This is the third and final stop on NHRA’s much ballyhooed “West Coast Swing,” and it’s showing on the faces of mechanics, drivers and race officials.  It’s been a very long two weeks thus far, weeks fraught with emotional trauma (the untimely death of Mark Niver), controversy (the Pro Stock confrontation at Seattle) and a lot of highway miles.

Drag racing is an exhausting endeavor for the professionals because almost everyone is a Road Warrior, i.e., the crews service the cars and then, at the end of the day, have to climb into the transporter and hit the highway for the next race.  Someone – usually more than one and as many as a half dozen – do double duty, servicing the clutch between rounds and then driving the support rig or race transporter to the next event.  Compared to Sprint Cup teams, our guys often work longer and tougher weeks.  Yes, we know the NASCAR series is comprised of 36 races, but did you know that most of the teams employ dedicated truck drivers who only show up late on race day to handle getting the rig home while the rest of the guys climb aboard the team plane for a ride back to their base?  Oh, if only our teams had the funding to do things like that, what a difference it would make.

Three of the five pro class winners Friday night at Houston Raceway Park had previously visited only one ADRL winner’s celebration.

Frankie “Mad Man” Taylor earned the postponed-from-March UTI Dragpalooza VI Pro Extreme title for his second ADRL win, “Tricky Rickie” Smith picked up his second Pro Nitrous trophy and Pro Extreme Motorcycle rider Travis Davis also took the hardware home for the second time. Meanwhile, John Montecalvo increased his Extreme Pro Stock win total to three and Billy Glidden, the 2008 Extreme 10.5 champ, added his 10th race title, becoming the first ADRL competitor in any category to reach double digits in the win column.

There is very little John Force hasn’t achieved in his legendary career.

Friday night, he added another line to his “novel” of accomplishments.

Force, a 14-time world champion, won the provisional pole with a 4.191-second time at 296.76 mph at the Mile–High Nationals in Morrison, Colo. The mph being critical as Del Worsham had an identical 4.191-second effort, but only went 294.75 mph; handing Force the provisional pole.

If Michael Phillips proved anything Friday night at the Mile-High Nationals it is that he is not easily distracted.

On Wednesday his feud with fellow Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Matt Smith intensified amid allegations of racial prejudice by Phillips and Smith calling Phillips a cheater.

Phillips, who won the Fram-Autolite Nationals last Sunday in Sonoma, responded by capturing the provisional pole Friday night at the Mile-High Nationals in grand fashion.

The feud between Michael Phillips and Matt Smith is a hot topic in the Pro Stock Motorcycle pits.

The rivalry intensified to a new level this week amid an allegation of racial prejudice and cheating.

Smith believes Phillips is cheating namely because Smith thinks Phillips can’t legitimately make the power he’s making with the motors he is buying from Vance & Hines.

Last Sunday at the Fram-Autolite Nationals at Sonoma, Calif., Phillips won the event and during his semifinal victory over Eddie Krawiec, Phillips also set a new national speed record for Pro Stock Motorcycles at 197.65 mph. Phillips then beat Andrew Hines in the finals.

With his left-side headers acting like outriggers, towering showers of sparks flew behind Jason Scruggs’ ’68 Camaro as he struggled to keep it from crossing into Terry Leggett’s lane during their third Pro Extreme qualifying attempts for the inaugural ADRL Texas Drags.

Here are the very first production images of the first-ever Mopar ’10 Challenger.

Mike Edwards and Allen Johnson have been like Siamese twins during qualifying lately. One tosses up a number and the other matches it.

Edwards, in his Penhall/K&N/Interstate GXP, drew blood in the first round of qualifying, but it was Johnson, in the Mopar/J & J Racing Avenger, who took the top spot at the end of the day in the cooling temperatures of a setting sun by a scant one thousandth of a second – 7.020 to 7.021 seconds. Johnson also had the fastest speed at 197.19 miles per hour.

“The conditions got a lot better,” Johnson explained. “I think the track temperature was 20 degrees cooler. (We) just put some gear ratio in there, revved it up and got after it. (The) track is pretty awesome.”

Last Sunday in Sonoma (Ca.), Antron Brown’s race day ended abruptly.

Brown, who drives the Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster, was upset by Terry McMillen in the first round.

Brown’s Don Schumacher Racing crew obviously has a short memory.

Brown rebounded to take the provisional pole Friday night at the Mile-High Nationals in Morrison, Colo., with a 3.961-second pass at 286.19 mph.

John Force raced to the qualifying lead in Funny Car Friday at the Mopar Mile-High NHRA Nationals at Bandimere Speedway near Denver.

Season points leader Force powered his Castrol GTX High-Mileage Ford Mustang to a 4.191-second run at 296.76 mph to move into position to claim his fifth No. 1 at this event, fourth of the season and 135th of his career. Qualifying continues Saturday with two sessions that will set the field for Sunday’s 11 a.m. eliminations.

“We really choked it down on the first run just to make it go A to B to see what would happen,” Force said. “At half-track I’m thinking, ‘This is almost embarrassing.’ But the crew chiefs are making the decisions and it’s very critical to get down there. Coming into this race No. 1 in the points put us at the rear of the pack [in the first session] and allowed us to watch the rest, then that run put us low and put us at the rear of the pack [in the second session] to watch the rest. (Del) Worsham stepped up and ran a great number, then we went out and did it and got it on speed.”