John Force Wins 15th NHRA Funny Car Championship

John Force won an unprecedented 15th National Hod Rod Association Funny Car championship at Pomona, Ca., Sunday, coming back from serious injuries in 2007 to win his first title since 2006.

Force, 61, clinched the title in the quarterfinals after points leader Matt Hagan was defeated in an upset by Bob Tasca. Force then went on to the win the race as well, his sixth victory of the year.

He is the oldest champion in NHRA history, but his career was jeopardized by the bad crash in Dallas in 2007 that left him with injuries that took him two years to fully recover from.

The NHRA also crowned its youngest champion Sunday -- 20-year-old Pro Stock Motorcycle rider LE Tonglet.

Larry Dixon clinched his third Top Fuel championship Sunday. It was his first since he won back-to-back titles in 2002-03. Antron Brown was the top fuel winner in the race.

Hagan came into the event 38 points ahead of Force, but after Hagan's first-round loss, Force needed to win two rounds, and he won those with two strong runs.

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Kurt Busch Is Serious Enough About NHRA to Get a License

ROCKINGHAM, N.C. -- Drag racing has fast become more than just a hobby to Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge. In fact, he is as serious about the sport as he is about racing in NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series.

So it was on a beautiful late fall day this week at Rockingham Dragway that Busch earned his NHRA Pro Stock license, taking the next step forward in his pursuit of going straight and not turning left. The Las Vegas native ran fast enough in a Roy Hill-owned Pro Stock to be eligible to drive in the NHRA's third-level series behind Top Fuel and Funny Cars.

There was no fanfare. No champagne. No cheering crowds -- only a few high fives and warranted smiles between the empty concrete, steel, and wood bleachers looking on aside both the left and the right lanes.

There weren't even any other competitors on site. It was Busch, his crew, the track prep crew and Roy Hill, a former drag racer and now drag racing school owner.

For three days, Busch and his crew -- all dedicated to drag racing -- worked under the tutelage of Hill and were put through the paces to ensure that come 2011, the 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and his team would be ready for whatever might transpire on the drag strip.

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