NHRA: Brown, Hight, Line Take First Wins In Arizona

Having teammates in the finals of all three professional categories of the NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird International Raceway does have its advantages. Why? The total margin of victory across the three classes was .0651 seconds Sunday.

Antron Brown beat Tony Schumacher in an all-Don Schumacher Racing Top Fuel final, while Robert Hight nipped Mike Neff in an all-John Force Racing Funny Car final, and Jason Line edged Greg Anderson in an all-KB Racing Pro Stock final.

That marked the first time in NHRA history all pro finals had teammates facing off.

Brown and Schumacher have seen plenty of each other lately, but Schumacher is probably tired of seeing Brown in the other lane. Brown is 9-2 against Schumacher since the start of the 2011, with four of those wins in the finals.

Does Brown have Schumacher’s number?

“I don’t think it’s a number, because it’s not like we’re slaughtering him,” Brown said. “We’re just winning races. We’re winning by thousandsths of a second. The race could definitely go either way. The thing about it is I’ve got to take it as I can get it because Tony will go, ‘Hey, cut me some slack.’ I’ll go, ‘Hold up, I’ve got 16 Top Fuel trophies. That man’s got 67. I’m just trying to catch up.’

“They’re an incredible team, and you’ve got to step up against an incredible team. It’s just been going our way, and we want to ride it as long as we can. Hopefully, we can catch up a little bit.”

The Firebird win was Brown’s 32nd career national-even victory and his 16th in Top Fuel.

Brown’s Matco Tools dragster left first on “The Sarge” and was never headed, running 3.793 seconds at 319.82 mph for his first victory of the season. Schumacher’s pass was 3.813 seconds at 318.17 mph, with Brown’s margin of victory of .0231 seconds.

“The competition, pound for pound, in Top Fuel right now, is a 320 mph Pro Stock class,” Brown said. “All of our cars are running within a hundredth of each other. … Even though you feel like the chips are stacked against you, that’s when you have to dig deep and believe, and I believe in all of our Matco Tools boys.”

Brown kept Schumacher, the seven-time Top Fuel champion, winless in his last 25 races.

“Obviously, we were hoping to finally get to victory lane after such a long time,” Schumacher said. “It was a good, close race with Antron. That’s the way it always is when we face either of my DSR teammates. Unfortunately, he just got me again.”

DSR has won the first two races of the season, as Spencer Massey won the season-opener in Pomona, Calif.

“We have three strong cars, and we battle out against each other,” Brown said. “That’s what helps raise the bar at Schumacher. We have a good, fun competition inside with each other, and that’s what pushes us to new levels to race with these other guys. They’re coming, too.”

Hight nipped Neff by .0271 seconds in the Funny Car final – the second straight race two JFR cars were in the finals – by running a pass of 4.139 seconds at 307.02 mph. Neff went 4.168 seconds at 309.91, as he’s lost in the finals in both 2012 races. Hight’s win follows boss John Force’s Pomona victory.

“It’s pretty exciting, two weekends in a row having all John Force Fords in the final,” said Hight, who scored his 24th career win. “You’ve got to cherish that because it’s not going to keep happening. It’s tough to do. … We didn’t have a chance with Mike Neff if he’d have run in the final like he’d been running all day. Don’t know what happened to his car, but (Hight crew chief) Jimmy (Prock) made it go down the left lane. We picked it up a little from the round before.

“But to be honest, I wouldn’t have bet on a 4.13 beating Mike Neff in the final.”

Line and Edwards had the closest final, as their reaction times were separated by .001 seconds and their ETs by .012 seconds. In the end, Line went quicker, going 6.558 seconds at 211.69 mph to beat Edwards’ 6.570 at 211.06 mph. The margin of victory was a scant .0113 seconds, or about three feet.

“We had the best car in every run this weekend except for Q3,” Line said. “You should win when you have a car like that, and we were fortunate enough to do it today, in spite of my driving. I didn’t drive that well today, but we got it done.”

Anderson had beaten Line in the semifinals in Pomona before winning the race.

“It’s a great start to the season,” Line said. “I felt like we had the best car at both races but we couldn’t quite get it done in Pomona. We worked very hard in the offseason, the first offseason in a while where we haven’t had any tragedy. I think it’s showing up.”

Firebird was the 19th time the teammates raced in the in finals, with Line cutting Anderson’s advantage to 11-8 with his 28th career win.