Racing on Labor Day weekend can bring out some incredible stories and memorable wins, and while that was true at the 70th annual NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, the same was happening 600 miles east at Maryland\u2019s Cecil County Dragway, host of the 15th running of the Yellowbullet Nationals. Andy Jensen, the Pro Modified winner at the celebrated door-car-focused race, is hesitant to say he flat-out beat competitors like Melanie Salemi and three-time Yellowbullet Nationals winner Mike Decker Jr., but the fact is he walked away with the $50,000 victory for the first time in his career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jensen started the week testing a new set of tires, continuing a season-long quest to find the right tires for his single-turbo \u201968 Camaro. He went back to his default tires for qualifying and posted a 3.736-second pass at 202.55 MPH to end up No. 15 on the final qualifying sheet.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put two runs on that [tire] and decided we better stop screwing around or we\u2019re going to be lost on race day,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cSo we went back to the tire that we normally had run earlier in the year and kind of half-ass found our way to make a decent run on Friday night. I wouldn\u2019t say it was a great run. We were just trying to get down the track.\u201d<\/p>\n
That netted Jensen a first-round match with No. 2 qualifier Melanie Salemi, who coasted to a 6.114, while Jensen ran a 4.219 at 138.03 to get through a wild first round. In the second round, he used a holeshot advantage and a 3.748 at 200.68 to get past Chris Russo and his 3.664 at 206.73. Jensen grabbed an even bigger advantage on the starting line in the semifinals and managed a 4.078 at 184.77 to end Mike Decker Jr.\u2019s three-year streak of Yellowbullet Nationals victories. Decker fought his way to a 4.355 at 126.96.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Deckers are tough,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cThey have the best equipment in the world and they have the best tuner [Todd Tutterow] in the world in their back pocket, so obviously there\u2019s a lot of pressure to try to beat that guy. Had he gotten down the track, I wouldn\u2019t have beaten him. I hate to say I beat him because I really didn\u2019t. Neither one of us did very well, but to cross the finish line before him was pretty gratifying.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat whole Decker crew are always super nice to me,\u201d Jensen continued. \u201cThey\u2019re great people. Even after I won, he was a gentleman. He said, \u2018Go out and finish it, buddy.\u2019 He\u2019s a top-shelf guy to race with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jensen went into the final round against relative newcomer Bubba Greene, who was having a career-best weekend in his screw-blown Corvette tuned by Pro Modified legend Scotty Cannon. Greene used a pair of mid-3.60-second runs to take out No. 1 qualifier Jim Halsey in the second round and former Outlaw 10.5 standout Chuck Ulsch in the semifinals. Both drivers ran into issues in the final round, though, and Jensen made it to the finish line first with a 4.236 at 154.60. Greene coasted through to a 6.624 at 68.54.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was down a hole in the burnout so it didn\u2019t burn out very good, then when I was staging the car, it wouldn\u2019t even build a reasonable amount of boost, so I don\u2019t know if I have a bad injector, bad coil, bad spark plug, or maybe a broken valve spring,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cIt\u2019s something minor, but it didn\u2019t leave for shit and it just kind of muttered out of the hole. I basically just drove it down the racetrack and I got to the other end first. I had a mechanical issue of some sort in the final, so to win, I was like, \u2018You gotta be kidding me.\u2019 But we\u2019ll take it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jensen builds his own engines using CN blocks, CFE SBX heads, Jesel\/Manley valvetrain components, a Moroso oiling system, JE pistons, MGP rods, and a custom intake from HRE. The Camaro, which was a former roots-blown NHRA Pro Mod, also utilizes a Ty-Drive unit with a Neal Chance converter, Haltech electronics, and Atomizer injectors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jensen was thrilled to win the race for his team, but as the engine builder and tuner, he was disappointed that the race wasn\u2019t won on sheer performance alone.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to say we went down there and kicked everyone\u2019s asses because that\u2019s not the case,\u201d said Jensen, who thanked longtime partners like Precision Turbo and Powermist Fuels. \u201cWe got some lucky breaks, and when the track got tricky and it became a pedal fest race, I was ready. I\u2019ve been driving an ill-tuned race car for quite a few years. I\u2019m not very good at tuning one, so I\u2019m pretty decent at pedaling a race car because I do a lot of it. My ability to pedal an ill-handling race car is what won us that race. And, of course, my crew not quitting.\u201d<\/p>\n
The $50,000 payday will go a long way for a budget-minded team like Jensen\u2019s, but he insists the funds won\u2019t go entirely into fresh parts and fuel for the next race.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThat payday was obviously a big boost for my team,\u201d said Jensen, who credited his wife, Tiffany, Mark Mont, Frank Tank, and Uncle John. \u201cI\u2019m going to share that with them because if it wasn\u2019t for my crew, I wouldn\u2019t be there. They work tirelessly year after year, most times being disappointed, and they never give up and they never ask for a penny, so I\u2019m going to share my winnings with my crew because they deserve it and I wouldn\u2019t have it without them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jensen also praised everyone who came together to present the Yellowbullet Nationals, including promoter Monty Mikho and track owners Jim and Cathy Halsey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis race win is the most celebrated of my career, but I feel more humbled than excited about it,\u201d Jensen said. \u201cYes, I built the car, took it to the race, and sat behind the wheel, but without the fans who spent their hard-earned money to watch us race; without the track operator who works his ass off to provide a constantly improving facility; without the promoter who seeks sponsor money and creates an entertaining event that thousands \u2013 even kids \u2013 look forward to every year; without everyone\u2019s effort, there would be no race to win, so the celebration belongs to more than just the race winner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jensen plans to get back out to the track soon to continue testing in preparation for the Northeast Outlaw Pro Mod Association season finale, Sept. 27-28, at Maryland International Raceway. If those outings go well, Jensen plans to attend the PDRA Brian Olsen Memorial World Finals at Virginia Motorsports Park in October.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we\u2019re starting to make some progress. A 30-plus-year buddy of mine, Kevin McCurdy, has been trying to help me out this year, trying to sort this thing out because I\u2019ve been fighting it,\u201d said Jensen, who also thanked Patrick Barnhill of PTP Tuning for help with the Haltech system over the weekend. \u201cI\u2019ve raced a clutch my whole life and now I have this converter deal and I\u2019m kind of fighting with this thing trying to catch up to the guys who\u2019ve been running converters for 10 and 20 years. He\u2019s been helping me with the converter and the shocks and just trying to make the car work better and try to make it more consistent and faster because I know it can be much faster than it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to Pro Mod, the Yellowbullet Nationals featured several other heads-up and bracket racing classes. Nick Lacerenza took the Pro 275 win over Blaine Johnson, Josh Niermann won in Limited Drag Radial over Joe Newsham, and Connor Hartsock won in Ultra Street over Bill Trovato. Joe Albrecht picked up the 8.50 Index victory over Nick Tucci, Craig Walls was victorious in Warriors Outlaw over Jacob Naumann, Dylan Ammons collected the 10.0 Index win over Dennis Salvatore II, Don Teague defeated Vince Fourcade for the Top Sportsman title, and John Voshell Jr. took the Pro Dial win over Anthony Capirose.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Visit GoneDragRacing.com for complete results sheets<\/a> from the Yellowbullet Nationals. <\/p>\n This story was originally published on September 5, 2024. <\/p>\n The post Andy Jensen Shares Story Behind $50,000 Yellowbullet Nationals Win\u00a0<\/a> first appeared on Drag Illustrated<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Racing on Labor Day weekend can bring out some incredible stories and memorable wins, and while that was true at the 70th annual NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, the same was happening 600 miles east at Maryland\u2019s Cecil County Dragway, host of the 15th running of the Yellowbullet Nationals. Andy Jensen, the Pro Modified winner […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racepages.com\/Videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}