John Force is back in the Winner’s Circle at NHRA. Full Pomona Results Inside.

from NHRA.com

NHRA’s winningest driver, John Force, got back into the winner’s circle after a 20-month drought and was joined by Larry Dixon and Mike Edwards in collecting season-opening Full Throttle Drag Racing Series wins at the 50th anniversary Kragen O’Reilly NHRA Winternationals.

View the complete results on NHRA’s web site, or read the event summary below.

The victory at Auto Club Raceway at Pomona, during a weekend filled with nostalgic moments and memories, is Force’s record 127th and it came in his 203rd career final, but his first since the 2008 Topeka event, 623 days ago. The Top Fuel win by Dixon also marked a bit of a comeback as his team didn’t even qualify at last year’s race, where qualifying was shortened by rain. Edwards’ win continued the dominance that the reigning Pro Stock champ showed in closing out his successful 2009 campaign.

Force, coming off his first winless season since 1986 and celebrating the 25th anniversary of his longtime partnership with Castrol, showed that he’s still in fighting form by winning the Winternationals title, his fifth, on a holeshot, 4.124 to 4.123 against Ron Capps. The last time that Force led the points was Nov. 12, 2006, when he won his most recent championship.

The win also proved that Force’s the decision to add sidelined tuner cum driver Mike Neff to the tuning mix with Austin Coil and Bernie Fedderly was a wise decision. His Mustang never seemed challenged  with consistent passes of 4.132, 4.120, and 4.125 to defeat Bob Bode, daughter Ashley Force Hood, and Jack Beckman.

Capps, the defending event champ who also won this race in 1998, powered his Ed McCulloch-tuned NAPA Auto Parts Dodge back to the final  the tough way, having to win without lane choice in round one, where he beat Jim head, then beating former champ Cruz Pedregon, who had upset low qualifier and defending season champ Robert Hight in round one. Capps reached the final, the 60th Funny Car of his career, with a semifinal triumph over Bob Tasca III after a heroic thrash to repair a broken rear end. The car had to be transported back to the trailer on a flatbed, but with help from teammate matt Hagan’s DieHard crew, they had the rear end and a new engine block installed in just 35 minutes.

Larry Dixon

Dixon’s victory, scored on a 3.80, 316.60 to 3.84, 310.05 over defending event champ Doug Kalitta, was his 49th career win, tying him with his former car owner, Don “the Snake” Prudhomme, for eighth place among all Pro winners and 14th among all NHRA drivers. Dixon previously had won the Winternationals in 1998 and back-to-back in 2002 and 2003.

Dixon, who lost his low qualifying berth to Cory McClenathan in Saturday’s final qualifying session, looked nearly flawless en route to the final round, chalking up low e.t. of eliminations at 3.799 in round one to defeat Steve Chrisman, followed by a 3.85 conquest of longtime rival Brandon Bernstein. Dixon’s semifinal bash with Tony Schumacher, to whom he lost the season championship last year by a mere two points, was another legendary clash between the two modern-day Top Fuel titans. They ran identical e.t.s and identical speeds – 3.836s and 317.05s a pair – and it was only Dixon’s .068 to .085 reaction-time edge that made the difference 999 feet later.

Kalitta, who last year joined his uncle, Connie (1967), and cousin, Scott (2005), as Winternationals Top Fuel champs, raced his way back to the money round again, the 59th of his career, by overcoming first-round engine woes that slowed him to a 4.51, but the Jim Oberhofer-led crew responded with passes of 3.92 and 3.84 to defeat tire-smoking Troy Buff and No. 1 qualifier McClenathan.

Mike Edwards

Twenty-nine years after winning his first Winternationals title in Modified elimination, Edwards, frustrated twice by Summit teammates Greg Anderson (2006) and Jason Line (2009), scored his first Winternationals Pro Stock title by besting Anderson, 6.57, 210.47 to 6.61, 209.62. Anderson got the holeshot, .031 to .069, but Edwards ran him down to win his 21st Pro Stock Wally by just .003-second.

Prior to beating Anderson, Edwards’ Penhall/Interstate/K&N Pontiac was the quickest car in all four qualifying sessions, and had low e.t. of every preliminary round as he motored past Justin Humphreys, Greg Stanfield, and Allen Johnson with blasts of 6.604, 6.610, and 6.615 to reach the final, his 40th in the class. It’s the second time that Edwards has racked up the maximum points available at a race; the first was in Richmond, Va., late last year.

Anderson continued his Pomona love affair by reaching the final. He won the 2009 season finale here, won the Winternationals three straight years from 2006-2008 and four times overall, and at this race last year reset the national record, and reached the final again, the 89th of his career, with his Summit Pontiac after running 6.608 in round one in a rematch with Kurt Johnson of the last event here, then moved on to beat good-looking rookie Shane Gray with a 6.626 and ended the great debut of Larry Morgan’s new Lucas Oil Mustang in the semifinals with a 6.632.

The Alcohol Dragster final pitted the runners-up from the last two years, and ’09’s second-place finisher Chris Demke finished first this time with a 5.33 victory over 2008 runner-up Joey Severence. Sean O’Bannon handed Doug Gordon his second straight Alcohol Funny Car Winternationals runner-up, beating the 2003 champ in the final, 5.54 to 5.64.

A pair of former Winternationals Comp champs battled for their second wins in a rematch of their 2006 final here, and the outcome was the same as Lou Ficco Jr. collected the win when 2004 Winternationals champ Dean Carter went -.117 red. In Super Stock, 2003 Winternationals champ Jeff Lane scored again, handing reigning world champ Jimmy DeFrank Jr. his fourth straight Winternationals final-round loss while Brad Burton defeated Ryan McClanahan for Stock honors.

Kevin Wright got a bye run in the Super Comp final when 2003 Super Gas runner-up Ed Olpin’s dragster wouldn’t fire in the final. The guy who beat Olpin in that 2003 final, Brad Pierce, also won his second Winternationals title by beating former world champ Jimmy Lewis in the Super Gas final.

Points Standings