2018 8th Annual FABO NHRA "Pick 'Em" Game - Time For Your NITRO Fix! Here We Go Again!!!
JMO, but I think the television coverage of the 2018 U.S. Nationals missed some things that could have made it better. Last year I really enjoyed seeing the final round races of all the eliminators from Stock on up.
I also thought they could have covered the Mountain Motor Pro Stock exhibition sometime during the weekend. And only the final round of the Hemi Challenge? Come on!
Congratulations to 'cuda20' (FABO) for winning the 2018 U.S. Nationals "Top Picker Eliminator" title with a very nice total of 172.5 points. He picked the class winner in Pro Stock, his Pro Stock Motorcycle pick lost in the final round of eliminations and both his Top Fuel and Funny Car picks lost in the second round of eliminations.finals and his Top Fuel pick went out in the semi-finals. His point total was helped by ET bonus points in Pro Stock and Speed bonus points in Funny Car.
'64BEL' (FBBO) was the event runner-up with 145.0 points.
Here's where the bonus points were earned if you picked the right drivers:
Top Fuel
E.T. - Mike Salinas, 3.756 during qualifying
Speed - Tony Schumacher, 328.14 during qualifying
Funny Car
E.T. - J.R. Todd, 3.910 during qualifying
Speed - Courtney Force, 325.69 during qualifying
Pro Stock
E.T. - Tanner Gray, 6.603 during qualifying
Speed - Chris McGaha, 208.94 during qualifying
Pro Stock Motorcycle
E.T. - Matt Smith, 6.814 during qualifying
Speed - Hector Arana Jr., 199.29 during qualifying
Here are the game point standings after the 18th event of the 2018 season, the close of the 'regular' season before the points are reset heading into the Countdown:
1624.5 - stroked340 (FABO) no change in the game standings
1581.5 - cuda20 (FABO) +1
1561.0 - Duster79 (FABO) -1
1528.5 - SSG_Karg (FABO) no change
1483.0 - Back in Time (FABO) no change
1476.0 - aslant (FBBO) +2
1469.5 - Nick2317 (FBBO) no change
1432.0 - Budnicks (FBBO) -2
1428.0 - johnnycuda (FABO) no change
1409.5 - ocdart (FABO) +1
1402.0 - 71dartswinger (FABO) -1
1349.5 - memike (FABO) no change
1284.0 - super-bee_ski (FBBO) no change
1142.0 - 64BEL (FBBO) no change
OK, now a weekend off before the 'Countdown' starts at the 19th race of the 2017 season, the 34th annual Dodge NHRA Nationals, September 13-16, at Maple Grove Raceway in Mohnton, Pennsylvania.
As always, your picks need to be posted before Pro Qualifying starts on Friday, September 15 in order to qualify for all event bonus points. Pro qualifying is scheduled to start at 11:45AM EDT (8:45AM PDT).
The Dodge Nationals entry list is posted on NHRA.com and currently shows 14 Top Fuel, 16 Funny Car, 15 Pro Stock and 9 Pro Stock Motorcycle entries, but the counts are always subject to change. Keep checking NHRA.com for an updated entry list.
Get your picks posted and good luck!
I'll give y'all a day or two to digest the points shown above before posting the reset points and special notice for the 'Countdown' events.