Sunday's final results from the Ninth annual NHRA Las Vegas Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The race is the 23rd of 24 in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series:

Robert Hight raced to his third victory of the season Sunday at the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals and is on the verge of winning his first Funny Car world championship crown.

Spencer Massey, Larry Morgan and Andrew Hines also were winners of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The race is the fifth of six events in the Countdown to 1, NHRA’s championship playoffs.

Hight beat second place driver and teammate Ashley Force Hood in the first round of eliminations and then pulled out a very close final round victory over Jack Beckman to take a 105-point lead in the standings.

“It’s amazing what a win can do and get that confidence back,” said Hight, who powered his Auto Club Ford Mustang to a performance of 4.125 seconds at 304.46 to edge Beckman’s Valvoline/MTS Dodge Charger at the finish line, which trailed with a 4.154 at 303.16. It was Hight's 14th career victory and his second at this track.

Ask any racer, and those that are honest will admit that while drag racing may be addictive, winning makes it even more so.  Guys like Summit Racing Equipment Pro Stock driver Greg Anderson, who has a house full of NHRA national event trophies interspersed with the occasional POWERade Series championship gold, know what it’s like to win.  With winning comes losing.  It’s just the natural order of things.  But, it’s how you handle those losses that will ultimately determine your reputation.  Throwing your helmet, for example, is not the way you ingratiate yourself to your fans and sponsors.

Anderson has had, by almost any standards, a very good season in 2009.  He’s won some races – and that’s more than a lot of other drivers can say – but he’s lost some, too.

Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the Ninth annual NHRA Las Vegas Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the 23rd of 24 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series -

Talented motorsports photographer Chris Simmons captured the violence of Brad Brand's broken windshield during Sunday's first round action at the World Street Nationals in Orlando, Fla.

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The top two ranked Funny Cars will meet in the first round of eliminations and the championship could be on the line. Thanksgiving dinner at the Force home could be as well.
 
Sunday’s first round of eliminations at the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals will pit in-laws Robert Hight and Ashley Force Hood against each other.
 
Hight rates the edge the epic battle on Sunday by virtue of qualifying performance and if not for a last ditch 4.197 elapsed time during the final session Force Hood wouldn’t have qualified for the field. Hight qualified third with a 4.065, 308.71.
 
“You never want to wait until the last session to get in but for some reason this weekend, our car has found a reason to not make a run each session,” Force Hood said. “You can see the frustration on my crew chiefs. We knew that if you DNQ, you are pretty much out of the Countdown unless you’re doing really good.”

In an exciting day of Pro Mod action at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Brad Personett blasted his turbo-powered '68 Camaro to the number one qualifying position Saturday in the Get Screened America Pro Mod Challenge presented by ProCare Rx at the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals and Mike Castellana won the Matco Tools Pro Mod Clash and took home the $25,000 grand prize by beating his teammate Burton Auxier in the finals.
 
The day's lone qualifying session saw Brad Personett blast to a track record ET of 5.965 seconds at 245.45 mph and Jay Payne follow closely with a 5.971 at 240.38 to take No. 2. In all, six drivers were in the five-second zone and rookie Kirk Wilmes took the No. 16 spot with a 6.125 at 231.52 - the quickest ever field and bump spot for the Las Vegas track.

Mike Edwards made a clean-sweep of the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals Pro Stock qualifying by acquiring all twelve available bonus points for running the quickest in all four sessions. He also qualified on top of the previous NHRA event in Las Vegas last April.
 
Back then, Edwards was chasing a streaking Jeg Coughlin Jr. This time he’s just hours away from clinching his first Pro Stock title and the second NHRA championship of his career. Edwards captured the 1981 NHRA Modified eliminator championship, a class that was discontinued at the end of that season.

Funny Car title contenders Hight and Force Hood to meet in important first round; Dixon, Hagan and Arana also No. 1 qualifiers at NHRA Las Vegas Nationals

Mike Edwards earned his category leading 15th No. 1 qualifying position in Pro Stock Saturday at the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals and now sits only a few points away from clinching his first NHRA world championship trophy.

Larry Dixon, Matt Hagan, and Hector Arana also were No. 1 qualifiers at the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.