Larry Dixon became the sixth driver in NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing
history to win 500 rounds in competition.

NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Funny Car points leader Ron Capps advanced to the quarterfinal round at the NHRA Thunder
Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway after defeating Bob Bode in the
opening face-off. He maintains his No. 1 status in the standings, and
is now 57 markers ahead of today's winner, Del Worsham.

Driving the NAPA Adaptive One Brakes Dodge Funny Car for the first and
only time this season before he returns to his usual mount, the NAPA
AUTO PARTS Dodge, Capps took the win over Bode with a 4.217-second lap
at 251.16 mph, despite dropping a cylinder which caused engine damage,
an oildown and a lengthy clean-up of the track surface. 

With repairs effected and without lane choice, Capps faced Tony
Pedregon in the second round. Capps was first off the line with a .045
reaction time (.000 is perfect) to Pedregon's .108, but the NAPA Dodge
was soon up in smoke and It was Pedregon's win at the finish line, with
a 4.143/300.26 to Capps' 4.503/262.90.

The cloudy skies and cool temperatures on Sunday did nothing but heat up the action in the Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge
presented by ProCare Rx at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in
Bristol, Tenn. For the first time in Thunder Valley Dragway history,
two Pro Mod cars ran side-by-side five-second runs, and Dixie, West
Va.-resident Burton Auxier scored his first Pro Mod Challenge victory
while overtaking the points lead.
 
After blasting to the No. 5
qualifying spot with a 6.092/231.95, Auxier got an easy run in round
one against a broken Taylor Lastor, and then drove around turbo-powered
Brad Personett 6.020/236.34 to 6.138/236.71 to advance to the
semifinals. He then used his quickest lap of the event to edge St.
Louis winner, Roger Burgess, 6.008/235.68 to 6.098/241.45, finding his
way to the finals for the second time this season and hoping for his
first win.
 
Auxier faced R2B2 Racing's Raymond Commisso, another
driver searching for his first Challenge win, and as the two staged
their cars, Auxier lit both lights quickly but held onto the brakes,
while nerves got the best of Commisso who left before the green light,
handing Auxier the win and the title.

To all of those who thought Tony Schumacher would stumble and fall with the departure of crew chief, Alan Johnson, what can you possibly say now?

Schumacher is unbeaten when he reaches the final round this year.
Winning at Bristol Dragway made it three for three, as the defending
Top Fuel World Champion logged his third win of the season, 59th of his
career as he climbed back atop the Top Fuel point standings, in the
NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals.

No, the wins are not coming as easy as they did last year, but it's not
because the team is worse off without crew chief and now competing car
owner, Alan Johnson. His crew is in fact, according to Schumacher, “bad
to the bone”.

A bull in a china shop would have been less conspicuous than the domination Mike Edwards displayed this past weekend.

Edwards left no doubt that he was the man to beat at the NHRA Thunder
Valley Nationals Pro Stock title from day one when he moved to the top
of the qualifying order in the first session. He then solidified his
hold on the top spot in the second qualifying session. On the final day
of qualifying, when he couldn’t improve on his Friday effort, he was
still the quickest each time down the track.

On Sunday he saved the best for last as he not only established low
elapsed time for the event, set a new track ET record and scored his
second NHRA Full Throttle Pro Stock victory of the 2009 season.

The dragstrip is no place to be cutting off the guy in the other lane, or making right and left turns for that matter.

However, that is exactly what John Force did in his first round race
against Jack Beckman. After a lengthy staging battle, Force left on
Beckman, only to lose the advantage in the latter portion of the track.

Force slid out of the groove and made an abrupt right turn into Beckman’s lane, barely avoiding a collision.

"I've been wearing glasses lately for better vision. If they're going
to give me that good a vision for the rest of the year I don't ever
want to wear them again," Beckman said with a laugh.

SCHUMACHER, WORSHAM AND EDWARDS WIN NHRA THUNDER VALLEY NATIONALS AT BRISTOL DRAGWAY

Tony Schumacher raced to his third victory of the season Sunday at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway.

Del Worsham and Mike Edwards also were winners at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event.

Schumacher crossed the finish line in 3.857 seconds at 310.91 mph in
his U.S. Army dragster to edge Doug Kalitta, whose Kalitta Motorsports
dragster trailed at 3.879 at 303.43. It was Schumacher’s third victory
at the legendary Tennessee drag strip and the 59th of his career.

In earlier rounds, Schumacher beat Terry Haddock, Morgan Lucas and
Brandon Bernstein. With the victory the six-time NHRA Full Throttle
Series world champ moved back into the series lead.

Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the
Ninth annual NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, the
eighth of 24 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series -

Round-by-round results from the Ninth annual NHRA Thunder Valley
Nationals at Bristol Dragway, the eighth of 24 events in the NHRA Full
Throttle Drag Racing Series:

Sunday’s final-round results for the professional categories for the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway.