Ashton Hudson admits he's supporting his drag racing habit by dealing soap. Hudson smiles as he points out how proper handwashing goes hand-in-hand with the right kind of soap when it comes to his day job as an emergency room physician.

As if Hudson's day job isn't complex enough, he also races Competition Eliminator in a Super Modified Ford Escort, which delivers additional complexities of knowing when to lean on the index and when not to, as well as just making his hot rod run the index.

Competition Plus’ Water-Cooler Topics From The NHRA Vegas 4Wide Natinals.

1. Tony Stewart adds “drag racing winner” to his crowded resume, says he’s ‘having fun living my life now’ - By three ten-thousandths of a second, Tony Stewart added “NHRA drag-racing winner” to his already resplendent résumé Sunday at the Four-Wide Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Minutes after Stewart claimed the Top Alcohol Dragster trophy, his Funny Car driver, Matt Hagan, put the team’s Haas Automation Dodge Hellcat into the winners circle, establishing his command over the class with his third triumph in the season’s first four races.

Well, he did say it was tougher to qualify No. 1 than to win.

And that's fine with Dallas Glenn, who wasn't good enough to qualify on the pole but had more than enough to win his second consecutive national event by putting a holeshot on Gainesville winner Troy Coughlin Jr. and leading him, Cristian Cuadra and Deric Kramer through the lights en route to the sixth career victory of his relatively short career.

"I think even though I was definitely not the best today, I was just barely good enough to get it done, and that's kind of what matters in four-wide," said Glenn, who was good enough to hold the provisional No. 1 spot on Friday. "You don't have to win the first two; you just have to win the last one.

John Force said he still is evaluating exactly what went wrong with his PEAK Blue Def Chevy Camaro two weekends ago at Pomona that caused him to cross the center line during qualifying, crash into J.R. Todd, and ruin both of their race cars.

But he’s certain of one thing: His age didn’t play a factor in the incident, and he isn’t planning to quit. He discredited a rumor that one or more racers approached him at the Lucas Oil Winternationals and urged him to step away from the cockpit.

 Funny Car owner-racer Terry Haddock is competing in his 323rd NHRA event at the Four-Wide Las Vegas Nationals, and he recently has started to reap some rewards for his perseverance.

After 174 DNQs and 136 first-round exits, the Temple, Texas, engine-repair shop owner has seen a turnaround. He has only 14 elimination round-wins, but three of those have come in the past 14 days as he made it into the top 10 in the standings.

“We’re just going to try to keep doing the same thing,” Haddock said at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. “We've worked hard to change our program during the off-season, and we're trying to get consistent. And with consistency, we'll get a little faster.”