NHRA Drag Racers Ready for Season’s Lone Four-Wide Challenge

But even for Funny Car veteran Jack Beckman, who has won at zMAX one in two-wide fashion and twice in four-wide (in 2011 and 2015), it requires an extra effort.

He said, “Racing four wide is quite a spectacle. If a normal race is ‘Ready. Set. Go!’ racing four-wide is ‘Ready. OK, check the other track set. OK, there’s two more cars here than you’re used to. Wait. And then go.’ It takes a little bit of getting used to, but I’ve adapted pretty well in that format and gone late rounds a lot. By the time we stage for Q1 on Friday, I’ve gone over it several dozen times in my head, so we will be fine.”

Top Fuel’s Josh Hart said, “We, as drivers, just have to pay attention. So, as long as you know what lane you’re in and you can focus on the [starting-line] bulb that you need to focus on, you should be able to do your job.” The staging process, he said, ”is a little bit more time- consuming. When you’re sitting on the light, it feels like an eternity. It’s not, but when you’re waiting for three other souls to stage properly, it feels like forever.“

For Top Fuel rookie Maddi Gordon, this will be her first time to tackle the four-wide format in a dragster. But she said, “I’m always really excited to go racing, no matter where we’re going. But the Four-Wide Nationals in particular is really exciting, especially with this being the only one of the year.

Maddi Gordon.MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images - Getty Images

“And I personally love a four-wide race. I think it’s super-exciting for the racers, super-exciting for the fans, and what’s better than 48,000 horsepower taking off at the same time?” she said. “It’s just a really cool format. As a driver, it definitely changes up your staging procedure and how you approach a run, because if you’re going down the track and you have to pedal it, you can’t give up because you don’t know what the other two cars across the way are doing. So, it really pushes you to be the best driver you can be, especially if you make it to the final quad, because you have to beat three people to win the race. And this is the only time we’ll race four across this year, so everyone’s going to be gunning hard for that one Four-Wide diamond Wally trophy. It really raises the stakes.”

Gordon has a special incentive at this race.

“We’ve got some good momentum with my family, too,” she said. “My dad won in Pomona [in Top Alcohol Funny Car], my sister won in Vegas [in Top Dragster at last Saturday’s sportsman event], and they got their first diamond Wallys. So hopefully we can keep the Gordon win streak going this weekend. Our guys have been working really hard and doing a great job, and we’re just trying to push harder and harder with every race – and hopefully, we’ll see our first 340[-mph speed] this weekend.”

Jordan Vandergriff has raced at zMAX before on a two-wide track but is a Funny Car rookie, and he said he has no idea what to expect.

"I think I’m going to have a lot of those experiences this year, so I’m just going to go for it," he said. As a FOX reporter the past two years, Vandergriff said he has watched the procedures and "been told many things by many different people already, so I think I’m very prepared for it."