Antron Brown secured the No. 2 seed in the Countdown to 1 during the
prestigious U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis. With the first 18 races behind
the first-year Top Fuel standout, Brown now trails five-time champion
Tony Schumacher by just 30 points. With two wins and three poles among
his 2008 accomplishments, Brown and the Matco Tools team look to add
the word “champions” to those accolades when the Countdown to 1 begins
at zMax Dragway near Charlotte, Sept. 11-14. In this Q&A, Brown
talks about competing in his first Countdown to the Championship, the
new structure of the Countdown and his thoughts on beating Tony
Schumacher.

CP - You secured the No. 2 seed in the Countdown to 1. Are you
surprised the Matco Tools team has been so successful this season?

BROWN: No, I wasn’t surprised on how well we’ve done. I knew from
the start that we had a great team that Lee (Beard) structured. I’ve
never been with a group that’s so determined to do well. It’s hard to
get nine or 10 guys that have the same willingness to win and that ‘do
what it takes’ attitude. That’s why I knew we had something special
with this team and why I’m not surprised on how well we’ve done.

Jerry Toliver admits his buddy

Is this Rockstar's final year?

Alan Johnson will be besieged with applicants in the next few days. That’s why he’ll likely hold off submitting one.

Johnson announced on Saturday in Indianapolis that he plans to leave
Don Schumacher Racing to field his own nitro team in partnership with
Al-Anabi Motorsports. The new team will have a dragster and a Funny
Car.

“You never know, we’ll see what happens over there,” Toliver said.
“Knowing Alan, it’s going to be a great running organization and I
think he’ll have a good time.”

The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway will present its annual
Thanksgiving Weekend high-stakes bracket race Nov. 26-30. The Las Vegas
Bracket Nationals will feature a complete show with winners each day in
the Super Pro, Pro, Sportsman and Motorcycle classes from Thursday
through Sunday of the Thanksgiving holiday. The Super Pro class will
race for $7,500 to win on Saturday and Sunday.

The thrilling and extremely popular Ultimate Gambler returns on Sunday
morning with its $1,000 entry fee and winner-take-all purse. In the
past, purses for the 1/8-mile shootout have paid as much as $67,000 to
the final-round winner.

Tom Hammonds Enterprises, LLC named Kenny Tom as the Crew Chief for Tom Hammonds Racing.

"Kenny brings a wealth of knowledge and has been in Pro Stock a number
of years with quality teams," said Tom Hammonds, president and driver
of Tom Hammonds Enterprises, LLC.  "What I like about Kenny is he is a
hard worker and fits right in with what we are doing.  He knows what he
is doing, and we are extremely happy to have him."

Three days after competing in the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, IN,
the father-and-son team of Warren and Kurt Johnson were back on the
track on Thursday, putting in a full day of testing at Bruton Smith’s
latest contribution to the POWERade Drag Racing Series, the Zmax
Dragway in Concord, NC.   Battling stifling heat and a relatively green
racing surface, the Johnsons were among four Pro Stock teams making
runs at the state-of-the-art speedplant, with their performance often
stopping the numerous workers rushing to complete the facility in time
for the upcoming Carolina Nationals.

Making a total of 14 runs between them, KJ set low elapsed time for the
day in the ACDelco Cobalt (pictured) with his 6.680-second, 206.35 mph
pass in the early afternoon, with WJ, who set top speed at 207.43 mph,
close behind,  tripping the finish line timers in his GM Performance
Parts GXP in 6.685 seconds.  Afterwards, the duo had nothing but praise
for the magnificent new track.

Bob Vandergriff Jr., in this election year was elected into office and the interesting part of it all, he never campaigned.

Vandergriff was voted by his peers to serve as the Chairman of the newly formed
drivers committee for nitro racing. The honor is one the UPS-sponsored
driver holds in high regard.

Also appointed as class representatives were Larry Dixon [Top Fuel] and Ron Capps [Funny Car].

“It’s an honor to be chosen by my fellow drivers for that role, to
represent them,” Vandergriff said. “I think there is a lot of good we
can accomplish, working myself with Larry Dixon and Ron Capps. Really,
all the drivers and their inputs, I think sometimes that kind of stuff
gets overlooked and they even bring things to my attention that I
haven't thought about. I think communication between all of our drivers
is really important. Even on safety issues, if there's something some
driver has found out that is better than what we use or he ran into a
situation that he wants to make us aware of, I think it’s good we now
have a group that we can relay that information to everybody. Where in
the past, he might have told two or three of his buddies that he hangs
with, but it didn't get passed down to the group. I think this is a
really good thing for us to have.”

NHRA Pro Stock racer Jason Line and NHRA top end announcer Alan Reinhart have quite the friendship these days.

NHRA top end announcer Alan Reinhart and Pro Stock racer Jason Line have quite the friendship these days. (Photos by Jon Asher)

Or, do they?

If you happened across Reinhart during the recently-completed NHRA U.S.
Nationals in Indianapolis, you might have noticed a decal on his
golf-cart that read, “Jason Line is my best friend.”

Troy Buff and his sister Kimmerly Buff-Pesz grew up in the sport of drag racing.

The Texas-based siblings dreamed there would come a day they’d follow
in the footsteps of their legendary drag racing father, Williard Buff.

Let the record reflect their day has officially arrived.

Troy is in his first-full season as driver of the Bill Miller Engineering Top Fuel dragster.

Kimmerly, whose husband is noted Pro Modified tuner and former driver
Brandon Pesz, recently made her debut as the driver of Tom Conway’s
A/Fuel Dragster.

Melanie Troxel isn’t ready to return to Top Fuel racing any time soon.

The first year Funny Car driver has explored both ends of the emotional spectrum in 2008.

She’s won races and she’s failed to qualify. 

“There are definitely aspects of the dragsters that I miss, but we're
having a lot of fun over here,” said Troxel. “Certainly making the
switch over here is a new challenge so I am not bored by any means.
People keep wanting to ask me which I like better, I don't think, it's
like trying to pick between your kids, I don't think you can pick. They
definitely each have their own personality; they are both an adrenaline
rush and both a lot of fun.”