CARR DOMINATES EN ROUTE TO NHRA MOUNTAIN MOTOR PRO STOCK WIN IN A RJ RACE CARS CAMARO!

Dominance can be a state of mind.

But for JR Carr at the Lucas Oil NHRA Nationals in Brainerd, Minn., it was reality.

The former NHRA Pro Stock racer turned Mountain Motor Pro Stock superstar set a torrid 6.2-second pace which Carr turned into a convincing victory.

Carr, the first and only large displacement Pro Stock driver to run in the 6-teens, beat the only other 6.2-second performer in Brainerd, John DeFlorian, in the final round. As easy as it might have looked in winning, Carr is quick to point out with racing this class, nothing comes easy.

"My crew, Frank Gugliotta, my wife, they worked their tails off trying to get two cars going the whole time with one crew," Carr explained. "Definitely earned it. None of them are free. None of them are easy. We got the job done and we are tickled. I mean, it just, to win an NHRA event is huge. And a lot goes into this deal."

Carr struggled in Friday's qualifying but rebounded on Saturday in Q2 and was low elapsed time of every session and all but one elimination round after that. The only time he didn't was a semi-final bye run when teammate and crew chief couldn't make the call for the race.

"Everybody did their job all the way through the whole weekend," Carr said. "It might look easy, and these things are animals and they're fun to drive, but it dang sure isn't easy."

If running one car is a challenge, fielding two with a limited amount of crew can be, at times, overwhelming.

"It's too much for a one-car team, and we almost pulled it off," Carr said of keeping two cars in competition. "Obviously, for qualifying and stuff, we have more time in between rounds. We weren't prepared for that. We tried to get some extra help, but it didn't work out. And so you've just got to do the best you can do."