NEWS NUGGETS
POINTS LEADER LINE HOPES TO MAKE IT THREE-FOR-THREE AS SERIES HEADS TO LAS VEGAS:
To say that the start of the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series
for Pro Stock points leader Jason Line has been anything but a surprise
may be the understatement of the century. Back-to-back wins to start
the season and the points lead, with teammate Greg Anderson close behind
in second place, may not have been the position Line thought he’d be in
heading into this weekend’s SummitRacing.com
NHRA Nationals at The Strip At Las Vegas Motor Speedway. But with the
momentum of early-season success pushing his Summit Racing Pontiac GXP,
Line hopes to make it three wins to start the season, especially at his
primary sponsor’s event.
SO LONG: National Speed Sport News, in business for 76 years, has ceased publication following its March 23 issue.
NEWS NUGGETS
FORMER CHAMPS READY TO ROLL THE DICE FOR VEGAS LUCK AT THE SUMMITRACING.COM NHRA NATIONALS: With two races already in the record books in the 2011 season, the drivers of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series now set their sights on “Sin City” itself, as the series makes its first of two stops in Las Vegas for the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals, April 1–3 at The Strip At Las Vegas Motor Speedway. One driver hoping for a visit from “Lady Luck” is Pro Stock driver Mike Edwards. Just one year ago, Edwards entered the Las Vegas event riding a wave of success that saw the driver win his first Pro Stock world championship the previous year and pick up three wins and a runner-up finish in the first five races of the season. Edwards left Las Vegas with yet another win and a stronger hold on the points lead, but a string of bad luck late in the season saw that lead given up by the time the series returned to Las Vegas in October of that year, and Edwards was unable to repeat his championship run. The 2011 season has brought much of the same for Edwards. A DNQ to open the season at the Kragen O’Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals and a second-round loss to Ron Krisher at the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals has the former world champion sitting 11th in the point standings entering the race in Las Vegas.
FORMER CHAMPS READY TO ROLL THE DICE FOR VEGAS LUCK AT THE SUMMITRACING.COM NHRA NATIONALS: With two races already in the record books in the 2011 season, the drivers of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series now set their sights on “Sin City” itself, as the series makes its first of two stops in Las Vegas for the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals, April 1–3 at The Strip At Las Vegas Motor Speedway. One driver hoping for a visit from “Lady Luck” is Pro Stock driver Mike Edwards. Just one year ago, Edwards entered the Las Vegas event riding a wave of success that saw the driver win his first Pro Stock world championship the previous year and pick up three wins and a runner-up finish in the first five races of the season. Edwards left Las Vegas with yet another win and a stronger hold on the points lead, but a string of bad luck late in the season saw that lead given up by the time the series returned to Las Vegas in October of that year, and Edwards was unable to repeat his championship run. The 2011 season has brought much of the same for Edwards. A DNQ to open the season at the Kragen O’Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals and a second-round loss to Ron Krisher at the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals has the former world champion sitting 11th in the point standings entering the race in Las Vegas.
WELCOME BACK: A week after announcing it would leave the IZOD
IndyCar Series at the end of 2011, IndyCar has reached an agreement
with Firestone to keep the tire manufacturer involved with the series
through 2013.
NEWS NUGGETS
WORSHAM JOINS LIST OF DOUBLE-CATEGORY WINNERS; NEFF JOINS LIST OF TUNER/DRIVER WINNERS WITH GAINESVILLE WIN: In only his second start of the season, Del Worsham joined a select list of drivers when he drove his Al-Anabi Racing dragster past seven-time world champion Tony Schumacher to his first career win in Top Fuel Sunday at the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. Worsham joined an impressive list of only 15 other drivers in NHRA history to win in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, and the historical meaning was not lost on the driver.
WORSHAM JOINS LIST OF DOUBLE-CATEGORY WINNERS; NEFF JOINS LIST OF TUNER/DRIVER WINNERS WITH GAINESVILLE WIN: In only his second start of the season, Del Worsham joined a select list of drivers when he drove his Al-Anabi Racing dragster past seven-time world champion Tony Schumacher to his first career win in Top Fuel Sunday at the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals in Gainesville, Florida. Worsham joined an impressive list of only 15 other drivers in NHRA history to win in both Top Fuel and Funny Car, and the historical meaning was not lost on the driver.
SO LONG: Firestone, which has supplied tires to the IZOD IndyCar
Series since its first race in 1996, will leave the series at the end of
the 2011 racing season.
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