Bernstein Bests Buddy Todd In Top Fuel Finals In Topeka

By Susan Wade
NSSN Correspondent
TOPEKA, Kan. — They wait for each other at the shutdown area, ready to celebrate or encourage, when one of them reaches a final round.
They have been part of a tightly knit group they breezily dubbed “The Gen2Cru” because their fathers were racers before them.
They served as pallbearers in March for their fallen buddy, Eric Medlen.
Each had recorded a National Hot Rod Ass’n Top Fuel victory since the Funny Car driver’s fatal accident, presenting their trophies to Medlen’s family.  
And in Sunday’s O’Reilly Summer Nationals at Heartland Park Topeka, Brandon Bernstein and J.R. Todd squared off against each other in the final round — like they had at the Pomona, Calif., season opener.
Todd won that one, but Bernstein paid him back with a 4.582-second elapsed time at 320.51 miles per hour in the Budweiser/Lucas Oil dragster to Todd’s 4.667/299.86 in the Skull Shine Dragster.
“I get the next one!” Todd said when they climbed from their cars and embraced.
“Yeah. You got Pomona, so I get this one. You can have the next one,” Bernstein joked.
“We both want to win,” Bernstein said, “but at the end of the day, we’re two buddies drag racing and having fun.”
Turning in what he called a “pretty stout” effort for the $40,000 payout, Bernstein took over the points lead from Hot Rod Fuller, who had led the standings since winning the second race of the season, at Chandler, Ariz. Todd is third in points.
Bernstein said crew chief Tim Richards had a handle on the track. “When he gets like that on race day, it’s pretty tough to beat him,” the 2007 three-time winner said. “He consistently makes the car run 4.50s. When we need to run the number, he can make it run the number. It was just fun to drive today.”
 Pro Stock driver Greg Anderson extended his perfect record in 2007 finals to five, taking advantage of defending event winner Dave Connolly’s mistake at the starting line. And in Funny Car action, first-time winner Mike Ashley defeated veteran Jim Head by a mere .032 of a second (4.896-second elapsed time at 310.70 mph to 4.928/303.09).
Anderson, the quick qualifier who set himself up as the No. 1 seed in this Saturday’s King Demon Crown bonus race at Joliet, Illinois, has earned four of his class-best five victories from the top of the order.
He pocketed another $25,000 with a 6.704-second pass at 206.86 mph in the Summit Racing Pontiac GTO, as Connolly was eight-thousandths of a second too quick on the light with his Torco Chevy Cobalt.
“I’m a lucky man. I had a great, great hot rod, and I didn’t screw it up,” Anderson said. Noting that the last three of his four opponents Sunday fouled out against him, he said, “The car was absolutely awesome, and they knew they had to do something special. So, they pushed it too hard and gave it away. But the car that I had was good enough to beat them if they were .000 on the lights [with a perfect reaction time].”
Connolly, making his second- straight final-round appearance, is 10-for-12 in the money rounds and second in the Pro Stock standings.
Ashley, a two-time NHRA exhibition-class Pro Modified champion, said, “I just put this team together this year, and we’re third in the points and won a race. It’s amazing.
“I’m a dreamer. This was a dream for me,” the Torco Race Fuels Dodge Charger driver said after the $40,000 victory. “If I was able to do this, I encourage anybody who has a dream to stick with it.”
A bit over-excited about his feat, Ashley said, “I don’t know what to do next. I don’t know if I should laugh, cry, eat, drink, smoke a cigar — I just know I’m going to savor the moment and enjoy it, because these things don’t come too easy.”