Sometimes fireworks will send a statement. Other times they serve as a pretty
good eye opener.

Funny Car rookie Ashley Force exploded a motor near the
top end on her third qualifying attempt, resulting in a huge fire. Force handled
the situation like a veteran, keeping the car in the middle of the lane, putting
the fire out and getting the car stopped without further
incident.

Despite the unexpected conclusion, Ashley’s time was the fifth
quickest in the session and she remained ninth in the provisional starting
lineup.

Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following
the 10th annual Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66
Raceway, the ninth of 23 events in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series
-

DIXON ENDS LONG DROUGHT, TIES KENNY BERNSTEIN FOR SECOND ON ALL-TIME TOP FUEL WINS LIST


Scelzi, Coughlin and Hines complete winner's circle

Larry Dixon tied legend Kenny Bernstein with his 39th
career Top Fuel win Sunday, beating points leader Rod Fuller with a
4.579 at 322.11 mph to capture the title at the 10th annual Torco
Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals.

Dixon and family shared a raucous winner's circle with Funny Car winner
Gary Scelzi, Pro Stock champ Jeg Coughlin Jr., and reigning Pro Stock
Motorcycle champ Andrew Hines.

It had been 37 races since Dixon last won a Wally, dating back to
September of 2005 in Indianapolis, so his unbridled joy was tempered
with a strong dose of relief. Scelzi also seemed relieved to win once
again as he made a little history of his own by becoming just the
fourth racer in history to ring up double-digit wins in both nitro
categories.

Final round-by-round results from the 10th annual Torco Racing Fuels
Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway, the ninth of 23 events in
the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:

Sunday's final results from the 10th annual Torco Racing Fuels
Route 66 NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway. The race is the ninth of
23 in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:

MAJOR MOVEMENTS ALONG THE TOP FUEL CUTLINE IN POWERADE COUNTDOWN TO
THE CHAMPIONSHIP

Nos. 7 and 8 drivers in Top Fuel standings fail to
qualify; UPS team in good position

The
10th annual Torco Racing Fuels Route 66 NHRA Nationals will shake up
the Countdown to the Championship standings, particularly in Top Fuel,
where the seventh and eighth place drivers each failed to qualify.

The top qualifiers heading into Sunday's final eliminations, beginning
at 11 a.m., are Top Fuel's Tony Schumacher, Funny Car's Gary Scelzi,
Pro Stock's Greg Anderson, and Pro Stock Motorcycle's Andrew Hines, but
the story
surrounded those who didn't qualify.

In Top Fuel, No. 7 Dave Grubnic and No. 8 Whit Bazemore -- the last two
in if the 17-race regular season ended today -- each failed to qualify,
opening the door for ninth-place Cory McClenathan and 10th-place Bob
Vandergriff.

Vandergriff's UPS team stands to make the biggest move. It already
passed McClenathan's Fram team with better qualifying position and
Vandergriff can pass Grubnic and Bazemore as well with a first round
win Sunday.

Gary Scelzi said that he had
bad vibes during Saturday’s qualifying and some were confined to his Oakley
Funny Car and others weren’t.

“The car has had a
vibration out there,” Scelzi said. “We changed some tires and did some
different things. There are vibrations on the burnout and vibrations during the
run. I’m not sure where it’s coming from and I don’t like going into Sunday
with that kind of a car.”

Houston, we have a problem. In the case, Chicago does too.

“Basically one good run out
of four is not the car we had in Pomona,”
Scelzi said. “I’m actually surprised that it didn’t make it down on the last run.
We had it backed down. We just went out and shook the tires.”

Scelzi said he had yet to
see the computer graph, so it was impossible for him to comment on what
happened during the run. But, he has an idea.

It’s all about the track
prep.

PAST CHAMPIONS RULE
FRIDAY QUALIFYING AT TORCO RACING FUELS ROUTE 66 NHRA NATIONALS

No. 1 qualifiers are
Schumacher, Scelzi, Anderson and Hines

It
was a night for champions at Route 66 Raceway as POWERade Series
titlists Tony Schumacher, Gary Scelzi, Greg Anderson, and Andrew Hines
led opening day action at the 10th annual Torco Racing Fuels Route 66
NHRA Nationals.

Schumacher's 4.462 at 327.11 mph in Top Fuel got the biggest cheer, but
Scelzi's 4.736 at 330.96 mph in Funny Car was just as impressive. In
Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle, Anderson and Hines thrilled with a
pair of track records.

Unlike year's past, Schumacher's provisional top qualifying effort
didn't set him far apart from the rest of the Top Fuel field. But it
was enough to set the four-time champ up for his fourth low qualifying
award of the year on a weekend when his sponsor, the U.S. Army,
celebrates its 232nd birthday.

"Alan [Johnson, crew chief] said before the run that the track would
take whatever we threw at it and he was right," Schumacher said. "I
always used to say that qualifying No. 1 wasn't that important but
after winning
the championship by just a few points it really was all those No. 1
qualifiers we had that made the difference in the end."

More accustomed to blasting down the quarter-mile at 330 mph in under five
seconds, Ron Capps demonstrated his non-drag-racing expertise by mixing it up on
the dirt with NASCAR and other oval-racing stars on Eldora Speedway's half-mile
clay oval last Wednesday in the NEXTEL Prelude to The Dream charity race.

In front of an HBO Pay-Per-View audience watching live, Capps drove the
Brian Ruhlman-owned Full Throttle Late Model Stock Car against a star-studded
field of 24 other drivers, including Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart,
Matt Kenseth, Kasey Kahne, Juan Pablo Montoya and Cruz Pedregon.

The
driver of the Brut "Test Drive" Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car at this weekend's
Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals at Route 66 Raceway qualified in the top 10.
With an inversion system, Capps landed on the front row for the first qualifying
heat. With lots of action in front and behind him, including Bill Elliott
spinning and Jeff Gordon scraping the wall, Capps restarted fifth after a short
caution. Fifth place would have transferred him into the top 11 of the A-main.
He held onto that spot until the final lap, when Elliott, with whom he'd had a
spirited battle, passed him then proceeded to flip over in a crash with Ryan
Newman at the finish.