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Let's face it. Funny Car fans are getting spoiled.

Over the past three NHRA POWERade seasons, the ultimate winner of the F/C category championship has not been decided until the final climactic moments of the year's national event schedule.

In 2005, Gary Scelzi emerged with his first Funny Car title after three championships in Top Fuel amidst a dramatic four-way dogfight with John Force, the late Eric Medlen, and Scelzi's teammate, Ron Capps.

In 2006, Force won his 14th title by outscoring his underling, Robert Hight, at the Auto Club Finals in Pomona, Calif., while Capps once again was an also-ran in the POWERade fisticuffs.

Last year's championship was still a jump ball between Hight, Capps and Tony Pedregon as the season finale played out in Pomona, with Pedregon earning his second career championship.

In 2008, why would anyone expect a kinder, friendlier battle plan?

When the CARQUEST Winternationals get rolling at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona this weekend, the same aforementioned players will be back on the chase and poised to begin the process of forging a championship season -- along with a formidable field of dangerous veterans and emerging threats. This year's POWERade champion will have some serious work to do.

Recent NHRA rules changes in the class have added another element of preparation to this year's Funny Car contingent, including modifications to the driver's seat, additional flame-retardant on interior body and component surfaces and an improved body-release mechanism. But when you look at the roster of drag racers who will be primed and pumped for the season opener, it's easy to see that picking an overall favorite to win the 2008 crown won't be a breeze.

At John Force Racing, the man himself continues to astound. Still in some pain as he continues to recover from last September's serious crash in Dallas, Force thundered to the low elapsed time at Phoenix testing and will arrive in Pomona riding a tsunami of confidence. His daughter, Ashley, was unspectacular in testing but will be a more experienced driver in '08 and almost assuredly is on pace to pick up her first national event win as a pro -- the first for a woman in NHRA Funny Car history.

Hight again will be teaming with master tuner Jimmy Prock, and after flirting with the championship in '06 and '07, expect them to be title contenders from the get-go. New crew chief-turned-driver Mike Neff continues to learn the ropes of his new job description, but there's no debate that his experience as a tuner will help him and his crew chief, John Medlen, better communicate and co-create a winning combination.

Scelzi and Capps once again will headline Schumacher Racing's Funny Car assault, with teammate Jack Beckman looking to improve on last year's fifth-place points finish. The outspoken and gregarious fan favorite Jerry Toliver also will be racing as a member of Team Schumacher after a disappointing run in '07.

Evan Knoll's surprise decision to discontinue team sponsorships with his Torco Racing Fuels branding required Mike Ashley to regroup for '08, and the former two-time Pro Modified champion, who has established himself as a real gunslinger in Funny Car, will have Melanie Troxel aboard one of two cars he hopes to race this year.

Del Worsham will begin 2008 with a single-car team but has allied himself with Dexter Tuttle's Top Fuel outfit, and it will be intriguing to see how this new strategic approach pays off. The same can be said for Tim Wilkerson -- a single-car campaigner since his F/C debut in 1996 -- as he heads into '08 conjoined with Don "The Snake" Prudhomme's Top Fuel squad headed by two-time POWERade champion Larry Dixon.

With the liquidation of Prudhomme's Funny Car team at the end of last year, driver Tommy Johnson Jr. has made the jump to Kenny Bernstein's fuel coupe brigade, taking over for the King of Speed, who once again has announced his retirement from the cockpit.

Familiar names such as Gary Densham, Scott Kalitta, Cruz Pedregon and Tony Bartone will all be back with the necessary firepower to win rounds and races, while former Top Alcohol Dragster star Bob Tasca III -- from the great Rhode Island-based drag racing family -- will be making his pro debut in a new nitro Mustang. And you can look for racers such as Terry Haddock and Bob Bode to remain champions of "the little guy" with their usual "do a lot with a little" racing programs.

It will be a volatile mix of veterans and upstarts, legends and future legends, and brand diversity -- GM vs. Ford vs. Mopar vs. Toyota -- when the 2008 NHRA POWERade Funny Car fight for supremacy throttles up in Pomona this weekend.

Lock 'em and load 'em.

Bill Stephens covers NHRA for ESPN.com