The 40th annual Arizona Nationals had several stories, but one of the most emotional involved the Paul Lee McLeod Racing team. It was 18 years ago – on March 23, 2007 – that one of NHRA drag racing’s best upcoming stars, Oakdale native Eric Medlen, lost his life in a testing accident at the track in Gainesville, Florida. Eric’s father, John Medlen, now teaches new crew chiefs in the art of tuning a fuel funny car. In this case, it is Jonnie Lindberg (who he co-crew chiefs with) on the Paul Lee racing team.
Coming into the event, Paul Lee had seen improvements, but had yet to achieve an event win. But they all knew it was coming soon. On this day the entire team felt that Eric was with them in spirit. It made them feel very relaxed and focused. Each day they prayed together and felt more relaxed and positive than ever. It was going to happen; they could feel it. A win was going to happen. The team qualified fifth with a 3.919 at 328.14 mph after the Friday and Saturday qualifying efforts. On Sunday, March 23, elimination tuning conditions became a little trickier. In his opening round match up with Chad Green, both cars lost traction. But Lee was able to recover quicker and better, to take the win 4.445 at 196.22 mph to 7.219 at 92.70 mph. He then took out Balke Alexander with a strong (for the conditions) 3.9643 at 319.82 mph performance. In the semis, Lee squared off against the number one qualifier, Bob Tasca III. But for Lee and his team, they had little fear. Both cars lost traction, but Lee was able to recover quicker and smoother, for a 4.411 at 207.62 mph to 5.219 at 156.41 mph win. But, awaiting the team in the final round was the 2024 champion, Austin Prock in the “Prock Rocket”. Against Prock, known to be one of the better leavers with consistently quick reaction times and with one the best cars in the class, winning would be no easy task. But Sunday was a special day and Lee and his team were not to be denied. Lee left first (0.029 to 0.063) and drove away to a 4.030 at 313.22 mph to 4.507 at 240.68 mph win. The “Prock Rocket” was gaining ground until it started losing traction at about half track. Lee and his team closed out the emotional event with his first NHRA Funny Car win.
In Top Fuel, it was confirmed that the four-time champion, Steve Torrence was not going to run the full 2025 season schedule, as he wanted to spend more time with his family and his young daughter. Doug Kalitta captured the number one spot in qualifying with the only sub-3.7-second run of the event with a 3.688 at 330.39 mph effort. With a short field of 14 cars instead of 16, the number one qualifier would get a bye round in the second round, if they won their first-round match up. Kalitta defeated Travis Shumake 3.762 at 325.92 mph to 3.829 to 330.88 mph, then ran a second-round single of 3.821 at 322.27 mph to advance to the semis. Brittany Force qualified second with a 3.705 at 331.69 mph, and had strong wins over Steve Chrisman and Tony Stewart 3.779 at 320.89 mph and 3.793 at 328.38 mph, to advance to a semifinal round match up with Shawn Langdon. Force had lane choice and chose the preferred right lane. During the burnout procedure, an oil leak was found on her car’s engine and she was shut off for safety reasons, allowing Langdon to take a single 3.833 at 325.37 mph win into a final round match up against Kalitta. In the final, Langdon got away first (0.050 to 0.076) and drove away to a 3.724 at 330.39 mph to 3.770 at 325.53 mph win, defending his event win from 2024.
In Pro Stock, Matt Hartford took the pole. His 6.50 at 208.21 mph was a strong run for the conditions. He was followed by three KD Titan team cars (Greg Anderson, Cory Reed and Dallas Glenn). Hartford marched into the semifinals with strong 6.560, 6.588 performances over Brandon Foster and Mason McGaha to match up against Glenn. Glenn got away first (0.032 to 0.069) to end Hartford’s day with a holeshot 6.591 at 209.709 mph to 6.586 at 208.49 mph win. Anderson used very consistent performances and a hole shot (0.069 to 0.102) win over Eric Latino, to advance to a semifinal round battle with Aaron Stanfield. Again, Anderson left first with a 0.018 to 0.031 reaction time advantage and took out Stanfield with a stellar 6.586 at 209.79 mph to (tire shaking) 16.603 at 50.34 mph to head to a final round match up with Glenn.
In what turned out to be a bizarre final round, Anderson collected his 107th career Pro Stock win, without his car moving more than 60 feet under power. His engine shut off on the launch and his car then simply rolled to a stop. Glenn left too early, receiving the undesired red light, handing the win to Anderson.
Anderson’s car stopped at about 120 feet from the starting line and had to be manually pushed back, as he won without even crossing the finish line. This was his fourth win at the Phoenix track.
The next event is the Lucas Oil NHRA Winter Nationals in Pomona, California.
