National Hot Rod Association

Instead, this huge, sprawling celebration of speed, held at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, Ind., Sept. 1-6, is the first of six that comprise NHRA's Countdown to the Championship playoffs, bringing extra significance and pressure to the Labor Day weekend event.

Next year, per the schedule released last week, the U.S. Nationals will again be the final event of the NHRA regular season, the last chance for teams to claw their way to one of 10 playoffs berths. But the U.S. Nationals has never needed manufactured drama to validate it. Since the first one (then just called the Nationals) in Great Bend, Kan., in 1955, it's been the race, the one drivers want to win above all others.

Incoming Top Fuel points leader Larry Dixon, driver of the Toyota-supported Al-Anabi Racing dragster, has always been quick to point out that his team goes for the win at every race, never conceding round-wins now for a chance at more wins later by testing amid the heat of competition. His outlook takes into account both prevailing schools of thought: No, his strategy for the U.S. Nationals won't be any different than it was at any of the previous 17 events this season, but yes, this race towers above all other drag races in importance.

"I've been going to Indy since I was a little kid, since my dad was racing Top Fuel there in the '70s,” he says, “and Indy has always meant more than any other race. I'd never say that it's just another race.”

As if he weren't already the prohibitive favorite to win Top Fuel, having taken more victories already this season (nine) than all other drivers combined (eight), Dixon is overdue for another U.S. Nationals win. Since he scored in 1995 as a rookie driving for Don "the Snake" Prudhomme, Dixon has never gone more than six years without winning it again, and it's been five years since the last one. Last year, he was runner-up to Tony Schumacher, who has won eight times overall, tying the all-time Top Fuel event record established by the legendary "Big Daddy" Don Garlits, and four times in a row, equaling the record established by Pro Stock racers Bob Glidden, Warren Johnson, and Greg Anderson.

Dixon's crew chief, Jason McCulloch, brings his own unique perspective. He has been on the crews of three previous U.S. Nationals champions, his father Ed "the Ace" McCulloch, Pedregon, and Schumacher.

"We're not going to change one thing from what got us to this point," he says. "After the kind of year we've had, why would we?"

For Brian Corradi, crew chief for the Toyota-supported Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster driven by Countdown contender Antron Brown, it'll be business as usual when teams arrive at O'Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis.

"We won't do one single thing any differently than we've been doing it all year," says Corradi, who tuned Brown to five regular-season wins last year. "Indy's the biggest race of the year, obviously, but as far as I'm concerned, our approach to this race will be exactly the same approach we had at Pomona, the first race of the year: Make the car go from A to B every time and just race the track, regardless of who's in the other lane."

Cruz Pedregon (pictured) narrowly failed to make the Countdown in his Snap-On Tools Toyota. But, as a three-time winner of the U.S. Nationals, he’s hoping his experience will put him in the frame once again at Indy. Three of the first four times he competed at the U.S. Nationals – in 1992, 1993, and 1995 – he won. Six years ago, at the 50th annual event, he just missed a fourth title, falling to veteran Gary Densham in the final round.

"You tell yourself that the U.S. Nationals is no different than any other race, but we all know that it is," says Pedregon. "There's no Countdown for us this year, anyway. But I know what you have to do to win Indy and what we did to win the Countdown two years ago: be consistent. Look what happened in 2008. We didn't win a single race in the regular season. We got close a few times, but we never closed the deal. We just stayed consistent, got to a lot of semifinals and a few finals, and when the Countdown started, everything fell our way. And whichever team is the most consistent over these next six races is the one that's going to win the championship this year, too."

But being consistent in the pressure-soaked environment of the six-race Countdown, where just one bad weekend can take you out of contention, is easier said than done. Second-year Top Fuel racer Shawn Langdon, driver of the Toyota-supported Lucas Oil dragster in the Countdown, knows that the pressure will shoot up the moment qualifying begins on Friday night.

"I think people start to pay a little more attention to detail during the Countdown, especially at Indy," he says. "I raced there so many times with my Super Comp and Super Gas cars, and I was still in on Monday almost every time [meaning that he was one of the final eight drivers in contention from a field of more than 100], but I never got it done, never even got to the final.

"There's just so much at stake now," he adds. "In the regular season, you're racing for event wins. You get to the Countdown, and all of a sudden you're racing for a championship. I think the Countdown separates the good drivers from the bad ones. We're about to see who the good drivers really are."