An era may be over, or at least it seems that way.

Andy Hoefer, Director of Marketing for United States Smokeless Tobacco,
confirmed that currently there are no plans for his company to return
as sponsor for the $100,000-to-win United States Smokeless Showdown in
2009.

Clay Millican believed he could fly under the radar into Indy and maybe, just maybe, he could slip up

Clay Millican didn't miss a beat in his time away this season.

on a few opponents and grab a qualifying berth and possibly a first round win.

That was his thought process until an earlier return to competition
with team owner Mark Pickens and the Hope4Sudan/Lend American/Nitro
Fish Top Fuel team netted a semi-final finish during the NHRA Toyo
Tires Nationals in Reading, Pa.

So much for the sneak attack.

“We went to Reading thinking if we qualified we would’ve had a
successful weekend,” said Millican, of Drummonds, Tenn. That race
provided four qualifying runs and three more in eliminations in
national event conditions and became much better than a test session.

Cory McClenathan grabbed the provisional pole position on Friday during the opening qualifying session of the

The perfectionist in McClenathan demands that he ratchets up all facets of his and the team's overall performance.

54th annual U.S. Nationals at O'Reilly Raceway Park. McClenathan
recorded a run of 3.852 seconds at 312.57 mph, his quickest elapsed
time since the NHRA began racing to the 1,000-foot mark.

Four more rounds of qualifying are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday
before the final 16-car field is set for Sunday's eliminations.

Jeff Arend’s 4.193 elapsed time was only good enough to put him in the seventh spot in

Jeff Arend isn't trying to fill Scott Kalitta's shoes, he's just
trying to do the best he can for Kalitta Motorsports to honor the
memory of Scott Kalitta.

provisional qualifying at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, but the lap was as good as the top spot in his heart.

Arend made his debut as the driver of the Kalitta Motorsports Funny Car, the same ride Scott Kalitta made famous.

The experience left Arend feeling both apprehensive and cautious in the same token.

On August 4, CompetitionPlus.com reported that noted tuner Alan
Johnson was being courted by two entities, one foreign and the other
domestic. RELATED ITEM - THE A.J. SWEEPSTAKES
A special announcement is scheduled for Saturday, which speculation
suggests could signal the courtship is over. USA Today confirmed the
announcement in their Friday edition.

Multiple sources indicate Johnson will announce his plans to sign with
a start up team from the Middle East wielding a budget of upwards in
the $10 Million range for two cars.

Dan Pikarsky, Sr. VP of Sports and Event Marketing for Attitude Drinks
Inc., had one thing to say about the detractors who said Vis Viva was
finished in the drag racing sponsorship arena.

“I told you so,” Pikarsky said.

Pikarsky confirmed the Vis Viva team and Tuttle Motorsports will be
back at select events in 2008, although he couldn’t confirm which of
the remaining six races those will be. The team sat out the last race
in Reading because their sponsor had no distribution in the region.

HIGHT SALVAGES OTHERWISE OFF-DAY FOR JOHN FORCE RACING

McClenathan, Allen Johnson, Krawiec round out provisional pole-sitters

Robert
Hight salvaged an off day for John Force Racing by powering his Auto
Club Ford Mustang to the provisional No. 1 qualifying position in Funny
Car at the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park at
Indianapolis on Friday.

The other provisional No. 1 qualifiers on the first of three days of
qualifying at the world’s most prestigious drag race, the 18th and
final regular season event in the 2008 NHRA POWERade Series season,
were Cory McClenathan (Top Fuel), Allen Johnson (Pro Stock) and Eddie
Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle). The six-race Countdown to 1 playoff
begins in two weeks with the Sept. 12-14 Carolinas Nationals.

If the annual Mopar Super Stock
Hemi Challenge had been a boxing match, it would have been halted by
the fifth round. As it was, the SS/AH racers who participated in the
annual Indy event had to endure three full days of punishment by
Charlie Westcott Jr., who drove his War Fish Barracuda to the SS/AH
class title at Indy for the third time in the last four years. While
most of his opponents were running in the 8.8-second zone, Westcott,
and his father, Charlie Sr., were cranking out 8.6-second runs with
alarming consistency. In the final round Charlie Jr., defeated his old
nemesis Bucky Hess, 8.65 to 8.86.

"This car is for sale but the price just went up," said
Westcott, who collected a $15,000 bonus from Mopar Performance, $10,000
for winning the Hemi Challenge and an additional $5,000 for claiming
the overall 2008 Hemi Challenge series title. "I had the field covered
today but that doesn't always guarantee a victory. You can't win if you
don't have a fast car, but you can lose even if you've got the quickest
car so I had to do my job as a driver. I think the final round was
right about where I wanted to be. I had a decent light and my car ran
exactly what it should have run. Other than having my dad in the final
we did just what we wanted to do this weekend."

Professional Funny Car driver Ashley Force knows all about getting from point A to B on the race track. The 2007 rookie of the

Ashley Force and Designing Spaces host Dave Dodd.

year is one of the most consistent drivers on the track and one of the busiest spokespersons away from it.

The soon to be newlywed will be telling viewers on behalf of sponsor
Sanyo about getting to the finish line when it comes to installing the
ultimate home theater for a special holiday edition of the Designing
Spaces television program.

Force wrapped up filming for Designing Spaces, a 30 minutes show that
inspires viewers to make every space count and enjoy the space they
live in, the Tuesday before the 54th annual Mac Tools US Nationals from
the production studios in Florida. The self proclaimed “shy Force” was
at ease in front of the camera talking about a topic that the
California home-body is very excited about.

 Native Canadian Jeff Arend will take the reigns as driver of the
Nitro-fueled DHL Toyota Solara Funny Car at this weekend’s running of
the world-renowned Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park at
Indianapolis.

Kalitta Motorsports team owner and drag racing legend Connie Kalitta
chose Arend to drive the DHL Toyota Solara mount in late July to help
preserve the legacy of his legendary son, Scott Kalitta, who died as
result of a high-speed Funny Car qualifying accident in Englishtown,
N.J., June 21.

“It will always be Scott’s car,” Arend, a 46-year old resident of San
Dimas, Calif., said. “I am just the newest member to be added to the
DHL Funny Car team, and I will do my best to accomplish what Scott and
Connie started out to do, and that is having a consistent, competitive,
and safe racecar capable of going rounds and winning races.