| | Results
MILLINGTON, Tenn. -- Tommy Johnson Jr. defeated Team Castrol on Sunday at the AutoZone Nationals presented by Pennzoil to claim his second Funny Car victory of the season in his third straight final-round appearance.
Johnson covered the Memphis Motorsports Park quarter-mile in 4.996 seconds at 300.33 mph to defeat Tony Pedregon in the final, 90 minutes after beating Winston points leader John Force, Pedregon's teammate.
"That's as good as it gets," said Johnson, who posted a 4.990 at 299.66 to oust season long dominator Force in the second round. "When you can take out both of those cars in the same day it doesn't get any better than that.
|  | | Tommy Johnson Jr., had to beat both Team Castrol cars Sunday to win the AutoZone Nationals. |
"I tried to mentally prepare myself to not let down after we beat Force. Beating him was like winning the final, but you can't quit there. When it's your day, you can do anything and win. Today was our day."
Doug Herbert, Mike Edwards, Angelle Seeling and Brad Jeter won their pro categories at the $1.7 million race, the 19th of 22 events in the $40 million NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series.
With the win, Johnson joins Mike Dunn as the only drivers to post wins in both Top Fuel and Funny Car at Memphis. Johnson, in his 10th race as the pilot of Joe Gibbs' Funny Car, claimed his last Top Fuel victory here in 1994, defeating Michael Brotherton.
"I kind of like Memphis," Johnson said. "I just like this racetrack. But I'm having fun being competitive on a consistent basis with such a competitive team. All the breaks that seemed to be going against us at first seem to be going our way now. Right now everything is coming together. The consistency of the team is great."
Force, who set low elapsed time for the event despite losing in the semifinals, maintained a 295 point lead over runner-up Pedregon in the Winston point standings and closing fast on his ninth NHRA Winston championship.
Herbert defeated Jim Head in a classic tire-smoking battle for his fourth victory of the season and second straight. Herbert drove his Snap-on Tools dragster to a 5.635 at 261.22, while Head lost traction and posted a slower 6.242 at 279.85.
"It was just an unbelievable day," said Herbert, who qualified 13th and defeated Doug Kalitta, Eddie Hill and Terry Mullins to advance to his sixth final round of the season. "Larry (Frazier, crew chief) really has it set on straight and the car is running great. I had to work the car a little bit in the final, but it ran great the rest of the day. My guys have done a great job and we're winning some races."
Tony Schumacher remained the Winston points leader following a wild day that saw points challengers Dunn and Kalitta suffer first-round losses and Kenny Bernstein take a wild ride after a second-round victory over points leader Tony Schumacher.
Bernstein's dragster crossed the finish line in front of Schumacher's Exide Batteries dragster, took the win light, then veered out of control in a spectacular crash. Bernstein escaped the incident without injury, but his dragster suffered too much damage to make it to the semifinals, giving Head the automatic final round berth.
"It was going down through there and everything was going well and then all of a sudden it was lights out," Bernstein said. "I was upside down that quick. In that instant I was about to release the chutes when I lost vision. I didn't get knocked out, but I know that it turned over a few times and then spun a couple of times. I remember going backwards, slamming against one guardwall real hard."
Edwards claimed his second consecutive victory in Pro Stock, using a holeshot start to defeat Richie Stevens. Edwards ran 6.976 at 197.59 in his Dewco Performance Camaro Z28 and crossed the finish line just in front of the quicker Stevens, who covered the distance in 6.935 at 197.22.
Seeling also used a holeshot to score her fifth Pro Stock Motorcycle victory of the season, defeating Fred Collis, who made his NHRA debut. Seeling, who moved into the Winston points lead with the win, posted a 7.398 at 178.50, while Collis ran a quicker,
but losing 7.370 at 177.37.
Jeter won his second Pro Stock Truck title of the season, running 7.605 at 176.67 to defeat fellow Chevy S-10 driver Randy Daniels, who slowed with a 8.786 at 114.53.
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