It was as if an NCAA Basketball Tournament broke out in Pamona, CA this Sunday at Auto Club Raceway. The NHRA Mellow Yellow Drag Racing Series’ 2015 opener surprised many in the amount of upsets we saw to start the campaign.

Qualifying – in NHRA and most motorsports series – does not get talked about enough. During the opening days of the NHRA Winter Nationals, a couple headline worthy stories arose. In the Funny Car Class, Matt Hagan blew up his Mopar dragster which left a gigantic fire in the car. Hagan got out okay thanks to his fire suit of course. On the Top Fuel side, Shawn Langdon ran the quickest run in the History of NHRA Drag Racing, with a 3.700. The previous record was held by Antron Brown.

Pro Stock

We start off all the way into the Semifinals as defending PS Champion, Erica Enders-Stevens, faced off with the #4 qualifier, Drew Skillman. Skillman hopped off with a reaction time of .015 seconds, and upset the #1 seed by 13 feet.

Across the bracket, #2 Jason Line challenged #3 Roger Brogdon for a spot in the Finals. Line capitalized and moved on to face Skillman. The two took away with nearly the Same reaction time; Line ran a .038 and Brogdon had a .042. Line edged out Skillman at the line by approximately five feet to take the points lead after the season’s first event

Pro Stock Standings As of NHRA Winter Nationals (2/8/15) Pos Driver Points 1 Jason Line 123 2 Drew Skillman 97 3 Erica Enders-Stevens 81 4 Roger Brogdon 80 5 Chris McGaha 55 6 Larry Morgan 54 7 Shane Gray 52 8 Allen Johnson 52 9 Greg Anderson 34 10 Vincent Nobile 34

Funny Car

The Funny Car Class had probably the most upsets out of the three, during the first round #13 John Hale knocked off #4 Cruz Pedragon, then in the subsequent race #12 Matt Hagan beat #5 Tony Pedragon.

However, neither of those highlighted the upsets during the day; also in the first round, Bob Bode def. #3 John Force after Force’s Camaro blew up midway during the run. Bode was elated after the race saying that he finally beat John Force. In the next round however, Bode’s car broke before he could run.

In the quarterfinals, #8 Del Worsham triggered some more upsets when he defeated #1 Courtney Force to earn a spot in semi’s along with #12 Matt Hagan, #7 Robert Height and #6 Ron Capps.

Hagan and Capps met in the finals in what proved to be a thrilling matchup. In his rebuilt dragster, Hagan overcame a fast reaction time (.046) from Capps to win the event.

Funny Car Standings As of NHRA Winter Nationals (2/8/15) Pos Driver Points 1 Matt Hagan 107 2 Ron Capps 94 3 Del Worsham 74 4 Robert Hight 73 5 Courtney Force 61 6 Tommy Johnson Jr. 60 7 John Hale 51 8 Bob Bode 46 9 John Force 40 10 Cruz Pedregon 38

Top Fuel Dragster

The first round in the Top Fuel class brought a big name match up in #6 Tony Schumacher and #11 Antron Brown. Brown ran the fastest he would all weekend to take down Schumacher and ended up racing his way to the Finals.

Brown would face the man who broke his fastest pass record earlier that weekend, #1 Shawn Langdon. Brown ran the slowest he ran in the elimination stages losing by seven feet.

Top Fuel Standings As of NHRA Winter Nationals (2/8/15) Pos Driver Points 1 Shawn Langdon 124 2 Antron Brown 92 3 Spencer Massey 78 4 Larry Dixon 73 5 Richie Crampton 59 6 Doug Kalitta 56 7 Steve Torrence 54 8 Leah Pritchett 52 9 Tony Schumacher 36 10 Brittany Force 33

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