Stevie “Fast” Jackson, the defending E3 Spark Plugs Pro Mod Racing Series champion, grabbed his first win of the 2020 season on Sunday at Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis. Jackson outdueled Todd Tutterow in the final round of the 66th annual NHRA DENSO Spark Plugs U.S. Nationals. The third Pro Mod event of the season was presented by ATI ProCharger with all three races held at the Indianapolis track over the past six weeks. Tanner Gray, who had claimed his second ever victory in Pro Mod at the Dodge NHRA Indy Nationals, was eliminated in second round action by Mike Janis.
The winner of the rain-delayed NHRA Lucas Oil Summernationals final round was Chad Green, who claimed his first Pro Mod Wally by defeating a hard-charging Jason Scruggs on Saturday. Green was hoping to make history by winning the U.S. Nationals in his nitrous-powered Bond-Coat Corvette but his hopes for winning twice over the same weekend ended with a first round loss to Jonathan Gray. After a slow start to the 2020 Pro Mod season, Jackson reached his fifteenth final round on Sunday with wins against Clint Satterfield, former world champ Khalid AlBalooshi and Brandon Snider.
Jackson lived up to his name in Sunday’s Pro Mod final thanks to a .006 reaction time at the tree followed by a 5.756 ET at 248.98 mph in his fully blown Bahrain 1 Racing Camaro. It was Jackson’s second U.S. Nationals win at the Big Go and the 10th victory in his E3 Spark Plugs Pro Mod career. Tutterow advanced to the final round after wins against Steve Matusek, who was disqualified when his Comisario Tequila Ford Mustang crossed the center line and crashed, Kristopher Thorne, who was a no-show at the line due to a horrific crash following his round one win, and former world champ Mike Janis.
E3 Spark Plugs NHRA Pro Mod Drag Racing Series heads south for the fourth event of the 2020 season at Gainesville Raceway on September 25-27. Stevie “Fast” Jackson holds a three-point advantage over Tanner Gray and a ten-point lead over Kristopher Thorne. The Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals was postponed earlier this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak but promises to be spectacle with a loaded field set to slug it out on one of the premier quarter mile concrete tracks in world of drag racing.
