Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the 43rd
annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway
at Pomona, the final of 23 events in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series -

Sunday's final results and pictures from the 43rd annual Automobile Club of Southern
California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.  The race is the final of
23 in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:

Final round-by-round results from the 43rd annual Automobile Club of Southern
California NHRA Finals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, the final of 23 events in
the  NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:

Pro Stock Motorcycle
standout Chris Rivas was summarily fired by team owner Rickie Smith following
the third qualifying session here at the Auto Club Finals. 
Smith referred to Rivas
as “not a team player” as one reason for his dismissal, but there appears to be
more to this than a simple disagreement between rider and team
owner.

Four-time and reigning POWERade Drag Racing Series champion Tony Schumacher
raced to the No. 1 position in his last qualifying attempt Saturday at
the 43rd annual Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals to
add some more drama to the final day of the 2007 POWERade Countdown to
the Championship.

In Funny Car, points leader Tony Pedregon barely made the field in the
16th and final spot, but by holding on he all but secured his second
POWERade world championship. His rivals need him to lose in Round 1
while they go on to win the race and set a national record to steal
away the crown.

The Pro Stock categories -- whose qualifying ladders are topped by Dave
Connolly and Andrew Hines -- are still undecided but could be wrapped
up by the semifinals if leaders Greg Anderson and Andrew Hines maintain
their edge.

NHRA officials released its 2008 NHRA Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series
schedule today, which features 44 events, with a minimum of six races
conducted in each of NHRA's seven divisions.

NHRA Lucas Oil Series drivers in eight categories compete for valuable
points leading to divisional and national championships and a share of
the $561,000 purse.  The series also includes three sportsman-focused
national events: the Jegs NHRA Cajun SPORTSnationals in Belle Rose,
La.; the Jegs NHRA Northern SPORTSnationals in Columbus, Ohio; and the
Jegs NHRA Pacific SPORTSnationals in Fontana, Calif.

The 2008 season marks the seventh year of Lucas Oil's support of NHRA
sportsman racers in a partnership that extends through 2009.

"Each of the seven NHRA divisions presents a great challenge to
determine the 2008 NHRA Lucas Oil Series champions," said Graham Light,
NHRA senior vice president of racing operations, NHRA.  "We look
forward to another very competitive and exciting season."

Forget what
we reported from the NHRA ACDelco Nationals in Las Vegas last weekend: 
Tommy Johnson, Jr. is destined to stay at Snake Racing for the
foreseeable future.  The team will have major sponsorship support for
their Chevy Monte Carlo Funny Car for next season.  Prudhomme is
working towards that goal as this is being written, and appears to have
some exceptional opportunities.  However, while the car is 99% likely
to compete next year it will undoubtedly be with a new crew chief, as
we’re hearing from numerous sources that Mike Green will not be
retained.  It’s quite possible that Chris Cunningham, who’s been
working with the CSK operation for some years, will join the team and
could take over as the lead tuner. 

After 10 seasons as one of the elite Pro Stock Motorcycle competitors
on the NHRA circuit, 16-time NHRA winner Antron Brown will move to
NHRA’s premier category, Top Fuel, to pilot the Matco Tools Iron Eagle
Top Fuel dragster in 2008, team owner David Powers announced today.

“I’m very excited to have this opportunity to be part of the David
Powers Motorsports team with Lee Beard and Rob Flynn,” Brown said.
“Also, to be teammates with Hot Rod Fuller is awesome. It makes me
speechless, which is a first for me, to have this opportunity to
represent Matco Tools, their distributors, and all of DPM. I’ve been
associated with Matco for the past few years while at DSR (Don
Schumacher Racing) and attending the annual Matco Tools Expo and I’m
looking forward to expanding that relationship. Everyone in their
organization has a passion for the business and winning, from President
Tom Willis to the 1500 franchisees selling the Matco product. I
couldn’t think of a better organization to make this transition with
and for them to believe in me and give me this shot as a rookie driver
is awesome.”

A two-time NHRA championship runner-up (2001, ’06), Brown raced to 16
wins in 145 career Pro Stock Motorcycle events. A native of
Chesterfield, N.J., Brown also earned 11 career pole awards in the
two-wheel category and has not missed the cut for an NHRA race since
his rookie season in 1998.

NHRA
made a contribution of $2,500 to Pasadena
City College
today at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona
in honor of legendary Los Angeles Times sportswriter Shav Glick, who died Oct.
20 at age 87.

The presentation took
place in the Shav
Glick Media
Center, named in honor of
Glick in the early 1990s. Pasadena
City College
alumni relations director Irene Aguilera accepted the donation on behalf of the
college. The college foundation annually presents two $500 scholarships - The
Shav Glick Journalism Scholarship - to outstanding journalism students who are
active members of the college newspaper.

Countdown to 1 Top Fuel points
leader "Hot Rod" Fuller may be in for a sleepless night as he remains
unqualified at the midway point of time trials at the 43rd annual Auto
Club of Southern California NHRA Finals.

Should Fuller fail to qualify, he could be caught by any of the other
three drivers – Larry Dixon, Brandon Bernstein and Tony Schumacher –
still alive in the title chase. But the Las Vegas-based racer shrugged
off the pressure while watching J.R. Todd stay No. 1 in Top Fuel to
join Jeff Arend, Richie Stevens, and Chip Ellis on the Day 2
provisional low qualifiers podium.

"Everyone's asking me if I'm panicking and I'm really not," Fuller
said. "We just had some little gremlins in there today but I know we'll
be fine. We have a great race team over here. I think everyone else is
way more worried about us than we are."