This was another exciting week as Hillary Will did step up and take her rightful place among the great female driver in Top Fuel. Her consistancy paid off in her first event win in her Top Fuel career. She is the seventh woman to win in the class. Sometimes you can just see when a driver is in the zone and relaxed. She was in the zone today.

Also, John Force is back in the winner's circle with his 126th event win in Funny Cars. Less than a year after a horrific crash in Dallas that had everyone speculating about the end of a legendary career he showed why he is a legend. The man creates great drivers and still acts as humble as can be. Winning for him is still exciting and he is just giddy when he wins as he ever was. John celebrated his win by climbing into the stands to be with the fans.

You feeling the pinch with the current gas issues? So is NHRA. Their problem is not enough nitro-methane to finish the season. They have until the two last events to find some more if they want to finish. I am sure they will but you just can't run down the street and get more nitro-methane for your Top Fuel car or Funny Car. They may have to change a rule or two to adjust for this issue. Right now there is only one fuel supplier allowed in NHRA. They may have to let someone else in eventually.

Some teams in NHRA and NASCAR are teaming up to make a Bonneville run at a speed record. They want to go 500 mph in a car. If anyone can fly on four wheels it is these people.

The nitro shortage caused by the one authorized supplier policy is going to make waves Jokul. I dont recall who it was that was penalized for using unauthorized fuel during the event yet NHRA allowed the use during practice. This team might have won the event or the year end title depending on the penalty. Now, NHRA might be telling this same team, duh, it's ok now!

It was awesome to John Force Really Back!!!!!

Funny Car driver Scott Kalitta, 46, died today from multiple injuries suffered after his car went out of control and crashed in a 300 mph racing accident during the final round of qualifying at the Lucas Oil NHRA SuperNationals.

Kalitta, a two-time NHRA POWERade Series Top Fuel champion and one of only 14 drivers in NHRA history to earn victories in both premier nitro categories, earned 18 victories during his career, his last coming in Chicago in 2005 in Top Fuel. Kalitta earned most of his racing success in Top Fuel, where he claimed back-to-back world championship titles in 1994 and 1995. He posted a runner-up finish two weeks ago in Chicago, his 36th career NHRA final round appearance.

Kalitta's father is legendary NHRA racer and team owner Connie Kalitta.

I saw the wreck. It didn't look like a wreck that would kill a person, but I've seen guys die in non-major looking wrecks before. Dale Earnhardt comes to mind.

*tips hat to Kalitta* R.I.P.

I apologize. I mentioned the wrong wreck. They showed one from another race and I got confused. The wreck that killed Kalitta was much worse than I thought. He hit the wall at 300 mph and catapulted him over the wall. This was after the body got blown off his car after he crossed the finish line.

The race must go on. Scott Kalitta's family left thetrack immediately after yesterday's tragic events. All the rest of the Kalitta drivers withdrew from the event. Instead they gave several unique events to honor Scott Kalitta. Each race the drivers of the team were supposed to race in were solo runs by the opposing drivers. The driver's teams gather at the starting line, in the lane they were supposed to run in, and watched the solo run in tribute. When they got to the race Scott was supposed to be in all the Kalitta teams gathered at the line. Robert Hight then ran a slow run down the track. A fitting tribute to their friend and competitor.

The problem that contributed the most to Kalitta's death was generally believed to be the length of the track you have to stop the car in after the finish line. The brakes and parachutes work well to stop the 300+ mph cars in most cases. If both fail the car is moving too fast to stop before they run out of track. Kalitta hit the end of a cement wall at hundreds of miles per hour.

The call is for the tracks to be lengthened so this becomes less likely to happen again. Most of the tracks were built in the 50s and 60s when cars ran more than 100 mph slower. The tracks haven't kept up with the speeds. Cars that can't stop for some reason are now going 100 mph faster when they hit the end now. Some tracks can't be extended as they curve at the end to avoid things like forests or hills. It may take some time before any changes are made on some tracks. Those that can expand will likely be extended before next year.

The big news in NHRA this weekend is a change that has many purists shocked and maddened. Even the racers don't like it but can understand it was a safety move. Drag racing has always been measured on a quarter-mile (1320 feet) track. At least temporarily, the distance for Top Fuel and Funny Cars will only be 1000 feet. They did this to keep the speeds down in the cars in an attempt to prevent another accident like the one that took Scott Kalitta's live recently.

This change would not have prevented Kalitta's death, in my mind. It is a band-aid fix for the real problem. I can understand taking the measure until they can figure out something better. What I can't understand is why they can not figure out how to slow the cars down another way. The speeds at the finish line have dropped about 20 mph to 30 mph to right around 300 mph. Oh, and they now cover the race distance in under 4 seconds for the first time. All the rest of the competitors still run the full quarter-mile. This change is only for the top two classes.

I don't see shorting the distance they race isn't fixing anything. For some reason they think that will stop what happened to Kalitta from happening to others. It won't. The Kalitta incident was a VERY rare thing to happen. Even if he would've only raced for a thousand feet, he still would've ended up the same. Maybe I'm wrong? We'll never know.