It's been a long six years since Dave Grubnic last stood in victory lane at an NHRA national event and the road to victory lane this time was about as strange as it gets.
"It's been a long time between drinks," Grubnic said. "My last win was in Gainesville in 2006, and it's not from lack of trying. Kalitta Motorsports are all hard-core racers and my career has had ups and downs. You have to weather the troughs to appreciate the peaks. Today is one of those peaks."
Grubnic and the Candlewood Suites dragster beat defending race champion Spencer Massey and the Fram dragster in the finals of the Dollar General NHRA Summernationals to break a winless streak that stretched beyond 2,000 days.
"I've thought about it a lot," Grubnic said. "You're racing and racing and racing. To go that far without winning starts to affect you a little bit. You never stop believing and trying to do those things it takes to win. Eventually you break through."
Other winners on Sunday were Jack Beckman in Funny Car and Allen Johnson in Pro Stock.
Grubnic gave team owner/crew chief/drag racing legend Connie Kalitta for a winning strategy of tuning the car up not to set the world on fire, but to get down the track quick enough to turn the win light on.
"It's all about going fast enough to beat your opponent with the lowest risk of smoking your tires," said Grubnic, who had the slowest ET of any winner in each elimination round in Top Fuel on Sunday. "It's a chess game. It's all about consistency and going down the race track.
"If we thought we needed to run a 3.70 to win, believe me, Connie would have put a 3.70 in the car. Sure we were slowest winner all day, but I'm still here and that's all that matters."
In the final, Grubnic ran a 3.893 second lap at 319.07 mph to beat Massey's tire-smoking 3.910 at 309.98 mph.
"Today was challenging for any crew chief," Grubnic said. "They were giving low 3.70s away in first round. For the final, Conrad stared at that computer trying to decide what to do. He told me that we needed to run a 3.90 flat and it went up there and ran a 3.89.
"Just before half-track the car started sliding around; it drifted over to the left and I corrected it. While I'm doing that I'm looking over thinking, 'Where's he at? I don't see him.' I couldn't see him, but he still could have been a nose in front of me. I hit the finish line and my win light came on."
In Funny Car, Beckman earned a holeshot win by running a 4.158 second lap at 303.09 mph in the Valvoline NextGen Dodge Charger to beat teammate Ron Capps, who ran a 4.107 at 304.39 mph in the NAPA Dodge Charger. Beckman had a .004 second reaction time to Capps .103.
"They were clearly outrunning us today." Beckman said. "When we saw them run a 4.12-flat in the semis, we knew we couldn't run that. The risk of stepping too far out and smoking the tires was too great.
"We said let's just put a 4.15 in it and hopefully something will happen with their car. I think I dodged a bullet on the starting line there, but I don't think we could have beaten them any other way."
Johnson and the Mopar Dodge Avenger ran a 6.587 second lap at 210.54 in the final to beat Greg Anderson who ran a 6.696 at 210.21 mph in the Summit Racing Pontiac.
"The whole crew is so strong," said Johnson, who won for the second time this year. "Our whole mission was to stay consistent and maintain lane choice. We did that until the final round, and it just happened that the right lane came around better than the left in the final."
The NHRA Full Throttle Series will take Memorial Day Weekend off before heading to Englishtown, N.J., for the June 1-3 Toyota NHRA SuperNationals.
RESULTS
TOP FUEL:
ROUND ONE -- Morgan Lucas, 3.745, 328.22 def. Khalid alBalooshi, 3.768, 326.56; Tony Schumacher, 3.799, 326.32 def. Clay Millican, foul; Brandon Bernstein, 3.787, 325.85 def. Terry McMillen, 3.847, 313.22; Antron Brown, 3.802, 328.22 def. Cory McClenathan, 6.348, 95.31; Steve Torrence, 3.776, 326.79 def. Hillary Will, 3.932, 298.27; Spencer Massey, 3.781, 329.10 def. Shawn Langdon, 4.884, 166.95; David Grubnic, 3.817, 322.96 def. Bob Vandergriff, 4.617, 168.03; Doug Kalitta, 3.783, 324.05 def. J.R. Todd, 3.810, 324.12;
QUARTERFINALS -- Kalitta, 3.813, 323.27 def. Brown, foul; Bernstein, 4.267, 244.56 def. Lucas, 4.278, 247.29; Grubnic, 4.634, 284.39 def. Torrence, DQ; Massey, 4.112, 268.06 def. Schumacher, 4.114, 264.03;
SEMIFINALS -- Grubnic, 4.992, 141.97 def. Bernstein, broke; Massey, 4.151, 267.91 def. Kalitta, 4.601, 267.32;
FINAL -- Grubnic, 3.893, 319.07 def. Massey, 3.910, 309.98.
FUNNY CAR:
ROUND ONE -- Johnny Gray, Dodge Charger, 4.108, 314.68 def. John Force, Ford Mustang, 4.142, 302.28; Ron Capps, Charger, 4.093, 310.55 def. Jeff Arend, Toyota Camry, 4.788, 176.03; Cruz Pedregon, Camry, 4.573, 216.97 def. Todd Lesenko, Chevy Impala, 4.997, 209.36; Bob Tasca III, Mustang, 4.150, 310.70 def. Bob Bode, Impala, 6.752, 107.50; Mike Neff, Mustang, 4.338, 235.43 def.Tony Pedregon, Camry, 4.679, 177.02; Jack Beckman, Charger, 4.123, 315.19 def. Alexis DeJoria, Toyota Camary, 5.007, 155.94; Tim Wilkerson, Mustang, 4.098, 311.34 def. Matt Hagan, Charger, 4.168, 289.88; Robert Hight, Mustang, 4.050, 315.27 def. Courtney Force, Mustang, 4.124, 302.14;
QUARTERFINALS -- Beckman, 4.386, 225.86 def. Neff, 4.730, 190.24; Wilkerson, 4.196, 292.08 def. Tasca III, 6.978, 90.85; Capps, 4.123, 305.49 def. Gray, 4.165, 306.19; Hight, no time def. C. Pedregon, DQ;
SEMIFINALS -- Beckman, 4.217, 297.02 def. Wilkerson, 4.381, 248.39; Capps, 4.120, 303.50 def. Hight, 5.139, 150.00;
FINAL -- Beckman, 4.158, 303.09 def. Capps, 4.107, 304.39.
PRO STOCK:
ROUND ONE -- V. Gaines, Dodge Avenger, 6.629, 209.10 def. Jeg Coughlin, Avenger, 9.607, 96.89; Ron Krisher, Pontiac GXP, 6.604, 209.69 def. Rodger Brogdon, GXP, 6.618, 209.43; Erica Enders, Chevy Cobalt, 6.598, 209.14 def. Chris McGaha, Avenger, 6.644, 208.49; Shane Gray, GXP, 6.596, 208.94 def. Mike Edwards, GXP, 6.579, 209.65; Jason Line, GXP, 6.566, 210.11 def. Steve Kent, GXP, DQ; Allen Johnson, Avenger, 6.587, 209.79 def. Ronnie Humphrey, GXP, 6.628, 209.01; Greg Anderson, GXP, 6.568, 211.23 def. Richard Freeman, GXP, 6.647, 209.36; Vincent Nobile, Avenger, 6.574, 209.69 def. Kurt Johnson, GXP, 6.644, 209.10;
QUARTERFINALS -- Gray, 6.666, 208.33 def. Enders, foul; A. Johnson, 6.570, 210.31 def. Krisher, 6.609, 209.59; Anderson, 6.575, 211.30 def. Nobile, foul; Line, 6.571, 209.26 def. Gaines, 6.612, 209.85;
SEMIFINALS -- Anderson, 6.575, 210.93 def. Line, 6.580, 210.57; A. Johnson, 6.590, 210.24 def. Gray, 6.648, 207.75;
FINAL -- A. Johnson, 6.587, 210.54 def. Anderson, 6.696, 210.21.
POINTS STANDINGS
Top Fuel
1. Spencer Massey, 670; 2. Tony Schumacher, 658; 3. Antron Brown, 638; 4. Morgan Lucas, 598; 5. Steve Torrence, 527; 6. Doug Kalitta, 452; 7. Shawn Langdon, 420; 8. David Grubnic, 405; 9. Brandon Bernstein, 399; 10. Bob Vandergriff, 384.
Funny Car
1. Robert Hight, 775; 2. Ron Capps, 596; 3. Mike Neff, 557; 4. Jack Beckman, 491; 5. Cruz Pedregon, 467; 6. Johnny Gray, 438; 7. Bob Tasca III, 419; 8. John Force, 386; 9. Courtney Force, 358; 10. Jeff Arend, 355.
Pro Stock
1. Greg Anderson, 755; 2. Jason Line, 662; 3. Allen Johnson, 623; 4. Vincent Nobile, 542; 5. Mike Edwards, 529; 6. Erica Enders, 430; 7. Ronnie Humphrey, 381; 8. Shane Gray, 332; 9. Rodger Brogdon, 319; 10. Greg Stanfield, 309.
