CAPPS, DIXON AND EDWARDS TAKE NO. 1 QUALIFYING POSITIONS AT PHOENIX

Ron Capps raced to his first No. 1 qualifying performance in Funny Car in more than four years Saturday at the Lucas Oil Slick Mist NHRA Nationals.

Larry Dixon and Mike Edwards also will lead their categories into
Sunday’s 11 a.m. eliminations at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing
Series event.

Capps, who won the season-opening race two weeks ago in Pomona, Calif.,
powered his Napa Dodge Charger to a 4.023 second run at 305.63 mph to
claim his eighth career No. 1 qualifying position and second at
Firebird International Raceway near Phoenix.

Sunday’s eliminations pairings for the 25th annual Lucas Oil Slick
Mist NHRA Nationals at Firebird International Raceway. Results based on
qualifying, which ended Saturday.

TOP FUEL

Top Fuel – 1. Larry Dixon, 3.807 seconds, 315.71 mph vs. 16.
Terry Haddock, 4.094, 237.80; 2. Tony Schumacher, 3.826, 315.27 vs. 15.
Troy Buff, 3.974, 283.97; 3. Antron Brown, 3.830, 313.80 vs. Del Cox
Jr., 3.936, 306.46; 4. Spencer Massey, 3.847, 310.27 vs. 13. Mike
Strasburg, 3.922, 310.48; 5. Brandon Bernstein, 3.875, 316.38 vs. 12.
Joe Hartley, 3.913, 308.07; 6. Morgan Lucas, 3.879, 306.46 vs. 11.
David Baca, 3.910, 305.77; 7. Shawn Langdon, 3.888, 307.93 vs. 10. Clay
Millican, 3.907, 311.13; 8. Doug Kalitta, 3.897, 307.86 vs. 9. Cory
McClenathan, 3.904, 311.63. Did Not Qualify:  17. Steve Chrisman,
4.167, 280.49; 18. Steve Faria, 4.505, 222.14; 19. Rob Passey, 7.530,
81.82; 20. Arley Langlo, 15.695, 51.17.

Mike Neff figured when he landed the driving gig for John Force Racing
that his tuning talents would only be used on a roundtable basis,
considering the job tuner was clearly John Medlen’s gig.

The 41-year old Neff never figured there’d come a day when he’d have to tune the car and drive it to the finish line.

It’s a challenge that’s both intriguing and demanding for Neff, but he’s doing what he’s got to do.

Two days before the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals in Phoenix, Az.,
Medlen was struck with chest pains and was admitted to an Indianapolis
hospital where doctors inserted a stent in his heart.

Neff responded to the adversity with a stellar performance as both
driver and tuner by recording the second quickest Funny Car time in
provisional qualifying, a 4.050-second elapsed time at 309.06 miles per
hour, the quickest amongst the John Force Racing team.

In the desert, one can easily confuse reality with a mirage.

That’s the excuse Mike Edwards could give for not making his way to the
media center for his post-qualifying press conference following the
first day of qualifying at the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals in
Phoenix, Az.

The Coweta, Ok-based driver of the Young Life Pontiac drove his way to
the quickest run in each of the two sessions on Friday, finishing the
day with a track record 6.605-second run.

Officials for The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Auto Club Dragway
in Fontana, Calif., and the National Hot Rod Association’s Pacific
Division announced a major schedule change today for the NHRA’s 2009
Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series.  The Auto Club Dragway event, originally
scheduled for April 24-26, now will be hosted by The Strip at LVMS and
has been rescheduled for April 10-12.

“This schedule change will benefit not only The Strip at LVMS and Auto
Club Dragway, but it also will be a tremendous economical savings for
the sportsman racers who support this series," said Chris Blair, LVMS’
vice president of racing operations.  "Racers will now be able to
compete in back-to-back events at LVMS – the NHRA SummitRacing.com
Nationals on April 2-5 and the Lucas Oil Series event on April 10-12 –
before towing to Auto Club Dragway on April 17-19 for the NHRA Sports
Nationals.”

Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series events at The Strip at LVMS have attracted
as many as 992 sportsman racing entries and are the largest races on
the series’ 43-race divisional schedule.  The Strip at LVMS also will
also host a second Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series event on Nov. 5-8.

Mickey Thompson Performance Tires & Wheels is proud to announce its
sponsorship of the 14th Annual Comp Cams Million Dollar Bracket Race.
The race features the finest competitors found on U.S soil, all
competing for the largest payout in bracket racing history.

In a strange turn of events the planned West coast debut of "Nitro
Nick" Boninfante's U.S. Male nitro Funny Car at the March Meet with Ron
Capps driving has hit a wall.
 
The March Meet was supposed to have been a fun "off" weekend for the
driver of the NAPA Auto Parts Charger on the NHRA Full Throttle series
but his Schumacher Racing team recently scheduled testing the same
weekend at Palm Beach Int'l Raceway in Florida.  Regretfully Capps must
be in Florida driving his full time ride and he's withdrawn his entry.

Pat Ross leads qualifying from the NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series
event in Gainesville Raceway. The veteran driver from Avon Lake, Ohio,
was the No. 1 qualifying Friday in Comp Eliminator. 

Ross took the No.2 qualifying position at Bradenton Motorsports Park
event last weekend but was unable to capitalize on his high seed. This
weekend provides an opportunity for redemption. 

Grant Lewis, of Jesup, Ga., wheeled his ’05 Grand Am into the second position behind Ross.

In
Super Stock action, Shorter, Ala., resident Bobby Dennis grabbed the
top spot with Terry Pearson, Spanish Fort, Ala., landing right behind
him. Randy Harrison of Orlando, Fla., grabbed the No.1 seed in Stock
Eliminator.

Larry Dixon fully believes his first run in Phoenix during the NHRA Lucas Slick Mist Nationals, was essentially the non-existent second qualifying session from two weekends ago in Pomona, Ca.

Dixon missed the field in rain-abbreviated qualifying at the
season-opener but more than made up for that shortcoming with the
provisional top qualifying effort during the second event on the tour
this weekend.

“Alan [Johnson] and Jason [McCulloch] made the adjustments from that
first run in Pomona to the first one here in Phoenix and the car went
down the track,” Dixon said. “That is what they wanted to do and I had
all of the faith in the world that they would have done the same thing
in Pomona.”

AsomBroso Tequila, in association with Affliction Clothing, announced the sponsorship of popular veteran driver, Gary
Densham and his nitro funny car team beginning with the 2009 Lucas
Slick Mist NHRA Nationals at Firebird International Raceway.

“The sponsorship of Gary’s Funny Car is a great way to expose my
high-end brand of tequila to a select audience. I’m also a fan, so it
allows me to combine my passion for tequila with my passion for
racing,” explains Ricardo Gamarra, founder of AsomBroso Tequila. “Plus,
I’m friends with the folks at Affliction Clothing, so I was able to
convince them to join me in helping to sponsor Gary’s effort.”