When will it end, this Don Schumacher Racing dominance at the Route 66 Nationals?
Not this year.
Antron Brown was the king of Top Fuel and Jack Beckman ruled in the Funny Car class in Sunday's event at Route 66 Raceway.
The Schumacher sweep in the NHRA Nitro divisions was the team's fourth in a row at the Joliet track.
The broom closet is getting pretty full.
"Hey, we can never run out of room in the closet," Brown joked. "Trust me, if we do Don just adds on.
"We have a boss who is very, very competitive and who hates to lose. He gives you all of the necessary pieces and tools so there are never excuses. And he gives you the push you need when you need that push.
"Sometimes you don't like that push, but he's only saying what the truth is."
Brown edged out J.R. Todd in the Top Fuel final with a run of 3.777 seconds (321.19 miles per hour). Todd finished at 3.798 seconds.
It completed a day for Brown in which the Pittsboro, Ind., resident beat Clay Millican, Terry McMillen and Leah Pritchett. The defending division champion came into the weekend trailing first-place Doug Kalitta, and left two points ahead. Kalitta lost in the quarterfinals to Tony Schumacher.
Beckman cruised in the Funny Car final when Ron Capps spun his tires a short way down the strip.
"We can see out the sides on the new Charger bodies," Beckman said. "I saw a whole lot of NAPA front fender (Capps' car) out there and I went, 'Oh.' About the time I got to 'no,' it disappeared. And when a car disappears from your peripheral vision that fast, you know they've smoked the tires. At that point it was, 'Keep it in the middle of the lane, don't hit anything, get the chutes out. Great feeling watching that win light come on."
It was Beckman's first career win at Route 66 and his first event title in 2016.
"We've run well, but we just couldn't put it together," Beckman said. "It was a little bit frustrating to be one of our four (team) Funny Cars that hadn't closed the deal, but we knew we would find it."
Southland legends Luigi Novelli of Crete and Chris Karamesines of Chicago saw their Top Fuel day end in the first round.
Novelli, 73, stayed with Steve Torrence for about 800 feet before his 2011 McKinney seized up, flamed out and coasted to the finish.
"We dropped a (cylinder) hole and burned the head off," Novelli said. "It's hot and humid. We tried our best, but burned the No. 8. We got beat in the first round, but we'll try again.
"We're getting closer, lots closer. We'll get it ironed out."
The 84-year-old Karamesines hesitated at the start of his race against Brittany Force. By the time he got up to speed she was long gone.
"We had a little trouble with the computer stuff and it made a difference on the starting line," Karamesines said. "We're trying some new things, so it's going to take time to get everything back in order. It was good for us to make a couple, three runs this weekend."
Palos Hills native Kevin Lawrence lost in the first round of the Pro Stock competition to Bo Butner. Lawrence completed his run in 6.811 seconds (202.24 miles per hour).
"There was something wrong," Lawrence said. "We changed six points of gear ratio, had the motor totally rich, totally lean and it's like it has the choke stuck.
"Last night Adam (crew chief Adam Drzayich) worked on it until 2:30 in the morning on his computer and it didn't respond. So somewhere we have a glitch. But it was our first time out, so we're satisfied."
FULL ARTICLE by Tony Baranek
