It's crunch time for the competitors in the Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. Two events remain in the NHRA's Countdown to the Championship, with point races in all four pro categories still undecided.
The action starts this weekend with the NHRA Toyota Nationals at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway (Sunday eliminations, 6 p.m. ET, ESPN2), followed by the traditional season finale at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, California, on Nov. 13-16.
Tony Schumacher is in position to clinch his eighth Top Fuel championship this weekend in the U.S. Army-sponsored rail car run by Don Schumacher Racing. "The Sarge" hasn't won a title since he capped a run of six consecutive championships in 2009, but he has put together his strongest season since then, including a victory in the spring race at The Strip in March.
That was Schumacher's record eighth Las Vegas victory.
Schumacher leads Doug Kalitta by 134 points, with a maximum of 150 available on any given weekend. If Schumacher leaves Las Vegas 151 points to the good, he'll certainly be in a mood to celebrate.
"The way we look at it, there are eight [elimination] races to go," Schumacher said. "All we can do, without knowing what else is going to happen, is to go out and win those races. That's all we can count on.
"We don't know what the other guys are going to do," he continued. "They're a ways behind us in the points, but not so far back that it's unattainable. I've been that car that needed eight rounds and did it, so I'm at least one guy who knows for sure that it can be done. So I'm not taking it lightly."
Schumacher and the DSR team have peaked at the right time. He won the opening two rounds of the six-event Countdown to establish a comfortable points lead, and added to it by winning the most recent round at Reading, Pennsylvania.
Kalitta and everyone else probably will need a meltdown from Schumacher in the last two races to claim the Top Fuel crown. A national elapsed time record is worth 20 bonus points, and bonus points are awarded on a 3-2-1 basis for qualifying sessions.
"It's the U.S. Army team and Tony Schumacher's championship to lose," observed Schumacher's DSR teammate Antron Brown, who is fifth in the standings, 170 points back. "They are in a really good spot and all the other teams wish they could be in their spot.
"We want to win Las Vegas and Pomona," added Brown, who leads the category with six wins in 2014. "That would be a good way to end the year."
Reading produced a change at the top of the Funny Car standings as John Force's first-round exit allowed Matt Hagan to take over as No. 1. As if that were not enough, Force learned days later of crew chief Jimmy Prock's intention to leave John Force Racing at the end of the season, prompting Force to accept Prock's resignation immediately.
Prock subsequently announced that he accepted a new job just down the street working for Force's archrival, Don Schumacher.
Force, who will run a unique patriotic paint scheme celebrating his record 16 NHRA championships during Las Vegas qualifying, remains bullish about his chances for a 17th crown.
"We're going to come out swinging," Force told reporters on a recent conference call. "I'll have a good race car, you can count on that. The rest is where Lady Luck takes us. I always believed that if you stand up and you fight, you do the best you can, and with a little help from the good Lord and the people around you, you'll be OK. If you win, that's great. That's the icing on the cake. But if you lose, and you gave it everything you got, you still won.
"John Force needs to get up and rally himself and his team, whether new or old, and that's what I plan on doing."
Hagan, who drives the Mopar Express Lane Dodge for DSR, accepts that he is the underdog going up against fan favorite Force.
"To be honest, there's not that much pressure on us," said Hagan, the 2011 Funny Car champion. "Everyone expects John to win this thing. We just have to go out there and do our thing and not worry about anyone else. We have the team that is capable of doing that. We started off this Countdown real strong with two wins and a runner-up in three out of four races, so we are on a roll."
The closest championship battle on four wheels is in Pro Stock, where Jason Line leads Erica Enders-Stevens by 35 points. Dave Connolly is 51 points back, while Shane Gray is also within 100 points of Line's total.
Connolly, winner of 25 Pro Stock events, revealed this week that he will switch to the Top Fuel category next year. He'll team with three-time TF champion Larry Dixon in a two-car effort for Bob Vandergriff Racing, as Bob Vandergriff Jr. retires from driving to focus on running his team.
"I've been driving a Pro Stock car or working on one since 2003; it's what I have lived," Connolly said. "It's kind of crazy. I've never really thought about driving Top Fuel, mainly because the opportunity wasn't there. But when Bob approached me, it really sparked my interest.
"Top Fuel is the fastest car on the planet. I've driven everything else, so I'm up to the challenge."
Two-time Pro Stock Champion Line (2006 and '11) is looking for his fourth win of the season in the Summit Racing Chevrolet Camaro.
"The adrenaline is high at this point in the season, and anybody that says it isn't is probably a little confused," Line remarked. "This isn't my first chase, and this isn't the first time I've been in this position. You hope that experience helps and you learned something from the last few years. But really, some things are out of your control. All you can do is go out there, try to do the best you can, and hopefully you win."
Enders-Stevens, who leads the category with four wins this year, is seeking to become the first female driver to win the Pro Stock championship.
"Hopefully that topic is visited," she said. "We'll see how it goes. We'll do our best. We certainly have the best opportunity I've ever had in my career to accomplish this, and we'll take it one step at a time."
Pro Stock Motorcycle is even closer, with Andrew Hines just 25 points ahead of his Vance & Hines Screaming Eagle Harley-Davidson teammate Eddie Krawiec.
Both H-D riders have won at Las Vegas three times.