Pro Stock veteran Warren Johnson, during Sunday's eliminations at the
NHRA AAA Finals, made comments disparaging of the NHRA’s management
when asked of his plans in 2009.

“I don’t know given the NHRA’s leadership or lack thereof,” Johnson
said, as the microphone went dead silent, seemingly in mid-sentence.

Tim Wilkerson admits his first round foul against John Force on Sunday during the NHRA AAA Finals was
the most expensive red-light loss he’s ever endured in his career. The
driver of the Levi, Ray & Shoup Chevrolet Monte Carlo forfeited the
opportunity to contend for $500,000.

He sure could have used that check to cover some of the expense
incurred with fending off the heavier financed/sponsored teams
throughout the season.

“I just got in too deep,” Wilkerson said of his first and only
red-light of 2008. “I had good lights in qualifying, but I just got it
in too deep. Both of us were amped up on the starting line.”

Two-thousandths of a second separated them – in the red-light. Wilkerson drifted deeper into the negative.

Top Fuel driver Cory McClenathan ended the 2008 POWERade Drag Racing
Series season with a semifinal finish in Pomona. It was his eighth
semifinal result of the year and moved him up to No. 3 in the final Top
Fuel point standings.
 
McClenathan lost a tough match to eventual winner Larry Dixon.
 
“All the emphasis was on the Funny Car points battle and nobody seemed
to realize all the scenarios in Top Fuel for second place,” said
McClenathan, who is still seeking his first Top Fuel crown. “We could
have finished second or seventh coming in here and nobody emphasized
just how close second place really was in Top Fuel. It just wasn’t the
big story but, in my eyes, it was all I could think about last night.

Following an incredible season on the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing tour
and at numerous Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series events across the United
States and Canada, Chevrolet has won the 2008 NHRA Manufacturers Cup,
one of the longest and most enduring standards of racing excellence.
This year marked the 17th time that Chevrolet has won the NHRA
Manufacturers Cup, the most ever by any automobile manufacturer in the
history of the sport.

The NHRA Manufacturers Cup has been awarded since 1964. It is presented
to the automobile manufacturer whose current models in Pro Stock, Super
Stock and Stock earn the most points for qualifying and category
victories at NHRA Drag Racing Series national and divisional events.

Veteran Pro Stock racer Larry Morgan didn’t feel any affects of the recent Mopar pullback and with good reason, he never had any support to lose.

Morgan, who drives the Lucas Oil-sponsored Pro Stock, said he hopes to return in 2008 with the same sponsorship intact.

Vic Edelbrock, President and CEO of the Edelbrock Corporation,
recently awarded the Vic Edelbrock Sr. Memorial Scholarship award at
the SEMA Show in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now in its fifth year, this
scholarship is endowed by Vic Edelbrock and the Edelbrock Corporation
in support of continued automotive education through the WTI Foundation
and WyoTech. This scholarship is based on an essay submission and is
awarded annually to a WyoTech student who exemplifies hard work,
dedication to the automotive industry and outstanding citizenship. The
2008 recipient of this five-thousand five-hundred dollar scholarship
award is Barry Derheim of Sioux Falls, IA.

Tony
Schumacher, who became the first Top Fuel driver in NHRA history to win
five consecutive POWERade Series world championships with a
record-setting season, headlined the four world-championship winning
drivers crowned Monday evening during the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing Series awards ceremony at the Hilton Los Angeles/Universal City.

Auto Club Ford Mustang driver Robert Hight’s 2008 season did
not wind up being the dream season he had hoped for with an
early exit at the Automobile Club of Southern
California NHRA Finals. While Hight missed the chance to win his first
Funny Car championship, ultimately winding up in fourth place, in
arguably one of the toughest Funny Car fields in the past 20 years the
lifelong Dodgers fan experienced the ultimate baseball highlight as
Dodgers legend Tommy Lasorda was on hand to give his team a post season
pep talk.

In the wake of the current world economic crisis, the Brett Stevens
Racing team elected not to travel to Western Australia to contest the
Goldenstate Championships in order to consolidate their resources for
the remainder of the 2008/2009 ANDRA Championship Drag Racing series.

Far from taking a break however, they have been in overdrive at their
Queensland based workshop concluding their most recent testing schedule
and also working on a number of exciting new projects which they are
hoping to launch in 2009.

The testing at Willowbank Raceway proved extremely promising for the
next round of the Top Doorslammer series with team driver Steve Packman
running his SP Racing Falcon to a personal best speed of 249.17
mph/401.00 kph, making him the third fastest legal trim Top Doorslammer
in history behind Brett Stevens (252.66 mph/406.76 kph) and Gary
Phillips (249.86 mph/402.27 kph).