The Big Go, also known as the NHRA U.S. Nationals, is the longest running Labor Day motorsports event in America. Initially called “the Nationals”, the event was first run in 1955 at the municipal airport in Great Bend, Kansas. For a half a dozen years, the event was hosted by different drag strips before Indianapolis Raceway Park became the permanent home in 1961.
Having come a long way from its roots of burning rubber down a World War II training air field, the 69th annual Dodge Power Brokers NHRA U.S. Nationals took to the track the last Friday in August and completed the final rounds of eliminations in September on Labor Day. Lots of things to do in downtown Indianapolis over the long weekend and lots of racing in nearby Brownsburg.
Every drag racer marks his or her “Bucket List” for earning a U.S. Nationals Wally at Lucas Oil Indianapolis Raceway Park. This year drag racing fans were treated to great qualifying with a cooler track on Friday night, the Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge during Saturday qualifying, the Pep Boys Funny Car All-Star Callout, FuelTech Pro Mod, and a bunch of NHRA elimination rounds.
Antron Brown Defends US Nationals Top Fuel Title
Steve Torrence was the Number One qualifier with a 3.708 ET to Brittany Force’s 3.709 ET and eliminated Will Smith, Shawn Langdon, and Doug Kalitta to reach the final round at “The Big Go”. Although the Matco Tools team had doubled up at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals at Brainerd two weeks earlier with Antron Brown winning the Mission Challenge and the national, gremlins plagued the defending U.S. Nationals winner as Brown only qualified 15th fastest.
In round one Brown eliminated Number Two qualifier Brittany Force, then Clay Millican and Top Fuel points leader Justin Ashley enroute to final round matchup with Torrence. Brown grabbed a slim .002-second advantage off the tree, but the four-time world champion couldn’t make up the difference. Brown posted a 3.779 elapsed time at 328.54 mph to Torrence’s 3.870 ET at 327.43mph. Antron Brown defends his title as the U.S. Nationals winner in Top Fuel.
Ron Capps Defends U.S. Nationals Funny Car Title
Robert Hight loves racing at Indianapolis Raceway Park and always has winning on his mind at The Big Go. He started the weekend off with a Funny Car win in the Pep Boys All-Star Callout to claim the $80,000 purse followed by setting the fastest time to earn the Number One qualifier for eliminations. After early round victories over Paul Lee and Tim Wilkerson, Hight was eliminated by Capps in the semifinal. JR Todd raced past Blake Alexander, Bob Tasca III, and Cruz Pedregon enroute to the final.
Ron Capps was deemed the star of the show before the elimination rounds even got started at “The Big Go”. After all, the three-time funny car champion honored Don “the Snake” Prudhomme’s U.S. Nationals win from 50 years ago with a special edition Hot Wheels paint scheme. After winning at Brainerd two weeks ago, Capps was aiming for consecutive wins at the U.S. Nationals and posted a .032-seconds reaction time followed by a 3.986 ET at 323.27 mph for his 76th career NHRA Wally. Capps has a 21 point Countdown lead over Matt Hagan.
Artwork courtesy of NHRA
UP COMING:
Pep Boys NHRA Nationals
Both nitro and both stock classes head to Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, PA, on Sept 14-17 for the first round of the Countdown to the Championship for the NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series. Although specialty racing is done for the 2023 season, the Pep Boys NHRA Nationals has seen record-breaking drag races, including Brittany Force’s national Top Fuel elapsed time record during the 2019 event.
