Troy Coughlin has been drag racing for two decades but the veteran racer admits he may never have had a weekend like the one he finished up Sunday evening at Chicago's Route 66 Raceway.

Coughlin swept the honors at the fourth annual Nitto Tire NMRA/NMCA
Super Bowl of Street Legal Drag Racing, setting an NMCA national
record, claiming low qualifier honors, and mowing down the 16-car
elimination field for the victory.

"I don't know what else we could have done," Coughlin said during a
joyous winner's circle celebration. "I have to give my guys credit.
They had this car prepared so perfectly every single round and all I
had to do as a driver was not screw anything up and we knew we could
win. It feels darn good to be holding this trophy right now.

When
discussing the race for the 2009 IHRA Pro Modified world championship,
only two names can be included as a part of the conversation – Ed
Hoover and Kenny Lang.

And they intend to keep it that way.

For the third consecutive race the two rival drivers met in the final
round of an IHRA national event, with Ed Hoover once again getting the
edge when it mattered most.

“It feels good to overcome the adversities we had this weekend. We put
an engine in last night until 3 a.m. and first thing this morning I did
a burnout and the thing had zero oil pressure,” Hoover said. “Luckily
the guy red lighted on me and we came back and got the engine fixed.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has reported that a group discussing the
purchase of Gateway International Raceway from Dover Downs
Entertainment has broken off talks.

The report confirmed that a group of investors coordinated by ADRL
President Kenny Nowling and including Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani
had inquired about the purchase but withdrew their interest after
learning that Gateway reportedly doesn’t own the property and that
Dover owns only a small portion.

Tim Wilkerson won more races last year than he’d previously won in the entire rest of his career. Wilkerson won in six of seven final round appearances and looked to be a cinch for the world championship.

For all of his efforts, Wilkerson ended his championship bid in second place.

That’s why after winning for just the first time in fifteen races this
year Wilkerson isn’t sweating in the heat of the championship race. He
wants to be cool, yet hot when the racing conditions aren’t as warm as
they were this weekend during the NHRA Northwest Nationals in Seattle.

For at least one weekend, Mike Edwards won’t have to answer questions from the media about having the car to beat all weekend and losing in the final round, which suits the Oklahoma native just fine.

Edwards scored his eighteenth career NHRA Pro Stock national event
title during the NHRA Northwest Nationals in convincing fashion by
sweeping the event from qualifying to eliminations. His third win of
the season came at the expense of Jason Line.

“We’ve had three really good days all year,” Edwards said of day which
produced his eighth final round for 2009. “Anytime you win a race it’s
good. My guys have just prepared this car. Every time we came up to run
the car was just flawless.”

The competition can only wonder when the sophomore jinx is going to kick for Antron Brown.

The former Pro Stock Bike standout turned Top Fuel championship
contender scored his fourth win of the season at the NHRA Northwest
Nationals in Seattle, Wash. The event represented his seventh final
round of 2009.

The six-time Top Fuel winner stands two-thirds of the way from a clean sweep of the NHRA’s Western Swing.

Brown wasn’t the quickest in qualifying or on race day but managed to
win when he needed to. Last race in Denver he was the quickest in
qualifying but on race day managed to get lost when the track heated
up.

NHRA Pro Stock Motorcyclist Peggy Llewellyn will be named Female
Athlete of the Year by The Elements of a Champion Foundation on tonight
at the Party with the Pros Awards and Gala Dinner held at Stonebriar
Country Club in Dallas.

The Elements of Champions, a non-profit organization dedicated to
re-depositing the elements which define champions back into sports, one
student at a time, will honor professional, collegiate, and high school
athletes for their extraordinary character on and off the field.

The
top two teams in Top Fuel squared off in a classic final round at the
22nd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways Sunday with
Antron Brown edging Tony Schumacher by eight-thousandths of a second at
the stripe.

The other winners at the 14th of 24 races in the NHRA Full Throttle
Drag Racing Series were Tim Wilkerson (Funny Car) and Mike Edwards (Pro
Stock).

Brown won for the fourth time this season in the Matco Tools dragster
and extended his lead to 137 points over Schumacher with his
3.985-second pass (0.079 reaction time) at 301.07 mph to Schumacher’s
3.990 (0.082 RT) at 300.00. 

Point standings (top 10) for NHRA professional categories following the
22nd annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways, the 14th of
24 events in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series -

Point standings (top 10) for IHRA professional categories following the
Mopar Canadian Nationals at Grand Bend Motorplex, the sixth of 10
events in the 2009 Nitro Jam Drag Racing Series -