LAS VEGAS – As the Countdown to 1, NHRA’s championship playoffs, comes to the season’s penultimate race in Las Vegas, each professional category in the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series features its own dramatic storyline.

In Top Fuel, every championship contender is gunning to remove a category dominator from the throne he has held for the past five seasons.
In Funny Car, a female driver is trying to make history and become the first of her gender to win a world championship crown in the wildly unpredictable category which her father has dominated for most of two decades. In order to do it, she’ll need to stop five other men who are also in contention, including one multi-time champ, her former driving instructor, a teammate, last season’s series runner-up, and a driver who’s finished second in the championship standings three times.

NHRA Media PhotoSunday, April 05, 2009
by Candida Benson, NHRA.com

Tony Schumacher (Top Fuel), Ron Capps (Funny Car), and Jeg Coughlin (Pro Stock) were the big winners at the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals in Las Vegas. The win is Schumacher’s second straight, Capps’ third this year, and Coughlin’s second of 2009.

The three now lead the points in their respective categories. Schumacher took over the Top Fuel points lead with his final-round victory over Brandon Bernstein, and now front former packleader Antron Brown, 412 to 394. Capps has led the points all year long, and he just added to his lead when he defeated teammate and new second-place driver Matt Hagan; Capps has a 106-point advantage, the biggest lead of any class. Like Schumacher, Coughlin took over the points lead when he won the final round. Coughlin trailed then-leader Jason Line by two points entering his final-round bout with Greg Stanfield and now leads Line by 18.

Tony Schumacher

Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 M&M's Toyota, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Shelby 427 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. (Photo Credit: Rusty Jarrett/Getty Images for NASCAR)By Reid Spencer Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service
LAS VEGAS (March 1, 2009) — So the last shall be first, and the first last.

For biblical scholars, that was Matthew 20:16. For NASCAR fans, it was Sunday’s Shelby 427 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Starting from the rear of the field because of an engine change during Friday’s practice session, pole winner and Las Vegas native Kyle Busch worked his way to the front throughout a race punctuated with a record 14 caution periods and streaked to a .411-second victory, his first of the season and his first at Las Vegas.

Matt Kenseth, first in the series standings entering the race, finished last, after his engine blew six laps into the race. That ended Kenseth’s bid to become the first driver to win the first three races in a Cup season.

by Tony Veneziano
LAS VEGAS -- For Donny Schatz, The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway has always been a special place. He won the final World of Outlaws race of the millennium at the half-mile in 1999 and also was victorious in the series last visit to the track in 2006 when he capped his first series title with a victory. The three-time and defending series champion continued to add to his impressive resume at the track on Thursday night, picking up the win in the World of Outlaws return to Las Vegas before a packed grandstand.

Schatz lined up third in the Armor All J&J and fell back to fourth early in the race before getting around Jason Sides and Craig Dollansky to move into second. He then used heavy lapped traffic to his advantage to pass three-time series champion Sammy Swindell on the low side of turns one and two on the 16th lap. He would endure three cautions over the final 15 laps, including one on the white flag lap which set up a green-white-checker finish. By way of World of Outlaws rules, two consecutive green flag laps have to run to finish a race. Schatz used a strong restart each time to distance himself from Swindell.

by Tony Veneziano

WHAT
•The World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series returns to The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway for the first time since 2006 on Thursday, February 26 for a full night of racing. Three-time and defending series champion Donny Schatz was victorious in the last A-Feature event for the series at the half-mile, with fellow three-time series titlist Sammy Swindell also picking up a checkered flag in 2006. One of the strongest fields ever assembled in the 31-year history of the series will be in action as they vie for the $10,000 top prize. Heading into the event, Schatz has a 21 point lead in the championship standings over 20-time series champ Steve Kinser. Schatz won two of the first three races to open the 2009 season in Florida, with Joey Saldana also picking up a victory. Five drivers that have won in the past at Las Vegas will be in action this week, including four current and former World of Outlaws champions.

WHEN