(Photo by Brandon W. Mudd)
Earning the "triple crown" in baseball or thoroughbred horse racing is worth a free pass into those sports' halls of fame.
Carl Yastrzemski is the last to lead baseball in batting average, home runs and RBI in one season. He did it in 1967.
Affirmed in 1978 is the last to win each of the America's three biggest horse races.
In drag racing, there is a way to measure the best all-around driver and team, but not much recognition goes along with it.
Let's call it drag racing's triple crown.
Spencer Massey and his Prestone/FRAM team with crew chiefs Phil Shuler and Todd Okuhara would have received the fanfare after their averages for reaction time at the starting line, elapsed time and speed were the best last year over the 22-race NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season.
"That just shows how good our team is," Massey said.
Records are not kept as to how often that trifecta has been achieved, but veterans of the sport agree it is a rare feat.
While Massey and his team are proud of topping those categories, they know when the season ends the only statistic remembered and the only one that pays a $500,000 bonus is who finishes No. 1 in championship points.
And they came within four-thousandths (.004) of a second of possibly winning the championship in the 2011 season-ending Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals last November at Pomona, Calif. That was the margin - about two feet at 322 mph - by which he lost in the semifinals to Del Worsham, who clinched the championship with the victory.
Massey finished second in the standings, a mere 58 points behind Worsham.
"Yeah, I was disappointed. We ran good all weekend and all season but that's how close it is in Top Fuel these days," said Massey, who was one of four drivers with a chance to win the championship when the Finals began.
"That just gave all of us on the Prestone/FRAM team more of a reason to work hard during the off season," he said.
The team opens the 2012 season Thursday with the first qualifying session of the NHRA Winternationals at Pomona. The second session is Friday before the last two are held Saturday leading to Sunday's championship eliminations. (See full schedule below.)
"We had five great days of testing in Florida a couple weeks ago," said Massey, who splits his time between living in his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, and his motorhome that usually is parked behind DSR headquarters in Brownsburg or at racetracks.
"We were ready to head right to Pomona when we left Florida."
Massey and his Prestone/FRAM team produced four wins, four runner-ups and qualified first twice last season, by far the best year of his young career. During one stretch, the team had a streak of 40 consecutive runs of competition without smoking the tires.
The stellar statistics glow even brighter considering it was the 2009 NHRA Rookie of the Year's first season with DSR after not having a team to race with the year before.
In 2009, Massey drove for Don "The Snake" Prudhomme the last year Prudhomme fielded a team. Massey won twice and placed sixth in points that year.
Carl Yastrzemski is the last to lead baseball in batting average, home runs and RBI in one season. He did it in 1967.
Affirmed in 1978 is the last to win each of the America's three biggest horse races.
In drag racing, there is a way to measure the best all-around driver and team, but not much recognition goes along with it.
Let's call it drag racing's triple crown.
Spencer Massey and his Prestone/FRAM team with crew chiefs Phil Shuler and Todd Okuhara would have received the fanfare after their averages for reaction time at the starting line, elapsed time and speed were the best last year over the 22-race NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season.
"That just shows how good our team is," Massey said.
Records are not kept as to how often that trifecta has been achieved, but veterans of the sport agree it is a rare feat.
While Massey and his team are proud of topping those categories, they know when the season ends the only statistic remembered and the only one that pays a $500,000 bonus is who finishes No. 1 in championship points.
And they came within four-thousandths (.004) of a second of possibly winning the championship in the 2011 season-ending Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals last November at Pomona, Calif. That was the margin - about two feet at 322 mph - by which he lost in the semifinals to Del Worsham, who clinched the championship with the victory.
Massey finished second in the standings, a mere 58 points behind Worsham.
"Yeah, I was disappointed. We ran good all weekend and all season but that's how close it is in Top Fuel these days," said Massey, who was one of four drivers with a chance to win the championship when the Finals began.
"That just gave all of us on the Prestone/FRAM team more of a reason to work hard during the off season," he said.
The team opens the 2012 season Thursday with the first qualifying session of the NHRA Winternationals at Pomona. The second session is Friday before the last two are held Saturday leading to Sunday's championship eliminations. (See full schedule below.)
"We had five great days of testing in Florida a couple weeks ago," said Massey, who splits his time between living in his hometown of Fort Worth, Texas, and his motorhome that usually is parked behind DSR headquarters in Brownsburg or at racetracks.
"We were ready to head right to Pomona when we left Florida."
Massey and his Prestone/FRAM team produced four wins, four runner-ups and qualified first twice last season, by far the best year of his young career. During one stretch, the team had a streak of 40 consecutive runs of competition without smoking the tires.
The stellar statistics glow even brighter considering it was the 2009 NHRA Rookie of the Year's first season with DSR after not having a team to race with the year before.
In 2009, Massey drove for Don "The Snake" Prudhomme the last year Prudhomme fielded a team. Massey won twice and placed sixth in points that year.
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