National Dragster: Grubnic ends runner-up string, banks 100K

David Grubnic, a seven-time runner-up in his NHRA national event career, reached the winner's circle in championship style by becoming only the fourth driver to win the Budweiser Shootout in his debut in the high-profile event. In the process, he collected the sport's largest race payout, $100,000.

Said Grubnic, frustrated this season with five bridesmaid efforts since becoming the driver of Connie Kalitta's third Top Fuel entry in 2004, "More than anything, this was for Connie and the team - the people who have stuck with me through all of my final-round frustrations this year. It feels so good to get that $100,000 check for Connie because five runner-up finishes works out to something between $20,000 and $40,000 that I didn't earn [each time] by not winning all of those finals. So we made up for a lot of lost ground in a hurry, and, most important, we did it as a team."

Against teammate Scott Kalitta in the first round, Grubnic emerged the winner of a 4.914 to 6.712 pedaling duel, then advanced to the final by winning one of the closest Top Fuel races of the weekend, a 4.550 to 4.600 semifinal decision over newly crowned NHRA POWERade Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher. Happily for Grubnic, he had the starting-line advantage over both opponents with solid reaction times of .055 and .068.

"It was tough facing Scott in the first round," said Grubnic, "and my other teammate, Doug Kalitta, also got knocked out in that round [by eventual runner-up Larry Dixon], so there I was all alone. But, ultimately, only one driver and team can win, and today it was mine."

Dixon was entered in the race in the eighth qualifying position as the wild card determined by a drawing held at The Joint in the Hard Rock hotel and Casino Thursday evening of the event. But he ran like anything but the bump occupier during the first two rounds of eliminations when he drove Don Prudhomme's Miller Lite machine past Scott Kalitta's tire-smoking 7.111 with a solid 4.567, 323.50 before improving to a quicker and swifter 4.554, 323.58 to defeat beer rival Brandon Bernstein in father Kenny's Budweiser/Lucas oil entry. In the final, however, Dixon's car blazed the tires almost immediately off the starting line, and he shut off to a 9.999, 82.69 as Grubnic went on to post his quickest run of the event, a 4.501 at a sizzling 328.46 mph.

Said Dixon after the evenL, "ft /bit good to put up those numbers in the first two rounds. It was very reminiscent of the kind of performances that we were capable of during our last two [championship] seasons. Naturally, we were disappointed that the Miller Lite entry lost traction in the final, but our team had no choice but to step it up for the final, especially the way that the Kalitta team had David's car running."

Dixon, a four-time winner of the bonus event, reflected, "That's something we've always enjoyed - winning that Budweiser money with a Millersponsored car - and we almost pulled it off again this year."

Budweiser, the official beer of NHRA, provided a total purse of $235,000 for this year's Shootout program. In addition to the $100,000 first-place prize that went to Grubnic, Dixon pocketed $15,000 as runner-up, and semifinalists Bernstein and Schumacher each received $6,000.