NHRA notes: Force Hood going round-by-round

SEATTLE — If Ashley Force Hood is looking for a nickname, perhaps “Nuke” would do.

Not because of her flaming crash during the 2007 NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, or the swerving, up-on-two-wheels pass she made during the first night of Funny Car qualifying last weekend in Denver.

Instead, like the movie character Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh, played by Tim Robbins in “Bull Durham,” Force Hood has learned to avoid looking too far ahead and keep her sights set no farther than the next task.

“We need to focus on one round at a time,” Force Hood said during Wednesday’s NHRA media luncheon at the Space Needle. “You can go from zero to hero and back again very quickly … we learned that last year.”

Full Throttle Series Top Fuel drivers Brandon Bernstein and Morgan Lucas also attended the luncheon which kicked off the 22nd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals beginning Friday at Pacific Raceways.

Force Hood enters Friday’s qualifying tied with Ron Capps atop the Funny Car standings. But, she was quick to point out that after rising to the No. 1 spot last season she fell off the pace and finished sixth overall.

That up-and-down performance in 2008 is something the third-year driver said she and her team have worked hard to avoid this season by focusing on consistency and improving her qualifying.

So far, so good, as Force Hood scored her second career Wally for winning at Houston, and she was the runner-up at Atlanta, Topeka Chicago, Englishtown and last Sunday in Denver. She has qualified No. 1 four times and has a 3.42 qualifying position average — both tops in Funny Car.

Asked whether she was concerned about having just one win for all those final-round appearances, Force Hood shook her head, pointing out that by making it to the finals she’s making more passes and the experience gained as a driver is vital. The NHRA halted testing this season as a cost-savings measure, so every chance to go down the track at speed is important.

One thing none of the drivers wanted to talk too much about was where they were in the points standings at this point relative to the upcoming championship round.

After the Northwest Nationals, there will be just four events before the NHRA’s Countdown to 1 playoff. Just the top 10 drivers in each of the Full Throttle Series categories — Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle — at the beginning of the Countdown to 1 will compete for the championship.

“We just want to stay in the top half of the field and go through rounds,” said Bernstein, who is No. 4 in Top Fuel but lost in the first round in Denver. “Chasing (the leader) is a little bit better, there’s not the pressure to stay in that No. 1 spot. I like where we’re at right now.”

Bernstein, who has finished runner-up the past eight times he’s made it to the final round, is winless since Brainerd in August 2007. He’s been to the final round at Pacific Raceways three of the past four years, with a win in 2005 and runner-up finishes in 2007 and 2008.

Lucas, who is No. 7 in the Top Fuel standings, opened the luncheon by recapping his first career victory in Atlanta in April, which ended his 107-race winless streak. Lucas spoke for several minutes about the 4-second run, finishing up by saying “I’ll never forget that day for the rest of my life.”

Force Hood later remarked that time slows down for her in the car as well, saying when she wrecked at Pacific Raceways in 2007 she remembered seeing the faces of people in the grandstands.

Force Hood’s new look: During the Northwest Nationals and the following race at Sonoma Force Hood will race in a car with a special theme saluting Ronald McDonald House Charities.

“I am thrilled to be helping raise awareness and donations for Ronald McDonald House Charities,” Force Hood said. “BrandSource, one of our major sponsors, is very involved with this organization, and their president, Bob Lawrence, started talking with us about getting involved earlier this year. We got really excited about all the opportunities to help, so this program came together very quickly.”

There will be RMHC donation boxes at John Force Racing souvenir trailers at Pacific Raceways and Sonoma, and fans can also make donations online at www.rmhc.org or at participating McDonald’s restaurants.

Bernstein sponsor update: Earlier this season Budweiser announced that after 30 years as the sponsor of a dragster driven by a Bernstein — either Brandon or his father and team-owner Kenny, who retired in 2007 — the brewer would not return as a sponser in 2010.

Kenny Bernstein, who has been scrambling to line up money for next season, has said the team will not run unsponsored. That has added some pressure to son and driver Brandon Bernstein, who is winless since 2007.

“You put some pressure on yourself,” Bernstein said. “Companies want to know, ‘Are they winning … are they doing well?’”

On when an announcement about racing in 2010 may be forthcoming, Bernstein said his father has “stuff in the works. He’s optimistic and I am too.”

Force Hood sticking with drags: With all the ongoing speculation about IndyCar’s Danica Patrick jumping to NASCAR, Force Hood was asked if she had ever considered a different kind of racing.

No chance.

“Everything I love about my job is in drag racing,” she said. “The speed, the rush, the great people, the one-on-one competition …”

She also said the current mix of racers in the NHRA’s top-tier Full Throttle Series — by age, gender, ethnicity, or off-track interests ¬— is very strong, and that every potential fan can find a driver to root for that they have something in common with.

Fire and ice with Morgan Lucas: Although he’s getting a lot of attention for his first career Top Fuel win, Lucas is also proud of another victory this year.

Lucas won a gold medal by beating Todd Bodine in the NHRA vs. NASCAR portion of the fourth annual Geoff Bodine Bobsled Challenge on Jan. 4 at Lake Placid, N.Y.

Geoff Bodine, 1986 winner of the Daytona 500, teamed with Chassis Dynamics to form The Bo-Dyn Bobsled Project, a non-profit committed to researching, developing, and manufacturing bobsled technology to help U.S.A. athletes win Gold Medals.

Lucas spoke enthusiastically of the Bobsled Project, saying he planned on taking part in the next edition and hoped to entice his Top Fuel teammate Shawn Langdon to join him. Lucas added that he felt it was important to support American athletes, who compete for the country around the world but receive no support from the government.

Asked to compare making a pass in his Top Fuel dragster and making a run in a Bo-Dyn bobsled, Lucas said the difference is reaction vs. anticipation.

In the dragster, Lucas said he reacts to what is happening during the pass — turning the wheel or peddling the throttle as needed. But in the bobsled, Lucas said he only adjusts his line when coming out of a turn — adjusting while entering wicks off speed — and he does so to set up the next corner.

On the road … with Ashley and Danny? To make the NHRA’s Western Swing — the back-to-back-to-back races at Denver, Pacific Raceways and then California — Force Hood and her husband, Danny Hood are making the 2,100 mile trek in a rented RV.

Force Hood said she’s made the RV as home-like as possible, adding candles and her cat, and she’s learned how to use a CB radio. Force Hood also said enjoying the opportunity to see more of the country than the typical race-event triangle: airport-track-hotel.

One thing she hasn’t enjoyed yet is any time behind the wheel of the RV. Although she pointed out to her husband — who is an employee of her father’s company, John Force Racing — that she is a professional racer, he’s not having any of it.

“He said ‘You drive on a straight track — I’ve seen you make a turn on the track,’” Force Hood said, before adding with a determined look: “I will drive it on this Western Swing.”