The 21/24 stop on the 2018 NHRA Mellow Yellow tour brought us to Texas Motorplex in Dallas, TX for the final AAA Insurance sponsored event, the Fall Nationals. This event always has great racing temperatures with some of the best competition you can have coming out of D4, until we jinx it with this years forecast. The racing itself was ran smooth and went right along start to finish, but schedule and timeline had a different thing in mind as like there is once every year…a Monday finish. With impending weather and live TV time slots, the pros were finished on schedule Sunday and by the time they were completed the sportsman had to play the wait game to get there crack at the track for rd2 and so on. Clint Neff would be the weekend’s hero going 2 in a row at the Fall Nationals, along with the 5 out of 9 sportsman classes having 1st time winners. With the points chase heating up as the races countdown, the next few weekend’s could be critical for all top 10 cars/teams.

Factory Stock Showdown: Leah Pritchett over Kevin Skinner

Pritchett holds off Stanfield, Bell, and Skinner to take her 3rd consecutive Factory Stock Showdown title and the 2018 Championship. Skinner put up strong numbers in qualifying to get into the #1 spot overall, but that was in qualifying and he knew what happened the prior 2 events and couldn’t hold anything back. Pritchett had a small reaction time advantage with a .053 light to the .058 of Skinner, and she powered right down the center of the groove to a 8.106 @169.02 lap. Skinner was actually ahead at the 330′ cone and looked to be on a mission but got a little out of shape shortly after and didn’t have any room for error to begin with.

Comp: Clint Neff over David Rampy

Neff gets his 4th career win going back-to-back here at the Fall Nationals and ends Rampys chances yet again at getting win #100. Rampy came into the final clean as a whistle on his original 7.82 index while Neff was down -.06 on his original 8.18 index. Both drivers were away clean and green (one being very green), .017 (Neff) and .118 (Rampy) and that was pretty much all she wrote as Neff had just enough power and stayed ahead to take the win.

Super Stock: Brandon Bakies over David Rampy

Bakies knocks down his 1st ever win while denying Rampy in his quest for his 100th win. Rampy had a slight reaction time advantage with an .031, but couldn’t run close enough to the dial at the end of the track at 10.246 on a 10.21. Bakies on the other hand had a .034 light and had the car dialed in running dead on 8 to his 9.68 dial, giving him the .0257 MOV.

Stock: Brian McClanahan over Jimmy Hidalgo Jr.

In a very very big weekend for McClanahan, he was able to chalk 1 up for team Chevrolet, get his 2nd ever “big wally”, and take over the national points lead. McClanahan was giving chase with a 9.94 dial in his AA/SA ’69 Camaro against the 11.11 dial of Hidalgo in his E/SA GTO. They were virtually identical out of the gate with a .017 and a .019 but unfortunately for Hidalgo he couldn’t run close enough to the number at 11.168, letting McClanahan go around him with a 9.971 et and a .048 from perfect package.

Super Comp: Jackson Collier over Steve Williams

Collier gets another win for the D4 crew and also his 1st national event win by just .006. Collier was off the button first with a .023 light to William’s .038, at the end of the track as both drivers scrub some speed, Williams might have gotten the win if he stayed into the gas running 8.912 @185. Collier was further away from the 8.90 index at 8.921 but it was the reaction time advantage that gave him the .006 win.

Super Gas: Casey Plaizier over Joseph Lokhaug

Plaizier seals the deal and is now 1 for 3 in final rounds, in a final that was guaranteed a first time winner. Lokhaug left first with a great .004 light but forgot where the brake pedal was going around Plaizier and breaks out at 9.884. Plaizier started behind at .018 and wisely backs out of the gas to slow up to 9.921, letting Lokhaug take over 5 hun stripe.

Super Street: Val Harmon over Barney Barnhart

Harmon ends his weekend by taking home the last 10.90 trophy of the year, his 3rd overall and 2nd in 2018. Behind at the beginning with a .039 let go, Harmon was able to get around Barnhart by 1320′ to run 10.948. Barnhart had a .026 light and not sure if something broke or he just killed a boat load of mph to run 10.980, handing the win over to Harmon.

Top Sportsman: Lance Rutland over Bryan Warr

Lair uses a dead on 4 pass to propel him to his 1st national event wally. Warr was giving chase and missed the tree with a .058 reaction time and ran under the predicted 7.03 at 7.007. Rutland used that dead on lap and a .029 light to never trail Warr and cross the finish line first on the positive side of his dial in at 7.664 and get the win.

Top Dragster: Darian Boesch over Mallori Rodgers

Boesch collects his 1^st ever trophy in his 1^st ever final round appearance. In the fastest dialed cars of the weekend, Rodgers was given a slight head start dialed in at 6.25, while Boesch was dialed in close to the class minimum of 6.00 at 6.06. Boesch left with a .012 light and ran way over the dial at 6.112, Rodgers was behind at the start with a .054 reaction time and couldn’t make up the deficit running 6.228.

Photos By – Auto Imagery