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FRIDAY QUALIFYING – MILADINOVICH RELISHES ANOTHER SHOT, TASCA SATISFIED AS FIRST TO HIT 341-PLUS-MPH MARK WHILE DeJORIA RECALLS HER MILESTONE, SALINAS TRIES SHOPPING, PROCK SAYS DRAGSTER IS ‘CADILLAC OF DRAG RACING,’ COBRA JET SETS RECORD
1 – HOT DOG! HE’S BACK! – A shipping-container mechanic for the Port of Los Angeles who literally builds and maintains his Hot 4 Teacher Funny Car in the garage at his Orange, Calif., home, Alex Miladinovich became an instant fan favorite in February 2020. His gushy and teary top-end interview after qualifying for the 16-car Winternationals field was epic. Two years later, in February 2022, he captured drag-racing fans’ hearts after a violent qualifying crash at this race that he casually referred to as “the whammo.” The underdog talked about another dog — “The mustard fell off the hotdog!” he said following his accident that started and ended his season and put his driving career on hold for two more years.
The hot dog – rather, his Toyota Camry hot rod – is slathered up again, and Miladinovich is relishing his chance to get back on track again two years later. With his do-it-the-old-school approach, the same gusto he applies to his admittedly tone-deaf karaoke performances, and even a crewhand known as “Big Dummy,” Miladinovich is back at the Lucas Oil Winternationals with fresh sponsors TransActionLaw.com and Grant Air Conditioning & Heating.
“We can’t run at the level it takes to be competitive without the gracious support of long-time sponsors Ver Steeg Trucking, RSF RedShirtFriday.com and L&N Linens. Added support from Bill Brinckloe at TransActionLaw and Darin Grant of Grant Air Conditioning this weekend puts us in a great position to get this hot rod on the qualifying ladder in a stacked NHRA Funny Car field,” he said.
Miladinovich has his fingers crossed overnight that the forecasted rain stays away Saturday and he gets two more qualifying chances before Sunday’s eliminations. He opened Friday’s Funny Car session by rolling through the water box, only to have his car lose power as he started his burnout.
3 – ANYONE ELSE JUST SECOND – The NHRA no longer rewards 20 points to a driver for setting a performance record. And no speed, regardless of how stunning it is, has any bearing on qualifying order or lane choice or any other advantage a racer can earn. Still, Bob Tasca III’s 341.68-mph pass Feb. 9 during qualifying for the PRO Superstar Shootout has the drag-racing community abuzz. Neither Tasca nor his colleagues could duplicate the 341.68-mph feat or surpass it a month later at the NHRA season-opening Gatornationals at Gainesville, Fla. So, naturally, fans at the Lucas Oil Winternationals at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip this weekend are hoping to see the first NHRA-recognized 340-plus-mph clocking.
Tasca said he was surprised no one has posted a 340-mph speed by now: “I thought for sure we would’ve seen it Saturday night in Gainesville. We were setting the car up like we did in Bradenton.”
That Bradenton race, co-crew chief Todd Okuhara said, saw all the stars align for a momentous run: “I think you got the perfect storm, right? You got really great conditions [at] sea level. The motor makes really good power there. The barometer is good, but you can adjust your spoiler for it. So it was just a perfect storm.”
As for when it will happen in NHRA competition, the consensus seems to be it will happen either early in the season, no later than the Charlotte four-wide event, or not until the later part of the schedule, at perhaps Reading or Dallas or even back here at Pomona during the Finals in November.
“It all depends on conditions,” Tasca said, and Okuhara concurred. “We could do it here [at Pomona]. If the conditions are right, we can do it in Phoenix. I believe we could do it in Vegas, and I believe probably the last chance we would have to do it as Charlotte before it starts to get too warm. Any one of those races, if the conditions present [themselves], we believe we can [do it]. Can we break 341? I don’t know if the conditions will be that good, but we feel confidently that over the next couple of races, if the conditions present [themselves] as they did Saturday night in Gainesville, we fully intend to break 340.”
But Tasca shrugged at the notion of anyone, including himself, running as fast as 340 mph here.
“I’ve already done it officially,” the Dark Horse Ford Mustang owner-driver said. “Now, doing it officially at an NHRA national event, I’d love to do it, but it’s already been done, and I’ve made this point very clear to everyone who’s asked me. It’s already been done. Whoever does it is going to do it for the second time, not the first time. The first time at a national event, I’d love to do it – but we already did it.”
He’s particularly proud of the fact a Funny Car continues to outpace the fastest Top Fuel dragster. Robert Hight still has the NHRA speed record, at 339.87 mph, which he set at Sonoma, Calif., in 2017. That beats Brittany Force’s Top Fuel-best 338.94 from the 2022 NHRA Finals at Pomona.
“It’s exciting for just casual viewers to break a milestone as the first time a Funny Car has ever done it. It’s always been a dragster. It’s the first time anyone’s gone 340, and it’s been 25 years since a milestone has been broken,” Tasca said. “So I don’t want to take anything away from what my team’s done. It’s an incredible accomplishment to be able to do what we did, clearly.
“We’re always trying to go faster. Everyone’s going to be gunning for that 341 68. But at the end of the day, we were the first to break 340, which is a pretty incredible accomplishment. It’s the first barrier broken at 1,000 feet. Many people didn’t think we could break 330 at a thousand feet, and we did. So I’m excited about it.”
Okuhara said, “It’s definitely out there for a few cars. . . . I think it’ll be sooner [rather than later], either early in the season or late in the season. There’s a few cars that can do it.”
Ron Capps said he was hoping a Toyota would get the honor of the first 340-mph pass, namely his NAPA Camry. “We have a car that’s always right there at top mile-an-hour at any event. So I really think we would’ve had a chance at it,” he said. “We’ve been close several times, so it’ll happen. And it’d be cool to do it officially, but it was fun to watch. Of course, we wanted a Toyota to do it first and all that, but we were not in that place in our heads.”
Tasca’s performance at Bradenton was the first in the nitro ranks. It topped a 20-year-old Funny Car record. Gary Scelzi was the first to clock a 330-mph-or-better, in the second qualifying round of the 2004 Joliet, Ill., race, with a 330.15. What’s more, Tasca broke a 25-year-old nitro-ranks record. Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel) was the first to go 330 mph (330.23), in 1999, at Chandler, Ariz.
But will anyone reach the 350-mph mark?
“Will it be 350 in my lifetime? Probably, most likely, not. I don’t believe so,” Tasca said. “And it is just going to become harder and harder to do it because we shut off at a thousand feet. It had been 25 years since we broke 330 miles an hour, believe it or not. And the reason it took so long is we went from a quarter-mile to a thousand feet, and then NHRA put some limiters on the cars slow us down. I feel that one of the greatest limiting factors of continuing to accelerate is distance. We’re stopped at a thousand feet. So with that goalpost brought in, do I feel anyone’s going to break 341 yet? I fully expect people to break it.”
But 350 is a distant dream, he said.
Okuhara said, “I don’t know. You never say never. I mean, 10 years ago we never thought we’d be going this quick or fast.” However, he said, “When you’re out here racing, you don’t go out trying to run speed. You want the car to run quick. So that’s just a bonus when they run speed. So you never really go out there just trying to run fast. So when you get it all right, then that’s what happens. But you go out there trying to run quick, but not necessarily fast.”
4 – A REAL SUNSHINE STATE – Dragster-driver-turned-Funny-Car-driver Austin Prock has had a lot of success in Florida this year. But this historic racetrack in the cradle of drag racing, now named In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip, is this weekend’s backdrop for the continuation of what he called his “surreal” 2024. “I’ve always loved that racetrack. It’s always been my favorite one to hit on the map,” he said.
“It still feels surreal, being able to drive this Funny Car and race with my family,” said the winner of the PRO Superstar Shootout at Bradenton, Fla., and runner-up at the Gatornationals at Gainesville.
Prock is making just his third start in a Funny Car, and he already notices the comparisons to a Tip Fuel dragster.
“The dragster is a lot more elegant, I would call it. (With) the longer wheelbase, you’re accelerating quicker, but the car is moving left to right, slower. I would call it the Cadillac of NHRA drag racing,” Prock said. “The way it moves around is a lot more slow and lazy. You can be a lot smoother on the wheel, where the Funny Car, when it takes off it, it really wants to hunt. It wants to go in whatever direction it wants to go. It’s going there in a hurry, and you’d better be two steps ahead of it. So it’s just figuring it out. I love driving both of them. It’s just figuring out the tendencies and when to get on the wheel and when not to get on the wheel.”
As for his early accomplishments, Prock said, “It hasn’t really sunk in yet. It’s one of those deals where things are just happening and so much is coming at me at once right now. I feel like I’m just kind of like holding on to the wheel, but I’m definitely enjoying it. It still feels surreal, being able to drive this Funny Car and race with my family.” He’s substituting for Robert Hight, who took a medical leave of absence.
5 – ‘GUIDO’S TEAM’ – Ron Capps is in his third season as a team owner and driver. And curiously enough, what helps ease the pressure is knowing Dean “Guido” Antonelli is far more than just his crew chief. “I’ve always said, this is Guido’s team. I may own it, but I let Guido run everything,” Capps said. “That’s his car, his team to run.”
It’s a happy situation, for Capps and wife Shelley (like close friend Antron Brown and his wife, Billie Jo with their Top Fuel team) are all-in on the administrative side of the organization.
“Shelley’s real involved. She’s, she’s very, very involved. She’s been doing insurance and payroll and she’s been overloaded,” Capps said. So he hired sister-in-law Lori (Adler) Capps.
“She ran Simpson Racing for Bill Simpson,” he said. “She helped me out and gave me a free firesuit, which helped me back then as a rookie, and a deal on a helmet. She met my brother [Jon, who at the time was a crew member on Capps’ Roger Primm-owned Top Fuel dragster], and then my brother started dating her behind my back. I threatened him not to screw up my Simpson deal.”
The story has a happy ending, for Jon and Lori have been married for more than 20 years – and Ron Capps has hired Lori “to take over a lot of the things. So it is really more family. I’m excited. And that’ll take a load off Shelly a lot.
“Every day at our house, we’re up early, like four in the morning, five in the morning. We can’t sleep. We get up and we go – we’re just all day,” Ron Capps said. “It’s stuff, business stuff for business, the company until six or seven at night every day. So we needed to hire somebody, but it’s been fun.”
6 – SENTIMENTAL SITE – Funny Car veteran Cruz Pedregon said he always looks forward to the Winternationals because he and brothers Tony and Frankie “grew up down the street in Chino. So it’s definitely a home game for us.”
What’s more, he has a special distinction at In-N-Out Burger Pomona Dragstrip.
Pedregon said, “I remember winning the ’89 Winternationals in an Alcohol Dragster, then came back the very next year and won the 1990 Winternationals in an Alcohol Funny Car. I’ve also competed in Top Fuel here, so it’s one of the few tracks I’ve competed in all four different categories.” If for no other reason, Pedregon said this race is a favorite because “it has all the cool places to go eat, namely In-N-Out Burger. And I’m glad to see them sponsoring the track.”
It didn’t hurt. Salinas settled into the provisional seventh place in the 16-car order with a 4.270-second elapsed time at 201.22 mph.
Crew chief Rob Flynn said after Salinas got a strong jump off the starting line, then cut off the engine early, “We didn’t want to get her over her head.
The track’s a little bit tricky, so we backed it off.”
8 – MAN IN THE MOON-EYES – Buddy Hull, appropriately, said he’s “over the moon” about driving the iconic Jim Dunn Racing “Mooneyes” Funny Car this weekend in his second start in the class. “This weekend we’re switching the body on the car to have a retro Mooneyes look,” he said. “We’re super happy about it and can’t wait for the world to see it. It’s a cool race car, and to debut it in California, which is the homeland of drag racing, [is] just an incredible experience. Mooneyes has been a sponsor for Jim Dunn Racing for a long time, and to show off this iconic car and represent Big Jim is a big deal to me.”
Dunn, who has operated out of Southern California since 1949, has had a business relationship with the Moon Equipment Company, manufacturer of nostalgic hot-rod products, and its classic yellow Mooneyes graphics.
Hull said, “Relationships in this sport are everything. I’ve always loved having really cool car bodies, like my Hull’k Top Fuel dragster that I debuted at the U.S. Nationals last year. It’s a great way to engage with fans and demonstrate one of the many reasons why drag racing is so much fun.”
Hull – who said he feels “more at home and more comfortable in that Funny Car after eight or nine runs than I ever did in my Top Fuel car,” that “it’s where I belong” – said he’s starting to master the basics.
“Every run in the car you learn more, and the car teaches you something. I’ve now made enough runs and been in the car enough time that I’m not having to think about where anything is. I’m just focusing on doing my job as the race-car driver,” he said. “The first three, four or five runs in a race car you have to think about ‘the lever is here’ and ‘this is how the pedal feels.’ But that’s over with, at this point. It’s simply just getting in there and doing my part as a good race-car driver.”
One positive he took from the recent Gatornationals was the support from his on-track rivals. “They really welcomed me into the Funny Car class. It’s been so cool to make the crossover from Top Fuel to Funny Car and from part-time to full-time. I was able to spend some time talking to Ron Capps, Bob Tasca III, and John Force during the Gatornationals, and they’ve all welcomed me in with open arms. They’re allowing me to fit in, in my own way. I can’t wait to see the impact I have on the field over the course of this year,” he said.
9 – FIREBALL FOR MILLICAN – Clay Millican’s Parts Plus dragster closed the day with the tentative No. 6 position in the Top Fuel lineup, but it came at a high cost, complete with a fireball.
“Wrecked the injector, wrecked the rear wing,” Millican said, as if taking inventory. “I felt like it was going OK. About the time I was shutting it off, kaboom. It was ugly, that’s for sure. Got the wingstand, too. We’ve got to figure out what happened before I go out and stomp on that loud pedal again. We don’t want to do that again. That’s way too pricey.” He said the likely cause of the mishap was valvetrain-related.
10 – ELECTRIC RUN – Ford’s latest iteration of the Super Cobra Jet 1800, with Pat McCue at the wheel, registered a record 7.75-second elapsed time at 180.14 mph here Friday afternoon.
“This is an upgraded car, so it’s the same chassis, but we’ve done some pretty significant upgrades to the old car,” Stephen Johnsen, MLE Race Cars engineer, said. “So it may be the same chassis, but we’ve got a brand-new battery system in the car. It’s about 40 percent lighter. We have a new Liberty five-speed in the car. So we’ve changed over from the three-speed to the five-speed. We have a new rear tire; new rear tire, bigger rear tire. We’ve back-halved the car. Essentially, we got to where we could with that initial iteration, and ultimately this is a technology test bed for us at Ford Performance at Ford Motor Company. We had to push it a little farther, so we’ve upgraded the car.
MLE Race Cars, with electrical engineer Chris Brune serving as motor specialist for the Cobra Jet, has partnered with Ford Performance to produce, modify and fine-tune the car.
McCue said, “We have four electric motors in pairs, and there’s two pairs stacked up vertically on a gearbox. And that gearbox has straight-cut gears in it. And we made a real conscious choice on that, as well, of whether we wanted straight-cut gears or helical-cut gears. We were sort of going, ‘Well, this is going to be so quiet already. I think we want some noise for the fans to hear.’ And I’ve been told that if you stand at the end of the track, when you hear it go by, it kind of sounds like a jet car.
“Every sanctioning body is exploring EV or hybrid technology every single one of them now. So everybody’s going to have some batteries on their car at some point,” he said. “The NHRA has been deliberate and very thoughtful in how they want to bring these cars out. And they’ve been great letting us run and do exhibitions when we want to. Rush to competition is not necessarily the best course of action.”
McCue has driven both the Ford Cobra Jet and the electric Copo Camaro, and he said General Motors “wanted to consider what an electric Copo Camaro could look like for the masses. And Ford Performance is very focused on advancing the technology and pushing the limits and trying to come up with the most powerful and the fastest electric drag car there is. And they’ve done a great job with us to do that. But I would love to see Ford Performance and General Motors and Dodge and maybe Toyota all work towards a lower power sort of entry-level car and then do a little bit of a demonstration program and put guys like Bob Tasca, Tony Stewart, other pro racers in the driver’s seat, and rotate those drivers around, maybe even do celebrities. I mean, with half of the power, this car would be a joy to drive. It is still a joy to drive, but it is a bit of a handful.”
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