Greg Anderson never - not once during the day Sunday - assumed anything.
Oh, well, maybe one thing. He might have assumed he was going to lose long before the final round. The winners circle? That was beyond daydreaming.

"I've been dragging my lip," the Pro Stock dominator-turned-struggler said. "I wouldn't have been surprised if I had exited early today. But we found a way each round to win."

Tony Schumacher continued Sunday to thumb his nose at National Hot Rod Ass'n. observers who said he couldn't survive without Alan Johnson.

The defiant U.S. Army dragster driver put new crew chief Mike Green's tune-up against that of Johnson in Sunday's Top Fuel final round at the O'Reilly Super Star Batteries Fall Nationals and won.

On what he called "just a massive day," Schumacher beat No. 1 qualifier Larry Dixon, Johnson's current driver, in the Texas Motorplex lane in which few drivers could win all day long. And he seized the points lead with just four more races remaining in the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series' Countdown to the Championship.

Four weeks ago, Robert Hight was staring down a near impossible task. Now, he's staring down from atop the Funny Car point standings.

“It's unbelievable,” said Hight, of his second consecutive win, and leap from tenth to first in the point standings in just two races. “It hasn't hit me yet. Going to the three final rounds in a row is tough.

Matt Hagan left the Texas Motorplex immediately after his first-round loss on Sunday at the NHRA Fall Nationals. He arrived home at 7 p.m. Rachel went into labor at 9 p.m., and Penny Louise Hagan was born at 4 a.m. today.

Rockingham Dragway has hosted two IHRA national events since 1999 but in 2010 that tradition will change. According to a report published in the Fayetteville [N.C.] Observer, the track will downsize to just one IHRA nationals event.

The season-ending World Finals, held each October, will disappear from the national event schedule and will be replaced with an all-sportsman event.

The Spring Nationals is tentatively scheduled for the end of April and downsizes from three days to two.

Perhaps one of the most competitive sportsman races of the season took place right here at Maryland International Raceway this weekend.

Two new world records were established and a host of others were threatened as veterans dominated the win column.

During the second half of the season, no one has had more bad luck than Cary Goforth.
After two final rounds and an incredible 9-2 win-loss record through the first three races of the season, Goforth’s last four national events have included two first round losses, a second round exit and a no show.

For the second race in a row and for the fifth time this season it was Kenny Lang and Ed Hoover in the final of an IHRA Pro Modified national event.

No matter the car counts, the talent level and no matter how you look at it, two of best quarter-mile Pro Modified drivers in the world have put on quite a show this season and the pair continued their bitter rivalry on Sunday with yet another head-to-head final at the IHRA President’s Cup Nationals Sunday at Maryland International Raceway.

The top points earning drivers from NHRA member tracks across the Northeast division competed today in the Race of Champions at the NHRA Summit Racing Series Northeast Division Finals.  The ROC should have been completed in conjunction with the rest of the Division Finals event but it was postponed by rain until today.  In fact, due to more rain today, there was one pair of cars that did not make it down the track and that was the final of the Super category.

Make it four straight for Del Cox Jr.

After a bit of a rocky start to the 2009 IHRA season, Cox managed to get things turned around in a big way at midseason and once he got it figured out, he hasn’t lost since.

Cox hasn’t lost a round since mid-July and continued to show his dominance on Sunday with a thrilling victory over teammate Ron August Jr. who was in his first career IHRA final at the President’s Cup Nationals at Maryland International Raceway on Sunday.