Clermont, Ind. — That the Funny Car class today is the most competitive in NHRA Full Throttle drag racing is supported by statistics compiled in the three years since the sport’s premier sanctioning body adopted the current Countdown to 1 format for crowning its professional champions.

Since the Countdown was implemented in 2007, all nine champions crowned in Top Fuel, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle started their playoff run from the top of the regular season standings, either from the No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 position.

Funny Car—all three Countdown champions started the playoffs from outside the Top 3 including 2009 champ Robert Top Gun Hight who drove his Automobile Club of Southern California Ford Mustang to the title after almost failing to make the field and eventually starting the competition dead last among 10 drivers.

In addition to Hight’s worst-to-first run in 2009, Tony Pedregon won from the No. 4 position in ‘07 and his brother, Cruz, won from No. 6 in ‘08. No wonder then that, despite enduring a somewhat disappointing regular season, Ashley Force Hood rolls into this week’s Countdown-opening Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park with unexpected confidence.

As one of five Ford drivers with a shot at the $500,000 title. Force Hood will start her Castrol GTX Mustang from the No. 8 position after failing to win a single one of the 17 qualifying races. Ford teammates Tim Wilkerson, Bob Tasca III, Hight and John Force, each a multiple winner in the regular season, will start ahead of her in the No. 7, No. 6, No. 2 and No. 1 spots, respectively.

Force, winner of a record 130 tour events, has rebounded from a pair of off seasons to put himself in position to win an unprecedented 15th championship. Although he won a race in 2008, just nine months after suffering career-threatening injuries in a crash at the Texas Motorplex outside Dallas, Force was shut out completely in 2009, failing to reach a single final round for the first time since 1985.

Source: http://www.fordracing.com/news/detail/index.asp?article=38302

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