NHRA hopes playoff will pay off
The way the NHRA has set up its six-race playoff called the Countdown, the entire season can come down to one race.
When Top Fuel driver Larry Dixon was asked if he thinks that's a flaw in the system, he said, "Ask Bill Belichick."
Read the full story by Tim Haddock at the L.A. Daily News
Tags: countdown, Haddock, NHRA, race, Top FuelHerbert will race with a heavy heart
POMONA - Doug Herbert will be racing with a heavy heart as the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series begins today with the Winternationals, but he knows he'll have company.
On Jan. 26 in Cornelius, N.C., a traffic accident claimed the lives of Herbert's two sons, Jon, 17, and James, 12. The Top Fuel driver immediately left the test session outside Phoenix to be with 9-year-old daughter Jessie and wife Sonny.
Herbert has one goal in mind: to win the championship for his boys.
Read the full story by Louis Brewster of The Sun in San Bernardino
Tags: Doug Herbert, drag racing, NHRA, Pomona, Powerade, race, racing, Top FuelESPN Drag Racing Analyst Mike Dunn Feels 2008 Could Be Year for Women in Funny Car
NHRA POWERade Series Season Begins This Weekend on ESPN2
As the 2008 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series season rolls to the starting line this weekend, ESPN drag racing analyst Mike Dunn feels that drag racing fans will see history made this year with the first victory by a woman in the Funny Car class.
ESPN2 will have prime-time, same-day coverage of both qualifying and final eliminations from the 48th annual CARQUEST Auto Parts Winternationals from Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif. Qualifying coverage airs Saturday, Feb. 9, from 8-10 p.m., while finals coverage airs the next night from 7:30-11 p.m. ESPN Classic re-airs the finals Monday, Feb. 11, at 10 a.m.
Dunn, a 22-time winner in NHRA competition during his career and one of only three drivers to score 10 or more wins in both the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes, said that the Funny Car class will be one of the most interesting to watch this season, starting this weekend at Pomona.
“You have Melanie Troxel moving over from Top Fuel to Funny Car,” Dunn said. “And obviously with Ashley Force in her sophomore season, that’s going to be a good story because I think one of them, if not both, will win a race this year. Both of them have very good race cars. They definitely have a shot.”
All eyes in Pomona will be on NHRA superstar John Force, returning from serious injuries suffered in a crash during last year’s Dallas event. Force will be trying to win his 15th NHRA Funny Car title in the 2008 season.
“The biggest story to start off the season is the comeback of John Force after that accident,” said Dunn. “He tested in Phoenix and although he’s hobbling around and still doing his rehabilitation he was able to get in and out of the car and post the quickest and fastest times for his class on the weekend, so that’s going to be a big story to watch.”
Every February since 1961, fans have flocked to Pomona for the traditional opening of the drag racing season, and second-generation driver Dunn enjoys the excitement of the event that he started attending with his father, Hall of Fame racer “Big Jim” Dunn.
“As a kid growing up in Southern California, I used to love going to the Winternationals because everybody had new equipment and new paint schemes and everybody was just excited to get the season started after the winter,” he said.
“There’s just a whole different vibe to that race than probably any other race,” he said. “It’s our second-oldest race, only to the U.S. Nationals, so it’s a big event to win and it means a lot.”
Paul Page anchors ESPN2’s coverage from Pomona, joined in the booth by Dunn for analysis. Gary Gerould and Dave Rieff report from the pits.
Rieff and Dunn also host NHRA RaceDay at 11 a.m. Sunday on ESPN2. Originating from Nitro Alley at Pomona, the show will set up that day’s final elimination action with interviews and features. An episode of NHRA Thrills and Spills airs Sunday at 7 p.m., prior to the start of finals coverage.
Visit www.espnmediazone.com for ESPN's latest releases, schedules and other news, plus photos, video and audio clips and more.
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NHRA enters a season full of questions
In an indication of how competitive the 2008 NHRA Powerade Drag Racing Series is expected to be, three-time defending Top Fuel dragster champion Tony Schumacher and Brandon Bernstein tied in a national preseason poll predicting class winners.
However, Rod Fuller - the driver with the most first-place votes in Top Fuel - finished just two points behind in balloting by 13 voters who follow the series.
Other predicted champions included Robert Hight in Funny Car...
Read the full story by Louis Brewster at the San Bernardino Sun
Schumacher’s son-in-law bags ‘record’ sponsor for Funny Car effort
Funny Car racer James Day, the son-in-law of mega-team owner Don Schumacher, has landed a major sponsorship deal with rock-n-roll legend Stephen Pearcy and Top Fuel Records. Day and his DLS Motorsports race team will compete at all 24 races with Dave Fletcher and Chris Nance sharing tuning duties.
Pearcy is the front man for the platinum-selling heavy metal rock band Ratt who is continuing his involvement with NHRA Championship Drag Racing after a successful run with Top Fuel driver Clay Millican in 2007. Millican was sidelined indefinitely when his team owner, Evan knoll, scaled back his racing interests...
Tags: drag racing, Funny Car, James Day, motorsports, NHRA, race, racing, Top FuelTop Fuel drag racer Doug Herbert’s sons killed in wreck
January 26, 2008 - 10:37PM
CORNELIUS — Two sons of Top Fuel drag racer Doug Herbert died Saturday as a result of a two-vehicle wreck near Herbert’s home in Cornelius.
Jon Herbert, who would’ve turned 18 next month, and James Herbert, 12, died when their Mazda3 collided with a second vehicle in the Lake Norman area wreck, said Lisa Powers, a spokeswoman for Doug Herbert Snap-on Racing.
Doug Herbert heard the news while in the Phoenix area testing in preparation for the start of the National Hot Rod Association season next month.
He was en route home Saturday to be with his family, Powers said.
“He is devastated,” Powers said.
Herbert’s Snap-on Tools Racing team was based in Cherryville for years before he moved the team and his performance auto parts business to Lincolnton several years ago.
His sons lived in Cornelius and attended Southlake Christian Academy in Huntersville.
The wreck occurred around 10:10 a.m. on Jetton Road, according to Cornelius Police investigators...
Read more in the Shelby Star
NHRA ready to test repaved Firebird
NHRA drivers - including John Force - will begin to test the limits of a new 700-foot concrete launch pad during the National Time Trials today through Sunday at Firebird International Raceway.
Force, a 14-time Funny Car champion, plans to be back in his Castrol Ford Mustang for the first time since suffering multiple foot, knee, hand and wrist injuries in a September accident. Force first must show NHRA officials that he can get out of his car quickly in the event of another incident.
Five-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher calls the fresh starting line surface "a gift."
"A Top Fuel car leaves with so much power early on that the clutch system will try to lock up around 600...
Read Michael Knight's full story in the Arizona Republic
Dixon, Head are quickest of cautious first day pack at National Time Trials
Two-time NHRA POWERade Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon made it the furthest down Firebird International Raceway Friday during the first of three days of preseason testing at the National Time Trials in Phoenix. Using the knowledge he gained a week ago in his first test session, Dixon did the best of taming a green FIR with his 1,000-foot squirt of 4.715 at 263.51 mph in his U.S. Smokeless Tobacco dragster.
John Force's youngest daughter Courtney also looked sharp in her first full pass in Darien & Meadows Top Alcohol Dragster, running a 5.907 at 237.30 mph. The quickest Funny Car on the property was Jim Head's 6.269 at 144.12 mph in his Toyota Solara. Most of the 14 Top Fuel racers and 12 Funny Car pros couldn't get past halftrack under power as they got their first chance at running under the new 90-percent nitro rule...
Tags: Force, Funny Car, Jim Head, John Force, NHRA, Nitro, Powerade, race, Testing, Top Fuel, Toyota