Jason Scruggs enters this weekend’s National Guard ADRL Flowmaster Dragstock VI at Rockingham Dragway as the reigning back-to-back Pro Extreme world champion, class record holder, and 2009 points leader, but he’s far from satisfied. After all, he’s still looking for that first Dragstock victory.
Since the inaugural Dragstock in 2004 at Carolina Dragway in Jackson, SC, Scruggs has reached the semis or final round each year of what has become the National Guard ADRL’s oldest and most prestigious event. He’s set records at Dragstock along the way, too, including the world’s first 200-mile-per-hour pass over the eighth mile by a “door car,” when he drove his supercharged 1963 Corvette to a 200.86-mph qualifying lap in 2007 at Rockingham. He eventually left that day with both ends of the series’ and track records set at 3.70 seconds and 205.22 mph.
“But something always happens to prevent the win,” Scruggs says.
As the final points-paying opportunity toward the National Guard ADRL’s unique Speedtech Battle for the Belts, which places the top eight points earners in each ADRL pro class in championship-deciding shootouts at the season ender in October at Dallas, this year’s Flowmaster Dragstock VI carries even more importance for the Saltillo, Mississippi-based champion, who now races a Garret Race Cars-built 1968 Camaro with his father and crew chief, Mitchell Scruggs.
At the most recent National Guard ADRL event, three weeks ago in Ohio, the Scruggs team failed to qualify for the first time in over a year after struggling with a new clutch, then breaking the car’s transmission in their final qualifying attempt. The rare DNQ tightened up the points chase, allowing veteran Quain Stott of Columbus, North Carolina, to draw within 226 points of the lead, representing just over two rounds of competition on the track.
Scruggs does not take the challenge lightly and admits the pressure is on to do well this weekend at Rockingham Dragway.
“Quain’s as tough as they come; he’s an excellent racer who knows what he’s doing. He’s been like me this year, had some ups and downs, some bad luck along the way, or he would’ve already passed me for the points lead. I actually figured he’d have done that at the last race when I didn’t qualify, but he shook the tires in the second round,” Scruggs says.
“So he’s overdue, but we’re still a couple of rounds ahead right now and we just can’t go out early. You know, I hate to count points, I’d rather just go win every race, but the bottom line is, we’ve got to win rounds early. Well, first we have to qualify because you can’t take that for granted, obviously.”
This year’s Speedtech Battle for the Belts also offers the added twist of a first-round bye for the regular season points leader, making holding on to the top spot at Rockingham that much more significant to Scruggs.
“In the past it really didn’t matter much where you finished, as long as you were in the top eight, because everyone was tough to beat anyway,” Scruggs explains. “But it’s definitely a big advantage to have a bye run, a free shot at the track, so we definitely want to finish as number one. We’ve led the points since Houston (in March) and I sure would hate to lose that in the last race. We’ve just got to get our act together and hopefully go some rounds.”
Based on his record-setting runs, which now have the official records pegged at 3.66 seconds and 207.43 mph, both set at Memphis this year, and qualifying number-one at five of the eight National Guard ADRL races held previously in ’09, Scruggs has a reputation for running his car to the ragged edge and he insists that’s something that won’t change at Dragstock, regardless of points implications.
“You can’t be conservative in Pro Extreme right now. Everybody is tough,” he states. “It seems like the majority of the cars can run 3.70s or low .80s given the right conditions, so when cars run like that you can’t be conservative; you just have to go run your own race. So we’re going in there just like we always do; hopefully we’ll be number-one qualifier, run fast, run hard, run good, and if we do that the round wins will come. And if they don’t, well it’s just not our day, our year, or whatever.”
Regardless of the outcome, Scruggs says he always looks forward to returning to Rockingham Dragway, especially for a major event like Flowmaster Dragstock VI.
“It being the last points race makes it really important and number two, it was the very first ADRL race, so it’s always got that history there, but I think the biggest thing is that it’s in North Carolina, which is real racing country in my opinion,” he says.
“I mean, you’ve got some of the best fans in the world in the Carolinas as far as drag racing goes. The atmosphere there is just a lot better, I think. You’ve got a lot of fans, a lot of cars, it’s just a fun race to be at, so I do think it’s the marquee event for the ADRL and that’s why we want to win it so bad. But then, I want to win every race I go to. I just think that’s the way you have to race.”
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