ESPN NHRA

Kurt Johnson has definitely been the loyal and dutiful son. He has patiently backed up, bolstered and boosted the Pro Stock program of his legendary father, Warren Johnson, since KJ's Pro Stock rookie year in 1993.

He has done everything that has been asked of him, including the demanding job of overseeing the engine-building operation responsible for his dad's six NHRA championships and a combined 134 national event wins for the father-son duo.

Will this be the year that the "kid" finally wins the crown with help from the "old man"?

Kurt's powerful victory at this past weekend's 11th Torco Racing Fuels Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., was his second of the year following his initial '08 win three races ago in Madison, Ill. He extended his lead in the POWERade Series points standings over reigning Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. to 36 and is showing the kind of performance dominance which had been the exclusive domain of three-time series champion Greg Anderson during his title years, 2003-2005.

And while his Hall of Fame father has also shown measurable improvement in his 2008 stat totals, it is Kurt who now appears on the verge of becoming his family's standard bearer after playing second banana to WJ for the past 15 years.

In fact, it was the younger Johnson icing the elder in the Joliet semifinals on Sunday, cutting a quicker reaction time and outrunning his father by .04 of a second. In the final, Kurt outdueled Coughlin, 6.733 seconds, 205.22 mph to a tire-shaking 19.755/72.78.

"What a great day," said Kurt Johnson. "Going into the final, I knew I would have to come up with a good light, because Jeggie is like a machine on the starting line, repeatedly putting up .020s and 0-teens [reaction times]. I figured we had a couple hundredths-of-a-second on him in performance, so I felt I had to have a .030 or better to give us chance to win. To come up with that .019 was just huge."

With Warren hanging onto 10th place in the P/S points, it's unlikely he'll be in the better position to challenge for the 2008 title as Kurt steadily adds to his category-leading points spread.

It's a new role for the 45-year-old KJ, but one which he has been groomed for by WJ, one of the all-time greatest drag racers -- regardless of class. It's also a role Kurt is reluctant to publicly declare, steadfastly concentrating on the tasks at hand and maintaining that both he and his father are equally capable of winning the title.

"With this one in the books, we're going to turn our attention to Englishtown and the races after that," said Kurt. "We feel pretty good tonight, but there are a lot of races left, and we plan on doing this again, so we have to stay on top of our game."

Five-Time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher was expected to be on top of his game in Joliet. Schumacher, a resident of nearby Long Grove, Ill., considers Route 66 Raceway his home track, and with a racing surface as grippy as any on the NHRA tour, the driver of the U.S. Army dragster came into this event with designs on his fourth win of 2008.

Nobody could stop him.

After qualifying No. 1 for the third time this year, Schumacher raced through the Joliet field before capping his day with a 4.499/329.83 to 5.259/223.14 win over "Hot" Rod Fuller. Schumacher's 4.499 elapsed time was also the low for the weekend.

"I think five years ago [crew chief] Alan Johnson flew into this track, and the last time we had met we raced each other, so it was kind of cool that we go out and qualify No. 1, win the race, and since then we've won four championships. I think today is 38 wins together," Schumacher said. "It's just an outstanding team. The coolest part is I think we have five or six of the guys on the team from the first day. That's a lot of guys. A lot of great people that stayed together. Not through the 38 wins, but through the 356 points back we were a couple of years ago. All of those things. That's what makes a great team."

In Funny Car, reigning champion Tony Pedregon experienced a powerful engine explosion during qualifying on Saturday -- not entirely unlike the devastating explosion which destroyed his car in Pomona earlier this year. But this time, Pedregon overcame the mishap unscathed, jumped back into his nitro Chevy on Sunday and rang up his second win of 2008, beating Scott Kalitta in the final, 4.818/319.75 to 4.957/308.92.

"I just felt good today," Pedregon said. "I didn't feel concerned. We had a new chassis. There's always a little question mark if it's going to drive like the other one. We had zero runs on it. It was brand new. Fortunately, my guys had it ready and after that first round, I kind of had that confidence that I haven't had in a while.

"I just feel, when I look at that roll cage and I look at what I'm surrounded by, and I actually feel some sense of security in the car … I know what's at stake and I know the risks, but we do take a lot of precautions. Hey, I'm competitive. This is what I do. I'm no different from any athlete that takes a hit or falls on the turf and twists his knee. We get back up, and this is what we do."

Chris Rivas picked up his first career national event win in Pro Stock Motorcycle, racing past Craig Treble in the final round, 7.051/185.43 to 7.134/185.38.

"I've been waiting for this for such a long time," Rivas said. "I felt like I was so past due to getting it. I really just felt like I had the skills in my riding ability to do it. It just felt like we needed to get a bike under me that had the potential to do what I had the potential to do as a rider, and it finally just all came together."

Bill Stephens covers the NHRA for ESPN.com.