JR Todd's a little lighter in the wallet today.
But the second-year Top Fuel driver doesn't seem to mind, not after scoring the
fourth win of his young career with a victory in the 47th CARQUEST Winternationals
at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona. "I had a deal with (crew chief Jimmy Walsh) that
every time we ran a 4.50, I would pay him a
dollar," Todd said. "I told him, if it runs a .40,
I pay him a 100 bucks. It was expensive today."

Larry Dixon is man enough to admit that “I was a little nervous about us not
having a deal about Indy time, but Snake told me not to worry, that he’d get it
handled, and he did.”

Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the
47th annual CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at
Pomona, the first of 23 events in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series -

Final round-by-round results from the 47th annual CARQUEST Auto
Parts Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, the first of 23
events in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:

Sunday's final results from the 47th annual CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
The race is the first of 23 in the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series:

Doug Kalitta is one of a few Top Fuel drivers who, when warming the engines in
the cars, peer backwards with small “rearview mirrors.”  Kalitta says he does it
to make sure that when he lets the clutch out the tires are turning properly.

Four-time
series champion Gary Scelzi quickly erased memories of a disappointing
2006 season by winning Sunday's CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals
after final-round opponent Robert Hight crossed the centerline.

Reigning Rookie of the Year J.R. Todd also found Pomona's winner's
circle, while three-time Pro Stock champ Greg Anderson
successfullydefended this race title from one year ago.

This is a letter received from Lee McKinney, who is based in Iraq
guarding the U.S. Embassy. McKinney is a huge fan of NHRA Funny Car
driver Mike Ashley. Ashley forwarded this letter to us and we thought
it was neat.

John
Force kept his NHRA record qualifying streak alive at 393 races, while
his daughter Ashley qualified for her first NHRA POWERade Drag Racing
Series event Saturday at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

Drama was high as the elder Force needed his best run of the weekend to
make the starting lineup at the CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA
Winternationals. He produced a miracle run and in the process bumped
his rookie daughter from the 16-car order. However, on her final
qualifying attempt she also powered her Castrol/Auto Club Ford Mustang
to acareer-best performance and earned her first starting position.

Tony Schumacher, Gary Scelzi and Greg Anderson were the No. 1
qualifiers in their respective categories at the season-opening event,
the first of23 races in the NHRA POWERade Countdown to the
Championship.

"Fast" Jack Beckman, driver of the Mail
Terminal Services Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car, and his wife Jenna hosted 18
second-graders from the local Heritage Elementary School, of Phelan, Calif.,
on Friday at the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.
The students were on a field trip with their teacher and local drag racer
Joy Linehan. In preparation for their first visit to an NHRA POWERade Drag
Racing Series national event (this weekend's CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA
Winternationals), they were asked by Ms. Linehan to provide questions for
2003 Super Comp champion Beckman and his wife Jenna, also a Super Comp racer
who is expecting the couple's first child on March 28.
Beckman, the quickest and fastest Funny Car pilot on the planet after
posting national-track records of 4.662 seconds and 333.66 mph at last
year's finale here in Pomona, is also an instructor at Frank Hawley's Drag
Racing School at the Auto Club Raceway, a cancer survivor, and former Air
Force sergeant.