IHRA: Bowen dedicates this win to his father

It's hard to call Shawn Bowen an underdog, but with Jason Rupert so dominant this season in the AMSOIL Nitro Funny Car class of the IHRA Drag Racing Series, everybody has had to take a back seat to the Rupert & Littlefield Chevrolet Camaro.

Except in eliminations, where Rupert has failed to close the deal all but one time this season. And that's what happened again on Sunday at the Mopar Rocky Mountain Nationals at Castrol Raceway in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Bowen laid down a run of 5.706 seconds at 258.03mph to beat Rupert's 5.724 at 266.11mph. "We broke our transmission in the first round," Bowen said, so he had to go to a backup, which wasn't geared for as high a top speed as the other unit.

Once more, Rupert set fast time and top speed and looked poised to win, until he didn't – the oh-so-close final round, which didn't take place until oh-so-late, near midnight, thanks to one rain delay after another left Bowen and his Violator Dodge Challenger in the winner's circle for the second time this year, and boosted him to second in the points.

"We struggled in qualifying pretty bad," Bowen said, but he and his team just kept picking away at the setup, continually improving it. Which wasn't easy: With so many delays, including one that approached six hours in length, the track changed considerably between every run, and reading it was a measure of a crew chief's experience.

Bowen dedicated the win to his father, Mike, who got the family involved in drag racing in 1979. "He couldn't be here this weekend, and this is all his deal, so I want to dedicate the race to him," Bowen said. Mike Bowen began racing a drag boat in 1980, which is where the name for Shawn's car comes from.

The team is looking forward to the next and final race of the season, at U.S. 131 Motorplex in Martin, Michigan. It's the home track for the Montrose, Michigan-based team. "We live just two and a half hours from there," Shawn said.

Besides the win, it was a good points weekend for the Violator, as they closed up on leader Rupert.

"We moved up to second in points, and it all comes down to Martin," Bowen said. "It's going to be a battle between us, Rupert, [Mike] McIntire and [Mark] Sanders. It's anybody's game now. Whoever doesn't make a mistake is going to win."