For the fifth straight year, a
Screamin' Eagle Harley-Davidson V-Rod claimed the $25,000 top prize in
the Ringers Gloves Pro Bike Battle as Eddie Krawiec earned his first
victory in NHRA competition with a final-round victory against his
Vance & Hines teammate Andrew Hines, who fouled.

"Two years ago, I was an unknown and [team owners] Terry Vance
and Byron Hines took a chance on me," said Krawiec. "They've made me
feel like family, and I'm so glad that I was finally able to pay them
back with a victory. This is huge for our team. Harley-Davidson is
celebrating its 105th anniversary this weekend, so this couldn't have
come at a better time.

"I know that I still haven't won a national event, but I'm not
disappointed," Krawiec continued. "I'm good friends with [fellow rider]
Reggie Showers, and he's been a big inspiration to me. He had never won
a race, and then a few years ago, he came here to Indy and won this
[Ringers Battle] and then won the U.S. Nationals on Monday. If I can do
that, I'll be really happy. I'm getting married at the end of November,
and my fiancée really likes to shop, so this money will really come in
handy."

U.S. Army Top Fuel crew chief, Alan Johnson, announced today he will be
leaving Don Schumacher Racing at the conclusion of the 2008 season to
become a team owner.

Following are reaction quotes from U.S. Army Top Fuel driver, Tony “The
Sarge” Schumacher, and Colonel David Lee, G-7, Deputy Chief of Staff,
Strategic Communications for the U.S. Army Accessions Command:

A
scary moment transpired during Saturday's first session when Bob Bode's
Funny Car broke and croosed the centerline. The veteran driver did a
masterful job of keeping the subsequent damage with a the wall a
minimum, but then a fire broke out as the car rolled under power down
the track. Bode escaped without injury.

The rumors are now reality for nitro crew chief Alan Johnson.

At the conclusion of the 2008 season, the seven-time NHRA Top Fuel
champion crew chief who has 75 professional-level national event
victories to his credit will field a two-car team in 2009 through a
partnership with Qatar-based Al-Anabi Racing

This new alliance will field a Top Fuel dragster and a Funny Car. They
will start the 2009 season on Feb. 5-8 with the NHRA Winternationals in
Pomona, Calif. Johnson has not selected drivers for the new cars.

As if their recent forays into Pro Modified didn’t create enough of a
stir, Al-Anabi grabbed a monster share of the media spotlight by adding
noted tuner Alan Johnson to direct their newly formed two-car nitro
team expected to debut in Pomona next January during the NHRA
Winternationals.

The goal for Sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani, the leader of the
spending spree, is to promote the domestic and international awareness
of motorsports in the nation of Qatar. As a result of his efforts,
Al-Anabi Racing has emerged as one of the leading drag racing teams in
the region.

An era may be over, or at least it seems that way.

Andy Hoefer, Director of Marketing for United States Smokeless Tobacco,
confirmed that currently there are no plans for his company to return
as sponsor for the $100,000-to-win United States Smokeless Showdown in
2009.

Clay Millican believed he could fly under the radar into Indy and maybe, just maybe, he could slip up

Clay Millican didn't miss a beat in his time away this season.

on a few opponents and grab a qualifying berth and possibly a first round win.

That was his thought process until an earlier return to competition
with team owner Mark Pickens and the Hope4Sudan/Lend American/Nitro
Fish Top Fuel team netted a semi-final finish during the NHRA Toyo
Tires Nationals in Reading, Pa.

So much for the sneak attack.

“We went to Reading thinking if we qualified we would’ve had a
successful weekend,” said Millican, of Drummonds, Tenn. That race
provided four qualifying runs and three more in eliminations in
national event conditions and became much better than a test session.

Cory McClenathan grabbed the provisional pole position on Friday during the opening qualifying session of the

The perfectionist in McClenathan demands that he ratchets up all facets of his and the team's overall performance.

54th annual U.S. Nationals at O'Reilly Raceway Park. McClenathan
recorded a run of 3.852 seconds at 312.57 mph, his quickest elapsed
time since the NHRA began racing to the 1,000-foot mark.

Four more rounds of qualifying are scheduled for Saturday and Sunday
before the final 16-car field is set for Sunday's eliminations.

Jeff Arend’s 4.193 elapsed time was only good enough to put him in the seventh spot in

Jeff Arend isn't trying to fill Scott Kalitta's shoes, he's just
trying to do the best he can for Kalitta Motorsports to honor the
memory of Scott Kalitta.

provisional qualifying at the NHRA U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis, but the lap was as good as the top spot in his heart.

Arend made his debut as the driver of the Kalitta Motorsports Funny Car, the same ride Scott Kalitta made famous.

The experience left Arend feeling both apprehensive and cautious in the same token.