A beautiful desert sunset might make Stig Neergaard (far lane) feel a little better about not making the field at Las Vegas. T.J. Zizzo
lost in the first round to Antron Brown. 
(Tim Marshall photo)

Words compiled from team press releases by Kay Burk
Photos by Tim Marshall and Ron Lewis

John Force raced to an emotional Funny Car victory Sunday, Oct. 31,
at the NHRA Las Vegas Nationals and in the process cut series leader Matt
Hagan’s lead in half with one race remaining in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Drag
Racing Series season.

Tony Schumacher, Greg Anderson and LE Tonglet also won in their categories in the next to
last race in the NHRA Full Throttle Series Countdown to the Championship playoffs.

The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway is recognized as one of the premier racing surfaces in the country,
turning out record times but on Sunday track clean up vehicles got equal time as the 300 mph Top Fuel Dragsters
and Funny Cars. An unbelievable amount of oil downs extended the first nitro qualify session to over four hours. The
second session was delayed for almost two hours by persistent oil downs and a spectacular accident by Funny Car driver
Jeff Diehl.

TOP FUEL

U.S. Army Top Fuel pilot Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher grabbed his sixth victory of the year.

After taking care of Dominick Lagana in the finals with a 3.845-second pass at 316.60 mph, Schumacher moved around his Don Schumacher Racing teammate, Cory McClenathan, into second-place in the standings.
           
The Chicago-area resident will now head for the 2010 season finale at Pomona, Calif. in two weeks trailing leader, Larry Dixon, by 85 points. He is seeking his seventh consecutive world championship.