The racing weekend that was

In NHRA, at Pomona:
At the WinterNationals, the season opener, Courtney Force stepped up and kept the family name up on the podium by racing to victory in her Funny Car. Her sister Brittany unfortunately fouled out when her dragster rolled to deep into the staging beams, causing her to red light. The team would probe the brake system to see if there was a malfunction.


In Top Fuel, the Al Anabi Racing dragster picked up where his "brothers" left off in Qatar last week, that is with a win. In from of a home town crowd, Shawn Langdon defeated seven-time champion Tony Schumacher with a 3.721 et at 322.27 mph.
On a side note, fellow top fuel driver Antron Brown suffered a scary crash when he lost control near the finish line after a massive engine explosion. Brown was unhurt.

In Pro Stock, Vincent Nobile got an easy win in the final round, when Jeg Coughlin Jr. red lighted. There were plenty of upsets; five of the lower qualifiers advanced to the second round, while Greg Anderson went down in the first round, as did Erica Enders-Stevens, who had engine trouble.

Nobile vs Coughlin Jr.

The final round didn't get off without an hitch either. First, Nobile's Dodge stalled at the end of his burnout, and his fellow finalist and teammate Jeggy actually shut off his engine to wait for him. That gesture of good sportsmanship turned bad when the starter wire fell off Jeggy's own Dodge, sending his crew in quick fix mode. It was Nobile's turn to play good sports and wait. What is it with those Dodge door slammers?
Finally, when both cars were staged, the final ended prematurely when Jeggy uncharacteristic red-lighted.

For a short video of this race's highlights, courtesy of CompetitionPlus, please click here. The next drag races will take place this weekend in Phoenix, AZ.

NASCAR, at Daytona:
The 2 weeks leading up to the Daytona 500 are known as Speedweek one and two. In the first one, lots of practice took place, followed by the first race of speed week, and then on Sunday, the guys and galls took to the track for qualifying for the biggest race of the year, scheduled for February 24.
The generation six (aka Gen 6) cars proved to be a handful, allowing for very little drafting, and this at a super speedway. Every time the cars bunched up during practice something small, a little push or shove that wouldn't have caused a wreck with the previous generation of cars, proved to be too much and sent a bunch of cars to the garage and on to their trailers for the long haul back to their shops for repairs.
In the end, the fluorescent green "Go Daddy" car driven by Danica Patrick which was fastest during practice stayed in true form and captured pole position with a 46.420 sec lap, at 193.88 mph, and then a 45.817 sec lap at 196.43 mph. This is the first time that a female driver has ever claimed pole position for NASCAR's top echelon series, the Sprint Cup.



This Sunday, the top ten on the grid will line up as follows:
1. Danica Patrick, 2. Jeff Gordon, 3. Trevor Bayne, 4. Ryan Newman, 5. Tony Stewart, 6. Kasey Kahne, 7. Denny Hamlin, 8. Kyle Busch, 9. Joey Logano, 10. Matt Kenseth. For more information about the qualifying and speeds, please click here.

Thanks for reading and see you at the races.

Source: NHRA, NASCAR, Crash.net
Photo credit: Marty Reger, NASCAR