CHEVROLET RACING IN NATIONAL HOT ROD ASSOCIATION
LUCAS OIL NHRA WINTERNATIONALS PRESENED BY PROTECTTHEHARVEST.COM
AUTO CLUB RACEWAY IN POMONA, CALIFORMIA
FEB. 19, 2022
Chevrolet drivers qualify No. 1 in Top Fuel and Pro Stock
• Brittany Force starts season with 33rd career Top Fuel top honor
• Erica Enders takes her Pro Stock Camaro SS to the top in 900th race
• Robert Hight qualifies No. 2 in Funny Car in his Camaro SS
POMONA, Calif. (Feb. 19, 2022) — Qualifying in the three professional categories for the Lucas Oil NHRA Winternationals presented by ProtectTheHarvest.com showed that Chevrolet teams and drivers are fast and well-positioned for victories in the season opener.
Brittany Force claimed her 33rd career No. 1 qualifier honor in Top Fuel – and 11th in the past 14 races – with a blistering run of 3.661 seconds in her Monster Energy Chevrolet dragster on the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona track.
“It feels awesome just to be back out here at my home track, starting a new season with the Monster Energy/Flav-R-Pac team. Even better to go No. 1. First race of the season it just pumps all of us up to see what we can do this season,” said Force, the 2021 championship runner-up who will be seeking her first Winternationals victory.
Four-time Pro Stock champion Erica Enders earned the 23rd No. 1 qualifier of her career with a pass of 6.521 seconds at 210.44 mph in the Melling Performance Camaro SS.
“She’s very consistent. She responds well to the input my crew chiefs give her. We haven’t scored a whole lot of No. 1 qualifier lately, but it’s a great way to start off the season,” Enders said.
Fourteen Camaro SS drivers will be aiming to hold the silver shifter – the trophy created for the winner of the 900th race in Pro Stock history. Bill Jenkins won the first race in the class in the 1970 Winternationals in his big-block Camaro.
Reigning Pro Stock champion Greg Anderson will seek his 100th career victory in the class, which would make him the second NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series driver to hit the milestone and fifth overall. Sixteen-time NHRA Funny Car champion John Force leads the way with 154 wins. A victory by Anderson, who qualified fourth in the HendrickCars.com Camaro SS, would also tie Bob Glidden (7) for the most in Pro Stock in the Winternationals.
Camrie Carusso, who was a crew member on Enders’ car a few years ago, qualified eighth for her NHRA Pro Stock debut in the PowerBuilt Camaro SS. Race day will mark the second time two female drivers have competed for a Wally in the same event in Pro Stock history.
Robert Hight held the top spot in Funny Car qualifications based on his 3.882-second pass in Q1 until the final run of the third and final session. Hight improved his time to 3.861 seconds in the Auto Club of Southern California Camaro SS and qualified second. John Force qualified 16th in the BlueDEF Platinum Camaro SS.
FS1 will telecast taped eliminations at 10 p.m. ET on Feb. 20.
An interview with Top Fuel No. 1 qualifier BRITTANY FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONSTER ENERGY CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (33rd of career):
HOW GOOD DID THAT LAST RUN FEEL?
“It feels awesome just to be back out here at my home track, starting a new season with the Monster Energy/Flav-R-Pac team. I’m excited to be back with all of them, doing what we love. Even better to go No. 1. First race of the season it just pumps all of us up to see what we can do this season.”
IT SEEMS YOU BUILT UP TO THAT RUN.
“We were out at Phoenix testing. I think we made nine or 10 runs and it was a little bit of a struggle for us. We learned what we needed to, but we only made one full pass. We were making half-track runs most of the time, and we came out here and struggled on a couple qualifying runs. So, it felt good to have a solid pass down the track going into race day, and at 3.66 that’s pretty outstanding. I’m pumped, I’m excited about it, and I give that up to David Grubnic and Mac Savage and all our guys.”
HOW FRUSTRATING WAS IT TO NOT MAKE THAT ONE GLORY RUN AT TESTING?
“It was fine. We’re out there to find our routine of things again. Grubnic asked, ‘Brittany, do you need to make full passes?’ I told him I’d love to make a few going into Pomona. I stand by David Grubnic and what he wants to do. We did make one full pass. You want to get back in the feel of things, but honestly getting in the car, warming it up, doing a burnout at 60 feet is all you need. Typically, testing is all over the place with everyone trying to find their groove again. It’s always up and down and never as planned.”
WHEN YOU COME UP WITH GREAT CONDITIONS LIKE THIS, DO YOU KNOW GRUBNIC IS GOING TO TAKE YOU TO NO. 1?
“He’s really quiet. He has so much going on in his head. He just comes to me and says, ‘I’m not going to say anything.’ I already know what that means. We were in safe with our run last night, so it gave us the opportunity to push and take some chances.”
WHAT WOULD WINNING YOUR FIRST WINTERNATIONALS MEAN TO YOU?
“This is my home track. I love it here. I grew up here, sitting in the stands watching my dad. So, this is a very special track to me. It’s where my love of drag racing began. I have so many great memories here, standing in the winner’s circle with my dad and my sisters. Standing in my own winner’s circle in 2017 when we won the championship. So, to do it at the opening of the season, that’s what we’re going for. That’s why we’re here.”
An interview with Pro Stock No. 1 qualifier ERICA ENDERS, ELITE MOTORSPORTS, MELLING PERFORMANCE CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (23rd of her career):
DO YOU FEEL GOOD GOING INTO RACE DAY?
“Absolutely. This is probably the best race car we’ve had in a long time even considering the Countdown last year. We had a goal in the offseason to come out swinging. I think we have something to prove. We got our Chevy Camaro tuned up and to lay down three really consistent runs during qualifying and that gives you confidence heading into race day.”
THE 900TH PRO STOCK RACE AND YOU’RE GOING FOR YOUR FIRST WINTERNATIONALS VICTORY. HOW EXCITED ARE YOU?
“Tomorrow is very exciting, and I’ll try to focus on keeping it like a normal race. I just go up and try to control every aspect in my lane and try to do the best I can at the starting line, hit my shift points and turn on four win lights. We’ve been fortunate enough to battle it out for awards and it definitely would mean a lot to take that bad boy home.”
HOW DO YOU APPROACH TOMORROW?
“It’s another goal my team and I had this year. We’re not out here to make friends. We’re going to do our best to put our Melling Performance Camaro in the winner’s circle.”
CHEVROLET FROM THE COCKPIT
TOP FUEL:
AUSTIN PROCK, JOHN FORCE RACING, MONTANA BRANDS/ROCKY MOUNTAIN TWIST CHEVROLET DRAGSTER (qualified ninth): “Overall, a pretty good start to the weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve driven one of these things, and this is the shortest shut down on the circuit, so you have to make sure you have the laundry out on time. Tomorrow we’ll have a decent baseline and go from there.”
FUNNY CAR:
JOHN FORCE, JOHN FORCE RACING, BLUEDEF PLATINUM CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified 16th): “I’m just glad to be back in a PEAK Chevy, glad to be starting the season. This BlueDEF team is working hard, we’ll be OK. Danny Hood, Tim Fabrisi, we’re looking good for this year.”
ROBERT HIGHT, JOHN FORCE RACING, AUTO CLUB OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified second): We’ve got to get one run at a time and four on Sunday and then we’ll be excited.”
PRO STOCK:
GREG ANDERSON, KB RACING, HENDRICKCARS.COM CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified fourth): “We came in a little bit too conservative. We tested over at Phoenix and the racetrack just wasn’t that great, so we came in and tried to be safe on that first run yesterday. It was very safe; it just wasn’t quite quick enough and that’s what you get for that. It’s more indicative today of what we can run tomorrow. The car is as fast as anybody. We just lost a couple of qualifying spots because we were a little slack yesterday. It’s going to be a tough year.”
KYLE KORETSKY, KB RACING, LUCAS OIL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified third): “We’re happy with how everything went. Friday, we started out really strong and ended up No. 3. We’ll get ready for tomorrow.”
DALLAS GLENN, KB RACING, RAD TORQUE SYSTEMS CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified seventh): “The car is working really good; it’s been good at 60 foot every run. I’m getting the clutch pedal handled, so the (fourth) run was my best light yet. I think the car is making good, clean runs and we’re just going to chip away at it. I think we’ll be good by the end of race day or even next race. The car is there and everything is there. We just have to put it all together.”
CAMRIE CARUSSO, CARUSSO RACING, POWERBUILT CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified eighth in her first Pro Stock race): “It’s been crazy, it’s been fun and we’ve learned a ton. The PowerBuilt Camaro has been good to me and so has my team. We’ll be ready to bring our A game tomorrow.”
MATT HARTFORD, HARTFORD RACING, TOTAL SEAL CHEVROLET CAMARO SS (qualified 10th): “(Final run) We needed to get off the bump spot. We’ve not done a very good job this weekend – at least today. Yesterday I thought we made a good run, but we had a fuel that was not correct in a correctly labeled jug, and we got (penalized) for fuel and that put us way behind. The Total Seal/CIP1 Camaro knows how to win rounds, so we’ll go up there and execute tomorrow.”
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