By Rob Geiger, NHRA.com
Top Fuel driver Brandon Bernstein scored his ninth career victory Sunday at the 19th annual O'Reilly Spring NHRA Nationals presented by Pennzoil to surge from 12th to sixth place in the POWERade points. The son of drag racing legend Kenny Bernstein, Brandon entered the day without a single elimination round win on the year. But the "Bud Prince" churned out the suds in the Texas heat, beating point leader Melanie Troxel for his second win in the last three years at this facility.
Funny Car's No. 1 driver, Ron Capps, extended his lead in the standings with a wire-to-wire job on Bob Gilbertson that ended with his 19th victory, one more than his decorated crew chief Ed "the Ace" McCulloch. Mike Edwards scored a win in Pro Stock for the first time in four years, while Angelle Sampey remained perfect on the season with her second win in as many Pro Stock Motorcycle races.
Brandon Bernstein It had been 13 races since Bernstein had scored a victory, which must seem like an eternity for a driver who has a stellar 9-1 final-round record in just 58 starts. Troxel, who was racing in her fifth straight final - an NHRA record for any female racer -- got an early .077- to .100-second headstart at the Christmas Tree, but Bernstein had reeled her in 100 feet later and drove away for a 4.534-second win at 329.83 mph to Troxel's 4.580 at 323.35 mph.
"This has turned into an amazing weekend," Bernstein said. "Being a Texas boy, to come home and do well for this team is great. Dad's going into the Texas Sports Hall of Fame Wednesday and now we can go in there with a trophy in hand. That's my present to him right there.
"These guys never gave up. We just stayed positive even through these stupid little mechanical failures we had earlier this year. Dad told us that he had many stretches where stuff like this happened to him and there was nothing to get down about. We know what kind of team this is and what we're capable of. We just had to be patient.
"Tim [Richards, crew chief] tuned us to a 4.51 in the first round and I knew he had a handle on this racetrack. Once he gets like that he's very tough to beat. It was like I had a bracket car today."
Starting the day 12th on the ladder, Bernstein beat Gainesville winner Dave Grubnic, Morgan Lucas, and low qualifier Cory McClenathan to get to the final. His slowest pass of the day was a 4.558 in the semi's.
Bernstein is now 27 points out of second place and 155 behind Troxel, who almost doubled her POWERade points lead this weekend.
Ron Capps Capps had little more than a victory lap in the final when surprise finalist Bob Gilbertson immediately smoked his tires at the hit of the throttle. Capps’ 5.005 at 293.47 mph in the Brut Dodge Stratus R/T was beatable, but Gilbertson only watched as Capps collected his 19th national event trophy, which pushed his lead in the Funny Car standings to 68 over John Force.
"I'm still kind of in shock when I hear that," Capps said in the pressroom after being announced as the points leader and winner of the last two events. "We all saw [teammate Gary] Scelzi DNQ at this race and it reminds you that you're only as good as your last pass, not even your last race. I mean, if the defending series champ can DNQ, anything can happen to any of us.
"We just took what the track gave us all day. That's pretty much what we've done all year. The car was perfect until the final when I hurt the motor on the burnout. I told the guys we were in trouble when I was backing up but I still ran it down through there to try and get the win. I guess Bob had trouble, so we got a break there.
"This is going to be a long year. I know that, so I'm just trying to enjoy every minute of it right now."
Gilbertson still had a great day reaching his fifth career final in his Autolite XP Spark Plugs Chevrolet Monte Carlo. It was almost a carbon copy of his only career win, which occurred under similar circumstances at this track six years ago.
Before the final, Capps was extremely consistent once again, running low 4.8-second passes against Frank Pedregon, Del Worsham, and No. 1 qualifier Force.
Mike Edwards It appears parity has returned to the Pro Stock class as Edwards becomes the fourth winner in four races this year. This slump-busting victory came at the end of the closest Pro race of the day as he edged Jim Yates by .0098-second to win on a holeshot, 6.731 at 206.01 mph to Yates' 6.726 at 205.63 mph. Edwards recorded a .058-second start to Yates' .072-second launch.
Edwards jumped up to second place in the points and finds himself just 34 markers behind three-time and defending champion Greg Anderson, who was dismissed by Yates in the quarterfinals.
No matter which of these two drivers won, it would have broken a long dry spell. Edwards last win came at the 2002 Denver race, while Yates lasted collected a trophy in Reading, Pa., that same season.
Angelle Sampey Sampey is now all alone in ninth place on NHRA's all-time wins list despite the fact she's only 35 years old and has run in just 137 events. The U.S. Army Suzuki rider had what looked to be a fairly easy road to her 39th victory, running mid-7.1s all day. Her 7.144-second, 190.11-mph victory over finalist Andrew Hines, who went 7.200 at 188.04 mph on his Vance & Hines Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson V-Rod, looked picture-perfect from start to finish.
"I'm a little surprised that I've won both races," Sampey said. "I'm not surprised in the team accomplishing this but I thought maybe I'd win one and Antron [Brown, teammate] would win the other. Steve Tartaglia [crew chief] is an animal. I keep telling him to take a vacation because all he does is work but maybe if all that work results in win after win then I guess we shouldn't change anything.
"Beating both Harleys today is just icing on the cake. I've raced Suzukis since I first got on a bike and I never want to change to another brand. We fought hard for some changes to help level the field, and it feels great when we can beat the Harleys. I thanked Andrew at the end of the track because I told him that their team is so hard to beat that it's an accomplishment to beat them. That's why we celebrate so much when we beat them. They think we hate them but we don't. I appreciate the competition."
Two races into the 15-race Pro Stock Motorcycle schedule, Sampey is 63 points ahead of her nearest rival, which is now two-time and defending champion Hines. Her teammate Antron Brown slipped to third, 15 back of Hines.
Josh Hernandez successfully defended his AMS Pro Modified Challenge title at Houston Raceway Park by defeating Danny Rowe. Hernandez dominated competition with the quickest elapsed time in three of the four rounds of competition. His winning elapsed time was a 6.122 elapsed time at 234.98 mph.
