Jimmy Hoberg walked to the starting line at National Trail Raceway  Saturday afternoon during the ADRL Ohio Drags in Columbus, Ohio. This time last year, that simple
action, for the track's regular starter, would have been a non-story.

On this day just walking was an accomplishment. Walking at National Trail Raceway was the icing on the cake.

“It was great,” said Hoberg, choking back the tears and apologizing for getting emotional.

Hoberg was driving in Columbus two weeks before Christmas when a
reckless driver ran a red-light, t-boning his work truck while
traveling at an estimated 120 miles per hour. Hoberg was the fourth car
through the intersection.

Via ESPN2

After a sideways run down a weeping racetrack Warren Johnson sounded off, loudly.

In an interview with Gary Gerould of ESPN2, Johnson let loose his two
cents worth and then some.  Gerould asked Johnson about the Maple Grove
track surface and that opened the flood gates.

“This has been a long time problem,” Johnson said to Gerould during
Sunday evening’s broadcast. “It’s probably manifested itself worse in
the last few years simply from the fact the NHRA hasn’t been paying due
diligence to what they should be doing instead of just scalping the
spectators.

On April 24, 2008 an editorial under my byline appeared in this publication titled “It’s Time For A Complete Housecleaning At NHRA.”  If you didn’t read it then, maybe you’ll find the time to do so now: UP FRONT: IT'S TIME FOR A COMPLETE HOUSE CLEANING

Andy Jensen’s crime is that he leaned on the locals too hard.

Andy Jensen is exploring all options for the future of his turbocharged Camaro.

Jensen, driving a turbocharged Camaro in the Pro Nitrous division,
reeled off a 3.873 elapsed time at 191.70 during last season’s ADRL
Dragstock event in Rockingham, N.C. Prior to Jensen’s run, it was
largely believed the turbo combination couldn’t consistently compete in
the Pro Extreme division. All bets are off when you can consistently
run a half-tenth quicker than your nearest competition.

Now Jensen finds himself in a high horsepower pickle. He’s too fast to
run Pro Nitrous and not quite quick enough to make a competitive dent
in Pro Extreme. So what’s a man to do? If you Jensen, you tow your
427-inch, turbo-entry out to the track and put some test laps in.

Robert Hight isn't out of it yet, the Countdown to 1, that is. Hight,
with 763 points is currently 12th in the standings behind Cruz Pedregon
and Matt Hagan. Hight is 38 points behind Pedregon and just seven
behind Hagan. Assuming all three qualify for the U.S. Nationals, Hight
would need to run at least two rounds father than Pedregon and one
round farther than Hagan.

If Hight makes it to the semifinal round and Pedregon and Hagan go out in the first round, then Hight makes the Countdown to 1.

Ashley Force was disqualified in the first
round of eliminations at the NHRA Toyo Tires Nationals in Reading, Pa.

Scrambling to get the backup car ready and
working through a fuel issue Sunday morning, the Force Hood team ran
out of time to get the car to the scales before the call to the staging
lanes for the Pro categories.It was an especially devastating
turn of events for the Castrol GTX Mustang team considering they had
worked well past midnight to put a back-up Mustang together for Force
Hood after a dramatic qualifying round explosion. The resulting carnage
forced the team to pull out the back-up Mustang and begin making it
race-ready. On Sunday before the first round debris was discovered in
the fuel line forcing the team to use valuable time replumbing the fuel
system. That delay took the time normally allotted for a trip to the
scales. It was a mistake that the team will not make again.

Clay Millican is locked in a battle with Joe
Hartley for the 10th and final spot in the NHRA Countdown to 1 for
Top
Fuel dragsters.

With one race to go before the Countdown, Clay Millican watches his chances fade with a first round loss at Reading.

Millican couldn't get past Cory McClenathan in the first round, but
holds onto a slight three point lead over Hartley after Hartley lost to
Antron Brown in the second round of eliminations.

“We gave it our best shot, but the tires just got loose early in the
run,” said Millican about his close race with McClenathan. “I pedaled
it three times and the tires just wouldn’t hook up again. He was
farther down the track and able to get his car hooked up before I did.”

Larry Dixon has won a lot of races, but until Sunday afternoon in the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals a victory at Maple Grove Raceway had eluded the driver of the Al Anabi Racing dragster.

“Great,” answered Dixon when asked just how this win felt. “This is such a historic race track and I've always wanted to win here. You know my dad won here, you know points meets, running Top Fuel back in the day, and I just love coming to this track. God, you know, for just one reason or another we've never been able to close the deal and finally, you know you're halfway down the track and you're still...I've been halfway down the track thinking you're gonna win and then you break an input shaft and lose and so like just to see the win light come on it was just, it was awesome.

Michael Phillips was ready to pack it in and go home. The weekend, as far as he knew, was over. He'd damaged
the motor in his Suzuki and with no replacement on the truck there was
no way he could answer the call for a final round run against Eddie
Krawiec.

That's when the racing community stepped in. There was no way Krawiec
was going to the line next to an empty lane. An engine was found and
put in Phillip's bike with the help of several different teams,
including Krawiec's when there was trouble getting it started.

The clock was ticking. The curfew at Maple Grove Raceway is 9 p.m., and the hands on the clock were already past the witching hour.

It was dark, cool and the air was not yet full of moisture, near perfect conditions for Jeg Coughlin to simply outrun Johnny Gray in the final round of Pro Stock competition in the Toyo Tires NHRA Nationals. For Coughlin it was all horsepower as he cut a .012 light to Gray's nearly identical .013.

“It did feel fantastic,” said Coughlin when asked about his sixth win of the season and near lock on the No. 1 spot in the Countdown to 1. “We struggled in the two qualifying rounds we had here, ended up eight. We knew we had a lot under the hood and knew we had the car to do it. We just tried to give it what it wanted.”