Along the way a stunning four national records were set with new top speeds recorded in Top Fuel, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Truck and a new elapsed time benchmark was branded into the Pro Stock books.

John Force

Force capped his championship weekend off with an exciting final-round win over Tommy Johnson Jr. and his Joe Gibbs-owned Interstate Batteries Pontiac. The two drivers launched almost simultaneously, Force in .460 seconds and Johnson in .474 seconds, and continued side-by-side until the 1,000-foot mark when Force's Castrol GTX Mustang pulled away for the win. The final numbers saw Force crossing in 4.827 seconds at 319.60 mph against Johnson's career-best 4.843-second pass at 319.82 mph.

"[Crew chief Austin] Coil talked about [Johnson crew chief Wes] Cerny not taking it easy on us so we were going for it," Force said. "The kid's good and I knew I had to be ready for him.

"This has been a great day all the way around."

Coil interjected his thoughts. "You spend all year looking at the points and to finally clinch the title is great," he said. "Now we start working towards next year because come February we'll all be at zero.

The race between Force and Johnson also was the quickest side-by-side Funny Car race in NHRA history.

Force actually clinched his latest Winston title in the second round of eliminations when Castrol teammate Tony Pedregon, who was the only other driver with a mathematical chance to catch Force in the points this year, lost to Kendall rival Whit Bazemore. Funny Car results

Warren Johnson

W.J. also will get to keep the title of Winston Pro Stock champion next to his name for another year as he clinched his fifth title with a final-round win over Jim Yates' Splitfire/Peak Pontiac. "The Professor" dominated the day with his GM Performance Parts Pontiac and won the finals with a 6.842-second pass at 201.75 mph against Yates' 6.892-second, 199.24-mph blast.

Prior to the finals, Johnson used passes of 6.860, 6.854, and 6.858 seconds to beat Mike Edwards, Allen Johnson, and Troy Coughlin, respectively.

"I'm probably more happy for my team than I am for anything else," Johnson said. "The guys who come to the track and the guys back at the shop work their butts off 'round the clock to help us achieve this goal. The dyno's never not running when we're at the shop, and this championship is a testament to that.

"I personally will enjoy the championship for oh, (looking at watch) about 30 minutes and then I'll be back to work. I look at it like we did a decent job this year. We've only won seven races so obviously there is a lot of room to do better."

Johnson won back-to-back championships in 1992 and '93, another title in 1995, and is the defending Winston champion.

For good measure, Johnson also set both ends of the national Pro Stock records this weekend with one pass of 6.822 seconds and another at 202.33 mph. Pro Stock results

Tony Schumacher

It took nine final rounds but Top Fuel points leader Tony Schumacher finally captured his first national event title in his Exide dragster. Starting from the No. 2 position, Schumacher beat Don Lampus, Doug Herbert, and Doug Kalitta before downing former Winston champ Scott Kalitta in the finals.

"I hope the champagne's still good," Schumacher said. "It's been on and off the ice several times.

"It's weird because I got up there[to the starting line] and I was thinking, 'Okay, this is No. 9,' is there a jinx or isn't there? Then the race started and I thought I had him because I didn't see any part of him until about half-track when he started inching in. Then I'm like, 'You gotta be kidding me.'

"We go through the lights and I don't know if I won or not because my radio stops working whenever I go over 315 mph. So I jumped out of the car and I see the TV people running over to me and I thought 'Well, I didn't wreck so I must have won or they wouldn't want to talk to me.'

"This definitely feels as good as I thought it would."

Schumacher has stretched his points lead to 81 points over Joe Amato and leads third-place points earner Doug Herbert by 140 points.

Texan Eddie Hill had a scary ride during a first-round loss. His Pennzoil/Matco Tools dragster suffered a huge engine explosion at the 1,000-foot mark that nearly rendered the 63-year-old unconscious. "That rung my bell so hard that it actually took me awhile to figure out if I was hurt or not," said Hill, who was checked by medical personnel on-hand and released. "That was the biggest concussion I've ever felt in 40-some-odd years of racing.

"There was a lot of destruction happening within inches of me. The only thing left on the car was the crankshaft." Top Fuel results

Brad Jeter

Chevrolet S-10 Pro Stock Truck driver Brad Jeter ran one of the best laps of his life to beat former Winston Comp champ and first-race Truck rookie Vinny Barone. Jeter launched in .409 seconds and posted a winning time of 7.522 seconds at 178.64 mph to win his second national event in a row. Barone put up a solid fight, reacting to the light in a near-perfect .401 seconds and tripping the timers in a respectable 7.593 seconds at 177.65 mph, but could not overcome Jeter's awesome pass.

"We knew coming in to Dallas that if we wanted a shot at winning the championship we had better win this race," Jeter said. "The semifinal race against Bob Panella was probably the biggest race of my life. I knew the championship could swing on that round and I wanted to win in a big way.

"We're within striking distance now. We have a lot of work to do to win and we'll need a little luck, but we're up for the challenge."

With one Truck race to go, Jeter has now closed to within 56 points of current Winston championship points leader Bob Panella Jr. Despite his Round 2 loss, RCL Components driver Mark Osborne also still has a chance at the title. He is just 107 points out of first.

On a side note, Jeter upped the national speed mark for Pro Stock Trucks to 179.21 mph during his semifinal win over Panella. Pro Stock Truck results

Two-time Federal-Mogul Dragster champ Rick Santos showcased that skill by winning his sixth national event of the season. Santos and the Oakwood Homes team clinched the victory, 5.46 to 5.65, when Bill Reichert shook the tires in the final round in his Bar's Leak entry. Federal-Mogul Dragster results

Former four-time season champ Pat Austin scored his 67th career victory, defeating Chuck Cheeseman in the final round of Federal-Mogul Funny Car, 5.65 to 5.73. Federal-Mogul Funny Car results

David Rampy scored his second straight victory, his fourth in the last seven and the 33rd of career, driving Harold Stout's Winnebago-backed B/ED to the title when Doug Engles red-lighted in his D/ED in the final round. Comp results

Bo Butner defeated soon-to-be-crowned Federal-Mogul Super Stock champion Jimmy DeFrank in the final round after DeFrank's Camaro broke on the launch and coasted to a stop 20 feet off the starting line Super Stock results

Texan Lee Bannister collected Stock honors with his E/SA entry, his second career national event victory, on a freebie after Frank Dobrovich red-lighted in the final round. Stock results

Reigning Federal-Mogul Super Comp champ Gary Stinnett also showed off his prowess with the Super Comp victory, the eighth of his career, using a .407 light and an 8.949 to beat Jason Lynch's .419-initiated 8.961. Super Comp results

Joe Scarlata won an all-Corvette battle with Jim Hughes in the Super Gas final, driving his '62 Vette past Hughes' 98 model in a double-breakout affair, 9.899 to 9.882. Super Gas results