Former Jet Dragster pilot Jesse Harris plans to race Top Fuel in 2010.

Harris, of Rome, NY, will drive the Dote Racing Top Fuel dragster in at least five races next season.

“I’m ecstatic,” a jubilant Harris told CompetitionPlus.com. “This is what I’ve been working night and day for – for the last three years. My dream, since 6, was to drive one of these things.”

The Dote family, Len, Mike and Connie, decided they wanted to run a Top Fuel team in 2010 and selected Harris as not only their driver but manager as well.

Team owner Don Schumacher said Saturday that Antron Brown and his Matco Tools Dragster would remain part of his seven-team organization in 2010. However, other than saying he might add "possibly something in the bikes," Schumacher was coy about his plans for next season.
 
He did say that he expects to make an announcement this coming Monday or Tuesday.  
 
Addressing two rumors that have him negotiating with an Abu Dhabi-related fuel-car team and that have him hiring two-time Funny Car champion Tony Pedregon, Schumacher said, "There's so much conversation and so much B.S."

John Force jokes about all the spectacular fires he has had in his Funny Car career that began in 1978. But none burns as intensely as his desire to win. And neither heartache nor broken bones nor a stretch almost as bleak as his 12th-place 1984 season has extinguished it. 

Force, expecting to see three of his longstanding records end this weekend in his worst finish since 1984, found a glimmer of hope in his provisional No. 1 qualifying performance Friday.
 
His 4.060-second pass held up as low elapsed time through Saturday's first session. But daughter Ashley Force Hood dropped him to No. 2 in the final session -- by one mile an hour. She eclipsed his low E.T. with  4.059-second run at 310.20 mph. In the following pairing, he matched her time but clocked a 309.20 -- one mph slower -- as she led the field for the sixth time this year.

By safely qualifying into tomorrow’s 45th annual Auto Club NHRA Finals, Funny Car’s Robert Hight and Pro Stock’s Mike Edwards clinched their first respective NHRA Full Throttle Series world championships on Saturday.

Meanwhile, in the dramatic Top Fuel race, after Larry Dixon took the points lead with the quickest pass in the third qualifying session, Tony Schumacher stole it back in the fourth session with the second-quickest pass in Top Fuel history, a 3.772 second run at 320.58 mph, to take a two-point lead into Sunday’s final eliminations, which start at 11 a.m. (PT).

“That was exactly what we needed. I couldn’t ask for anything more. That’s Army strong,” said Schumacher, who will meet Mike Strasburg in the first round Sunday.

While Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon battles for the 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel championship, third place Cory McClenathan lies in wait. McClenathan is 48 points out of first, a little over two rounds, but that deficit only serves as motivation.

While the media focuses their attention on Schumacher and Dixon, McClenathan carefully plots his path to slip by them both.

“We can be very dangerous because we have a car that’s capable of going A to B 98-percent of the time and it does it very quick,” said McClenathan, a four-time series runner-up.

Pro Stock racer Greg Stanfield faced a harsh reality on Friday afternoon at the NHRA Auto Club Nationals - that the final event of 2009 could likely be his last for a while.

Stanfield, who drives the Greg Hill Pontiac GXP, confirmed with CompetitionPlus.com that unless major sponsorship comes together before next season’s NHRA Winternationals in Pomona, Ca, he’ll be on the sidelines.

“No money,” Stanfield said. “We don’t have the dollars to race. The parts and pieces are there but the funding to be out here is lacking. This could be my last race, that’s why I want to win it.”

If you wanted to pick a Top Fuel champion since 2002 the logical choice has been one of two drivers. At the final race of the decade, nothing has changed.

Larry Dixon entered this weekend’s Auto Club NHRA Finals trailing Tony Schumacher by one point. Two days into qualifications, Dixon leapfrogged Schumacher to overtake the lead by one point.

“This is all provisionally because it could all flip on Saturday,” Dixon cautioned. “There were two on the table yesterday and three today, so we got them both. Tomorrow there are six on the table, so you obviously want to try and get as much as you can each day.”

John Force has a goal.

At this point in his career he wants to outlive his 13-year old Prevost tour bus.

He admits they’re both down on power and are in need of a few spare parts. They even leak a bit of oil.