Billy Williams, who won the 1979 NHRA Pro Comp Championship and twice won the U.S. Nationals, died April 14. He was 63, and had been hospitalized  since he was critically injured in the March 22, 2002, after a crash in his Alcohol Funny Car in Rockingham, N.C.

Billy Williams, who won the 1979 NHRA Pro Comp Championship and twice won the U.S. Nationals, died April 14. He was 63, and had been hospitalized  since he was critically injured in the March 22, 2002, after a crash in his Alcohol Funny Car in Rockingham, N.C.

Williams suffered head injuries and multiple fractures when his 2002 Firebird suffered an engine failure and drove hard into the guardwall.