NHRA Funny Car lead changes hands, Top Fuel tightens at LVMS

Cue the music from the TV commercial. Summon everybody to the office lunchroom. Dial the microwave to its highest setting.

“The Final Countdown” to the Countdown to the Championship, as the NHRA calls its six-race playoff, is on.

So are points battles between Robert Hight and Ron Capps for the Funny Car title, and between Steve Torrence and Brittany Force in Top Fuel.

Capps, the reigning champion, started the Toyota Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway leading the Countdown but went out in the first round of Sunday’s final eliminations. That opened the door for Hight, whose two round wins moved him 15 points ahead Capps heading into the season finale at Pomona, California, in two weeks.

Force, who is having a breakout season and qualified for her third final round in four starts, pulled within 20 points of Torrence, who was bounced in the quarterfinals. But she red-lighted in the final, handing Terry McMillen his first victory in 195 career starts.

Other than that, there was little drama on another sunny and fast day of drag racing that saw Matt Hagan win in Funny Car and Greg Anderson in Pro Stock.

Wedding gift

It was a momentous week for the 63-year-old McMillen, who married his longtime girlfriend Cori Wickler at the Valley of Fire last Sunday.

“I’m very blessed to have a beautiful lady and a car that won today,” said the Chicagoan, who defeated Richie Crampton, Clay Millican and Shawn Langdon before Force jumped the gun, to become the 104th different winner in Top Fuel history.

It was a missed opportunity for John Force’s oldest racing daughter, who could have tied Torrence atop the points had she defeated the upstart McMillen.

“I feel like I let my team down and it’s tough to end a weekend like that, but we moved closer to Torrence in points and made a final round appearance, which is huge,” she said.

Hagan will be relegated to the role of Funny Car spoiler when Hight and Capps race for the crown in Pomona, but said that didn’t make his first Las Vegas victory and his first of the 2017 Countdown less special.

“These Funny Cars are finicky. Sometimes they love ya’, and sometimes they rip your heart out and step on it,” Hagan said after knocking off Courtney Force in the final and No. 1 qualifier Jack Beckman in the semifinals. That came after Beckman had set track records for elapsed time and speed during Saturday’s second-day qualifying.

Anderson increases edge

Anderson defeated Bo Butner in a battle of KB Racing teammates for his 90th career victory in the Pro Stock final and stretched his Countdown lead to 40 points over Butner. The Pro Stock championship was the only one of the three car classes that didn’t tighten up in Las Vegas and will come down to a battle of KB drivers — Jason Line is third in points — in California.

“We’re just going to have to go outthere and settle it among ourselves. It’s a win, win, win,” said Anderson, a four-time series champion whose car owner, Ken Black, lives in Las Vegas.

Notes

Two-time reigning Top Fuel champion Antron Brown, who clinched those championships at the Toyota Nationals, lost in the first round to Shawn Langdon Sunday and was virtually eliminated from the points chase with one race to go. … Second-generation IndyCar driver Graham Rahal was an interested spectator in the staging area behind the Christmas tree — he is married to Funny Car title contender Courtney Force. … Sunday’s final eliminations were a sellout, as a crowd estimated at 35,000 packed the suites, grandstands, bleachers and standing room areas.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.