto Club Finals finale at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona.
There was no runaway winner in the balloting. The biggest margin between the predicted winner and second place was five points, and that was in Pro Stock between Ken Black Racing teammates Greg Anderson and Jason Line. Anderson finished first with Line, the defending champion, close behind, reminiscent of Line’s three-point title margin in 2016.
Antron Brown in Top Fuel dragster and Ron Capps, who won his first Funny Car title in his long career, were the choices in their respective classes. Brown edged Doug Kalitta by three points. Capps finished two points ahead of 16-time champion John Force.
Brown is a two-time defending champion in the sport’s glamour class. He has driven to 14 national event wins during his current reign for Don Schumacher Racing and, overall, has three crowns in his 10-year Top Fuel career at DSR, all in the past five years.
“Has the entire package with DSR ownership, Mark Oswald and Brian Corradi as crew chiefs,” longtime NHRA writer David Densmore noted.
In addition to Kalitta, pollsters gave Tony Schumacher, Brittany Force and Steve Torrence strong consideration for a title run. Schumacher is an eight-time champion. Kalitta, Force and Torrence have yet to finish first overall.
Despite the recent success, the U.S. Army team is not backing off.
“We have been working on quite a few things to make our car better,” Brown said at a recent testing. “We are learning. We are at the infancy stage of some things but really starting to dig into them and want to see how they are going to pan out as the year goes on.
“We are going to be incorporating them throughout the year to make our program better.”
While winning championships has become a regular habit for Brown, it was quite an offseason for Capps. Although he received just one first-place vote, he had enough support to hold off John Force Racing teammates Force and Robert Hight. Capps’ DSR teammates Matt Hagan and Tommy Johnson Jr. also received support.
“Winning a championship has been bigger than I could have ever imagined for a lot of different reasons,” said Capps, a resident of Carlsbad. “The coolest part was getting a picture from our DSR people with the No. 1 on the car.
“I’ve been No. 28 in Funny Car since 1997 and said the only way I’d change it would be if I won a championship.”
Capps said winning his inaugural championship has altered his thinking, to a degree.
“When you leave Pomona at the end of the season without winning the championship, you don’t understand how big a deal it is until it happens,” he said. “Walking through the house and seeing the trophy is amazing. I’m lucky my wife Shelley has allowed me to put the trophy in the house where it is, right when you walk in the door.
“Walking into the house or out of the house, walking by that trophy every day, I can’t explain it to someone who hasn’t gone through it.”
In Pro Stock, it’s expected the field will close the distance Line and Anderson created at the start of the season when Line reached the finals in the first eight events. Line’s championship victory margin was equivalent to posting the top time during one of four qualifying sessions during the 24-event season.
Elite Motorsports, which struggled in 2016, is expected to battle for the crown with former champs Erica Enders and Jeg Coughlin Jr. Teammate Vincent Nobile was sixth in the balloting, just behind KB’s Bo Butner.
“It’s going to be really hard to duplicate last season. It was the second-best year we’ve had as a group and probably a better year than most teams have ever had,” Line said. “Can we do the same thing? It’s possible.
“I’ve done it long enough to know it doesn’t stay that way, but we did have a great run and it would be nice that start that way this year. Everybody is going to be bunched closer together. Everybody’s figured out the rules package.”
Anderson is a four-time champion as a driver, and won three other titles as a crew chief for Warren Johnson. He’ll admit the 2016 struggles created a bit of doubt at the start.
“There still is a lot more to learn with the fuel injection for us. The motors are still down 30 to 40 horsepower from where they were with carburetors, and we know we’ll eventually get that back, but it’s been a slow process,” Anderson said. “We realized as the year went on the competition did close the gap on us.
“We kind of lost that edge we had at the start of the year, but still we closed in good style. We realized that if we didn’t make gains in the offseason, we would probably get passed by so we’ve been working hard. You just have to do better than the next guy is the bottom line.”
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