The 2003 NHRA POWERade Top Fuel championship is settled. Ditto Pro Stock. That leaves two category titles yet to be decided and this weekend at the 3rd AC Delco Nationals at The Strip at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, the Funny Car and Pro Stock Bike championships could be closed out.

"Silly Season" is in full swing, with a tasty selection of rumors, scuttlebutt, and curious conjecture dominating much of the off-track activity echoing through the pits as the season winds down to its final two national events. While time will tell how many of those rumors become reality, here's what the four professional classes will have at stake in Vegas.

Top Fuel
Over the course of the previous six events on the schedule, while Larry Dixon was methodically clinching his second straight championship, Tony Schumacher was busy making a valiant attempt to sneak past Doug Kalitta for secondnd place in the standings. With two races to go, Schumacher's quest now appears out of reach.

Kalitta leads Tony by 185 points and short of an unthinkable collapse by Doug, Schumacher will have to be satisfied with third, although Darrell Russell lies in fourth, only 131 points behind the U.S. Army driver. But positions 5-10 are still vulnerable to some leap-frogging, especially between sixth-place David Baca and seventh-place Kenny Bernstein, who is only 97 points behind the racer who is competing for Rookie of the Year honors with Kenny's son, Brandon. The King of Speed, however, will have to watch his flank as he leads eighth-place John Smith by only five points.

Funny Car
After all the bitterness, outward hostility, and near-fisticuffs which have highlighted this year's Funny Car championship battle between Tony Pedregon and Whit Bazemore, it seems only appropriate that their dramatically tight race to the title has yet to be decided. Tony's 114-point lead is comfortable but not insurmountable. A DNQ or first-round loss by the points leader could once again shift the pendulum toward Whit -- something we've seen happen regularly since July.

Tony lost to his boss, John Force, in last year's final, a decisive victory that allowed Force to clinch his 12th championship at the AAA Finals in Pomona. Tony will feed off the disappointment of that final round last October to come into this race wearing his game face. Whit knows if Tony scores 25 more points than he does this weekend, it's all over, so expect Bazemore to be ready to rumble to keep his hopes alive.

Pro Stock
Greg Anderson has achieved almost as much as any driver can in one season in what has been the sport's most competitive class. Anderson could add a little more frosting to his cake with wins this weekend in Vegas and another one to end the season in Pomona, thus giving him 12 this year to set a single-season record. He has made it clear he would love to do that and break a record that has stood since Darrell Alderman's 1991 landslide championship season. Few are betting against Anderson, who has won 10 races so far -- including the previous event in Dallas.

Kurt Johnson suddenly has someone breathing down his neck for second place: Jeg Coughlin Jr., who has once again turned hot in the season's second half and is now only 83 points behind KJ. Jeg won this race last year and clinched his second career Pro Stock title. You can bet he'll once again be applying the pressure on Kurt this weekend with second place in his sights.

Pro Stock Motorcycle
All Geno Scali has to do is avoid a disastrous stumble this weekend and he can consider the 2003 Pro Stock Motorcycle championship his. He already has a sufficient points lead to wrap up his first career title, 151-points, meaning that Shawn Gann (or Angelle Savoie for that matter, 158 points out) can only hope that Scali misses the field or loses early in eliminations. That would give the second and thirrd place riders a shot at closing to within 138 points and prolonging the title tussle until Pomona.

But Scali knows he has the edge and it's unlikely he'll give the championship away after eight years of racing in the PSB class and having never led the points this late in the season.

Bill Stephens covers the NHRA for ESPN and ESPN.com.