ESPN NHRA

When the NHRA announced its new Countdown to the Championship format a year ago at Indianapolis, it figured to add renewed drama to the title drives of familiar drivers. Mainstays such as John Force, Warren Johnson and Angelle Sampey amassed multiple titles through the old points format, so who would have believed they would do anything but shine in the new system?

Yet with one race in the books in the Countdown to Four -- the second stage of the three-pronged title chase -- those legends and others are on the outside looking in. The first hurdle was crossed last month in reaching the season-long Countdown to Eight, but now eighth place in the standings, or fifth place for that matter, isn't good enough.

The 53rd U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis, already the biggest race every year, had added importance as the first of a quartet of races used to set the Countdown to Four. Title contenders such as Tony Schumacher in Top Fuel and Dave Connolly in Pro Stock won, further solidifying their title hopes. But at the other end of the line were a number of drivers who failed to collect round wins or even make eliminations, putting themselves in the position of needing a big weekend at Memphis -- or else.

It's only mid-September, but it's now do-or-die time for some of the biggest names in drag racing.

Funny Car
A good car not qualifying for Funny Car eliminations at a national event isn't news; every one of the eight drivers in the Countdown suffered that ignominy once during the regular season. In arguably the deepest class in the sport, it was entirely possible that another DNQ for a title contender could come at Indy.

But John Force missing the show -- no one could have predicted that. Having the 14-time champion on the sidelines for eliminations at Indy is like Tiger Woods missing the cut at Augusta.

Force entered the Countdown as the hottest shoe in the sport, with four consecutive final-round appearances and three wins in the past six races. It was an epic comeback from 15th to third in points for the sport's biggest name, who sat out a race early in the season to mourn the death of teammate Eric Medlen and needed a few more events to recover behind the wheel.

Now Force is sixth in points going into Memphis, a track where he has won more times (five) than any other driver. That is a record he gladly will take into his attempt to return the Castrol GTX Mustang to the top four.

Another familiar face outside the Funny Car cutoff is Gary Scelzi, the 2005 champion. The Don Schumacher Racing driver entered the Countdown with little momentum, having reached the semifinals in one of eight races, then saw the trend continue at Indy with a first-round loss to Del Worsham, who is ninth in points and outside the Countdown.

Sitting seventh in points -- 18 behind Force, and, more importantly, 62 behind teammate and fourth-place driver Ron Capps -- Scelzi will need to qualify at Memphis and string together those crucial 20-point round wins.

In Funny Car, it can be an obstacle race in the middle of a straight-line battle.

"The eight in this race are not dogs, and then there's another eight or nine that aren't dogs either that aren't in the chase and just love doing what Del Worsham just did to me, so we've got to deal with that too," Scelzi said. "The numbers will tell the tale."

Top Fuel
In drag racing, Labor Day is by far the most miserable holiday to not be working. That's how Whit Bazemore felt, failing to qualify for the U.S. Nationals eliminations in his hometown of Indianapolis.

"We had a chance to show our stuff, but we didn't have anything to show. We [messed] up," said Bazemore, a 20-time national event winner, including twice at Indy in Funny Car. "It's everything to not qualify there. It shatters you."

His spirits weren't lifted after watching the Top Fuel ladder play out. The rich got richer, with Schumacher and Larry Dixon, the second- and third-seeded drivers at the start of the Countdown, making it to the final, with "The Sarge" winning. Rod Fuller, the No. 1 Countdown qualifier, made it to the semis.

All that proved devastating for drivers like J.R. Todd and Bazemore, who never got past Sunday's qualifying rounds. Todd fell one spot to sixth in points, and Bazemore moved into the basement, 158 points behind new leader Schumacher. That's the largest first-to-eighth gap in all the classes.

Fortunately, Bazemore need only worry about getting to fourth place for now, but that's going to mean getting to the round of 16 at Memphis and keeping his Matco Tools dragster in the hunt for a while.

"If we want to be world champs, we have to get a result here. If we don't win rounds, it's done," Bazemore said. "But we like that kind of pressure. We've put ourselves in the box."

Pro Stock
Like Force, it was a shock to see Warren Johnson packing up the hauler early at Indy. In 31 previous visits, "The Professor" never had failed to qualify for the show at O'Reilly Raceway Park.

To miss on No. 32 was unfortunate for more than longevity's sake. Johnson, a six-time Pro Stock champion and winner of 96 races, went into the Countdown in seventh position and added one more step to the ladder he must climb at Memphis, falling to eighth after Indy.

"We had an electrical problem we just couldn't diagnose until we got the car back to the shop," Johnson said. "It became painfully obvious, put it that way."

With that now solved, Johnson figures his GM Performance Parts Pontiac GTO can return to eliminations and hopefully round wins. A veteran of his stature isn't inclined to look at Memphis as a pressure cooker, but he's not oblivious, either.

"It's just the reality of the situation -- there's no more or less pressure. The only time you check [the points] is after the race is over," Johnson said. "But the obvious conclusion you have to come to is that you have to be in that final four to be in that championship."

The cutdown from eight to four will come after the Torco Racing Fuels NHRA Nationals in October in Richmond, Va., and points will be adjusted in 10-point increments from 3,030 for first down to 3,000 for fourth.

That might be the best time to catch Connolly and Greg Anderson, clearly the top two in Pro Stock. Anderson's Pontiac GTO and Connolly's Chevy Cobalt have combined for 12 wins in 18 races, and it was no surprise to see the two in the final at Indy. Connolly took over the points lead, but Anderson is secure in second place with nearly a three-round advantage over Allen Johnson and Kurt Johnson, who are one point apart at third and fourth in the standings.

"The reality of the class is you have to pick up your performance to the point that they're not dominant," Warren Johnson said.

Pro Stock Motorcycle
The stakes this weekend are highest in Pro Stock Motorcycle, since its Countdown to Four doesn't include four races. The bikes are off for Richmond, so Memphis is the middle round of a three-race chase.

Three-time champion Angelle Sampey has not been fond of the new format from the outset, and her current standing isn't helping. Sampey lost to Chris Rivas in the first race, watching her spot in the points go from a secure second to an outside-looking-in fifth.

"I don't think it's right when you have somebody that's done so well all year and they have the potential of losing it at one race," Sampey said. "I dropped from second to fifth because they erased all of our points. Craig Treble, who is a great friend of mine and I wish him all the best in the world, comes into the season and struggles somewhat at the beginning, barely makes it in [the Countdown] by the skin of his teeth and now is in second place [after winning Indy].

"It mixes it up a big deal for us; it's definitely a do-or-die situation now. We have two races to get into the top four; then they'll erase it and start all over again. I just really don't like it."

Ask her again after the Dallas race Sept. 21-24, after she has had two more events to put a dozen years of experience to work against a field that isn't completely full of battle-tested drivers. Points leader Matt Smith and third-place Chip Ellis never have finished a season higher than fourth in points, yet they are frontrunners in the new Countdown.

"Having won 41 races and three championships already, I really don't have anything to lose. When I get up there, I just run my own race in my own lane and don't worry about the end result, where you might have some other people in top that may not have been in that situation before, the thought of 'Oh my God, I might be able to win this championship,'" Sampey said. "I've been there before, not having won, and I've been so excited and I blew it because I was over-thinking it. That will be an advantage for us.

"These people are getting so close, and when you are so close that you can taste it, it's a really hard thing to not think about things that could go wrong, and once you start thinking about the things that could go wrong, that's usually when they do."

On a make-or-break weekend for drag racing, it apparently is best not to think. Just go.

John Schwarb is a freelance journalist covering motorsports and is a contributor to ESPN.com. He can be reached at johnschwarb@yahoo.com.