Menard’s NHRA Heartland Nationals
presented by Minties
Event 8 of 24 (Topeka)
Heartland Motorsports Park
Topeka, Kan.
May 18-20, 2018
Noteworthy:
- Don Schumacher Racing ‘doubled up’ winning in both Top Fuel and Funny Car at the 2017 event:
- Top Fuel – Antron Brown
- Funny Car – Ron Capps
- Brown has been a final round contender the past two years
- Brown will wheel a special Matco’s ‘Tools for the Cause’ livery to benefit the Fisher House Foundation
ANTRON BROWN: Driver of Matco’s Tools for the Cause/U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster
Matco’s Tools for the Cause to benefit the Fisher House Foundation
NHRA Topeka Highlights:
- 2017 event winner
- 2016 runner-up
- Four-time No. 1 qualifier (2009, 2010, 2012, 2015)
2017 Topeka Recap:
Qualified third; Event champion (defeated Kebin Kinsley in E1, Shawn Langdon in E2, Leah Pritchett in E3, Steve Torrence in E4)
Last event (Atlanta):
Qualified seventh; First round exit (defeated by Blake Alexander in E1)
2018 Season Statistics:
Seven round wins; ranked sixth in points
Career Statistics:
389 races; 65 wins (16 Pro Stock Motorcycle); 49 No. 1 qualifiers (11 PSM)
Notable:
- Has raced for the Topeka Wally the past two years in a row, winning in 2017 and finishing as the runner-up in 2016
- Leads the Top Fuel class in number of No. 1 qualifiers (four) at Heartland Motorsports Park: 2009, 2010, 2012, 2015
- Driving a special Matco’s Tools for the Cause livery to benefit the Fisher House Foundation
- May 1st – June 30th, Matco will donate 15% of sales of the Tools for the Cause merchandise to Fisher House Foundation.
- The Matco Top Fuel Dragster will feature Tools for the Cause graphics during the month of May and will highlight the names of over 700 active duty military members and veterans submitted by Matco Distributors
- In addition to the 15% donation from the sale of Tools for the Cause merchandise, people can log on to https://donate.fisherhouse.org/matcotools to directly make a donation to the Fisher House Foundation.
- Since launching the Tools for the Cause program in 2012, Matco Tools has donated nearly $800,000 to research and community-based organizations.
Quotable:
“Topeka is one of those tracks where we always run well. It’s a throw-down track. The track is probably the smoothest track we go to – period. You can go fast and you can hit it hard. We have been on the pole there (last time in 2015) and to finally win in Topeka last year in our Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota was really special. The weather is usually good. It tends to be overcast and a little bit windy which keeps the track temps down and when you add in how smooth it is, it becomes a really fast race track.”