Brand Holds the Edge in 2014 TAFC Championship Race

Brand Holds the Edge in 2014 TAFC Championship Race

By Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association

It was a foregone conclusion that 2014 would be wide-open when all-time Alcohol Funny Car king Frank Manzo abdicated his throne late last year, and halfway through it, it absolutely is – the number 1 driver at this point probably isn't going to win the championship. 1995 Top Alcohol Dragster champ and four-time Alcohol Funny Car runner-up Jay Payne has won more rounds than any driver in either alcohol class this year (16) but he's also lost more (9).

It's another sure Top 5 or Top 10 finish for Payne, who has more career victories than any active driver in either Top Alcohol Dragster or Funny Car, but the favorite at midseason is a driver who's never even finished in the Top 10: Dale Brand, who had never run enough races to contend for a title until this year. He's been in the late rounds everywhere he's raced all year and with a little luck could have won all six.

Brand, who once terrorized IHRA Alcohol Funny Car racing, heads for the Allstars race and the Route 66 Nationals in Chicago as the defending Allstars champ. He's as quick – and as quick on the Tree – as anyone. He won the Chicago regional last month, broke through for a long overdue first national event title in Topeka, scored again last weekend at Tulsa, and is second in the standings, just 10 points behind Payne.

Brand has a better win-loss record (16-3, .842) than anyone in either alcohol class and is riding a three-race win streak. Only a red-light in the final kept him from winning in Gainesville; a broken throttle linkage stopped him in the second round in Charlotte after he'd opened a car-length lead; and in Houston, he fell to Annie Whiteley in the semifinals by just 11-thousandths of a second.

Payne won the rain-delayed Houston regional final over Shane Westerfield by just eight-thousandths of a second, was runner-up at the regional event in Phoenix and the national event in Las Vegas, and just won again last weekend at the regional in Acton, Montana.

Early season leader Brian Hough stands third, 74 points behind Brand. He's 11-4 for the year and won his first two starts of the season, the Winternationals and the Phoenix regional. Westerfield, who moved into the Top 10 for the first time in 2012 and shot all the way up to third in the national standings last year, is one point behind Hough. He's also a two-time winner this season, at the Spring Nationals in Houston and the Las Vegas regional.

Hot off back-to-back final-round appearances in regional competition, Clint Thompson anchors the Top 5. He won Denver on a slight holeshot over Whiteley, 5.78 to 5.78, and lost the Acton final to Payne the same way, 5.72 to 5.69.

With two wins and three final-round appearances in five starts, Dan Pomponio, who finished a career-high fifth in the national standings in his breakthrough 2013 campaign, is sixth in the standings despite running fewer races than anyone in the Top 10. He's won two national events already this season (Gainesville and Charlotte – same as last year) and came within inches of winning the Lebanon Valley regional.

Kris Hool, Whiteley, Nick Januik and Todd Veney round out the Top 10. Whiteley, who has yet to finish outside the Top 5 in her young Top Alcohol Funny Car career, is the only current Top 10 driver without a win, but she has three final-round appearances in her last four outings, qualified No. 1 at all four, set low e.t. at three of the four, and just missed winning each time.

Under the radar and just outside the Top 10 are perennial Top 10 drivers Steve Harker, Chris Foster, Steve Gasparrelli, John Lombardo, and Doug Gordon, all past national event champs. Foster is 12th and has a win and a runner-up in just four starts. Gasparrelli and Lombardo have finished as high as second in the standings, Lombardo just last year. Gordon is 19th, but he's raced just three times this season and has advanced to at least the semifinals at all three.

The dark horse is Tony Bartone, the only active Top Alcohol Funny Car driver ever to have won a championship. He makes his 2014 debut this weekend with a new Murf McKinney-built Camaro tuned by Steve Boggs, and with a late-season push could still win it all. It would take a winning streak of epic proportions, but if he pulls it off, it won't be the first time: the year he won the championship, 1996, he won 37 rounds in a row.