NHRA FINALS: Prepping for a Funny finish

"John Force," said Wilkerson, who trails Pedregon by 12 points and is 27 ahead of Hight. "I beat him one race and he started chewing me out, and I told him, 'It's your fault. Who do you think we inspired to be? You have made us all tremendously competitive.' John is such an icon, that beating him is the pinnacle.
"That's just the way we feel about it. Anytime we can race John and come out on top ... We go home feeling like we did a pretty good job."
That feeling could be even higher come Sunday, if Wilkerson can outdo Pedregon and Hight and win the championship. But it won't be easy. Pedregon, whose brother Tony won the title last year, has won the past two races and advanced to the finals here at the Winternationals in February.
"It's great to be back in this position again," said Pedregon, who last won the championship in 1992. He was the only other driver than Force to win the championship between 1990-2003. "All the success we've had the past two races is out the window come Thursday when qualifying starts.
"If Robert's car hadn't run so well at Pomona (previously), I'd feel better, and if Tim hadn't won so many races this year, I'd feel a little bit better. That makes me not feel so good."
Wilkerson feels good, but mainly because the weather is expected to be in the 80s all weekend, which could cause track tempatures to rise to over 100 degrees, which would fall right into Wilkerson's tune-up window.
"The weather looks like it might play into our hands," Wilkerson said. "I prayed for hot weather, and it looks like it came.
"When it's 65-70 outside and the track's 80 degrees, those guys are pretty hard to deal with. I'm hit or miss in that kind of weather. My deal is better when the track is a little tricky. But we'll see how it plays out."
Hight, who has been in the points race at each of the past three years, is hoping the fourth time is a charm. But he has another reason why he wants to win the title.
"I'd like to get one for (crew chief Jimmy Prock)," he said. "He's been close, but hasn't won one yet. I like to get him that title."
This weekend's points chase wasn't the only topics covered in this hour discussion. Cruz and Wilk also talked about the switch to an 1,000-foot track, which both agreed has provided much closer racing. But Pedregon says it has taken something away from the sport.
"I look at it from the fans (point of view)," said Pedregon of the switch, which was implemented after the death of Scott Kalitta at Englishtwon, N.J. in June. "If you look at the fans, (the move to 1,000 feet) is not a good thing. Why? Because we've educated them for over 50 years about the numbers (at the quartermile). I think what we've done (with the switch) is a good thing for an immediate response, but I think NHRA has to do whatever they can to go back to the quartermile. I believe, in the long term, it will hurt the sport. I think fans matter, and the quartermile is what they expect.
"Look at NASCAR, they dealt with this issue, and they didn't make Talladega smaller, they didn't make Daytona smaller. If they would have done that, now you're messing with something you shouldn't play with. Do we need all that safety? Absolutely."
Wilkerson agreed with the latter.
"I thought the 1,000-foot idea was a great way to fix the problem," Wilkerson said. "I agree. I understand that. But where's the balance between the tradition and the safety. We can't knock off drivers. I don't want to see Cruz get hurt. He doesn't want to see Robert or I hurt. It's not a good thing. It's a tremendous problem.
"I never believed it could happen (Kalitta's death). I was blind to that. I got in that car every weekend thinking I was John Force, I'm superman, I'm not going to get hurt in this car. After that Kalitta deal, we went down there and stared at that, and thought, 'Wow, we are a bunch of dumb SOBs.' We need to fix this deal. But it's a tough deal. Everyone's opinion has validity.It's a problem, so how do you fix it?"