rpm.espn.com: No repeat winners in last two races

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Thursday, August 2
No repeat winners in last two races
By Bill Stephens
ESPN.com


	Force

The NHRA is about to put the finishing touches on its grueling Western Swing. The final stop on the three-races-in-three-weeks junket will unfold at historic Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, Calif., this weekend with the Fram Autolite Nationals.

The three professional classes assembling in the heart of wine country for the 16th event of the season have seen the first two races of the Swing - at Denver and Seattle -- produce no repeat winners.

In Denver, it was Larry Dixon winning Top Fuel, John Force taking Funny Car and Warren Johnson the Pro Stock champ. In Seattle, Top Fuel champ Gary Scelzi finally won his first race of the year, as did Whit Bazemore in Funny Car and Mark Osborne in Pro Stock.

Here's a preview of what's on the line in Sonoma:

Top Fuel
Kenny Bernstein's runner-up finish last weekend in Seattle was as opportune a development as he has had all season. After beating Dixon in the semifinals, the driver who was only three points behind Bernstein in the standings, Bernstein's final-round appearance lengthened his lead slightly. In fact, his 14-point lead should have been 24 points, but Bernstein suffered a blown engine in the final, oiled the track, and was penalized 10 points.

Scelzi's win also was a fortunate stroke for his beleaguered team. He is now just one point behind third-place Doug Kalitta, but still 211 points out of first and heading for an event which he has never won, while Kalitta is the three-time consecutive champion.

Scelzi's chances at a miraculous comeback are slim, and for him to have any shot for his fourth title, he'll have to avoid any early-round losses the rest of the way while Bernstein, Dixon and Kalitta will have to score a string of them. And how likely is that?

Funny Car
It has become a familiar scenario since 1990. Force has amassed a points lead that will require a most implausible series of stumbles on his part to lose. It is now a mad dash for the second spot with Force enjoying a huge 391-point bulge over Bazemore. But Bazemore is only 31 points ahead of Del Worsham, who is only eight points ahead of Ron Capps. Capps, meanwhile, is just 15 points ahead of Bruce Sarver, who leads Tony Pedregon by 18 points.

Expect the shuffling to continue ? but not for the top spot. Force has already won the Sonoma race five times in his career and is the defending event champ. How can you bet against him?

Pro Stock
There are two drivers who come to Sonoma with a host of pleasant memories: Kurt Johnson and Jim Yates. Last year, it was Johnson who won the race, capping a two-out-of-three Swing that helped boost him to a second place finish in the points.

In 1997, Yates came within one round of sweeping the Swing, when he won in Denver but lost to Mike Edwards in the Seattle final by less than 1/1000th of a second. Yates used the momentum from that three-race assault to win the second of his two championships.

Yates will begin this weekend only 70 points behind leader Warren Johnson. Both Johnsons were first-round losers in Seattle last week, while Yates advanced to the semifinals and lost to eventual winner Mark Osborne.

Yates has a shot at taking back the points lead he held earlier this season, but it will require another Warren Johnson first-round loss and at least another semifinal run from Yates. Otherwise, The Professor will return east up atop the standings.

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	Fram Autolite Nationals preview ESPN's Cruz Pedregon joins John Kernan for a preview of this weekend's NHRA action. Real: 56.6 \| ISDN \| T1