Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon entered the final race of the season separated by a single point and in the first round of qualifying the gap was just a thousandth of a second.

Lined up side-by-side for the final pass of the first day of qualifying at the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals Thursday, Schumacher, the points leader, ran a 3.832 at 316.52 to Dixon’s 3.833 at 314.31.

“Two great teams, two great drivers, two great crew chiefs. It’s just a great battle. The fans are going to get their money’s worth,” Schumacher said.

The other provisional No. 1 qualifiers at the 24th and final race in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season were Robert Hight (Funny Car), Mike Edwards (Pro Stock) and Karen Stoffer (Pro Stock Motorcycle).

Don’t expect two-time NHRA Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon to report to work next week at Don Schumacher Racing. In fact, don’t expect him to report at all.

Pedregon, a recent target of rumors placing him as a driver at DSR, denies any truth to the speculation. In fact, Pedregon adds, “I haven’t talked to Don since the day since a week or two after Indy and it had nothing to do with racing together.”

Pedregon admits he’s really uncertain what his plans are for 2010.

NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle racer Peggy Llewellyn announced today she will return to the NHRA circuit for the 2010 season as a rider for Mark Lantz Racing.

“My words can't even begin to describe the excitement I feel…I AM GOING RACING,” said an elated Llewellyn. “I still had the burning desire to race; that never left me.  It was the journey that allowed me to partner with Mark Lantz Racing for next season which is a blessing.”

“We are excited and feel privileged to have Peggy join our team, “stated Michele Lantz, one half of the husband, Mark, and wife team owners of Mark Lantz Racing.  “Her ability to ride and win a Wally after being off the track for several seasons proves that she has what it takes to be the next champion.  Peggy brings a kind of spirit and passion that reflects what this organization is all about.”

How close is Mike Edwards to winning his first NHRA Pro Stock championship? Well, a measly 12 points is all that stands between him and the gold Wally.
 
The crown could be Edwards as early as Thursday during the first qualifying session at the season-finale Auto Club NHRA Finals in Pomona. With Edwards receiving 10 points for going through technical inspection, all he would need to do is qualify No. 1 or 2 in that first session, or for Greg Anderson not to qualify in the top three to clinch the championship.
 
"These have been a nerve-wracking couple weeks, just waiting to finish this off so we can maybe enjoy the rest of the race weekend," Edwards admitted. "This is high-level stress. The nice part is we only have just a bit more work to do to finish this off and go out and just race the rest of the event."

For 25 years, John Montecalvo had been waiting for this moment.

His moment finally arrived on Oct. 23 at Rockingham (N.C.) Dragway when he was crowned the IHRA’s Pro Stock world champion.

“I can’t even describe what it’s like to be a world champion,” the 58-year-old Montecalvo said. “I wish everybody who runs Pro Stock could win one and I have a lot of friends who have finished second and they just never get over that. It’s always, what if this or what if that or could we have changed this or changed that? This is the first year we do not have those doubts, there’s no second-guessing. We won the championship and it feels like there has been a tremendous weight taken off of all us. This is not just me, it’s a team effort here and we were all under a lot of pressure.”

In 2010, CompetitionPlus.com's Bobby Bennett penned a three-part series about the early years of the IHRA's Mountain Motor Pro Stock division. This time his focus is on the Pro Modified division, which turned 20 the same year.

This weekend at the Pomona Fairplex, the past, present and future (flash) will converge for Nitro Funny Car driver Mendy Fry. How so? On Saturday and Sunday at the National Hot Rod Association’s season-ending Auto Club Finals, Fry will once again shoe Gary Messenger’s resplendent-yet-potent, gorgeous black-and-gold 1973 Dodge AA/Funny Car, a machine rich in drag strip history, whose lineage is traced to renowned and notorious drag racers such as Gene Snow, Brent Fanning and Roland Leong. Ironically, the entry also has ties to Fry herself, as this is the same racer that she earned her Nitro Funny Car license in, and then campaigned with tuner Donnie Couch to a runner-up finish at the 2008 Las Vegas Speed Spectacular.

Get Screened America A/Fuel Dragster driver Hillary Will had a near-perfect weekend at the Lucas Oil Division 7 event last weekend, taking out two of the best in the class and scoring a runner-up finish, and the 29-year-old native Californian is anxious to keep her winning momentum heading into the Auto Club NHRA Finals this weekend.
 
"We've come a really long way very quickly," Will, a former Top Fuel Dragster driver, said. Having been absent from the driver's seat all season before the Las Vegas NHRA Nationals two weeks ago, she made arrangements to drive three races in former world champion Tom Conway's A/Fuel Dragster - the first time she has piloted an A/Fueler.

Funny Car championship contender Ashley Force Hood enjoys flying down the race track in her Castrol GTX Ford Mustang at NHRA national events and she loves cruising the California highways behind the wheel of her street legal Mustang. While the G-forces are the biggest difference between the two Mustangs the lack of tunes in her 8,000 hp Mustang is also something that Force Hood misses.

After remaining on the sidelines for much of 2009, Top Fuel driver Steve Torrence and team owner Dexter Tuttle plan to run the full NHRA Full Throttle tour next year.

Torrence, a former Top Alcohol Dragster world champion, joined Tuttle's team in the middle of 2008.

"It has always been my dream to race for a Top Fuel Championship," Torrence said. "When I first started racing in Super Comp, I always had the goal of someday being a Top Fuel World Champion. Next year I'll get that chance."