Spencer Massey looks to get back on track at this weekend's Big O Tires NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas

October 24

Spencer Massey, driver of the FRAM/Prestone Top Fuel dragster, heads into this weekend’s 11th-annual Big O Tires NHRA Nationals here on The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, ready to forget about the last race, while concentrating on the final two events in pursuit of the championship.

“We’re putting it behind us, like it didn’t even happen,” he explained about not qualifying for the Phoenix event which cost him the lead in the Countdown to the Championship, as Don Schumacher Racing teammate Antron Brown and Larry Dixon went around him in the standings. “It was a fluke. It was terrible, but not devastating as we are still less than two rounds (25 points) from first place.

“We’ll just go out here at The Strip and do the things we’ve done all year which have gotten us this far.”

The 29-year-old Fort Worth native believes there might be a silver lining to the gray cloud which hung above them in Phoenix.

“We think we might have one-upped everyone else for Vegas because we came right here and spent last Monday testing,” he explained. “We’ve got a bunch of extra runs on this track under conditions we believe will be just like race day, so we might just have a slight advantage.

“In addition and more importantly, we found the issue that hampered us in Phoenix and fixed it. I knew Todd and Phil (Okuhara and Shuler, co-crew chiefs) and the rest of the FRAM/Prestone guys would sort things out, so we are ready to return to the type of performance which put us in the lead heading into the Arizona race.

Massey’s confidence is also buoyed by his previous success on The Strip – a win in the 2009 fall race during his rookie-of-the-year season.

“It’s always good to go to a track where you’ve had some previous success, but this is a different season, a different team and a different circumstance,” he said. “Having said that, we are all happy with the race car, happy we got it fixed and ready to go racing again.“