FORMER CHAMPS READY FOR THE VEGAS LUCK AT SUMMITRACING.COM NATIONALS:

With two races already in the record books in the 2011 season, the drivers of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series now set their sights on “Sin City” itself, as the series makes its first of two stops in Las Vegas for the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals, April 1-3 at The Strip At Las Vegas Motor Speedway. One driver hoping for a visit from “Lady Luck” is Pro Stock driver Mike Edwards. Just one year ago, Edwards entered the Las Vegas event riding a wave of success that saw the driver win his first Pro Stock world championship the year previous and pick up three wins and a runner-up finish in the first five races of the season. Edwards left Las Vegas with yet another win and a stronger hold on the points lead, but a string of bad luck late in the season saw that lead given up by the time the series returned to Las Vegas in October of that year, and Edwards was unable to repeat his championship run. The 2011 season has brought much of the same for Edwards. A DNQ to open the season at the Kragen O’Reilly Auto Parts Winternationals and a second round loss to Ron Krisher at the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals has the former world champion sitting 11th in the point standings entering the race in Las Vegas.

Two other drivers hoping to repeat some Las Vegas success are defending event winners as well as world champions Larry Dixon and John Force. Both drivers all but dominated the 2010 spring race, as well as the season, but haven’t had the title defense so far that they’ve hoped for, as Dixon is tied for fourth-place with Morgan Lucas and Force is ninth in the Funny Car standings, 113 points back of first-place teammate Mike Neff. Both drivers have yet to make it to the final round in 2011. Will The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway break their bad luck streak?