Updated: April 25, 2008, 12:17 AM ET
Keep an eye on Schumacher, Ashley Force at Southern Nationals
The top story lines at this week's Southern Nationals? Just look at the standings: Points leaders Tony Schumacher and Ashley Force will have their hands full, writes Bill Stephens.
How can Tony Schumacher make another extraordinary rally to win the POWERade championship when he refuses to give up the points lead? The five-time POWERade champion leads Larry Dixon by 35 points, and although it was Cory McClenathan who had the hot hand at the last race, in Las Vegas, it is Schumacher who comes into Atlanta leading the pack. The significance of that is the reality that, on any given Sunday, Schumacher and his nearly infallible tuner, Alan Johnson, rarely make unforced errors, thus infrequently leaving their competitors convenient opportunities to take advantage. But Schumacher is well aware how evenly distributed the championship-caliber teams are in the Top Fuel class this year. Both Dixon and third-place points holder Antron Brown have wins in '08, and after Cory Mac's Vegas victory, it's inevitable that such drivers as "Hot Rod" Fuller, Brandon Bernstein (the defending event champion), and, yes, struggling Doug Kalitta (10th in points) could break into the scoring column at any time. Other drivers to keep an eye on: Rookie Alan Bradshaw has two No. 1 qualifying starts in five races and needs to connect in eliminations; Hillary Will has qualified top-half in four of the first five races in the season and is a single round win below .500; Morgan Lucas and J.R. Todd have been snakebit so far in 2008 and need a big morale boost ASAP. Funny Car
There's no better smorgasbord in drag racing right now than the one in Funny Car. The old guard, the new guard and the "in-between guard" have been exchanging body shots since opening day, and one look at the POWERade top 10 will show you how scrambled the picture is. Ashley Force's historic climb to the points lead is unquestionably a headline story, but almost as noteworthy is Tim Wilkerson's sudden emergence as a consistent, top-qualifying, race-winning contender. Veteran Cruz Pedregon is showing real early-season strength, as well. Conversely, 14-time champion John Force -- a seven-time winner in Atlanta and on the threshold of his 500th career start -- has yet to hit any kind of steady stride, nor has his teammate, defending event champion Robert Hight. Ron Capps finally has put a couple of round wins on the board but is performing far below the potential of such a gifted team. Adding to Capps' motivation this weekend is the absence of a Southern Nationals win on his 12-year F/C résumé. Put it all together, and you have a category still in search of a dominating pacesetter to assume the role of race-to-race favorite. Others worth keeping track of: Tony Pedregon has won only two rounds of eliminations since his Gainesville win but comes into Atlanta with three previous Southern Nationals titles; Bob Tasca Jr. might be poised to make a race-day charge after qualifying third in Las Vegas, then crossing the centerline for a DQ in Round 2 vs. Capps; Mike Neff has had a quick car at times this year and wants to bag his first round win in eliminations -- a situation he has discussed ad nauseam. Pro Stock
Dave Connolly is expected to make his 2008 return this weekend, and as far as awaiting teammate Jeg Coughlin Jr. is concerned, it's about time. With a new sponsorship deal in place, Connolly will be able to provide tactical support to Coughlin, who has single-handedly been taking on the two-car task force of Greg Anderson (the defending event champion) and Jason Line (the Las Vegas winner two weeks ago). Coughlin and Line are tied for the points lead, with Anderson sitting in third, thus creating a three-car lead pack with fourth-place Kurt Johnson nearly two rounds behind. With Connolly back with his Vic Cagnazzi Racing buddy, expect things to heat up between these two exceptional outfits. Possible race-day players: Everyone is waiting for one of the Johnsons -- Warren, Kurt or Allen -- to tie together four round wins on Sunday (Kurt has come closest with a runner-up in Houston); Greg Stanfield qualified top-half in Las Vegas and beat Anderson and Kenny Koretsky on his way to the final against Line, losing by three-hundredths of a second. Speaking of Koretsky, will he match his low qualifier performance in Vegas and go further than Round 2 in eliminations? Pro Stock Motorcycle
On the track, the Pro Stock Motorcycle battle has been somewhat one-sided, with Matt Guidera and Matt Smith riding Buells to victory in the season's first two bike events. Behind the scenes, the debate rages among Buell, Harley-Davidson and Suzuki teams as to whether the recently enacted weight breaks for those three brands have leveled the playing field or tilted it further. This will be an important race in terms of how permanent those weight adjustments might be. Another rout by the Buells in Atlanta could lead to the NHRA's rethinking the issue. In the meantime, the Suzuki campaigning operations hasten to point out that only two of the bikes in the POWERade top 10 wear the imported nameplate and Buells and Harleys dominate. Smith and Guidera lead the points, and the highest-placed Suzuki is the Don Schumacher Racing machine of Chip Ellis -- in fourth place 61 points behind Smith. This category has a long history of rider rivalries dating back to the epic battles between two of the greatest of all time, Dave Schultz and John Myers. Three-time champions Matt Hines and Angelle Sampey brought a bitter, inflammatory edge to their classic confrontations until Hines' retirement at the end of 2002, and G Squared Motorsports' George Bryce and Vance & Hines patriarch Byron Hines have been gunning for each other for three decades. But today, the fiercest flare-ups in the class appear to be between the rule makers and the team owners as they continue to disagree on how to ensure parity in PSM. Bill Stephens covers NHRA for ESPN.com.
