FORMULAONE ABU DHABI LINE UP

Pos	No.	Driver	Sponsor	Car
1	1	Lewis Hamilton	Vodafone	Mercedes
2	15	Sebastian Vettel	Red Bull	Renault
3	14	Mark Webber	Red Bull	Renault
4	23	Rubens Barrichello	Brawn GP	Mercedes
5	22	Jenson Button	BrawnGP	Mercedes
6	9	Jarno Trulli	Panasonic	Toyota
7	5	Robert Kubica	BMW-Sauber	BMW
8	6	Nick Heidfeld	BMW-Sauber	BMW
9	16	Nico Rosberg	AT&T	Toyota
10	12	Sebastien Buemi	Red Bull	Ferrari
11	4	Kimi Raikkonen	Marlboro	Ferrari
12	10	Kamui Kobayashi	Panasonic	Toyota
13	2	Heikki Kovalainen	Vodafone	Mercedes
14	17	Kazuki Nakajima	AT&T	Toyota
15	11	Jaime Alguersuari	Red Bull	Ferrari
16	7	Fernando Alonso	ING	Renault
17	21	Vitantonio Liuzzi	Force India	Mercedes
18	20	Adrian Sutil	Force India	Mercedes
19	8	Romain Grosjean	ING	Renault
20	3	Giancarlo Fisichella	Marlboro	Ferrari

NHRA/Coughlin will start Vegas race from 11th slot

Coughlin will start Vegas race from 11th slot

LAS VEGAS (Oct. 31) — Reigning back-to-back Pro Stock champion Jeg Coughlin Jr. will try to win his eighth race of the season and third straight at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway from the No. 11 position after posting a best pass of 6.688 seconds at 206.35 mph during qualifying for the ninth annual Las Vegas NHRA Nationals.
Like most of the racers in the class, Coughlin made his run of record in Friday’s cooler evening session. His Victor Cagnazzi Racing team swapped engines Saturday morning looking for a little extra horsepower but eventually elected to return to Friday’s set-up.
“We’re trying to chip away at it,” the 61-time national event winner said. “We thought that motor under the bench would pick us up a tad but it just didn’t produce so we switched back to the engine we used yesterday.
“We won our last race in Indy from the bottom half of the field so it can be done. The field is pretty bunched up here so I think we’ll have a good shot. We’re certainly going to give it our best shot.”
Coughlin will open eliminations against veteran Allen Johnson, who qualified sixth with a 6.679 at 206.61 mph. The two men have split their four previous meetings this year.
“Allen has been strong all year and he doesn’t make any mistakes,” Coughlin said. “He’ll be a good test for us right from the start.
“Our thought process at this point is really focused on stuff that will make us better next year. We had a great season up until the Countdown to 1 started and that’s when we needed to be at our best and it just didn’t happen for us this time. The last few years it was exactly the opposite for us. That’s racing.”

THIS WEEKS SCHEDULES

NHRA Full Throttle Series

Las Vegas NHRA Nationals
Oct. 29-Nov. 1
Las Vegas Motor Speedway

• Eliminations: Sunday, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2 and ESPN360.com)
• NHRA RaceDay Sunday: 2:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2)
• Qualifying: Saturday, 11:30 p.m. ET (ESPN2)

Formula One

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix
Sunday, Nov. 1, 6 a.m. ET (Speed)
Yas Marina Circuit

NHRA/JOHN FORCE RACING AT LAS VEGAS NATIONALS

THE DRIVERS

JOHN FORCE, 60, Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang
Friday qualifying: 11^th at 4.144 seconds, 293.09 mph
Bonus qualifying points: 0
Quotable: “We are doing the best we can. Coil, Bernie and John Medlen are working hard and we’ll see improvement. Robert and the Auto Club Mustang came out swinging.” – JOHN FORCE

ASHLEY FORCE HOOD, 26, Castrol GTX Ford Mustang
Friday qualifying: 13^th quickest at 4.163 seconds, 303.23 mph
Bonus qualifying points: 0
Quotable: “The good thing is here in Las Vegas the conditions tomorrow should be good and we ran a 4.16 in the first session today. Tomorrow we should have a chance to duplicate that and get right back in the show.” – ASHLEY FORCE HOOD

ROBERT HIGHT, 40, Auto Club Ford Mustang
Friday Qualifying: 3^rd at 4.065 seconds, 308.71 mph
Bonus qualifying points: +4 (Quickest in Q1 and third quickest in Q2)
Quotable – “We earned four points today and there is nothing wrong with that. My guys have all done a great job. We are going to tune from this.” – ROBERT HIGHT

MIKE NEFF, 41, Ford Drive One Mustang
Friday qualifying: 9^th at 4.128 seconds, 299.66 mph
Bonus qualifying points: 0
Quotable: “This track is in real good shape and we expect to have good conditions tomorrow. We get two more shots and we’ll try and pick it up a little bit.” – MIKE NEFF

NHRA/ROBERT HIGHT LEADS JFR FRIDAY AT LAS VEGAS

AUTO CLUB’S ROBERT HIGHT LEADS JFR FRIDAY AT LAS VEGAS  

LAS VEGAS –- Robert Hight and the Auto Club Ford Mustang grabbed four valuable qualifying bonus points as they raced to the provisional No. 3 qualifying position at the 9^th annual NHRA Las Vegas Nationals today.

Hight made the quickest run of the first session right out of the trailer and then followed that run up with the third quickest run of the second session a solid 4.06 second pass. He is right behind the pair of Don Schumacher owned Funny Cars, rookie Matt Hagan (4.030) and veteran Ron Capps (4.041). Those two runs surprised Hight but he was looked at the big picture at the end of the day.

“Honestly I didn’t think anyone would run that quick. I thought you would have to run 4.05 to be low qualifier. Wrong. Whatever those guys are doing they have it figured out. They are swinging for the fences and we are inching up on it. It is not like we are going out there smoking the tires. We are going down the track. We can tune from what we are doing. I would like to have one more shot at it tomorrow night. With 27 dragsters and over 20 funny cars we will be at the end of the pack. We should have a good shot at another night session like this. We are going to make the best of it,” said Hight.

The additional four points were four more than second place Ashley Force Hood earned, three more than third place Tony Pedregon earned and two more than fourth place Ron Capps earned.