Springfield, Ill.-native Tim Wilkerson won his first NHRA POWERade Series Funny Car race in nearly four years when he took the Wally (the NHRA winners' trophy named for series founder Wally Parks) at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on Sunday. Wilkerson topped Ashley Force, who appeared in her second-straight final, moving to second in the overall class standings. Force, however, moved to the top of the Funny Car charts for the first time in her career. Ashley's father, 14-time NHRA POWERade Series Funny Car champion John Force, did not make Sunday's finals. Force will celebrate his 59th birthday May 4th at Gateway International Raceway during the final day of the O'Reilly Midwest Nationals.
Extensive testing at Gateway International Raceway paid off once again for Hendrick Motorsports as Jimmie Johnson won his second-straight race at Phoenix. Gateway is often used by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams to prepare for the events at the one-mile Arizona-based track due to its similar banking. Johnson, along with Saturday night's runner-up Clint Bowyer, tested at GIR last October and Hendrick Motorsports sent its David Green-led test team to the Madison, Ill.-based 1.25 mile oval following the Daytona 500 earlier this season for even more data. Defending NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Carl Edwards finished fourth, two-time GIR winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished seventh, and 2004 GIR winner Martin Truex Jr. finished eighth. Greg Biffle, the only driver to have won both NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series races at Gateway, finished ninth.
Edwards, the 2006 NASCAR Nationwide Series winner at Gateway, was the runner-up in that series' race on Friday to Kyle Busch, who won his second-straight Nationwide event. In addition to Columbia, Mo.-native Edwards, all of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stars currently scheduled to race at Gateway for the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 on July 19th finished in the top-ten: David Ragan (5th), Clint Bowyer (8th), and David Reutimann (9th). Two-time GIR winner Kevin Harvick finished fourth. It was also announced this weekend that Harvick is considering buying into an NHRA POWERade Series Top Fuel team and was a guest of top fuel driver Bob Vandergriff, Jr. Sunday at the SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series continues its spring break and will return to action Saturday, April 26th at Kansas Speedway. That race can be seen live on SPEED with the green flag expected to drop at approximately 5 p.m.
Gateway International Raceway is hosting the NHRA POWERade Series O'Reilly Midwest Nationals May 2-4, PINKS: All Out June 27-28, the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series event July 19, and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and ASA Late Model Series Sept. 6. For ticket information to these and the more than 200 other events at GIR this year, call 866-35-SPEED or visit GatewayRaceway.com.
Extensive testing at Gateway International Raceway paid off once again for Hendrick Motorsports as Jimmie Johnson won his second-straight race at Phoenix. Gateway is often used by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series teams to prepare for the events at the one-mile Arizona-based track due to its similar banking. Johnson, along with Saturday night's runner-up Clint Bowyer, tested at GIR last October and Hendrick Motorsports sent its David Green-led test team to the Madison, Ill.-based 1.25 mile oval following the Daytona 500 earlier this season for even more data. Defending NASCAR Nationwide Series champion Carl Edwards finished fourth, two-time GIR winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished seventh, and 2004 GIR winner Martin Truex Jr. finished eighth. Greg Biffle, the only driver to have won both NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series races at Gateway, finished ninth.
Edwards, the 2006 NASCAR Nationwide Series winner at Gateway, was the runner-up in that series' race on Friday to Kyle Busch, who won his second-straight Nationwide event. In addition to Columbia, Mo.-native Edwards, all of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series stars currently scheduled to race at Gateway for the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 on July 19th finished in the top-ten: David Ragan (5th), Clint Bowyer (8th), and David Reutimann (9th). Two-time GIR winner Kevin Harvick finished fourth. It was also announced this weekend that Harvick is considering buying into an NHRA POWERade Series Top Fuel team and was a guest of top fuel driver Bob Vandergriff, Jr. Sunday at the SummitRacing.com Nationals in Las Vegas.
The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series continues its spring break and will return to action Saturday, April 26th at Kansas Speedway. That race can be seen live on SPEED with the green flag expected to drop at approximately 5 p.m.
Gateway International Raceway is hosting the NHRA POWERade Series O'Reilly Midwest Nationals May 2-4, PINKS: All Out June 27-28, the Missouri-Illinois Dodge Dealers 250 NASCAR Nationwide Series event July 19, and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and ASA Late Model Series Sept. 6. For ticket information to these and the more than 200 other events at GIR this year, call 866-35-SPEED or visit GatewayRaceway.com.
