Bo Butner captured his first career Pro Stock win Sunday at the NHRA SpringNationals at Royal Purple Raceway in Baytown, TX, surely to the delight of his KB Racing teammates—Team Summit’s Jason Line and Greg Anderson.
Top Fuel’s Leah Prichett won her third race of the season, and defending Funny Car champion Ron Capps took home the Wally in his category.
Butner, who appeared in his seventh final-round appearance, piloted his Jim Butner’s Auto Chevrolet Camaro to a 6.550-second, 212.26-miles-per-hour pass to defeat #1 qualifier Jeg Coughlin Jr., who made his first final-round appearance since 2015.
“Any win that you stand on that stage, Super Stock, Super Street or whatever it is (the feeling) never gets old. It’s a great feeling and you can’t explain it unless you experience it,” Butner said. “To make four consecutive win lights is very tough and a lot harder than I expected.”
Butner defeated Allen Johnson and Greg Anderson before facing Coughlin Jr. in the finals.
In addition to simply being happy for their friend and teammate, Line and Anderson must also be happy about Butner’s car getting more TV time and media attention, as their nickname for him—“Bob Utner”—is featured prominently on his race car’s window.
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Top Fuel’s Pritchett Captures Win #3 of 2017
Pritchett raced a 3.781-second pass at 321.96 mph to defeat Steve Torrence who ran a 3.787 at 322.11 in his Capco Contractors dragster. This is Pritchett’s fourth career victory and third this season.
“Our goal was to leave as the points leader and that wasn’t easy at all,” said Pritchett, who did take over the points lead with the win. “Going into the final, we said this is our bounce back and we’re going to keep it interesting. Never been in a position to really be counting points and I know it is early in the season, but I’m definitely enjoying that.”
Pritchett raced past Scott Palmer, Doug Kalitta and defending champion Antron Brown en route to the victory. Torrence faced Shawn Reed, Troy Coughlin Jr. and #1 qualifier Clay Millican, before seeing Pritchett in the final round.
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Capps Wins Funny Car
Defending Funny Car champion, Ron Capps, claimed his first victory of the season when he outran Robert Hight with a 4.004 pass at 284.33 in his Dodge Charger R/T. Hight pushed his Chevy Camaro to a 4.107 at 202.88 in his first runner-up effort this season. It is Capps’ 51st career win and third at Houston.
“These things become so hard to win these days,” Capps said. “But you take things for granted where I felt like we should’ve won at any of those first three races of the season. NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car division has to be the most competitive thing in the world right now; its cut-throat.”
Hight experienced engine problems and crossed the center line before the finish line while Capps’ engine violently exploded as he reached the finish.
Capps pushed past Todd Simpson, 16-time world champion John Force and teammate Jack Beckman before facing Hight in the finals. Hight defeated Jim Campbell, J.R. Todd and fellow John Force Racing teammate Courtney Force before falling to Capps.
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NHRA Pro Stock Point Standings
1. Greg Anderson 457 2. Bo Butner 426 3. Jason Line 403 4. Jeg Coughlin 372 5. Tanner Gray 370
NHRA Funny Car Point Standings
1. Matt Hagan 400 2. Ron Capps 398 3. John Force 371 4. Tommy Johnson Jr. 357 5. Courtney Force 301 5. Robert Hight 301
NHRA Top Fuel Point Standings
1. Leah Pritchett 494 2. Antron Brown 440 3. Tony Schumacher 438 4. Doug Kalitta 358 5. Steve Torrence 352
NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle Point Standings
1. Eddie Krawiec 120 2. Andrew Hines 97 3. Joey Gladstone 81 4. Steve Johnson 74 5. Jerry Savoie 63
Drag Race Central and NHRA contributed to this report.
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