It will be tough to top the season that GM-backed racers had on the NHRA POWERade tour this past year, but 2008 will see several teams set on defending their crowns and others looking to get back on top.  With Jeg Coughlin Jr. and Tony Pedregon leading the way for Team Chevy in Pro Stock and Funny Car, respectively, Chevrolet won the 2007 NHRA Manufacturers Cup for the 16th time in 2007, the most of any automobile manufacturer.  Multiple victories at NHRA divisional and national races by Chevrolet’s strong contingent of sportsman racers played a key role in a GM nameplate earning the prestigious Manufacturers Cup for the 25th consecutive year.

Coughlin returned to a full season of competition in Pro Stock after nearly a year away, but the 2000 and 2002 class champ performed like he never left and put on a late-season surge in the inaugural Countdown to the Championship points format to add a third jewel to his crown with the 2007 NHRA POWERade Pro Stock title.  He joins a select group in Bob Glidden, Warren Johnson, Lee Shepherd, Greg Anderson and Darrell Alderman as the only Pro Stock drivers in the history of the sport to win three or more titles.

This was the first championship for team owner Victor Cagnazzi, and he returns a formidable one-two punch in 2008 with Coughlin and teammate Dave Connolly in their yellow-hued Chevy Cobalts.

“Everybody on this race team does a fabulous job on this Chevy Cobalt,” Coughlin said.  “From the guys here at the racetrack to everyone back in North Carolina at our engine shop, you couldn’t ask for a better group to work with.  We have awesome GM horsepower in this race car and the guys do an incredible job.  Thanks to Victor Cagnazzi for giving me such an awesome Pro Stock car to compete in.”

Three-time Pro Stock champion Greg Anderson (2003-2005) drove his Summit Racing Pontiac GTO to a class-leading eight wins on the season to finish second in points and will be looking for a return to the top of the Pro Stock mountain in 2008.  Teammate Jason Line, the 2006 Pro Stock champ, will also be battling to bring the title back in the KB Racing fold in 2008.

“We had another great season and I’ve got a fantastic race team here,” Anderson said.  “I feel proud to be a part of it and to be able to work for a man like Ken Black.  We’ve had such great success over the past six years that you get spoiled, but we’ll bounce back because all of the pieces and parts are in place for another great season in 2008.”

Pontiac teams will be phasing in a new race car in 2008, the Pontiac G6 GXP, starting with the season’s first race at Pomona.

“Every change GM has made in the past has been a big step forward,” Anderson said, “and from what I can see on paper, that will once again be the case with these new Pontiacs.”

With his victory at Richmond (Va.) in October, Chevy driver Dave Connolly put his name on an elite list of Pro Stock drivers that have won five consecutive races, joining the legendary Bob Glidden (9 consecutive wins), Ronnie Sox (5) and Greg Anderson (5).  He went on to win eight races on the season to tie Anderson for tops in the class and finished third in points.  It was the third time in four years the 24-year-old Connolly has finished third in points and he’s poised to make the jump to the top spot in 2008.

“It was definitely a great season,” Connolly said.  “It was the best of my career.  We won eight races and got in the NHRA Pro Stock record book with Greg (Anderson), Bob Glidden and Ronnie Sox with our five straight wins, and we won the U.S. Nationals for the first time.  The most races I’d won in a season before was three, and we almost tripled that.

“We were our own worst enemy in the last couple of races, that’s for sure.  Everybody throughout the season had their moments and ours came at a very bad time.  It just wasn’t meant to be this year.  I definitely want to get my first world championship under my belt and I’d like to get that out of the way in 2008.  Hopefully we can make that happen.”

ACDelco Chevy Cobalt driver Kurt Johnson reached the winner’s circle in February at Phoenix, continuing a streak in which Johnson has won at least one race every year since 1995 (the longest current streak in NHRA Pro Stock).  Johnson finished sixth in points in 2007, his 15th career finish in the top 10, and he is tied with the legendary Lee Shepherd for most wins ever by a Chevy Pro Stock driver (26).

“All in all, it was a great season,” Johnson said.  “We extended our winning streak to 13 straight years, and we were in position a number of times to win races.  That’s exactly where you want to be when you’re competing in a class as close and competitive as NHRA Pro Stock.  Looking ahead to 2008, I’m confident that we’ll be ready to make another run at the NHRA championship.”

Tony Pedregon drove his Q Racing Chevy Impala SS to his second NHRA POWERade Funny Car championship on the strength of four victories in five final-round appearances.  The California native looks for his three wins in the season’s last seven races to serve as a springboard for a strong start to the 2008 NHRA POWERade season.

Lastly, long-time Chevy Pro Stock icon and engine builder Bill “Grumpy” Jenkins will headline the six 2008 inductees to the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in Talladega, Ala., on April 24, 2008.

Final preseason preparations will take place at the Pontiac Pro Stock Showdown at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Feb. 1-3, 2008, and then teams head back to Pomona (Calif.) to kick-off the 24-event 2008 NHRA POWERade Series with the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Winternationals at Auto Cub Raceway at Pomona on Feb. 7-10, 2008.