McClenathan, Force, Edwards, Smith win 4-wide Nats

4-wide Funny Car photo finish

John Force, Cory McClenathan, Mike Edwards and Matt Smith racing their way into history on Monday, scoring victories in the ever Four-Wide Nationals for the NHRA Full Throttle Series at zMax Dragway.

After a day’s delay from rain showers that washed out the finals on Sunday, 14-time Funny Car Champion Force pulled off a 4.036 second, 316.23 mph run to beat out his daughter Ashley Force Hood, Ron Capps and Matt Hagan to collect his second win of the year in his 205th final round appearance.

John Force

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

Force was part of the original four-wide exhibition that took place last September and was the only driver from the exhibition to make it into the final round.

“This is a little taste of history," Force said. “This was special, like beating the dragsters at Bristol (at the 1999 Showdown between Funny Cars and Top Fuelers). Thanks to (zMAX Dragway owners) Bruton and Marcus Smith. They took the money and spent it to make this happen.

“The hardest part was racing Ron Capps. He is always tough and (Matt) Hagan, now that he has (co-crew chief) John Medlen there, will put the fear into you. My own daughter also leaves nothing on the table. I'm proud of Ashley. She's learned the game."

McClenathan and his team rebounded from a blown tire after the first round of eliminations in Top Fuel to power to his 33rd career victory and his second of the season, barely beating out Doug Kalitta by .001 seconds at the line with a 3.800 second 319.60 mph run. Antron Brown was third followed by hometown favorite Doug Herbert.

Cory McClenathan

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

“(Crew chiefs) Todd Okuhara, Phil Shuler and the FRAM boys are just so good this year," McClenathan said. “They give me what it takes to go out there and win drag races. We came here with the opinion that we need to be able to go four-wide, we need to be able to understand the lights, and I had a certain way that I went about it all weekend long. I kept the same plan and it worked out for us. I was happy with the whole thing."

Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle completed their semi-final rounds that were postponed from Sunday, with Greg Stanfield and Bob Yonke beating out Rodger Brogdon and Rickie Jones to advance to the finals to face Edwards and Jason line, who finished 1-2 in their semi-final against Allen Johnson and John Nobile.

In the final, Edwards nailed a .009 at the light to top Line with a run of 6.596 at 210.05 mph to notch his 23rd Pro Stock victory.

“I must have been real shallow because that should have been a red-light; I rolled the beams a little but got away with it," said Edwards of his final-round reaction time. “I'll tell ya, this four-wide deal is hard on people, but it's been a great weekend.

“It was fun; it was confusing a lot of times, but it was fun. It was different, but you still had to do everything right. I had a good time, and anytime you can win a race, it's a great time. This is a great start to hopefully another great season."

Smith took the top honors in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, beating out defending series champion Hector Arana, Steve Johnson and Michael Phillips with an ET of 6.937 at 189.84 mph for his 11th career final round victory.

“We stayed and tested in Gainesville on Monday and got our stuff right," said Smith. “As a three-bike team [with Angie Smith and Doug Horne], we all did our jobs down there, and that helped. We still have some problems with the other two bikes, and I’ll get to that, but this was a big win.

“I love this four-wide deal. I’m glad that NHRA and Bruton [Smith] did this. It was fun, just like NASCAR having road races. It was a different atmosphere."

Smith and Arana won out over L.E. Tonglet and Mike Berry to move on to the finals, while Johnson and Phillips beat out David Hope and Junior Pippin to advance to the finals.