Time away from drag racing revealed a lot to Top Fuel driver David Baca and because of the revelations, he’s viewing the sport in a different light.

Baca, whose last driving effort before this weekend's return was a
temporary assignment as driver for David Powers Motorsports,
understands fully drag racing is simply an addiction.

“Once you get this stuff in your blood it’s hard to get it out,” Baca
said. “Did I miss it when I was away? Yes. Am I going to let it dictate
my life, unless the right opportunity came, where I’m on the tour full
time? No.”

Baca considers himself to be lucky to have signed a sponsor such as
Mach 1 Global, whose backing enables him to run 12-races in 2009. He
and partner Rick Henkleman will continue to race with the emphasis more
on winning than just being another team on the tour.

Gary Scelzi was walking through the Pomona on Saturday pits in his street clothes. There was no firesuit, no scooter rushing to the next meeting. He was just a normal person visiting his old stomping grounds.

“I get to enjoy the fans and be relaxed,” Scelzi admitted while
making a pit stop at the track. “I don’t think I’ve ever been this relaxed
at a race track which is probably a good thing.”

Scelzi conveniently planned a business meeting on Friday in nearby
Azusa and made a visit to the track on Saturday morning. He planned to
leave before the first round of qualifying.

Brian Corradi, crew chief for Antron Brown, the No. 1 qualifier in Saturday’s abbreviated qualifying doesn’t
believe the 3.708 elapsed time his driver recorded was legit. He does
believe the run would have still been the best of the session.

NHRA
officials announced Saturday evening the run would not be recognized as
a record, but the team could remain No. 1. The culprit of the bogus run
was likely a recurring malfunction that sanctioning body allowed to go
uncorrected in an attempt to complete the qualifying session.

“A 3.84 likely,” Corradi surmised.

Kalitta Motorsports is celebrating 50 years of drag racing by team owner and drag racing legend Connie “the Bounty Hunter” Kalitta and this weekend’s event marked the first installment in a special trivia challenge.

As part of the year-long celebration, the team is introducing an online
trivia game, the Connie Kalitta Trivia Challenge on Team Kalitta’s
website, www.teamkalitta.com.

Persistent
rain showers throughout the day Sunday forced NHRA officials to
postpone eliminations for the Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals at
Auto Club Raceway at Pomona until Monday.

It was the fourth consecutive day of rain delays for the season-opening
event in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. The continuation of
Top Fuel and Funny Car eliminations will open Monday’s racing, starting
at 11:30 a.m., and will be followed by the continuation of the first
round of Pro Stock.

Antron Brown has learned assistant
tuner Mark Oswald’s sign language. A thumbs-up means the Matco Tools
dragster will go from Point A to Point B. An opening and clenching fist
means exactly the kind of run the sophomore Top Fuel dragster driver
reeled off in Saturday’s lone qualifying session at the NHRA Kragen O'Reilly Winternationals.

Brown recorded the quickest run in the history of thousand-foot racing
with a 3.708 elapsed time, a run the NHRA has chosen not to validate.

Obviously the hand signal couldn’t have predicted what could have been a world record, so what does it mean?

Robert Hight was quickly reminded how important it is to spend the off season refining a team's combination.

Hight thundered past Del Worsham for the top qualifying position during
the NHRA Kragen O'Reilly Winternationals with a 4.037 second pass.

“It just shows how hard we worked over the winter,” Hight said, in a
post-qualifying press conference. “The last few winters we have focused
on safety and new cars. We went back before the season and looked at
what we had lost mostly with. We tried to refine that and put in a few
new ideas. We’re hoping for consistency because I don’t think you will
see one team dominate in the Funny Car class.”

Suppose you’re a crew chief and
you haven’t tested during the off-season. Couple that with two days of
rain and a third one with iffy conditions, where would you start?

For Rahn Tobler the answer lies in experience.

Someone pulled a prank on the ultra-conservative Top Fuel team owner and manufacturer Bill Miller at Pomona.

Miller showed up at last year's NHRA World Finals with a sticker on the scoop of his dragster proclaiming, "NoBama".

John Force’s Funny Cars were the subject of scrutiny during Wednesday’s technical inspections. The source of the problem was a 45-degree wicker used by Funny Cars to channel air around the unique injector scoop.

According to our source, the same wicker approved by NHRA tech
officials during the National Time Trials test session in Phoenix, Az.,
was deemed illegal by officials in Pomona.