Drag Illustrated Issue 135, August 2018 | Page 103
“IF YOU WANT TO RACE THIS CLASS, YOU CAN GET A USED CAR AND HAVE A GOOD ENGINE BUILT, AND YOU CAN QUALIFY.”
to bring it all together, give it a good old-fash-
ioned tune-up, get the gearing right, and so on.
It’s tough.”
The Barton family way of thinking has proven
effective, and Barton came into the 2018 season
as the Factory Stock Showdown series champion.
He’s had plenty of competition this year, though,
as three different drivers have won the first four
events. Stanfield Racing-powered Stephen Bell
claimed the first 2018 title, Bell’s teammate Ar-
thur “Archie” Kohn scored the second, and Joe
Welch went back-to-back in his Challenger Drag
Pak in Bristol and Norwalk.
“It’s pretty crazy to be No. 1,” adds Barton.
“There are a lot of people stepping up, and a lot of
good cars involved. Within the last few years, this
whole new muscle car era has really exploded. It’s
everything I love about drag racing – it’s heads-up,
everything you’ve got, full throttle racing, and it’s
what people want to see.”
The race for seven
Those people who hunger for exciting heads-
up racing also want to see big numbers on the
scoreboards, and the current target is the 7-sec-
ond zone. Veteran Mopar guy Geoff Turk got it
done at the NMCA season-opener in Bradenton
with 7.97 and 7.99 passes in his Dodge Challenger
PREVIOUS SAM TECH NHRA FACTORY STOCK SHOWDOWN WINNERS
2012
Indianapolis
BO BUTNER
Cobra Jet Mustang
2013
Englishtown
GARY RICHARD
Cobra Jet Mustang
Indianapolis
CHRIS HOLBROOK
Cobra Jet Mustang
Charlotte
DAVID BARTON
Dodge Challenger Drag Pak
2014
Gainesville
CHRIS HOLBROOK
Cobra Jet Mustang
Indianapolis
CHRIS HOLBROOK
Cobra Jet Mustang
Reading
DAVID BARTON
Dodge Challenger Drag Pak
Las Vegas
BO BUTNER
Cobra Jet Mustang
August 2018
2015
Gainesville
BO BUTNER
Cobra Jet Mustang
Englishtown
KEVIN SKINNER
Cobra Jet Mustang
Indianapolis
BO BUTNER
Cobra Jet Mustang
Las Vegas
KEVIN SKINNER
Cobra Jet Mustang
2016
Gainesville
DAVID BARTON
COPO Camaro
Englishtown
DAVID BARTON
COPO Camaro
Norwalk
DAVID BARTON
COPO Camaro
Indianapolis
CHRIS HOLBROOK
Cobra Jet Mustang
2017
Gainesville
DAVID BARTON
COPO Camaro
Charlotte
PETER GASKO JR.
COPO Camaro
Norwalk
CHARLES WATSON
Cobra Jet Mustang
Indianapolis
DAVID BARTON
COPO Camaro
St. Louis
PETER GASKO JR.
COPO Camaro
2018
Gainesville
STEPHEN BELL
COPO Camaro
Charlotte
ARTHUR KOHN
COPO Camaro
Bristol
JOE WELCH
Drag Pak Challenger
Norwalk
JOE WELCH
Drag Pak Challenger
Indianapolis
not yet contested
St. Louis
not yet contested
Dallas
not yet contested
Drag Pak, but at the time of print, the sevens have
remained untouched in NHRA Factory Stock.
Barton set a positive tone of hope for the sea-
son when he clocked a quick 8.020-second pass at
171.36 mph at the 2018 Factory Stock Showdown
opener in Gainesville and bettered it with an 8.019
in Charlotte, but so far no one has gone quicker.
“We want that real bad,” says Barton, speaking
of the honor of being the first to reach the sevens.
“We’re just trying to get our ducks in a row and
take it one step at a time. I (don’t) want that to
cloud my brain and get too silly with the tune-up,
as we all know that it isn’t always the quickest guy
that wins; it’s the guy who’s the smartest from one
round to the next, how long your stuff lasts, if you
can keep it hooked up to the ground, and how
good you can be as a driver. It’s everything put
together, that’s what it takes to make something
like that happen.”
From the series sponsor’s perspective, that
target is just one facet of what’s propelling in-
terest in the SAM Tech Factory Stock Showdown.
Among those staking their claim in the series
are a handful of Pro drivers, and the byproduct
of those high-profile entries is that there is even
more attention on the class. Don Schumacher
Racing fields two Factory Stock Showdown en-
tries with Top Fuel driver Leah Pritchett and
Pro Stock veteran Mark Pawuk piloting a pair of
Kevin Helms-tuned Dodge Challenger Drag Pak
entries. Pro Stock champ Erica Enders has com-
peted for Mopar, and 2012 world champion Allen
Johnson, who retired from Pro Stock racing at
the conclusion of the 2017 season, has reappeared
as a competitor in the Factory Stock Showdown
with his father and former Super Stock racer
Roy Johnson as his crew chief on a Jeff Teuton-
owned Drag Pak.
“There is still a lot of room for growth, and there
are a lot of good ideas that are slowly being rolled
out,” reveals Massingill, who noted that for each
of the first four events this season, there have
been between 24 and 30 entries. “I really do see
longevity in the program, and that’s because of the
accessibility, especially for the racers. If you want
to race this class, you can get a used car and have
a good engine built, and you can qualify. Then
you spend the next year learning from these other
teams who have been doing this for a long time.
It’s definitely something exciting, competitive,
and fun to be part of.”
DragIllustrated.com
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